SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: For our look at scripture together this morning, I invite you to open your Bible or your device or your bulletin to Psalm twenty-four.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm twenty-four.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not about David.
SPEAKER_01: If you are our guest this morning, you need to know that in our Bibles the word Lord is in all capital letters here.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a reference to the personal name of God, Yahweh, or so you might know it as Jehovah.
SPEAKER_01: So as I say that name, you'll understand what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 24, it says, The earth is Yahweh's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.
SPEAKER_01: For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.
SPEAKER_01: Who shall ascend the hill of Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: And who shall stand in his holy place?
SPEAKER_01: The answer He who has clean hearts, I'm sorry, clean hands, and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
SPEAKER_01: He will receive blessing from Yahweh and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this King of glory?
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh, strong and mighty.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh, mighty in battle.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this King of glory?
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh of hosts, he is the King of Glory.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Access to God is a key theme in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: For example, the Bible begins with an account of access to God, in which God creates Adam and Eve, and he places them in a garden, and that's a place where they can walk and talk with God.
SPEAKER_01: But when they sinned, they were expelled from the garden and forever denied access to God's presence in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: Later in biblical history, God's presence was symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant, a golden box with cherubs facing each other on it, and God's presence was in between those cherubs.
SPEAKER_01: That Ark of the Covenant was kept hidden behind curtains in the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_01: And access to God's presence there at that Ark of the Covenant was limited.
SPEAKER_01: You needed certain credentials, we might say, in our world today, to get closer to God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: Much later in biblical history, King David wanted to bring that Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, to David's royal city.
SPEAKER_01: And you might recall that story.
SPEAKER_01: The guardians of the ark placed that golden box on a cart to be pulled by oxen up the hills to the city of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: At one point on the journey, they hit a bump.
SPEAKER_01: The box was jostled, and a man reached out to put his hand on the box to steady it, to make sure that it wouldn't fall over.
SPEAKER_01: And God killed him instantly.
SPEAKER_01: God's instructions for moving the ark emphasized carrying that golden box on poles, not moving it on a cart.
SPEAKER_01: Because of that, moving the Ark of the Covenant on the cart was an act of disobedience to God's law.
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't really matter because the ark represented God's pure and holy presence, just like in the Garden of Eden, so no one is holy enough to touch the box, no matter how it is being carried.
SPEAKER_01: But that event frightened King David.
SPEAKER_01: How could it ever be safe to keep God's presence in his royal city?
SPEAKER_01: Later, David ordered the Levites to carefully carry the Ark of the Covenant on the poles to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: You can read about that in 2 Samuel chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: And that day was a day like today.
SPEAKER_01: It was a day of great celebration.
SPEAKER_01: It was a procession of worship, music, dancing, shouting, massive celebration.
SPEAKER_01: And that day seems to be the historical context of this song in Psalm 24.
SPEAKER_01: But as we saw on Friday with Psalm 17, David's words sometimes go beyond his own life and his own circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Spirit of God prompted him to write words that reflected his personal situation, but that also looked forward to a greater fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 24 is one of those Psalms.
SPEAKER_01: No, the King of glory is ultimately the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, who on Easter morning walked out of a borrowed tomb and 40 days later went through the gates of the perfect royal city.
SPEAKER_01: As we did on Friday evening in Psalm 17, I want to explore three sections of this song, examining them both in their original context and their ultimate fulfillment in Christ's resurrection and ascension.
SPEAKER_01: As we do that, verses 1 and 2 are the first section or the first verse, the first movement, you might say, of the song.
SPEAKER_01: And they simply proclaim that the earth belongs to Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: It opens with this declaration: the earth is Yahweh's, and the fullness of it, the world, and everyone who lives in it.
SPEAKER_01: As Yahweh, a name, a word that means he's the living one.
SPEAKER_01: He always is.
SPEAKER_01: He is the sovereign, glorious creator of all of it.
SPEAKER_01: Everything belongs to him because he made it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what verse 2 reminds us.
SPEAKER_01: It is his because, for he founded it.
SPEAKER_01: He founded it on the seas and upon the rivers.
SPEAKER_01: And that might seem like strange imagery to us in our modern world, but this echoes the mythology of the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: The mythology of the ancient world said that there were rival gods who competed to rule the seas and the rivers.
SPEAKER_01: But Psalm 24 cuts through all of that by declaring those ancient imaginations myths.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 24 counters that mythology with a stronger argument.
SPEAKER_01: The earth and everything in it belong to Yahweh, not because he won some battle of the gods, but because he made it.
SPEAKER_01: It belongs to him because he made it all.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this kind of beginning to this song matters because it declares the nature of the King of Glory before we ever meet him at the gates of the royal city.
SPEAKER_01: He is not a regional God.
SPEAKER_01: He's not some sort of tribal God who holds a small piece of territory.
SPEAKER_01: He's not one God among a pantheon of gods.
SPEAKER_01: He is the maker and the owner of all things, the fullness of the earth, the mountains and the seas, the deserts and the plains, the creatures and all of its people, its history and its future.
SPEAKER_01: It all belongs to him because he made it.
SPEAKER_01: Easter begins at creation.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an isolated miracle standing all by itself, disconnected from everything else.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the creator of all things, re-entering his own creation in triumph over the death that now rules it.
SPEAKER_01: The hands that formed the world from nothing, the fingers that held the stars in space and filled it with life are the same hands that bore the print of the nails in his hands on resurrection morning.
SPEAKER_01: The one who owns it all is the one who defeated the death within it.
SPEAKER_01: Easter is an extension of the creation event.
SPEAKER_01: It's the creator of all things, the owner of it all, reclaiming what is his beginning with the grave.
SPEAKER_01: And one day extending to it all.
SPEAKER_01: The second unit then begins in verse three with a question Who can go near God?
SPEAKER_01: Access has been denied for so long.
SPEAKER_01: From Genesis chapter three till today, it's been denied.
SPEAKER_01: So who is it that can go up the hill of Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: You need to imagine this as Jerusalem sitting on the mountains of Judea.
SPEAKER_01: And so to go to Jerusalem is to go up, to ascend the hill.
SPEAKER_01: So who will go up the hill that belongs to Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: Who will stand in his place?
SPEAKER_01: This is the mountain where the Ark of the Covenant would come to rest and where the temple would one day be built, the place where God's presence would dwell among his people.
SPEAKER_01: To ascend that hill was to draw near to God.
SPEAKER_01: And now the psalmist asks, Who has the right to do that?
SPEAKER_01: Who can stand in the presence of a holy God?
SPEAKER_01: Now we need to remember the history of the ark.
SPEAKER_01: The last time it was moved, God killed the man who touched it.
SPEAKER_01: So who can stand before such a dangerously holy God?
SPEAKER_01: Who dares ascend the hill?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is found in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: David lists four requirements.
SPEAKER_01: He says it's the person who has clean hands, the person who has a pure heart, the person who doesn't lift up his soul to what is false, that is, to be an idolater, to worship other gods.
SPEAKER_01: The person who does not swear deceitfully.
SPEAKER_01: And the promise is amazing for the one who fulfills it, verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: He will receive a blessing from Yahweh and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: The person who has these four qualities of clean hands, a pure heart, who worships properly and who uses his speech properly, he will not only be blessed from Yahweh, he will receive God's righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: And such a person is described in verse 6 as one belonging to the generation of those who seek God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we feel a problem immediately.
SPEAKER_01: We sensed it on Good Friday.
SPEAKER_01: When we read these requirements, clean hands, pure heart, no false worship, no deceit.
SPEAKER_01: We know that we all fall short.
SPEAKER_01: Not one.
SPEAKER_01: So who can ascend the hill of Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: David?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: You?
SPEAKER_01: Me?
SPEAKER_01: If there is no one who's done good, not even one, then who is it who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not swear deceitfully, and who does not worship what is false?
SPEAKER_01: Who can ascend the hill of Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: Who can stand in his dangerously holy place?
SPEAKER_01: We have a problem.
SPEAKER_01: If no one is clean, if no one is pure, if no one is innocent, but those are still the requirements to come before a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: Friday evening, we stood at the cross with the only man who could pray Psalm 17 without reservation.
SPEAKER_01: This morning, we stand before an empty tomb, remembering the only man who can ascend the hill of Yahweh, having perfectly fulfilled all the requirements needed to stand in God's holy presence.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had clean hands.
SPEAKER_01: He was examined by Pilate, who found no guilt in him.
SPEAKER_01: He was tried and convicted by the Sanhedrin only because of false testimony.
SPEAKER_01: Herod found nothing.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Jesus was the only one of whom God the Father said at both his baptism and his transfiguration, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the only one who could meet all of God's requirements.
SPEAKER_01: And he met them without exception.
SPEAKER_01: That's why his resurrection wasn't optional.
SPEAKER_01: You ever thought about that?
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't optional.
SPEAKER_01: The empty tomb was not meant to be some kind of surprise ending to a story.
SPEAKER_01: It was the necessary verdict of God the Father on the life and death of his only begotten Son.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection is God's declaration that Jesus' hands were clean, that his heart was pure, that he is the one who has the right to ascend the hill of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: The New Testament interestingly reveals an even more astonishing aspect of resurrection morning.
SPEAKER_01: And of his ascension 40 days later.
SPEAKER_01: The astonishing aspect is that Jesus did not rise from the dead and go through the gates of heaven alone.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't go alone.
SPEAKER_01: Because the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 that we who were dead in our trespasses and sins were made alive together with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And we were raised together with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And we were seated together with Christ in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: Through faith in the resurrected Christ, we who were by our very nature unclean, impure, giving our souls to false worship, are made alive with Christ, raised up with Christ, and seated with him in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, the only one who had the right to ascend to God's presence brought with him those who had no right.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought them dirty hands and impure hearts, wrapped in his own righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: So that all who believe in him could be called the generation of those who seek him.
SPEAKER_01: The generation that seeks his face in verse 6 is not a group of people who've achieved the standard of verse 4 on their own.
SPEAKER_01: That's impossible, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's none who's done good.
SPEAKER_01: No, not one.
SPEAKER_01: No, this is a generation of people who have been graciously given the perfect righteousness of the only one who meets God's standards of perfection.
SPEAKER_01: They can ascend the hill to God's presence because the God of Jacob has given them his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: They've been made new.
SPEAKER_01: And so they ascend in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They can stand in God's holy presence once again, clothed in Christ's perfection, not their own.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the empty tomb signifies.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus conquered death.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's the one with the clean hands and the pure heart who defeated death for those who could not, so that we might share in his righteousness and ascend with him to the presence of the King of Gory.
SPEAKER_01: That brings us to our third unit in Psalm 24.
SPEAKER_01: Which is the command to lift up the gates.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to echo that in our service this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The noise of the procession moving up the hill to the city of Jerusalem, moving the crowds with the Ark of the Covenant, with the presence of God between the cherubs on the ark.
SPEAKER_01: It arrives at the city gates with a command.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your heads, O gates.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, be opened up, O ancient doors, so that the King of glory will come in.
SPEAKER_01: The gates are spoken to as if they're living sentinels, living, living objects, living things, guardians of an ancient threshold.
SPEAKER_01: And so that the question comes back from inside the gates.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this King of glory?
SPEAKER_01: The response is immediate.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh, strong and mighty.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh, mighty in battle.
SPEAKER_01: The exchange is repeated again in verses 9 and 10, almost verbatim, as if the announcement has to be made twice just to be fully believed.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this king of glory?
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh of hosts, he is the king of glory.
SPEAKER_01: David wasn't the king of glory.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh is the king of glory entering Jerusalem, and the ark symbolized Yahweh's presence coming into the royal city.
SPEAKER_01: He is the God who defeated Israel's enemies, who fought for them in the wilderness, who brought down the walls of Jericho, who defeated all of their enemies.
SPEAKER_01: And the ark's procession up the hill of Yahweh announces that the warrior God, the victorious God, has come to dwell with his people, enthroning his presence in the royal city.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, the early church, almost from the very beginning, read Psalm 24 with the ascension of Christ in view.
SPEAKER_01: In Acts chapter 1, 40 days after the resurrection, Jesus led his disciples out to the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_01: You remember the story, right?
SPEAKER_01: He spoke to them about his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And then as they watched, he was lifted up and taken up into the skies out of their sight.
SPEAKER_01: He ascended.
SPEAKER_01: And the early church said from the very beginning, this is the gates of heaven being opened.
SPEAKER_01: The writer to the book of, to the Hebrews said that Jesus entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: He ascended the hill of heaven to the presence of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He passed through the heavens, Hebrews 4 tells us.
SPEAKER_01: He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, enthroned in the true holy place, and he entered once for all, having secured eternal redemption for those who trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this King of glory?
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh, strong and mighty.
SPEAKER_01: Not only against the armies of the Egyptians and the Philistines in ancient times, but even against the last enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Death.
SPEAKER_01: And on Sunday morning he came out with the stone still rolled over the entrance, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: He came out, the battle with sin and death was over, and his victory was complete.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is Yahweh of hosts in human flesh.
SPEAKER_01: At the ascension, Jesus was seated at the right hand of God the Father in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come.
SPEAKER_01: The gates of heaven opened for the king of glory.
SPEAKER_01: He entered and he was enthroned.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought his people with him.
SPEAKER_01: Consider Ephesians 2, 6 again.
SPEAKER_01: God seated us with Jesus in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: The ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ is not only his entrance into the ultimate royal city, it's also the guarantee of our entrance.
SPEAKER_01: Where we will one day be able to ascend the hill of Yahweh to his presence through the gates.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus entered the holy place on our behalf, Hebrews 9 says.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 6 says that he is our forerunner.
SPEAKER_01: He went in first so that we would know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the gates are open.
SPEAKER_01: The doors that swung wide for the king of glory will swing wide once again when he brings with him forever the generation that seeks his face.
SPEAKER_01: Those whom we've already learned in the book of Philippians, whose names are written in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We're here this morning because the tomb is empty.
SPEAKER_01: We're here because death could not hold the king of glory.
SPEAKER_01: We're here because the one who owns the fullness of the earth reclaimed what death tried to steal.
SPEAKER_01: We're here because the one who had clean hands and a pure heart, the only one who could truly ascend the hill of Yahweh in pure sinlessness, came out of the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: We're here because he gave his righteousness to all who believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: He did it for people with unclean hands, for those with impure hearts, for those who have taken what they should not have taken, who have done what they should not have done.
SPEAKER_01: He did it for hearts that have harbored what they should not have harbored, who have desired what they should not desire.
SPEAKER_01: He did it for people who have lifted up their souls to what is false, who have spoken deceitfully, who have pursued their own glory rather than his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: He did it for people who rejected him as the ultimate king of glory.
SPEAKER_01: And he did it so that all who could trust in him could ascend the hill with him.
SPEAKER_01: He did it so that the generation of those who seek the face of God could include people like us.
SPEAKER_01: He did it so that we could join the throng declaring, Be lifted up, O ancient gates, that the King of glory might come in.
SPEAKER_01: The earth is still Yahweh's.
SPEAKER_01: All of it.
SPEAKER_01: According to verse one, you are his.
SPEAKER_01: How holy and righteous you are.
SPEAKER_01: That you would have enough holiness and enough righteousness to give to us and yet have fullness still remaining.
SPEAKER_01: How awesome are you, and how gracious are you that you would make us your own, so that we might be welcomed into the presence of the King of Glory now and forever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.