A Trilogy Unlike Any Other (Part 3)

Introduction

What is your most treasured possession?

For some of us we’d say it’s a keepsake. Something that we received from a family member or loved one. Others might say it’s a pet or a material possession. Some might say that it is the thing that has the most monetary value. Maybe you struggle to even come up with an answer because you have so many things that you do treasure! Several years ago, a photographer, Foster Huntington launched a website asking this question: If your house were burning, what would you grab?

Think on that for a minute. You have a split second to grab something - what is it? He received thousands of answers

My husband

My child

3 cats

Princess Bride DVD

My Green Tea

My wallet

My purse

My journal

My house key (ironic)

Flip flops and sunscreen because after the house burns, I’m moving to the beach!

This question makes us differentiate between our wants and our needs. You and I might want a lot of things - but what do we truly need? What do we value? If you’re like me, we accumulate SO many things in life, yet there’s only so much room to keep things! Let’s flip this question briefly this morning

If the universe were on fire, what would God save?

Dogs?

Cats?

People!

This morning, as we wrap up the Jesus Trilogy of Psalm 22-24, we arrive at Psalm 24 as we see what Spurgeon called the Ascension Psalm - the Psalm that shows us that Jesus is the Sovereign King who rules and reigns over all creation. How Jesus Christ is King… what do kings have? A Kingdom! A king without a kingdom is like an aircraft carrier without an ocean - it’s out of place and out of position.

This morning we’re going to unpack this incredible Psalm that shows us a glimpse of what took place whenever Jesus ascended into heaven and wrestle with a very important question: If God exists, and if heaven is real, what happen for me to get there? Psalm 24 will give us the answer - let’s read God’s Word together

Psalm 24 CSB

A psalm of David. 1 The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; 2 for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers. 3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah 7 Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord of Armies, he is the King of glory. Selah

Who is this King of Glory who rules over the whole world? This is none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Our King Creates (1-2)

As we sang about this morning, we worship a God who is alive! A King who created all things. Remember back to Psalm 19 at the size of the stars that God created. Does your brain still hurt from that? So often we think that we’re so big and the problems we face are cosmic in scope… but in actuality, we’re microscopic and our problems could be so much bigger. Our God created it all. From the trees to the lakes to the mountains to the valleys. He made it all. But do you know what God created distinct from the rest of creation? Mankind. As we’ll look at in Psalm 139, we will never come across another human being who is not created in the image of God and formed in the womb by God. Everything belongs to Him. Our lives belong to God. Think about the cross that Jesus was hung on this morning - guess who created the seed that would sprout the tree that would be cut down by the Romans to hang Jesus? Jesus. It all belongs to Him. Think about all the things that we fight over - nations fight over land, homeowners fight over property lines, businesses fight over copyright licenses - what does Psalm 24:1 tell us? People can fight over pieces of the world, but it doesn’t change the fact that the whole earth belongs to the Lord!

You might own your house - but guess what? In 50 years, someone else will. Your child grows up in your house and they’ll always be yours - but they’re only little so long and ultimately, they belong to the Lord because God is the giver and author of life! Some people might wrestle with Psalm 24:1 and believe that they are a self-made person. They’ve made it big. This is MINE. But one’s acknowledgement of Psalm 24:1 doesn’t change Psalm 24:2. Why do all things belong to the Lord? Because He made it all! Our world hates exclusive claims - we live in a world that largely loves inclusivism. Subjectivity. Feelings. Everyone wins. However, the Bible routinely makes exclusive claims - look at Psalm 24:1-2, we see an exclusive claim. Whether one believes in Islam, Buddhism, or Atheism, it is the God of the Bible that created all things and rules over all things today. Let’s look at a few more

John 14:6 CSB

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

How many ways are there to the Father? 10? 2? No! There’s just one! I’ve seen this verse shared on social media multiple times and the comment section reads like this, “So judgmental of you. I don’t believe this is true.” We don’t need more “your truth” or “my truth” we need THE TRUTH and Jesus, in John 17:17 reminds us that God’s Word is truth. This is what Jesus Himself said- It’s exclusive. All are welcomed, sure, but all must deny self and follow Christ alone. Consider the claim of Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 CSB

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.

Doesn’t this sound exclusive? It’s not through being a good person. It’s not through doing nice deeds. Salvation is exclusively found through faith in Jesus Christ! Not our last name. Not our location. It’s Just Jesus! So the Bible makes the exclusive claim that God has the right over all things because God made all things. He created you and me… therefore, He has the right to tell you and me what we should do and what we should not do. God has a rightful claim over His creation. And this includes you and me. You might be here today and you think that you’ve dropped the ball so big that there’s no hope. Friend, you’re not that powerful, and that’s good news.

Abraham Kuyper once shared this, “There is not one square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

God doesn’t create junk. God created you and I in His image, for His glory. And God rules over all things. He is King over all, including you and me. God made you. He gave you the honor of being made in His own image! He exists. He rules today in heaven. Our question today is this, “How can I be with Him?”

Our King Conquers (3-6)

Here’s where we get to a problem. God created all things good - but we know that today things aren’t exactly good. There are good things that we experience thanks to God’s common grace, but we know that we are broken people living in a broken world, and this will not do because God is holy. God is pure. God is without sin… and each one of us have sinned. Kids we talked about this in VBS, sin is anything we think, say, do, or don’t do that displeases God and we’re all guilty here as Romans 3:23 tells us. So we face a problem of serious proportions - even in the ancient world, people acknowledged this type of problem and imagined the gods as being seated in the clouds or on the top of a lofty mountain. The question is this: How do we get to the top? If we’re down here and God is up there, what’s the pathway look like?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not much of a mountain climber. I love to climb rock walls, but not so much mountains… About 10 years ago, though, there were 2 climbers who prepared to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park with no climbing helps. There is a stretch of this particular mountain called the Dawn Wall that is 3,000 feet high and composed of 32 different sections which are each rated as some of the hardest in the entire world! Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell took 19 days to scale this wall. Sometimes they’d only climb a few feet. They cut their hands on the razor sharp rocks. But after nearly 3 weeks of insane effort, they reached the top and did something many believed to be impossible before. Church, this is how at least some people view heaven. It’s like the Dawn Wall. It’s a really hard climb to get there… but if you do enough work. If you prepare. If you train. If you do enough good things, then you can get to the top if you just try harder!

Is this the map we see in Scripture? Do we see a National Treasure type map that leads us up this mystical mountain to reach the summit called Heaven? Before you laugh, if you have a physical Bible, you do have maps in them! But this isn’t the map to heaven. We are not our own Savior. Look at what Habakkuk says about God’s character

Habakkuk 1:13 CSB

13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are you silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself?

So, where’s our hope? God is on the top of this mountain and is separated from sin. We’re stuck at the bottom. How is this problem solved? Let’s look at how different worldviews solve this

Atheism says there is no God on top of the mountain

Humanism says that there is no mountain to climb and there is no God at the top

Islam says that God is at the top and that you can climb the mountain by submitting to Allah and doing good works

Hinduism says that there are many paths up the mountain

Mormonism says that you work really hard and then God helps you the rest of the way

Biblical Christianity says that you couldn’t climb the mountain… so God came down to the bottom, and made a way when there was previously no way! We can’t climb to the top… but Jesus did and our response is to repent of our sins and trust alone in the finished work of Christ!

We couldn’t get to God ourselves, but God had a plan and that plan was to send His Son to seek and save lost sheep like you and me. That’s why Jesus came. Look at the requirements to ascend the mountain of the Lord and stand in His holy place in verse 3 - we see 4 requirements

Clean Hands

A Pure Heart

Free from Idolatry

Free from Lies

What do we see almost immediately after looking at this list? We’re in trouble if we have to climb this mountain by ourselves. Some might think that they’re alright because they work really hard to have a clean image and that they have a heart that really means well. They think that the clean hands of Psalm 24:4 are as simple as going to the bathroom whenever our hands get dirty, washing them under warm water with soap for 30 seconds, and coming out perfectly clean! Many think that they have done some things that are wrong, but they can go to the bathroom and get washed up, or come to church and get poured into for an hour and be fine and have clean hands. The problem is that the clean hands being spoken of in Psalm 24:4 isn’t of being made clean through works, but being innocent of the dirt in the first place. By having not sinned at all. Suddenly self-help does us no good. How could someone have spotless hands? By having a pure heart.

What do many people say whenever they get in trouble for doing something wrong? “My heart meant well… but.” Sadly, we look at our world and we don’t just see hands that are unclean, but we see hearts that are stained by sin.

Matthew 15:19 CSB

19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander.

This is because sin doesn’t start with our hands, but with the heart. At the heart of our sinful problem is the problem of our sinful heart. Think about how pervasive sin is in our lives. Look at this bottle of water - it’s nice and full. What happens whenever I tilt it like this? Water spills out. Why?

Because I tilted the bottle. Because there is gravity. Because water falls down.

But there’s another correct answer: The reason water spilt out of this bottle is because there was water in the bottle to begin with. If I had an empty bottle, nothing would pour out at all.

Who wrote this Psalm? King David. Did King David have some sin problems in Scripture? Why did he do what he did what Bathsheba? He knew God’s law. He knew God’s rules. He knew what was right and he knew what was wrong. Why did he give in? It is easy to say, “I sinned because I was tempted! I was shaken up like this bottle and because of this situation some water spilt!” We’re so good at justifying our sins, aren’t we! “I didn’t mean to. I was stressed out. I was tired. I was sick. I was raised differently. My truth is that this isn’t wrong!” We were the bottle that was tilted but we blame the problem on being tilted, but that’s not the root of our problem, friends. Why do we sin? Yes, because we are tempted by sin… but it’s deeper than this. It’s because we have a fallen nature and are sinners.

Psalm 51:5 CSB

5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

The reason that water (sin) came out of his life was because there was water (sin) inside of him. Y’all, the man after God’s own heart had a sinful heart. But what did David do whenever he sinned? Sin broke him and he repented. There is no perfect person in this room. There is no one who deserves heaven or who has any hope of standing before the Lord’s presence based on their own accomplishments and accolades. HB Charles once explained that his response whenever a brother or sister sins is not “How dare they… I would never!” Instead it is, “Thank the Lord that He kept me from finding out how weak I really am.” Church family, we can’t conquer this sinful problem ourselves… this is why we need Jesus. 1 Peter 2:22

1 Peter 2:22 CSB

22 He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth;

Jesus is the One with clean hands and a pure heart. Jesus never appealed to idols. Jesus never lied. Jesus is the righteous One of Psalm 1 who receives blessing from the Lord. But can I give you even better news than that? Jesus didn’t just lie a sinless life and scale that mountain… Jesus brings His people with Him!

Hebrews 4:14–16 CSB

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

Jesus gives us blessing and righteousness that are not ours through merit - by through mercy. Jesus conquered sin and death once for all so that you and I would experience God’s mercy, not His just judgment against sin. We receive salvation - we could never deserve salvation. There’s a song that Shane and Shane put out a little while ago called “All Sufficient Merit”

All sufficient merit, shining like the sun

A fortune I inherit by no work I have done

My righteousness I forfeit at my Savior’s cross

Where all sufficient merit did what I could not

Jesus did this work. It’s not by our works or goodness or clean hands or pure hearts. Some say this sounds discouraging. This doesn’t make me feel good about myself. This sounds depressing that I’m not enough - I love you enough to tell you the truth, you aren’t. Self help will separate millions from the Lord on judgment day because, as Alistair Begg once shared, “Only half a gospel makes half a Christian, and that’s no Christian at all.”

We must understand the depths of our sin. That we are sinners. That we have no hope of ascending this mountain without divine intervention. And once we realize what Jesus has done to save helpless sinners, we rejoice because we finally understand God’s grace. Scripture in Romans 3 teaches that lost people do not seek after God, yet we do see in John 4 that God is seeking true worshippers. To put this in a child metaphor, hide and seek, many in our world think that they are the one in the driver seat who walks around and, poof, finds God hiding under a rock or inside a book. God is not the one hiding, and you are not the one finding. Friends, Jesus isn’t lost. You and I are the ones who are lost, God is the one who seeks. Praise God for Luke 19:10 that tells us that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. You don’t find Jesus - Jesus finds you! And whenever you do seek His face, it’s because He has found you. He has given you a new heart. He has cleansed your hands. He has changed you! Jesus changes those whom He saves. We are sinful, straying, stubborn sheep. But we have a soul satisfying, sin shattering, snake smashing Savior.

We must see our need, and we must seek His face. Jesus conquered this mountain of sin. Only by repenting of our sin and trusting fully in Christ for salvation and following Him as Lord, do we receive God’s blessing of salvation and this gift of Jesus’ righteousness.

The Universe Confesses (7-10)

Jesus created all things as Hebrews 1 tells us. Jesus conquers sin and death for His people as Hebrews 4 tells us. Whenever we think about creation, and whenever we think about the finished work of Jesus on Calvary, we know that these are things that we celebrate as we know that these things, especially Jesus’ victory on the cross, impact us today. Think about what happens whenever your team wins a championship. As much as I like the Cardinals, I don’t think that’s going to happen for a while, but I’m an OKC Thunder fan and they just celebrated a championship parade in Oklahoma City. What happens during these types of parades? Millions of people travel, often from other states, to celebrate this event. The players walk and sometimes ride on a bus and they lift the trophy high for everyone to see so that they can cheer and acknowledge this achievement. If you go back in time 3,000 years, this is what would happen whenever an army won a victory and returned back home. The king would usually lead the way and his soldiers would follow and they would parade throughout the town. We love celebrations! We usually like parties when there is something exciting going on. What we see at the conclusion of this Psalm is a song of celebration but it might be hard to fully understand.

If we go back to 1 Chronicles 13-15 we see that David and the Israelites bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. Many believe that this is the context behind Psalm 24 as this is a Psalm of David, after all. The Ark represented the presence of God with His people and David and the army brought the Ark back into the city and people cry out that the King of Glory was coming in. But there’s a problem, the people here are still sinners… so this is a celebration, but it’s a veiled celebration.

Let’s fast forward 1,000 years. Can you think of another celebration in Jerusalem that involved a King riding into the city? The triumphal entry! The people of Jerusalem rejoiced on Psalm Sunday 2,000 years ago, because they said Hosanna - the King was entering. But what happened 5 days later? This King was crucified after being celebrated.

What happened later that week? Psalm 24 talks about the Lord bring mighty in battle. Can you think of a battle that King Jesus won? The battle over sin and death. This Psalm has an immediate context, but it points us ultimately to the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Now, Jesus is both Fully-God and Fully-Man. Only God can forgive sins… and only a man can die in the place of mankind. 1 Timothy 2 is an incredible and important chapter for us today, look at verse 5

1 Timothy 2:5 CSB

5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,

One God and one Mediator - it’s Jesus alone in this position. Where does Jesus mediate from? Hebrews 4:14 told us, Heaven. I want us to see this morning, Psalm 24 is not focused on Jerusalem and its gates. We’re talking about Mt. Zion - we’re talking about heaven.

When did Jesus go back to heaven? He ascended to heaven 40 days after He descended into the earth by dying for our sins on the cross. We talk a lot about the crucifixion and the resurrection, but did you know that the early church celebrated the ascension nearly as much as the other 2? What did Jesus do? As the God-Man, Jesus climbed the mountain that we couldn’t climb. He ascends the mountain of the Lord, and as Paul Washer once said, He demanded that the gates of glory be opened so that the King of Glory could come in. No man had climbed that mountain before - because no man could. “Who is this King of Glory?” It is the Lord, strong and mighty in battle. The Lord of Armies. What did Jesus do? He WON. He ascended to heaven. The gates were opened and the King took His seat and He rules from heaven today. This is remarkable - and it’s not just good historical news, it’s just plain old good news for all who follow after Jesus today. Look at what Hebrews 12 says.

Hebrews 12:22–24 CSB

22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, 23 to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.

One day, because of the blood of Jesus, you’ll walk through those gates into the city of the Living God and you’ll join in this incredible celebration and sing the hymn of heaven - Blessing and honor and glory and power to the One seated on the throne and to the lamb. This is our assurance and it is because of the ascension of Jesus Christ. The gates of heaven are presently open to all who deny themselves and desire to follow after the King of Glory! The gates of heaven are open because of the triumphal entry of the King. But the only way you can enter those gates is by the blood of Jesus washing you white as snow. Not because of the mission trips you’ve been on. Not because you tithe. Not because you know the Sunday School answers. Not because you know Amazing Grace by heart. But because the King of Glory has supernaturally invaded your life and changed you from your radiator to your tailpipe. My salvation is not because of WHO I am, but because of WHO He is.

RC Sproul once shared, “Jesus gave us the incomparable privilege of calling God Father.”

Today, is this you? Do you have this hope? Are you walking down what Matthew 7 calls the narrow gate and the difficult road? See, there are many today who haven’t found this gate because they walked down a much wider, nicer, and more open one. It is used often. It is well paved. This path looks amazing and looks like it leads up the mountain and it promises acceptance, tolerance, and happiness! But this gate is as crooked as it can be. It looks inviting and makes great promises, but it leads to eternal condemnation, not eternal celebration. It’s path is destruction and its destination is death. Don’t walk down the wide gate that our world promotes! Come to Jesus. Rest in Him. Repent of your self reliance and sinful ways and trust in the God who promises to provide you with a hope and a joy that this world cannot touch. Don’t buy the lie that says that you can clean yourself up and do the work yourself. Don’t buy the lie that says that you are perfect just the way you are - that’s Bruno Mars, that’s not Bible. We desperately need Jesus so that we can be made right with our Heavenly Father.

I don’t know if you know this or not, but one day Jesus is coming back. Did you know that? And whenever He so does, every knee will bow. Philippians 2:9-11 tells us this. Every tongue will confess. Everyone will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. We’ve done a disservice to people saying that you make Jesus Lord… He’s already Lord. He is the KING. Everyone will acknowledge this one day… but have you done this today? Every knee will bow. Are you submitting to Jesus as King today? Which gate have you entered in? Which pathway are you walking on? Maybe you feel like you don’t deserve what Christ has done. You feel like you’ve dropped the ball too much. You don’t have what is required. Hear this: You’re exactly right. And this is why Christ came. This is why the Sovereign King came from heaven to earth and what He does is He changes us. He makes a way for us whenever there used to be no way. This is our Father’s World. We belong to our Father. Today, this truth of God’s Rule and Kingdom in Psalm 24 must impact our lives. Let’s apply this in 3 ways

The Earth Belongs to the Lord - Walk Accordingly

This isn’t ours. The earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord. We’re just passing through.

Victory Belongs to the Lord - Worship Accordingly

Salvation is not something we earn, it is something we receive. Therefore, we can’t worship self or idols… we exist to worship our Creator, not His creation.

Eternal Life Belongs to the Lord - Weigh It Accordingly

We all will live forever. Because of our sins, we deserve eternal separation from God… but Christ provides us with living water that will never run dry. With eternal life that will always satisfy. Weigh this life accordingly. Don’t put off eternity living for earth today. Don’t waste your life on things that ultimately amount to nothing as you can’t even take them with you. Don’t store up for yourself treasure that will rot and be destroyed in 1,000 years. Live for an audience of one.

Every knee will bow because Jesus is Lord. Today, we have the privilege of doing exactly this. We can’t get there ourselves because we don’t have clean hands and a pure heart, but this is what Jesus gives to us. In a world that is on fire due to sin, God sent His Son to seek and save His people from the flames. What have you done with this Jesus? Scripture says that our response is to repent of our sins and trust alone in Christ for salvation. To turn our eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. Look to the ascended Jesus today!