Rejoice, rejoice, give thanks and sing Let's come to our confessional reading, then people of God, Lord's Day 15, page 216 in the forms and prayers. Question answer 37 is a little bit longer, but I think we can take each of these and together say the answers. Note when we get to question answer 39, there is one more line across the page on the top of page 217. Lord's Day 15 question answers 37, 38, 39. I'll read the questions. Let's together say the answers. What do you understand by the word suffered? That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. He did it in order that, by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, he might deliver us body and soul from eternal condemnation and gain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life. Why did he suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge? so that he, though innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge, and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us." Is it significant that he was crucified instead of dying some other way? Yes, By this death I am convinced that he shouldered the curse which lay on me, since death by crucifixion was cursed by God. This is the confession we hold in common. Let's turn now to Psalm 24, page 582. Most of the Pew Bibles, Psalm 24. It is a Psalm of David as are most of the Psalms in the first book of the Psalms. And we'll be reading it in its entirety if we are focusing especially on one verse, it's verse three, but we will work through the Psalms. Psalm 24, let us hear the word of God. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. And He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. such as the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in who is this king of glory the Lord of hosts he is the king of glory so far the reading the grass withers the flower fades the word of our Lord endures forever Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there's a certain beauty and majesty to mountains. There's a certain presence to the top of a mountain. It's the place where you can, having ascended, look out over all that is below. And it's, we might even say, a special place for a good vantage place to look out at the glories of general revelation. It shows us something of who God is. But mountains are not only a useful place for seeing the beauty of general revelation. In the Old Testament, mountains are a special place for worship. Mountains are a special place for worship. And so when verse three says, who shall ascend the hill or mountain of the Lord, it's a question of worship. Throughout the Old Testament, beginning in Eden, which was a mountain, it was the place from where the rivers flowed, it's where they began, it was the mountain. From Eden, which was that mountain and place of worship, and then especially on Mount Zion, where the tabernacle was brought, and then where the temple was built, and the Ark would remain. The mountains are a special place for worship. And the question can be restated this way then, the question of 24.3, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? It's a question about worship. Who can come into the presence of God? Who can worship God? It is the most foundational question. It is the question which scripture brings us back to again and again. How can God be worshiped? And so our theme looking at Psalm 24 tonight is this, that we can come to God because God comes for us. So first, who comes to God? And second, God comes for us. So who can come to God? Well, that is the critical question of verse 3. We will spend a little time looking at verses 1 and 2. And what verses 1 and 2 do in Psalm 24 is they remind us of one of the reasons, not all of the reasons, just one of the reasons why we should come to God and worship God. And the one reason it gives is God is the creator. He owns everything. He owns everything, verse one. Why? Verse two, for He has founded it, He made it. And there's reference here in verse two, going back to the very first creation, going back to the first three days of creation. He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. On day one, there was water. On day three, the land was brought forth up from the water. And so Peter speaks of the first three days of creation this way, in 2 Peter 3, verse five, the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. And so God is the great owner, even as he is also the great giver. God owns everything in the greatest sense of the word. God owns the world in the greatest sense of the word ownership. Now we know that when we have a hand in making something that can give us special sense of ownership. So let's think of two tomatoes in your fridge. One tomato you bought from the grocery store. The other tomato you grew in your vegetable garden from seed. Now they're both your tomato, but you might have a special sense of ownership for the tomato that you grew from seed. You had a part in making it. It's yours in a special way. We might say the same thing about a child who has two different toys. One toy he received from the store in one way or another. Another toy the child made himself. Well, you're going to have a special sense of ownership for the toy that you made. It's not going to be quite the same. We have this understanding that, yes, we can own things generally, but we have even a special sense of ownership over something which we have made. Well, God is the great owner in the sense, the greatest sense of the word. He made everything from nothing. God is the great owner. God is the one who Has ownership over all things but now God in his ownership and in his Sustaining of all things by the power of his word as Hebrews 1 3 says it doesn't just keep it for himself God is also the great giver He gives us the blessing of this earth and the beauty of this universe all of it should bring us back to worshiping God for God is the one who has Given it to us So we just thought of how ownership and even making something can impact how we look at what we have. Well, what about borrowing something? Well, that impacts how we look at something, doesn't it? Perhaps you've used a tool and it's not a tool that you yourself own but you borrowed it. Well, it makes you a little You don't quite treat it the same way. It's not yours. You want to try to be a little extra careful with it. I don't know how this works. I don't want to mess up somebody else's tool or somebody else's whatever it is that I'm borrowing. You don't quite look at things the same way when it's not yours, when you're borrowing it. Well, people of God, this is everything. This is everything because God is the great giver and All of the rain which comes down is from God. Everything we have is ultimately God's, even as God gives it to us and blesses us through his creation, yet it is finally all his. And so this is one of the reasons why we worship God. There are more, but the fact that God is creator is one which the scriptures return to again and again as reason. to worship God, but now as we come into verse three, we ask not why do we worship God, but how do we worship God? And while verses one and two could have given praise to God and given us reasons to worship God in all kinds of different ways, when we come to verse three, and we ask the question of how we can worship God, now there's only one way. There are many reasons to worship God. There's only one way to actually do it. Who can come? Who can ascend the hill? Who can worship God? Well, the answer is verse four. He who has clean hands and a pure heart. This is the only answer. Now there are two parts to this one answer. The first part of the answer is that the one who comes to worship God must be clean and pure and we can't do this ourselves. In Matthew chapter 19 Jesus is speaking to the rich young ruler, and the rich young ruler says, good teacher, what must I do to have eternal life? Well, what is eternal life? Eternal life is eternity in God's presence, worshiping God. It's in that way similar to the question of Psalm 24 verse three. What must I do to have eternal life? What must I do to stand in God's presence forever? Jesus answered, why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would have eternal life, keep the commandments. Well, Jesus is basically given the answer of Psalm 24 verse 4. He who has a clean hands and a pure heart. Jesus says, you want eternal life? Keep the commandments. Jesus even begins listing the commandments. The young man says, I have kept all these from my youth. So then Jesus has to expose the first part of the answer is that yes, you must keep all of God's commandments. You must be clean and pure, but you cannot do this yourself. And so Jesus exposes that the rich young ruler is not really prepared. to obey God and follow God in every way. As the Apostle John will say it later, the one who says he has no sin is a liar and to lie is the one specific sin that is mentioned in 24 verse four. He who does not lift up his soul to what is false, who does not swear deceitfully. And so we understand that in the first part of the one answer we are left on our own, we are left in despair like the rich young ruler who went away sad. But praise be to God, there's a second part of the answer. The second part of the answer is that there is one who is clean and pure for us, and that one is Jesus Christ. We can come to God because of the righteous one, Jesus Christ, who is righteous for us. And so Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 5 speaks of this transition from our death to our life. And you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved." And then what's the next verse in Ephesians chapter 2? The next verse in Ephesians chapter 2 is about presence. with God. It's about coming up to God and worshiping Him. Ephesians 2 verse 6, And raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, who can ascend the mountain of the Lord, who can come into God's presence, not just bowing, but standing. Do you see that? We do not just bow before the presence of God for eternity. When we come into God's presence by Jesus Christ, we come being made clean in Him and we come standing before the creator of the universe. Because of Christ's holiness, though we are not pure ourselves, we come with the clean righteousness of Jesus Christ and we stand in the presence of God forever. For the Old Testament saints, this was an anticipation. They could enter the presence of God through the symbolic sacrifices and shedding of blood. They could enter the presence of God and were reminded again and again because of the shedding of blood. That's how they could ascend into the earthly tabernacle and then the earthly temple. but that promise is now reality. Psalm 24 is clearly about that mighty and pure one, Jesus Christ. So we've really already looked at this a little bit, but we're now coming formally into our second point, that God comes for us. Now, Psalm 24, it's It's not as familiar as some psalms, it's not as familiar as Psalm 23 probably, but one thing about Psalm 24 is that it's one of the most quoted psalms in our Trinity Psalter hymnal. There are a number of songs in the hymn section of the Trinity Psalter hymnal which take lines from Psalm 24. One of the reasons why is because if we ask, is this an Advent psalm? The answer is yes. If we ask, is this an Ascension psalm? The answer is probably yes. It also tells us something about the Messiah going up into heaven. we would find lines from Psalm 24 in both the Advent section and in the Ascension section of our hymnal. We would find it in both places. That's because this Psalm anticipates the coming of the Lord in many ways. It anticipates the coming of Jesus, of a Holy One into the world. It anticipates the coming of Jesus to die on a cross so that that righteousness could be shared with others and it also anticipates in some way the coming of Jesus into heaven as the Ascended King. And so first we're going to look at each of those three anticipations. First the anticipation of the coming Jesus into the world. There has to be one. who is perfectly clean in his hands and pure in his heart. There has to be one. And so there had to be Jesus, the God-man, coming into this world. That was the only way this psalm could be fulfilled. That was the only way that we could ever really come into the presence of God is if there was one. who paved the way by his own clean hands and pure heart. The baby, Jesus Christ, who was the righteous one. Where the first Adam fell, this would be the righteous head. One who is man, even as he is surely God. We cannot do it on our own. We needed to have one who was righteous common. So this anticipates the coming of Jesus in his whole life and anticipates the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem and his death so that that righteousness could be shared. So so that others so that the whole generation of those who seek him that all of those who receive righteousness from God could receive that righteousness as verse five promises that had to happen Only on that week of the death of Jesus Christ, this psalm anticipates the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem. And so if we think about question and answer 38 and about the trial of Jesus under Pontius Pilate, we are reminded that it was necessary for Jesus to be condemned by a foolish earthly judge, even though he was innocent, even though Pilate knew he was innocent, it was necessary to have a spineless judge who would listen to the people and try to wash his hands of the crucifixion of the one who really did have clean hands. Jesus Christ had clean hands, though the earth, the people of the earth would still seek to put him to death and even pretend that they could wash their hands in the process. And question answer 39 reminds us that the death itself is the way that the righteousness from the God of his salvation is brought, verse 5, to those who seek him, verse 6. It could only be done by the crucifixion on the cross, the curse bearing crucifixion. By his death, he shouldered the curse for me. that I could, in Jesus Christ, have clean hands myself, because he's taken my sin away. People of God, is this great truth a constant source of joy to us? My sins are taken away by the death of Jesus Christ. Every day that we pray, and I hope we pray every day, we come as those who are Jesus Christ, and for eternity, We come being made clean into the presence of God by the blood of Jesus Christ. This psalm anticipates the death of Jesus Christ because it's the only way that we could get the righteousness from the God of our salvation and ourselves be made clean. And the language of Psalm 24, it's very clear in, we might say, Advent language in anticipating one who would come and live and die for us. It also may have an anticipation of and a picture of the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. And so the picture that we have in verses seven through 10, it's this picture of God coming into the city. He is in, so this would have been the ark coming into the city, exactly what event, we don't know, but the picture we have is the ark coming into the city and being brought up onto the mountain, onto Mount Zion, this picture of a glorious ascension. And so Psalm 24 is also anticipating the ascension of Jesus Christ with that picture of his glorious victory. Now let's consider this language of the gates being opened for the king. It's repeated language in verse 7 and verse 9. And it's a picture of the coming ascension of the glorious king. We can also see this as a picture for our welcoming Jesus Christ, our praising and worshiping him. David Dixon, a Scottish theologian, 1600s, wrote the classic commentary on the Psalms at that time, and he said this about this picture in Psalm 24 of the open gates, quote, we have need again and again to hear the offer of Christ's grace and to be wakened up to observe Christ in His glory. We have need to be exhorted again and again to open our hearts wide to Him. Lift up your heads, ye gates, the second time. People of God, the King of glory is worthy of worship. And through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we can stand in God's presence and give that worship. So what will we do? Will we depart from the glories of Jerusalem and walk in our own way? Or will we stand and say, here is my mighty Savior. Here is my mighty Deliverer, the King of Glory, and I will be one of His subjects standing inside Jerusalem, giving all praise to Him as He comes in His glory and splendor. People of God, this is the picture of eternal Jerusalem that we are given. in the pictures of Revelation. If you would turn with me to Revelation 21 and 22. We're gonna look at a few verses from the end of Revelation 21 and a couple verses from Revelation 22. This is how the gates of heavenly Jerusalem are spoken of in Revelation 21 and 22. So first let's read chapter 21. verse 22 through 26. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day. and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. And then looking at 22 verse 14, we see this, blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to enter the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. People of God, is the heavenly Jerusalem where we will be. Will we be those who are by the blood of the Lamb washed so that we are in that gate and giving praise to the King of Glory who comes to the same gate. Jesus will be with us in heaven for eternity. For those who do not repent, for those who would remain in their uncleanness and sin, for those who would not repent and trust in the one Savior and the one way of ascending the holy mountain, the Lord, we read this in 21 verse 27. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. And then 22 verse 15, outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us never run from Jerusalem, but by the washing of our robes in the lamb, come into those gates and stand there on that mountain of worship and give all praise to our mighty and glorious and holy Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, God Almighty, We pray that we would eternally celebrate your victory. God, it may be that this psalm was written on the occasion of celebrating one military victory, but Lord, this psalm is certainly