I want to read the 24th Psalm,
and we're going to come back to this Psalm at the end of this
message. This is what is known as the
Ascension Psalm, speaking of the ascension of the Lord Jesus
Christ. After he was raised from the
dead, he lived 40 days here on earth, instructing his disciples. And then he went into the town
of Bethany, and the scripture says he was lifted up and he
was carried back to heaven. How miraculous this is. And this is what this 24th Psalm
speaks of. David 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? Who's going to ascend into 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. This is the generation
of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Lift up your
heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. Now remember, he had been
gone for 33 years, and now he's returning. Who is the 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. He's the one that the gates open
up to as he ascends back into heaven. Now we read in Luke chapter
24, beginning in verse 50. And he led them out as far as
to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And
it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them
and carried up into heaven. And they were eyewitnesses of
this. They watched as this took place. Now, some 33 years before, The
Son of God had left heaven and he became a seed in the Virgin
Mary's womb and developed for nine months, was born in Bethlehem,
lived as a boy in Nazareth, and he lived 30 years in obscurity. Nobody knew him. He wasn't famous. He didn't have wealth and riches
and an education. He lived 30 years in obscurity,
the son of a carpenter. He himself was a carpenter. And
during those 30 years that he lived, he kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned. He worked out a perfect righteousness. He had clean hands. He had a pure heart. He never
lifted up his soul to vanity. He never swore deceitfully. He
never sinned during those 30 years. Now, after 30 years, he
began what is known as his public ministry. which lasted about
three years. And during this time, he did
what only God could do. He performed miracles that only
God could perform, showing us that he's nobody less than the
Son of God. He brought matter into existence
that had not been in the universe before when he fed 5,000 with
five loaves and a few small fishes. He raised the dead. Only God
could raise the dead. He gave sight to the blind. He
controlled the weather. They said, what manner of man
is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? I'll tell you
what manner of man it is. It's the God-man. I mean, even
the demons knew who he were and were scared to death. They said,
I know thee who thou art, the Son of God. Art thou come to
torment us before the time? The demons knew. But during this
time, he demonstrated who he is and he was a preacher, a preacher
of his gospel. And he said things in his preaching
that made men hate him. The claims he made about himself,
they said, thou being a man, make us thyself equal with God.
Well, He is equal with God because he is God. He's the God-man. And they got upset with the things
that he said regarding man. He said, you've seen me, and
believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. And then he
said a few verses down later, you can't come to me. No man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me to draw him.
You're in the hands of a sovereign God, and you cannot be saved,
you cannot come to me, unless God the Father causes you to. Now, in making that statement,
he was talking about the moral depravity and inability of man. He said things that just angered
men, and they ended up crucifying him. That's what their will was,
that's what their desire was, and they crucified him. And he
lay in the grave three days, this one who never sinned. And
three days later, as he said it would take place, he was raised
from the dead. He spent 40 days teaching his
disciples, and while he was blessing them, he arose and ascended back
to heaven. He had left heaven 33 years before,
and I love to think about him returning to heaven, the shouts
of acclamation and joy by the angels and the people that were
there when he came back. Now, let me say at the very beginning,
God does everything he does for his own glory. That is his motive. His own glory. Whatever God does, he does for
his own glory. Now somebody may be thinking,
well that seems kind of egocentric. Well, it would be if you or I
sought our own glory because of who we are. But God is altogether
glorious. He's altogether holy. He's altogether perfect. He's
infinite. Whatever you say about him, he's
altogether glorious. And it would be beneath the dignity
of his person to have any motive lower than his own glory. God
does what he does for his own glory, and that's why Christ
came. He said in John 17, one, father, the hours come glorify
thy son that thy son might glorify thee. Now, when he spoke of that
hour coming, he was talking about the hour of the cross. The reason
the universe was created was for this hour where God would
manifest his glory and all the glory of his attributes through
the work of Christ on the cross. Now, the story of salvation does
not begin in Bethlehem, the night of the Redeemer's birth. It begins before the foundation
of the world, before the creation, before the creation of angelic
beings. when all there was was God in this trinity of his sacred
persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God has no needs, gloriously
blessed himself. He didn't create men because
he was lonely, he has no needs, but he did so for his own glory. and that others might be enabled
to enjoy his glory. That's why he created the universe,
to display his own glory. And you know, everything he did
was done in eternity. Everything God does in time was
purposed in eternity and in the divine mind it was already done. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world and all of salvation was accomplished
in the mind and purpose of God before time began. Let me give you three or four
scriptures on that. Ephesians 1, 4, according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him, in love having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. All this was done before the
foundation of the world. Second Timothy 1.9, he saved
us, he called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Hebrews 4.3
says the works were finished from the foundation of the world,
and time was made so that what he purposed in eternity could
be done in time. So God created the world. He
made man. Man fell according to God's purpose. Could God have prevented the
fall of Adam? Of course he couldn't. He didn't because if Adam didn't
fall, there would be no cross. There would be no manifestation
of his glory. Oh, I wish that the Lord would
give us to think God, instead of men-versed, God does what
he does for his own glory. And God made a promise after
the fall of man, the seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's
head. The serpent that caused Eve to
fall, that caused Adam to fall through his temptation. The seed
of woman, that's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ coming.
He's going to come and crush the serpent's head. And everything
in the Old Testament is about the Christ, the Son of God. It's all given to picture some
aspect of Him. He said in John chapter 5, verse
39, you search the scriptures. In them you think you have eternal
life, and they are they which testify of me. And you will not
come to me that you might have life. Now in the fullness of
time, the Word was made flesh. Christ Jesus came in the flesh. God manifest in the flesh. And in the flesh, He lived a
perfectly holy life. He never sinned. And you know
what I think is very interesting is that the world didn't get
it. Nobody recognized him never sinning. You'd think somebody
would have understood this, but they didn't. They didn't get
it. And the reason being is I don't believe men know what holiness
is in the first place. The one time a holy man lived and never
sinned, no one grasped it. No one saw it. They wouldn't
have known the difference. They were incapable of seeing.
But this man in the flesh never sinned. His public ministry,
I've already said, was two aspects. His miracles, and you know, nobody
had any problem with his miracles. Everybody was glad to be fed.
The sick were glad to be healed. Nobody persecuted him for his
miracles. But what they got upset about
was the things he said about himself and the things he said
about salvation, the things he said about man. He told them
that he said things that let them know that he's equal with
God because he was God, that he's the only savior of sinners,
that he laid down his life for the sheep. Not everybody's a
sheep. He said things that just infuriated men. He said, one
time, the world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testified
that the works thereof are evil. Now, he ended up, just as God
decreed and ordained, Him being delivered by the determined counsel
and foreknowledge of God, you have taken with wicked hands
and crucified and slain." Acts 4.27 says, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered
together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. when he was put to death, when
he was crucified, when they drove the nails in his hands and his
feet. It was God's will and God's purpose being done. This was
God's purpose all along. That's why he came. And he lay
in the grave for three days and he was raised from the dead,
just like he said he would be after three days. Now, why did
he die? There's only one reason for death,
sin. You heard me saying he led a
perfectly holy life, he never sinned, he kept God's law perfectly.
Oh, why did he die then? There's only one reason for death,
sin. He came as a substitute, and
the sins of everybody he died for became his sins. Now, he never sinned in his person,
but when he died, it wasn't the innocent being punished, It was
the guilty being punished, because the sins of God's elect became
his sins so that he owned them as his own. And he even said
he felt the shame of them. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, looking
unto Jesus who, with the joy that was set before him, endured
the cross, despising the shame. He felt all the shame and degradation
of the sins of his people. He was actually made sin to where
he became guilty. And it was the justice and holiness
of God, his Father, that forsook him and killed him. That's why
he died after living this perfect life. He was made sin as the
sinner's substitute. And this was the purpose all
along. Revelation 13, 8, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He was made sin as the sinner's substitute. He
died. He laid dead in that grave for three days. I don't know
what all was going on during that time, nor does anyone else.
But I know after three days, he opened his eyes in that tomb.
He was resurrected. No one witnessed this but the
father. The tomb was closed at that time. The stone was rolled
away. He walked out. He made himself
known to his disciples. And for 40 days, he stayed with
them, telling them how they were to preach the gospel. And then
on the 40th day, he led them out to the town of Bethany, blessed
them, And they watched him as he rose through the air, the
ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I would like to go back
to Psalm 24. Psalm 22 has been called the
psalm of the cross. That's where David begins, my
God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He talks about how they parted
his garments and cast lots for his vesture. Many think that
the Lord quoted this entire psalm on the cross. Psalm 23 is the
Lord's faith even when he was forsaken. Now, he never stopped
believing God, even when he didn't have any feeling of God's favor
or God's mercy. He felt nothing but God's awful
frown and wrath. And all that time, he could still
say, the Lord is my shepherd. He trusted his father completely. Somebody had to trust God perfectly.
It's not me or you, but he did. And Psalm 24 is said to be the
ascension Psalm, and it speaks of him ascending back into glory.
Now let's read this Psalm once again. David says, the earth
is the Lord's. You know, we have continents. Nations, those continents divided
into nations, and they say these are our nations, our countries.
We have states. We have cities in those states.
We say this is our state. This is our land. We have our
own personal property. I've got a title deed to it.
This is my land. This is my property. But we should
never speak that way. The earth is the Lord's. It all
belongs to him and we're nothing but tenants and we're subject
to eviction without notice at any time. The earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof. The air, the sea, the animals,
the plants, everything that sustains life. You know, the Lord's going
to make sure it's full until it's time to shut it down and
make a new heaven and a new earth. People are always worried about
what's going to happen to the planet. Well, we should live
responsibly, don't get me wrong, but the earth is the Lord's and
the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.
Everybody belongs to the Lord. The Lord has made all things
for himself. Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. You belong
to the Lord, whether you acknowledge it or not, whether you know it
or not. All men in the world belong to the Lord, and he can
do with them whatever he's pleased to do. They're sheep and they're
goats, but they're his sheep and they're his goats, and they're
going to glorify him one way or the other. The earth is the
Lord's, and the fullness thereof and all they that dwell therein,
for he The Lord hath founded the earth upon the seas and established
it on the floods. Now this speaks of creation. The earth is the Lord's because
he created it. It's his. Can I not do what I
will with my own? I am amazed at someone who claims
to be an atheist because you've got to take a blind leap of faith
to become an atheist. It's irrational. Everything's
got to have a cause. And you deny the need of a cause
if you deny that there's a creator that created the earth. But deep
down, you know there's a cause. You know somebody made this and
nobody made him and he's all powerful. He has founded it. upon the sea and established
it upon the floods. And then David asks this all
important question, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? That's not talking about one
of these little hills we see out here. He's talking about heaven,
his holy place, the high and holy place. Who shall ascend
into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place. Who's going to get to heaven?
Who's going to be able to stay in heaven? Now, David answers
that question. Here's who's going to ascend
into the hill of the Lord, and here's who's going to stand in
his holy place. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. That means his outward actions
are clean. There's no sin in them. And on
the inside, he's absolutely pure. No sin whatsoever. That's who's going to ascend
into the hill of the Lord. 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, I've heard
preachers say with regard to this passage of Scripture, well,
nobody can be that way perfectly. Nobody can have perfectly clean
hands, and nobody can have a perfectly pure heart. Nobody can be perfect
in never lifting up their soul to vanity, but it's relatively.
You're doing pretty good. I mean, by and large, you have
clean hands. You've straightened up your life.
You do well, and you're not living in sin and immorality, and you've
got a pure heart, relatively pure. That doesn't mean sinless.
You know, when I hear people dealing with this passage of
scripture like that, I said, so you can lower God's standards.
There's not any such thing as relatively clean hands and a
relatively pure heart. You either have clean hands and
a pure heart, or you got filthy hands and an impure heart. There
is no in between there. Now, Who has these clean hands
and a pure heart? Who has never lifted up his soul
to vanity nor sworn deceitfully? You know, somebody once said
to me, if my mother's not in heaven, nobody will be there. And I said, I know one who will
be there, whether your mother's there or not. The Lord Jesus
Christ is this one who has clean hands and a pure heart and has
never lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully. This is
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's not talking
only about Christ. It's talking about everybody
in him. You see, when he was on this
earth, he was here representing some people, those the Father
gave him. When he had clean hands, they
had clean hands. When he had a pure heart, they
had a pure heart. It's his perfect righteousness. If he never swore deceitfully,
they never swore deceitfully. If he never lifted up his soul
to vanity, neither did they. But you see, when he died, he
did something about their sins. He put them away so they are
no more. 1 John 3, 5 says he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. If I'm in him,
I have no sin. I have clean hands and a pure
heart and I've never lifted up my soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully.
It's what the Bible calls justification. When he died, all of his people
were justified. So that describes every single
one of them. Everybody that gets into heaven
is going to be somebody with clean hands and a pure heart
who has never lifted up his heart to vanity or sworn deceitfully.
That's how real the righteousness of Christ is. It's not some kind
of legal standing. It's being in him. What he did,
I did. He became what I am. He became
sin, and I'm to become what he is, the righteousness of God
in him. Now that's who's going to enter
heaven. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is who's going to ascend into his holy hill. This is the
generation of them that seek thy face, O Jacob. And my marginal
reading says God of Jacob. These are the ones who seek his
face. These people who have clean hands and a pure heart are people
who seek the face of the living God. They want to know God. And
then David begins this hymn of praise with regard to the ascension. He wrote this a thousand years
before it took place. But he says, Lift up your heads,
O ye gates, talking about the gates of heaven, and be ye lifted
up, ye everlasting doors that have always been, and the King
of glory shall come in. This is talking about his resurrection.
Who is the king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. He
won the victory for all of his people. I'm perfect in Christ Jesus.
Satan can't get me. My sin can't condemn me. I am
perfect in Christ Jesus. He fought my battle for me and
won when he said it is finished. I won. Who is the king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the
Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads. He repeats
this again. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and even lift them up, ye everlasting doors. And the king of glory
shall come in, this one who came to glorify his father, and he
accomplished what his father came to do. I love his name,
the king of glory. He's the king of kings, and he's
the king of glory. Who is, verse 10, who is this
king of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. Now, when the Lord ascended,
he didn't ascend by himself. Everybody in him ascended with
him. That means hosts, multitudes,
10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and thousands. Everybody he died
for was in him. And when he ascended, they ascended
as well. And the scripture puts it this
way in Ephesians chapter two. It says we're seated together
with him in the heavenlies. I am in the Lord Jesus Christ
even now. So if he's in heaven, I'm in
heaven. You see, when he ascended, he
brought everybody with him that he saved. What are you doing
still here? Well, I'm just waiting to get
out of here, waiting for him to take me in death or for when
he returns. But my acceptance is because
I'm in him. Now we have this message on CD,
DVD. If you call the church or write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg, praying
that God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's
our prayer. Amen.