[0:00] But tonight, we have an open Bible, and you're watching online, and so we have two important things in front of us here. People ready to listen to the Word. And if you want to, please join me in Psalm chapter number 24 as we walk through the Bible today.
[0:15] Years ago, when the church secretary was April Baker, Pearsons, if you're watching, you know April well, she was a funny church secretary. And one of the things that Jake, my friend, loved to do to April was he would ask her questions that he knew that she wanted to answer.
[0:32] So we would be up in Gainesville, and he would say, hey, do you know of a good place to eat up here in Gainesville? And she would take a deep breath and start answering the question, and then he would hang up on her. And he did that all the time to her, and she never seemed to learn.
[0:44] That's what it felt like today in Psalm chapter number 23 in the morning service. It really could use a lifetime of messages. And I believe maybe we'll get back to it at another time, but every one of those statements, for his name's sake, restores my soul, my shepherd, shall not want.
[1:04] You can think about any three words and spend hours upon them. But what a great encouragement. Psalm 23, that pilgrimage is known well, but that pilgrimage is going to lead us to a place in chapter number 24.
[1:17] We see ourselves as pilgrims, or going through life nomadically as sheep, meaning that our final place will be in heaven with Jesus. But until then, we are being guided by him throughout this world.
[1:28] The Bible calls us pilgrims, calls us strangers. Chapter 24, we see the king of glory coming into the temple. And before I pray for us, let's read the passage together, follow along there at home.
[1:43] I learned a new word this week. And being from Kentucky, I usually learn about a word a week here in Georgia. My vocabulary is growing. But the word is antiphonal. The song that we sing that's been sung here in church, I believe the choir might have sang it.
[1:57] We're looking at singing it on Easter, but is he worthy? And it goes back and forth. One part is ask, is he worthy? And the other group of the choir would answer that. That's called antiphonal. And we have psalms like that, back and forth.
[2:09] And since I won't be able to hear you tonight online, I'll just have to explain to you how that would work in this psalm. The people in the chorus, in verse number one, the leader would open up. I'll play that part tonight.
[2:21] And then verses four, five, and six would be the response. And you'll see that. Then another question is ask, and then another response. So in this passage, we see two big questions that are asked, and then we see the response.
[2:33] And all we want to do tonight is see what this chapter has for us. There's many things to consider at a chapter, all the chapters of the Bible, especially the psalms, where we're trying to figure out what was the purpose on which it was written.
[2:46] Sometimes we know where David is at when something's happening. Sometimes we know when the psalm is used. But other times it's left to speculation. Was this when the ark was being brought into the temple at Jerusalem, 2 Samuel chapter number six, bringing the ark into the city by David?
[3:04] Was it written for Jewish holiday or used during the Jewish holiday? Or is it prophetic? Or could it be both of those things, written for a specific purpose but also being prophetic?
[3:15] But what I do know for certain is that it's going to be read tonight live by me, and it's going to be for you, those that hear it. And there's no doubt about it. The word of God is for us.
[3:25] And so as you read this, you're going to picture how it could be possible that there's a big group of people, congregation of people, walking up to this hill, to Zion here, and they're bringing the Ark Covenant and all the excitement about it and the back and forth that's being sung and the question by the priest, and they're answering.
[3:43] But we also think about the day that Jesus is coming back, and we should. And it should be upon our minds at all times. So as I said, we move from the pilgrimage, Psalm 23. Now we get to 24 in this chapter in this arrival.
[3:58] So verse 1 and 2. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. And this is the first of the two questions.
[4:09] Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? Question, verses 4, 5, and 6 are going to be a response. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who has 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.
[4:27] This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob, Selah. Lift up your heads. Next question will be found in verse number 8.
[4:37] Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. Here's a second question. Who is this king of glory?
[4:48] What a great question to ask that David has asked. Something that every one of us in our lives should ask, and it's answered for us. Who is this king of glory? And your response. The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
[5:01] Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, 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, Selah.
[5:13] You know that means to pause and meditate. It might be better said Salah or different ways, but since I have a five-year-old daughter named Selah, I'm always going to call it Selah. And it's good because when she hears it, she starts paying attention.
[5:26] Probably a good reason to give your kids Bible names, you know? If they were named Joy, they'd be listening a lot when you bring their name up. But Selah, if you are listening at home, and I believe that you are, it means to pause and to meditate and to think about what we have heard.
[5:40] And we most certainly should pause and meditate on these questions. Who should ascend to that holy hill? Who shall stand in this holy place? Who is the king of glory? Who is this Lord of hosts?
[5:51] Most important question we'll ever ask in our lives. And we should pause and meditate and think on these things. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word tonight, Lord. It is so precious to us.
[6:02] Thank you to be part of a church family that loves your word. Lord, I know they just want your word. Nothing less, nothing more. Lord, that's what I'm asking that you would help me do tonight. Lord, we come to you in a difficult time, in a strange time, Lord, where we're not meeting in person.
[6:19] And Lord, that is hard on us. That is difficult. We desire to be together. Lord, you have made us this way. We're new creatures, Lord. We desire to work together, provoke one another the good works.
[6:30] Lord, I pray that you'll give us wisdom, creativity during this time to stay connected. But Lord, now for this time, we come together in your word. We desire to hear from you. And we want to know what you have for us tonight from your psalm.
[6:44] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So as we look here at the first question, which is, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Well, if we jump right into that question, we're skipping the first couple verses here.
[6:57] And it's a topic that you would think that really doesn't need to be spoken about anymore. Like, is it not clear by the time we get to Psalm chapter number 24? And as this is, the topic is that God is the creator of the universe.
[7:08] And as the creator of the universe, he owns all things. And he has the right, the command of them, what he wants. That's from the very beginning. In the beginning, God. And all throughout the Bible, we see that he is the creator.
[7:21] And he has a claim upon this earth. But the God, he believed it was important to us. And so I'm going to trust him tonight to remind you of something that I think that you should already know.
[7:32] But to make it true in your life. Verse 1 and 2, I'll read it to you again. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods.
[7:45] This is answering part of the question when it says, who shall send into the hill of the Lord? This is saying, who is the Lord of this hill? Who are we talking about?
[7:55] And verses 1 and 2 shows us. He is the owner of the earth, the theater of the universe, where the greatest drama on stage will ever happen. Where Jesus will come and die for us.
[8:06] There is a myth in the time of Jesus which is that the holy land is God's. And that the seed of Abraham is God's only people. But we know that every land and every people belong to God as our creator.
[8:18] Let me remind you a few things. If you have any cattle, if you have any beasts in the field, Psalm 50 verse 10 says, For every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
[8:29] He owns all the cattle. I believe it was Charles Gardner, pastor's dad, that would tell him he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. And he owns all the hills as well. You probably heard that expression. He does. Haggai 2.8.
[8:41] The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. Interesting how we think we find gold and silver. We dig and we find it and say, oh, this is mine.
[8:51] God always knew where it was at. It belongs to him. I won't mention which son of mine is constantly finding things that weren't really lost by anybody else. We go to the park and he said, hey, look, I found this hat.
[9:03] This kid was walking by me and he was wearing it. And I just found it as he was walking by me. You know, when we find gold, it was never lost by God. He knew exactly where it was at and it belongs to him. The beast, the cattle, the silver, the gold, they belong to the Lord.
[9:16] Deuteronomy 8.17 and 18. And thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand has gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.
[9:28] But they may establish his covenant which he swear unto the fathers as it is this day. It's a lot easier for us to say that stuff belongs to Jesus. They say this is his.
[9:39] These are his chairs. This is his pulpit. This is his church building. But then when we get into the realm of power or knowledge of what we have, we often think it comes to us. If we work for it, you think it belongs to you.
[9:51] If you have power, if you have ability, the saying, if you have ability to create things, if you have ability to buy and to gain, to make wealth, we think that belongs to us. But he says, For he that giveth thee power to get wealth, he may establish the covenant which you swear unto the fathers as it is this day, that it was the God that gave you this power to get this.
[10:10] And you say in your heart that it belongs to you, but it belongs to him. So it doesn't just stop outside of us and external. It comes in us. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20. What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not of your own, for you are bought with a price?
[10:26] Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Our body belongs to him, and it was bought by a price. Which is even more amazing because he owns us as creator, but then he purchased us with the death of his son upon the cross.
[10:42] Psalm 100, verse 3. Know you not that the Lord, he is God? It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Remind us back to Psalm 23.
[10:52] But it is he that has made us. We are not of ourselves. We are his people. You know, in a sense, the world belongs to Satan. Satan is called the God of this world. 2 Corinthians 4, 4.
[11:04] And whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, shall shine unto them. But don't believe for a second that is how things will remain.
[11:16] That is how things are now. But he will rule and reign. He will come in the king of glory. He has never lost his rightful ownership to this world. But Job said, Who has prevented me?
[11:26] Should I repay him? Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. That's God speaking to Job. Job might be wondering if things had lost his sight, if things had got out of control for him.
[11:38] But God reminded Job that all things belong to him. And it's just a simple thought. He tells us he owns all these things. Creators are powers, our beings, our wealth, the things that we own.
[11:48] And because he is the creator, he is the owner. It says, For he has founded upon the seas and he has established it upon the floods. He created the land upon water on day three.
[12:00] Water was upon the face of the earth and God created land. Psalms 89, 11, The heavens are thine and the earth is thine as for the world and the fullness thereof, for thou hast founded them.
[12:12] He is the creator. In a college a few years ago or two decades ago, when one of my teachers, he got all of us all fired up one time saying, The God of the universe reached down and he picked up the clay and he made the rivers and he made this great picture for us.
[12:29] And we all got excited about it. And then he stopped and said, No, he spoke it into existence. God created land out of nothing. He is the creator. And so the heavens are his, the earth is his, and all the fullness, anything that is on it.
[12:43] You know, if you're watching, you have brothers and sisters, little kids, Noah Weed, you know, if your sister comes into your room and she takes some of your Legos or whatever it is that you play with, your rightful claim is that belongs to me.
[12:55] It is in my room. Everything in my room belongs to me. God says all of this is his room and the fullness of it all belongs to him. Psalm 33, 8, 9, Let all the earth fear the Lord.
[13:07] Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. Let me read that again because there's not enough of that that happens in my life. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
[13:19] For he spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. For he spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. God is the creator of this universe and that makes him the owner of all things.
[13:34] Isaiah 26, verse 9, It closely relates being the creator with being a judge. We find that in the book of Acts throughout the Bible. Oftentimes it says that he is the judge and it brings into the fact that he gets the judge because he is the creator.
[13:47] With my soul have I desired thee in the night. Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. For when the judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
[13:58] He gets to be the judge of this universe because he is the creator of the universe and that makes him the owner of the universe. He sustains and he creates and it all depends upon him.
[14:08] Our existence as we live and as we move and as we breathe that comes from him. And because of that, he has all rights to exercise his authority and judgment over us.
[14:19] If you've ever played baseball or any other sport that had a ball, there's an expression when the kid with the nice basketball would leave. We would just say, well fine, just take your ball and go home. Because everybody knows that whoever owns the basketball gets to decide what happens to the basketball.
[14:34] And so it's a principle that God has created the universe which makes him the owner and the judge. And that's where we have contention in our world views. It's nothing for them, for people in the world, those that don't believe, to say some imaginary person created things or some kind of system created things.
[14:50] But when that system has a moral and has a code that has laws that has a right and wrong which is holy, then he has the right to judge. Then people will fight against that with everything that is in them.
[15:04] So why would there be a fight upon creation? Why would people want to fight that so much? It's because if there is a creator, then there is an owner. And if there's an owner, then there's a rightful judge to this world.
[15:15] And the sooner that you know this, the sooner you recognize this, the more you'll be ready to live out life as you've been created to. So that was just an introduction to the word Lord. Who are we talking about when we say the question, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
[15:29] This Lord is that creator and owner of the universe. So the first question that's being asked is, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? So what is this hill of the Lord? Verses 1 and 2 describes the ascent unto it.
[15:42] Who should ascend into the hill of the Lord? So it isn't hard to get to because you have to climb rocks to get to it or it's a long hike. The ascent to it is the fact that there is where we will meet the creator of the universe.
[15:54] Who has the right to go into the presence of the God of the universe? Who thinks that they can just do this? And that's a question that's been common through the book of Psalms. The holy hill is an expression for the temple mount.
[16:07] Forty times throughout the book of Psalms, we see Zion referred to. It was a Canaanite city before David conquered it in 2 Samuel. Chapter number 5 and verse 7. And we had seen before Psalm 3, 4.
[16:19] It says, I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill. And so that's the place in which we could encounter God. The place that we would go to. So it makes sense.
[16:30] They would say, who could ascend to that place? Who could go there? Have you ever been so ashamed that you couldn't look somebody in the eyes? Somebody that you had disappointed? I mean, we had all been there before.
[16:41] You know, when you knew that you're disappointed, your parents or somebody that you loved and respected and you couldn't look them in the face because you had shame upon you and you didn't want their eyes and their presence before.
[16:53] You didn't want to go before their face. As we live in this world knowing we've broken the rules of the creator, how do we think that we could come before him? What makes us think that we could ever cry out to him in his holy hill?
[17:05] Why do we think that it ever look upon us? Another phrase that's used for this holy, this hill of the Lord and to the hill of the Lord, it says, who shall stand in this holy place? That's why I keep referring to it as the holy hill.
[17:17] Who shall stand in this holy place? It's being rephrased. So standing is not just going to it, but it's staying there in his presence. What kind of person can do this?
[17:28] Worshippers must meet God's standard to enter into this holy presence, to stand, to maintain the worship. And then here's the answer for us. Who can ascend and who can stand?
[17:39] He that has clean hands and a pure heart. Only those who do not worship an idol can be true worshipers. Who can have clean hands and a pure heart?
[17:50] And they go together. It does us no good if we have clean hands and the religion do things if we don't have a pure heart and pure motives of what's going on. Verse number four kind of helps us understand what kind of person that is by giving us an example of what it means not to have clean hands and pure hearts.
[18:05] It says, who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, which is emptiness, nor sworn deceitfully. So it's a person that is not lifted up and trusted in something that was empty and vain.
[18:18] Idols, not God. Nothing that has pledged its allegiance to something that is false. We're talking about false worship here. False worshipers, those that don't believe in the one true God, those who do not believe in the Lord that verses one and two spoke about, then they are not able to ascend unto this holy hill.
[18:36] Psalm 25 verse one. This is how David is speaking unto the Lord. He says, unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. David is saying, I trust in you.
[18:47] So we're told that those that lift up their soul, the vanity and the emptiness, those are idol worshipers. They aren't people with clean hands and pure hearts, and they are not people who can stand in this holy place and ascend to this hill.
[19:00] But those that can, they will be blessed. Verse five. He shall receive the blessings from the Lord and the righteousness from the God of his salvation. Those that are able to do so will be blessed.
[19:12] But how is it even possible? Such a picture is drawn. By the time we get through verses one and two, this place that we would go to, this hill, this holy place, it ought to seem like it is 10,000 feet high.
[19:26] It ought to seem completely unattainable to ever go into the presence of our God. We should be looking for that, and we should be reminded of that, the holiness, the glory of God.
[19:37] We look upon nature and what he created, and we realize we can't do any of that. If I take a picture of something that's amazing in nature, I am proud of that. I'm like, I can't believe I took such a great picture.
[19:48] But God is the creator of that, and we can't replicate any of those things. And so the glory is his substance and his weight when we look at it, and we just stand in awe and say, how would I ever go before that person?
[20:00] You know, if you're an amateur artist, and you had drawn a few things, and you thought you were good, but then you had the opportunity to meet somebody who was an incredible artist, you would say, I don't deserve to go before them.
[20:11] I should never play the piano before this person who is so great. You would never want to come before them, but God is going to welcome us and allow us into his presence. But we ought to stand back and say, how would we ever get to this place?
[20:23] I remind you, this psalm sounds very familiar to the themes that ran through Psalms chapter number 5. In Psalm chapter number 5, verses 4 through 7, it says, For thou art not a God that has pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee.
[20:36] The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody and the deceitful man.
[20:47] But as for me, I will come into thy house, and the multitude thy mercy. And in thy fear will I worship toward that holy temple. I love that chapter. It just kind of built.
[20:58] It just said, I'll never make it. I'll never stand before him. I am this work of iniquity. I have been this person. But as for me, David said, I get to come into thy house, the multitudes of the mercy.
[21:09] And I fear will I worship towards that holy temple. And in that same chapter, verse 11, But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them.
[21:21] Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. As Christians, every day we should rejoice in the fact that we can have communion with God, that we can go before him in prayer.
[21:33] But as for me, David said, I'm able to go. Verse number six, giving a description of those people that are able to ascend to that holy hill. It says, this is the generation of them that seek him, that seek his face, O Jacob, Salem.
[21:49] It's a comparison here. It says, to them that seek thy face, O Jacob. This brings us back to a story in Genesis chapter number 32 and verse 26. Jacob, he said, let me go, for thou breaketh.
[22:01] He said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Jacob was somebody that was seeking a blessing. Somebody that wanted to know God. That sought after him. And so we're, we are being told as a generation of them that seek his face as Jacob did.
[22:16] To seek God's face means to have an audience with the king. It's found throughout the Bible. And Genesis, when Joseph is speaking to his brothers and they said, bring back your youngest brother. If you don't, you, he said, you will not see my face no more.
[22:30] That seeing the face means to have an audience here with the king or with the ruler. It said, this is a generation of them that seek thy face to know him. All of those who know the Lord are people who desired to see his glory.
[22:43] We want to know him better. We want to know our creator more. We want to know more about him. This is possible to us now in the new covenant as Christians. Hebrews 10, 10, it says, but either which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
[23:01] He made us acceptable. He gave us clean hands and pure hearts. Don't think that it's too soon in the story for Jesus to be the hero. The reason that any of us would ever be able to send to the holy kingdom was because of the sacrifice that was made by Jesus.
[23:17] We are not worthy. Our Lord Jesus Christ could ascend into the hill of the Lord because his hands were clean and his heart was pure. And by faith we are found in him. Romans 3, 22.
[23:29] Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, there is no difference. So who is it that has clean hands and pure hearts?
[23:40] Those of us that have sought the face of God, that have put our faith in Jesus Christ. He is the one that now makes it possible for us to stand before him. And what a wonderful blessing. One that David most certainly never got over.
[23:52] Other people that wrote Psalms throughout the Bible, we just seemed overwhelmed by the fact that we would be able to come before the presence of a holy God, the creator in the verse, the one that will judge all things.
[24:04] The next question here. Who is this king of glory? You probably have seen it before, hopefully not in real life, but maybe on some detective movie where a person's standing there and they say, hey, give me a description.
[24:17] Who was the person that stole your car? And they say, well, he was five foot ten. He had brown hair, green eyes. His cheekbones were like this. And they draw it. And it's always amazing to me that that drawing would look anything like the person that they're describing.
[24:31] I wouldn't imagine that I could give you a description of my kids that would end up in a drawing like you oftentimes see in these detective movies. We find in some of the ones that my wife watches that sometimes the drawing is so good because they have a person in mind that they're drawing to make them the suspect.
[24:47] But that's how you would do it. Who is this king of glory? What is the description? What is it if we're going to draw a picture? The king of glory as a person. See, we had, through the Old Testament, the glory was seen in a cloud.
[25:00] It had come upon the tabernacle. But now we're talking about the glory as a person. And who is this king of glory? Who is it that is one that is worthy of us lifting up our heads?
[25:11] Verse 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors. The king of glory shall come in. Taking you back to that picture where the ark might be coming there up to Jerusalem.
[25:23] And here it comes. And they're saying, open the doors. Maybe something more practical and something you've seen more recently. You go to a wedding. And after everybody is sitting, waiting to eat, the bride and groom come in.
[25:35] And the person normally says, I'd like to be the first to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Coffee. All right? And typically it's the second time they've been introduced because the preacher did it a few minutes earlier. But they're the first to introduce you to somebody.
[25:47] Because on that special day, these special people deserve to be announced that they're coming. And so it says, here he comes. Here his presence comes. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and lift them up.
[26:00] This king of glory is somebody that deserves our utmost respect and his worthiness. I read an abridged version of Fox's Book of Martyrs as a teenager. And I began to get a better understanding of the worthiness of our God.
[26:14] That this God that I've been hearing about, the one that I've given my life to, was worthy of our entire lives of even die for him. King of glory being introduced.
[26:25] It says in verse 8, it says, The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. So we find him worthy of all of our respect. We find him strong and mighty and mighty in battle.
[26:36] As a king coming in, being greeted that had won victories. And that's how he will return the king of glory. He will win victories for us.
[26:47] He will overcome all evil. And he will rule and reign for all eternity. See, Ezekiel sees this king of glory. As I said before, he had been seeing glory of God in the clouds. But Ezekiel sees him in chapter number 1 as a man.
[27:00] Let me read it to you because I know you probably have Ezekiel 1 memorized. But for my sake, let me read it to you here. Ezekiel chapter number 1, it says, verse number 27. And I saw as the color of amber as the appearance of fire round about within.
[27:13] From the appearance of his loins even upward, from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw it as it was the appearance of fire. And it had a brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.
[27:27] This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of the one that spake. Ezekiel saw the king of glory.
[27:39] He saw the appearance here, the loins upward, the appearance here of fire and brightness, the glory of God and the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
[27:50] You know, the Bible teaches that if we saw him directly, we would not live, that our bodies were not able to contain that. We see the likeness of his glory as found in a person. The Lord is a glorious king who is coming, and only pure worshipers can enjoy his presence.
[28:06] You know, when Jesus entered Jerusalem in Matthew chapter number 21 and verse number 10, the question was asked that's being asked here in this psalm, and it's who is it? Matthew 21 verse 10, And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
[28:21] Who is this man that comes riding in? And the appropriate response would have been, He is the Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. But that wasn't the response.
[28:32] They did not recognize him as the king of glory. They took him. He was crucified. And he died for our sins. But the king of glory will return. And he will come for us.
[28:43] And I pray that you will recognize him for all that he is. I pray that you'll show reverence and respect for him. You know, in our lives, we often take the name of the Lord in vain. We do not give him the rightful place that he deserves.
[28:56] Where do we find sin becomes so common in our lives? When we have a low view of God. When what he says about right and wrong doesn't matter to us. When his commandments to do or not do don't matter to us because we don't find him worthy.
[29:07] We don't see him as the king of glory. We don't worship him in all of his power. We don't show him the due respect that is given to him. Here in the psalm, here he comes.
[29:18] They lift up their head. They say, open up. Here comes the ark. And they were showing a reverence to him. It ought to be found in our lives. I was a little kid and I would run around the church.
[29:29] And as little kids seemed to do. And people would stop me as they should have. And they would remind me of why this place was special. Because this is a place where God's people meet to worship the Lord.
[29:41] And I began to learn to reverence him some more. When I would see my grandfather in the morning flip through the chapters of the Bible reading it. I said, there is somebody that is worthy of my grandfather's time.
[29:53] He sits down with and he spends time. Reverence is being given to him. When we speak about him, there ought to be a reverence to him. He is the king of glory. We can look at creation and say, wow, it's incredible what he's done.
[30:06] But then we look at his holiness and we say, that is unbelievable. That he is the perfect example of what is right and wrong. And he never does wrong. He never does anything that isn't best. And we can step back and we can look at another dimension about him.
[30:18] And we see that he was mighty in battle. And that he is never lost. And no matter how we looked at the king of glory, we would say he is perfect. And he is worthy of the submission of our lives.
[30:28] A big view of a holy God is being given here to the king of glory. Who are we to send into his holy hill? We are nothing. And we do not deserve to come into his presence.
[30:41] We do not deserve for him to hear one word from us in prayer. We do not deserve to carry his book in our hands. We are not worthy to teach these things unto other people.
[30:53] But it's a gift to him. We live in a world that makes Christianity just so playful. Makes everything about God just the game. But we have a responsibility in our homes.
[31:06] You know, I commend you so much tonight. The challenge of watching a service online to give the weight that is necessary to the word of God. Because it comes to the reverence of him.
[31:16] So I thank you. Every one of you that pulled out the chairs. That don't let your kids do something else. That designate the time to the word of God. The things that we do. Sunday morning we put on different clothes that we don't wear on Saturday often.
[31:28] Because we say this is a time to reverence the things of God. But it isn't something that just happens in this building. It's something that should be happening in every part of our lives. We should recognize he is the king of glory.
[31:42] And as the king of glory. And as a believer. Romans 8.37. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. We do not have a weak God.
[31:53] He is mighty. And he is powerful. And we should follow him knowing this. If you don't know him today. I'll tell you there is a day that is coming. And you will learn the answer to the question.
[32:05] Who is the king of glory? You may not want to know anything about him today. But someday you'll learn more about him than you care to know. He is the creator. And he is the judge. And he is worthy of the submission of our lives.
[32:17] We should give it all to him today. He is worthy. I pray for you. But I'm going to ask you as we pray. Let's look for opportunities. To take things in our lives. That don't.
[32:28] Where God doesn't receive the reverence that he deserves. And bring it back to a place. That is worthy of his presence. You know that isn't how we normally act when somebody walks in. We don't swing open the door.
[32:38] Lift up our heads. Open up the gates. And say behold the king of glory is coming. But when we enter into a place where God is there. We most certainly should show reverence to him. So maybe there's some place in your lives that we become slack.
[32:52] We've been becoming irreverent when we talk about certain things of God. I want you to change that today. I want you to make your way of thinking that of the mind of Christ. And let's show him the honor that he deserves.
[33:04] If you don't know him today. There's contact information. Please contact us. We want you to know this king of glory. He's coming. And as Bible believers we believe that he can come at any time.
[33:14] And we await for him. He's the creator of this universe. And he's the rightful judge and owner. And he is the king of glory.