This evening we're going to observe
the Lord's table together and I'm going to preach from the
fifth chapter of Acts on Ananias and Sapphira. Now in bringing the message this
morning, we just sang that song, tell me the old, old story. And that's what I want to do
this morning. And I pray that the Lord blesses
it. And I'm going to assume that nobody in this room knows the
story. And by the grace of God, I'm
going to tell the old, old story. In Luke chapter 24, 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 worshiped him. and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple
praising and blessing God. Amen. Now we just read of the
ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine being one of
the disciples at this time and witnessing this? He had lifted
up his hands and blessed them. And while he was blessing them,
all of a sudden he started rising through the air and a cloud carried
him away to heaven. Now, some 33 years before this,
the son of God had left heaven's glory. He, the eternal son, became flesh. He left heaven's glory. glory. He went into the Virgin Mary's
womb and lived there for nine months. And then he was born
in Bethlehem, a small town, as it was said he would be in the
Old Testament scriptures. And he grew up in the town of
Nazareth. He lived 30 years in obscurity
as the son of a carpenter. And he was a carpenter himself. And during those 30 years that
he lived, he kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned. And what I think is so interesting
about his sinless life is nobody really saw it. The only holy
man to ever live the only holy man to never sin. And yet people
did not recognize his sinless life. That lets us know something
about how little we understand holiness. Nobody got it. And then after those 30 years,
he began his public ministry. It was a ministry of miracle
working. and preaching and teaching. Now
in his miracles, he did what only God could do, showing us
of his deity, the man Christ Jesus, his very God of very God. He created matter and brought
it into the universe that was not there before. He raised the
dead. He healed the sick. He controlled
the weather. What manner of man is this that
even the winds and the sea do obey him? I know what manner
of man. The God man. He did what only
God could do. And in preaching the gospel,
he made many enemies. This man who never sinned. This
man who did nothing but going about doing good. He made many
enemies. because of the claims he made
concerning himself and because of the claims he made concerning
man. After hearing him, the Pharisees
said they were going to stone him. And here was their reason.
They said, you being a man, you make yourself equal with God. Well, he was equal with God because
he is God. I love that passage of scripture
in John chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the word.
The word was with God and the word was God. He was with God. He was a different person, but
he was God, God in three persons. And the son of God made these
claims concerning himself and the claims he made concerning
men. He said, you've seen me and believe not all that the
father giveth me shall come to me. It's as if he's saying you're
unbelief. It's not troubling me, because
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." And in that same message,
he said, no man can come to me. You're unable to come, you're
unable to do anything. No man can come to me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. So he made many enemies
because of his preaching. And there were many murder attempts
because of his preaching and teaching, and he ended up being
nailed to a tree, all according to God's purpose. Remember what
Peter said, or the early church said, Both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered
together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done." Everything that happened to him is exactly
what God purposed to take place. Now, the God-man died. It's one of the great mysteries
of the Gospel. I don't understand how the God-man
could die, but he did. The songwriter said, "'Tis mystery
all, the immortal dies." Who can explore his strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depth of love
divine. And this man, who is God, who
is man, who died, who lived a perfect life and died on the cross, he
stayed dead for three days. What happened during that time?
I don't know. But I know this, he was raised
from the dead, just as he said he would be raised from the dead.
And he spent 40 days after that with his disciples. And now it's time for his return. And after these 33 years, He
lives, he's dead for three days, he returns back to glory. And
I love to think about the shouts of the angels when he returns
back. He'd been gone. I don't understand this. The
eternal son of God, he was left to heaven and now he's coming
back. And can you imagine the excitement
of the heavenly beings of this one who returns? Now, let me
begin this story by saying that God does, all that he does for
his own glory. That is God's purpose in all
things. His own glory. Everything he does, this is his
reason for doing it. His own glory. Now somebody thinks,
isn't that kind of egocentric? Well, if me or you acted that
way, it would be. I mean, we don't have any right to act like
that, but because of the glories of God's person, it would be
beneath the dignity of his greatness and his majesty to act for any
other lower motive than his own glory. Now, men were created
for the glory of God. The fall took place for the glory
of God. Christ came as a Savior for the
glory of God. And everything God does, He does
for this one reason, His own glory in the cross. The cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know the universe was
created so this event could take place? The cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ for the glory of God. And God manifests his glory
in the cross. Now this story we just read about
how Christ descended back to heaven after living these 33
years on earth with a perfect life and yet dying. This story
doesn't begin when he was born in Bethlehem. This story begins
before the foundation of the world. Now remember, time is
only a blip. It's only a blip. I don't know
how else to explain it. It's only a blip. There is eternity. God never began to be. There
is eternity. And everything God does in time
and causes to be done in time, he purposed in eternity, before
the world began, before the creation of angelic beings, when all there
was was God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. God had no needs. Independently,
independent, perfectly happy in himself with no needs. I love
thinking about that, don't you? He's the only independent being. He doesn't have needs the way
you and I do, but he decided to manifest his glory by the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's eternal purpose.
Revelation 13, eight says that Christ is a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. and all of everything was accomplished
in eternity. Listen to this, according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. That's a reference
to God electing a people for the glory of His Son. 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. Now hear me, everything
God has done was done in eternity, was finished in eternity. And time was created so what
God purposed in eternity would be. So when we begin this story,
we've got to begin with the eternal God, purposing everything and
everything that takes place was taken, takes place because it
was purposed in eternity. Now God created the world. You
know, there's no excuse for atheism. None at all. It's unreasonable.
It's irrational. It's illogical. There's got to
be a cause. There's got to be a cause. God
created the world, and he did so for his own glory. He put man in the garden for
his own glory. When Adam fell, it was all a
part of his purpose, because if there wouldn't be a fall,
there wouldn't be a cross. And the reason for all things
is the glory of God and the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
he created the world. Everything that took place, he
was in control of. And Adam, as you know, fell,
but God made a promise. The seed of woman shall bruise
the serpent's head and everything in the Bible in the Old Testament
is talking about that promise seed of woman, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You remember how he said in John 5 39, you search the
scriptures in them. You think you have eternal life
and they are they the scriptures which testify of me now in the
fullness of time. And that promise God made, the
seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's head, Christ the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, in the fullness of
time, Christ came. John put it this way. The eternal Word of God. The Word that was with God. The
Word that was God. Don't you love His name as the
Word? He's the communication of God. If you want to know who
God is, you won't know apart from Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The Word was made flesh. God became a man. The Word was
made flesh. Now, He was made to be what He
was not, and He never ceased being what He was, God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. And in the flesh He
never sinned. 30 years as the carpenter's son,
being subject to his mother and father as a youth and growing
up as a carpenter, he never sinned. His public ministry began and
there were two aspects to his public ministry, his miracles
and his preaching and teaching. And you know, people didn't object
to his miracles. Nobody objected when he raised the dead. Nobody
objected when he gave sight to the blind. Everybody was happy
when he gave them food. They followed him because of
that. Nobody objected to his miracles. But they objected to
his preaching and teaching. Many murder attempts were made
on him. And he ended up being nailed
to a cross. And on that cross, Jesus Christ
died. This one who's the Son of God,
this one who never sinned, on the cross he died. Now, I've
got a very simple and very poignant question. What's the reason for
death? There's only one reason for death.
Sin. There are no other reasons. The
only reason for death is sin. Why did He die when He never
sinned? Because the sins of God's elect became His sins. You see, God's going to glorify
Himself. And He ordained the fall. He allowed sin. He had
the cross for this one purpose, to glorify Himself and to show
how altogether beautiful and glorious He is. And that's all
manifested in the cross. And He took the sins of God's
people, those He chose before the world began, And Christ bore
those sins as the scapegoat and actually became guilty of the
commission of those sins, though he never sinned in his own person.
He actually became guilty of the commission of those sins
and the wrath of God came down upon him. And he was dead. That's why he died. And he was
dead for three days. But on the third day, he was
raised from the dead. Why? Because he completely paid
for the sins of all of God's people. That's why he was raised
from the dead. And so he spent 40 days after
that instructing the disciples as to how they're going to spread
this message throughout the universe. Preach the gospel to every creature.
And then they behold him ascending. Can you imagine that? Watching
him Go up in the air, a cloud receives him, and he's gone. Now, with that in mind, turn
back to Psalm 24, the Psalm I originally read. Now, many people have said
that on the cross, the Lord quoted Psalm 22, Psalm 23, And if you look at Psalm 22,
well, the opening words are, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And it's the psalm on the cross.
He gives much detail as to what took place on the cross in Psalm
22. And then Psalm 23 is about his faith, even when he was forsaken. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
never quit believing. He always had perfect faith,
even when he was being forsaken by God. When he was forsaken
and felt nothing but God's awful frown and wrath, he would still
say, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I love to think
of him saying that with regard to his perfect faith in his father
even then. And then Psalm 24 is called the
Ascension Psalm. Look in verse seven of Psalm
24. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. This is talking about his ascension
back into glory. 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 the King
of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. Hence the Ascension Psalm. Now let's go back up to verse
one. I'd like us to read this Psalm
and consider it. The earth is the Lord's. Now, the earth is made of continents.
And in those continents, we have these nations. This is our nation.
And these nations are divided into states and provinces and
then cities. And then we have our property,
our homes. And we say, this is my home.
This belongs to me. No, the earth is the Lord's. It all belongs to him. And the fullness thereof. Everything that sustains life
is his. This is his air. This is his
sea. They're his fish. They're his
cattle. They're his vegetables. And you
know, people worry about the earth running out of the ability
to sustain life. I'm not too worried about that
because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He
controls everything. It all belongs to him. You see,
we're just tenants and we're subject to immediate eviction
anytime he pleases. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. the world, and they that dwell
therein. The Lord has made all things
for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. You belong
to the Lord. Well, does everybody belong to
the Lord? Yes, everybody. You belong to the Lord. Well,
isn't there sheep and goats? Yeah, but they're his sheep and
they're his goats. Everybody belongs to the Lord, and everybody's
gonna be used for his glory. You're gonna glorify him one
way or the other. You may glorify his justice,
You know, I've been thinking about this for the last couple
of weeks, just been on my mind. When he sends somebody to hell,
if he sends me to hell, all of creation is going to praise him
for the justice of this act. He's giving, he's just, and he's
giving that man exactly what he deserves. Everybody's going
to glorify him. You may glorify his justice.
You may glorify his grace. Now that's how I want to glorify
him, don't you? I want to glorify His mercy, but everybody's going
to glorify Him because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Verse two is talking
about creation. For He hath founded it upon the
seas. and established it upon the floods.
And I don't understand this, but somehow, remember there was
nothing but water and the land was brought out of the water
in the creation story in Genesis chapter one. You know, the fact
that it was founded on the floods shows us that there's so much
instability. And this earth is not going to
continue. God's going to destroy it all. He's promised that. And
he's going to make a new heaven. and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. But the earth is the Lord's,
the fullness thereof. He is the creator. Now this psalm
starts a second section in verse three. This question is asked,
and I believe this is the most important question you and I
could ever consider. He says in verse three, who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? Now this is the all important
question. Who's going to be in heaven?
Who's going to ascend into the hill of the Lord and stand there
and stay there and not depart? They're going to be there eternally.
Who shall ascend? Now look how he answers this
question. Verse four, here's who will 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. Look in Psalm 15. It says pretty
much the same thing. Psalm 15. Lord, who shall abide in thy
tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? The question is answered. He
that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the
truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his
tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach
against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is contemned,
but he honoreth them that feareth the Lord. He that sweareth to
his own hurt, and changes not. He that putteth not out his money
to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, He that doeth these
things shall never be moved. Back to Psalm 24. Who shall ascend
into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in the holy place?
He that hath clean hands. He has a perfect life on the
outside. And he that has a pure heart. He has a perfect life on the
inside. This is one who has Never, not
even once lifted up his soul to vanity. But he loved the Lord,
his God with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of
his strength. And he has never sworn deceitfully. Now that is the one who's going
to enter heaven. And I've, I've heard preachers
deal with this and they say, well, nobody can do this perfectly. Nobody can do this perfectly.
This is relative. You have to have relatively clean
hands and a relative pure heart. I mean, you need to be sincere.
You need to be real. You need to, for you to enter
into heaven, but nobody can fit this description perfectly. Well,
I know one who can. The Lord Jesus Christ. This is
speaking of Christ. He does have clean hands. He
does have a pure heart. He's never lifted up his soul
to vanity, and he's never sworn deceitfully. I've heard this
several different times. If so-and-so's not in heaven,
usually their mother. If my mother's not in heaven, nobody's gonna
be there. I know one who will be there. Whether your mother's
there or not, I know one who will be there, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has clean hands. He has a
pure heart. He's never lifted up his soul
to vanity, and he's never sworn deceitfully. Turn to Psalm 14,
verse 2. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men. That's talking about me and you.
To see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now that's God's testimony. And
he quotes this in Romans chapter 3. This is also found in the
New Testament. Turn with me there through Romans chapter 3. Now these people can hardly be
said to have clean hands and a pure heart. These people can
hardly be said to have never lifted up their soul to vanity
or sworn deceitfully. Look how Paul Quotes this, verse
9, what then? Romans 3, 9, what then? Are we
better than they? No, in no wise. For we have before
proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they're all under sin. Now, what's it mean to be under
sin? I mean, sin's over you. I mean, send your Lord. I mean,
send your master. I mean, you're a slave to sin.
That's what every man is by nature. As it's written, and he quotes
Psalm 14, as it's written, there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. Now, somebody described like
that is not going to ascend to the hill of the Lord and is not
going to enter his holy place. Now, this description of Psalm
24 describes everybody for whom Christ died. Now, this is the
glory of this Psalm. You see, when Christ died, I've
been talking about Him being made flesh. He was before He
came. He came in the flesh. He did what He came to do. He
completely obeyed God's law perfectly. When He was made sin, He put
away that sin. He experienced everything about
sin but the commission of it. He experienced the shame of it.
I think that lets us know something about what he was experiencing,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame. He felt all the shame and degradation
and humiliation of sin before his Father. And what did he do
when he died? He put away that sin. 1 John 3, verse 5 says, He was
manifested to take away our sin, and in Him is no sin. That means if you're in him,
you have no sin. That means that you have a set
of clean hands. And that means you have a pure
heart. And that means you never swore
deceitfully and you never lifted up your soul to vanity. That's
what Christ accomplished on Calvary's tree. Romans 4 25 says he was
delivered for our offenses and he was raised again for our justification. Everybody he lived for, everybody
he died for, everybody he was raised for, he justified it. You know what that means? You
remember that poor old publican in the temple, he was beaten
on his breast A fellow before him, the Pharisee, stood and
prayed thus with himself. He had a very high opinion of
himself. God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. You
know, self-righteous men can always find somebody that they
think they're better than. I'm a better worm than you are.
That doesn't work, does it? But that's what self-righteous
men do. They're always looking for somebody that they can think,
well, I'm better than they are. Well, the Pharisee was like that.
God, I thank you that I'm not as other men are. I'm not an
extortioner, unjust. I'm not like this publican, I
pay tithes of all that I possess. And the publican stood afar off,
and he beat upon his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner, the worst man to ever live. the most guilty man
to ever live. Do something about my sin. Be
propitious is the word, not just a general desire for mercy. Put
away my sin through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only way my sin can be dealt with. Put away my sin. Be propitious to me, the sinner.
And the Lord said, I tell you, that man went down to his house
with clean hands, and a pure heart. He's one who never lifted
up his soul to vanity and he never swore deceitfully. That's what justification is.
Justification means you in fact. It's not something that's just
charged to you. You in fact have clean hands and a pure heart
and you've never lifted up your soul to vanity and you've never
sworn deceitfully because of what Christ has done for you.
This describes you. This is the man who's going to
ascend under the hill of the Lord. That man who is represented
by the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he is everything in
salvation. Now, 1 John 4, 17 makes this
statement. As he, speaking of Christ, as
he is. Well, how is he? Well, I know
this. He's got clean hands. He's got
a pure heart. He's never lifted up his soul
to vanity. And he's never sworn deceitfully. As he is, so are we in this world. That's what Christ accomplished.
And that is the man who is going to ascend into the hill of the
Lord and stand in that holy place. Verse five, he shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation,
salvations of the Lord. Verse six, this is the generation,
the seed. Psalm 22 says in verse 30 says
a seed shall serve him. This is the generation of them
that seek Him. And that's a believer. He seeks
the Lord Jesus Christ. He seeks Him. He seeks to know
God. He's like Zacchaeus. He sought
to see Jesus, who He was. This is the generation of them
that seek Him, that seek thy face. Oh, Jacob. Oh, Jacob. My marginal reading
says the God of Jacob. And if you look in most translations,
it says the God of Jacob, but it's not in the original. This
is the generation of them that seek thy face, O Jacob. Now you remember who Jacob is.
Jacob was a very sinful, weak man that God loved. And Christ
so identified with Jacob that here he calls himself Jacob. That's just one of those mysterious
things in the scripture. But God so identified with the sinner
that he took his name, and that's what happened on the cross. And
that's why we can have the very righteousness of God. This is
the generation of them that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Think about that. Meditate on
that. And now we have The exclamation
of the ascension. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. And this is talking about the
ascension of Christ and Him ascending back into heaven. I love thinking
about this. Can you imagine the shouts of
joy at the heavenly beings of everyone who was there? He's
back! He's back. Open the doors. The king of glory
shall come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. You
see, he's a man of war. And he did battle on Calvary's
tree. And he won. He defeated the devil. He defeated our sin. He's the
Lord strong and mighty. He's the one who's incapable
of losing. He's the Lord strong and mighty,
mighty in battle. So we have the repetition of
verse seven and verse nine, and it's worth repeating again. 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, the Lord of armies, the Lord
of a multitude. And you know what that means?
When he ascended into glory, he didn't ascend alone. Hosts were with him. Everybody he died for, everybody
he lived for was in him. And when He ascended into glory,
I did too. So did every believer in their
head. And as He ascended into glory
and sat down, you know who sat down with Him? Turn with me to
Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Paul says in verse 1, and you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, you are under the control of Satan.
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others, but God, who is rich in mercy. For His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are
saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You know what that means? That
means every believer is more for sure for heaven than if they
were already there. They're already there. That's
how secure this salvation is. Now, how can you say that when
I'm sitting here looking at you on earth? How can you say you're
already in heaven? Because the Bible says I am.
And I believe what the Bible says. Well, you're still here
on earth, aren't you? Yeah. Yeah, I am. I wouldn't deny that. You
see me. I see you. Yeah, we're still sitting here
on earth. But the Bible says everybody in Christ is in heaven. And you know, when
we were baptized, that's what we confess. We confess that when
we live, when he lived, we were in him. His life is our life.
When he died, we died. When he was raised, we were raised. When He ascended, we ascended
in the Beloved. Now, I love the way He's called
in that Psalm, the King of Glory. I don't want you to miss this.
Everything He does, He does for His own glory. I love that first verse of John
chapter 17, verse 1. Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also might glorify thee. He's talking about the cross.
The hour for which the universe was created has come. Glorify
thy son that thy son almost might glorify thee. And then he said
in verse four of the same chapter, I've glorified thee on the earth.
I finished the work that thou gavest me to do. Now here's my
closing thought. How can I know? If I'm one of
those people who were in Him and ascended with Him, how can
I know if I'm one of those people who could be described as somebody
with clean hands and a pure heart, who's never lifted up their soul
to vanity, nor never sworn to God, sworn deceitfully? How can I know if that is me?
Well, I can tell you how you can know. If you look to Jesus Christ only
as the only reason you'll ascend, because of his clean hands, because
of his pure heart, because of his perfect righteousness, because
of his precious blood that put away sin, he is all you have. You don't have anything else
to plead but Christ only. If you look to him only as your
salvation, This is you. When Christ ascended, you ascended
with him. You're somebody with clean hands
and a pure heart. What a song. And it can't be
understood apart from the gospel, can it? Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
Lord Jesus Christ, And Lord, I ask in Christ's name that you
would give everybody in this room the grace to trust him only. Lord, we admire his clean hands
and his pure heart. And Lord, we stand amazed that
in him, before you, in your very sight, we have clean hands and
a pure heart. Lord, we thank you for your gospel.
Enable us to look to your son only. In his name we pray. Amen.