So we're in Psalm 24 this evening. It is a Davidic psalm, one of David's psalms here, a psalm of David, and we'll read the psalm together, and then we'll come to the message. The word of God reads, the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, who shall stand in his holy place. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, the righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him. And they form a messianic trilogy, a trilogy about the Messiah, the Christ of God. depicts christ as the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep and we think about that whenever we read psalm 22 remember as we came into the psalm the opening words my god my god why hast thou forsaken me these words were spoken by the savior on the cross and so we see him in psalm 22 as the good shepherd giving his life for the sheep and psalm 23 we see him as the chief shepherd Who guides his sheep through the wilderness of this world the lord is my shepherd? I shall not want and goodness and mercy follows us We're told all the days of our lives and then we will dwell in the house of the lord forever sam 24 reveals christ as the great shepherd Who is coming again in great power? and in great glory or to put another as it were headings Another outline on these three psalms. Psalm 22 has been described as the psalm of the cross. Psalm 23 is the psalm of the crook, and Psalm 24 is the psalm of the crown. And in this we find that the Savior's cross, Psalm 22, it deals with our past. The shepherd's crook, well, it takes care of our present. And the sovereign's crown, it takes care of our future. Or in Psalm 22, We see the Messiah as the suffering servant. In Psalm 23, we see the Messiah as the superb shepherd. And in Psalm 24, we see him as the supreme sovereign or the supreme king. Well, tonight we're considering the third part of the trilogy, Psalm number 23. Now, it has been suggested that this Psalm was written to commemorate the return of the Ark of the Covenant to the city of Jerusalem. If you know a little bit about your Jewish history, you'll know that the Ark of the Covenant in the days of Eli was taken from the land of Israel and carried into the land of the Philistines. And there it spent some seven months. It first went to Ashtod, to the temple of Dagon. Dagon falls with his face towards it, his head, his arms are cut off, and so they decide Well, we need to move the Ark of the Covenant somewhere else. The problem is that everywhere that the Ark of the Covenant goes in the land of the Philistines, judgment befalls that city. And it's a very uncomfortable judgment because it takes the form of hemorrhoids. I'm sure you've maybe read that in the scripture. Maybe you haven't. We would call them piles. That's literally what it is. Emeralds. Emeralds, you'll read it in the book of 1 Samuel. Every person within the city suffered a bout of hemorrhoids or piles. And as a result, well you can imagine, they didn't want the Ark of the Covenant. So they send it back by two mince kind. Now what are they? Well, they're simply two heifers that have just given birth to calves. And they put these two heifers, who'd never who at first had their first calves and they put a new cart and on that new cart the Ark of the Covenant rests. Now if you know anything about heifers having their first calves, you'll know that those animals are not tame animals. They will turn on you. You need to make sure that you don't go into a place of birth, a little room shed that's the word i'm trying to think of you don't put them in rooms a little shed you do not put go into a shed whenever a heifer has just given birth to their first calves but the amazing thing is whenever the presence of god because the ark of the covenant is a symbol of the presence of god whenever god's presence rested upon that and a cart Those two cows went along the highway lowing. They were as happy as Larry, we would say. And they come to a place called Beth Shemesh. But they don't keep it. They ask the inhabitants of Ker Jeth Jirem to come and fetch the Ark of the Covenant. And for 20 years, the Ark of the Covenant remains in Ker Jeth Jirem. isn't until david becomes keen that he decides that it's time for the ark of the covenant to come back to the city of jerusalem and we're told that the people who made up the procession that accompanied the ark on that occasion we're told in 2nd samuel 6 verse 15 that they did so with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet and it is suggested that this psalm composed by David was the anthem that really heralded the ark along the way as it came from the house of Obed-Edom and I don't have time to explain how it came in Obed-Edom you can read that for yourself but it comes from the house of Obed-Edom right into the city of David or into Jerusalem itself to the place where David had prepared for the Ark of the Covenant. This psalm was believed to be sung as it made its way from the home of Obed-Edom to the city of Jerusalem. As a little side note, I was very interested to read in one commentary that whenever the temple was then built by David's son, Solomon, that various psalms were sung as part of its daily worship every day. On a Monday, it was Psalm number 48. On a Tuesday, it was Psalm 82. On Wednesday, it was Psalm 94. On Thursday, it was Psalm 81. On Friday, it was Psalm 93. And on the Sabbath day, or Saturday, it was Psalm 92. But on the first day of the week, the Lord's day, our Sunday, they sang Psalm 24. Now that's significant. Because on that day, on the first day of the week, the Lord Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. And he marched out of the tomb into which Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had laid him as the all-conquering, all-victorious Lord of Israel. of glory. And so you can picture the scene, think of it, the scene in the temple on the Lord's day in which Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. Because as the Lord Jesus Christ tore the bars of death away at the garden tomb, the choir in the temple was scheduled to sing these words, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, Considering this psalm before us, there are three truths that I want us to consider with regard to the sovereign in the psalm. The sovereign in the psalm. That's what we're thinking about tonight. He's called the king. The king is the sovereign. What can we say about the sovereign of psalm number 24? The sovereign in the psalm. Well, the first truth I want you to see in psalm 24 is the sovereign's authority. See his authority, the sovereign's authority. As the creator of all things, Christ's authority reaches to every part of his creation. Certainly, all that exists in this world, all that exists in the created universe belongs to him. And this is what the Psalmist David comes to acknowledge in the opening two verses of the Psalm. The earth is the Lord's, he says, and the fullness are of the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. The human pain man of the psalm is David. David had a kingdom. We all know that. He had a kingdom over which he reigned as king. Large swathes of territory had come under David's control. As a result, its borders never reached the extent of his greater son's kingdom. A kingdom that has no borders and a kingdom that has no territorial limits. You see, Christ's kingdom, because Christ is David's better son and greater son, Christ's kingdom is a universal kingdom. The entire world and the fullness of it, all things within it, belongs exclusively to God. Yes, he raises kings and he raises presidents and world leaders to be the caretakers of the world's nations, but reigning over them and above them all is the one who ruleth in the kingdom of men. Men may divide this world into countries, And in those countries, then they divide them into states or counties and then into districts and then to town lands. And then we come, we divide up what we own. We have our farms, our estates. Well, I don't think anyone has an estate to their name. Maybe you do. We have a little plot of land. We have some maybe allotment that we find ourselves at times saying, this belongs to me. This is my house. This is my garden. This is my backyard. This is my field. This is my little farm. And we find ourselves foolishly saying that, but the reality is that it doesn't belong to you. And it doesn't belong to me. According to David, the earth is the Lord's. The earth is the Lord's. And so you see that wee farm of yours that you have, remember it's the Lord's. And you see that acreage that you've cared for, and you've tended, and maybe your father tended it, and your grandfather tended it, and it's passed down through the family, and maybe your name is on its title deed. You see that acreage that you believe is yours? It's the Lord's. And that home that you live in, and that little plot of land, maybe not even an acre, that little plot of land in which your house sits, remember it's the Lord's. As pilgrims and strangers in this world, we need to repeatedly remind ourselves that we're only tenants. We're only caretakers. We're just a passing through. That's what the Hemrider said. This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. Well, I wonder, is that the case? We need to remind ourselves that it really belongs to the God I don't know if you've ever been to London. I'm sure many of you have been to London. Not too many go to the South Bank of London, but if you ever go to the South Bank of London, you'll come into what is known as the banking district. of the City of London and in that banking district you'll find what is known as the Royal Exchange. It was founded in the 16th century by the merchant Sir Thomas Gresham and really was to act as a centre of commerce for not only the City of London but for the British Empire. The present building was designed by Sir William Tite in 1840s. It already had suffered a number of fires and the present building was designed in 1840. Traditionally on the steps of the Royal Exchange is where certain royal proclamations are read out by a herald or a crier. So whenever King Charles III, one of the places where His accession to the throne was proclaimed, was on the steps of the Royal Exchange. The western end of that building is made up of portcullis of eight Corinthian columns. It's topped with a pediment containing a relief of 17 figures representing London merchants and foreign traders. And the central figure in that relief, representing commerce, has beneath it an inscription that was chosen by Albert, Prince's consort. For the place of commerce for not only England and not only for Great Britain and for the British Empire, Prince Albert. chose these words, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And if you go today to the City of London, you'll see those words still inscribed on the Royal Exchange, a reminder to all who work in the banking district of the City of London that the wealth that they come to generate with their stocks and their shares is ultimately God's. not theirs the earth is the lord's and the fullness they're off but i want you to notice something with me in this verse number one that god's claim goes further than the natural resources and the wealth in this world because his claim reaches right to us look there at the end of the verse one the earth is the lord's and the fullness are off the world and all that dwell therein All that dwell therein are the Lord's. They are the Lord's. God, as our Creator, has a claim on every human being. As our Creator, He has a claim on every human being, upon our services, upon our talents, upon all that we acquire by our labor and by our skill, and upon our soul. Ezekiel 18 verse 4 Behold all souls are mine. He says as the soul of the father So also the soul of the son is mine every soul God has a claim and a right upon it Now those of us who are redeemed by Jesus blood need to come to acknowledge this claim of God on our lives We belong to the Lord We're no longer our own. Paul will take up this thought in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God? And ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore, as a result of it, we are to glorify God in our body and in your spirit, which are God's. So this claim of God not only reaches to the natural resources that we have in the world, the oil and the corn and the gold and the silver and the platinum and all of the natural resources that we have in this world. It not only reaches to that, but it reaches to you and to me. God's claim. We are the Lord's. Yes, we're the Lord's by creation, but added to that, brethren and sisters, you're the Lord's by redemption. He has saved you. He has redeemed you by his blood. And so he is a double claim on your life by creation and by redemption. I wonder how many of us recognize this claim of God on our lives in this very definite manner. You know, young person, God has a rightful claim on your life. An older person, too. We're not our own. We are the Lord's, and therefore it is for Him to decide what to do with our lives. I wonder, are you ready for that? Are you ready to give up your plans and your ambitions and your will? Are you ready for the Lord to guide you and lead you into the very center of his will wherever that would be you're the lords now you're the lords that's what the verse says the lords that the earth is the lord and they that dwell therein you're the lords and because we are the lords we are to live in such a way that we demonstrate that we belong to the lord and the lord demands and requires of us to live in certain ways And people don't like that. They like to live as they please and do what they want to do. And so they go to other churches where the claims of God are not placed upon them. It's a much easier Christianity to live, but it's not biblical. God has his claim on our lives. And we must say, Lord, whatever your will is for my life, and wherever that is to be, Lord, take me. take me to that place and help me to serve thee in that place. And so this is God's, his authority, the sovereign's authority. It's over all things. Every part of our lives, he has authority over. But there's something else and time moves on, as always. Having seen the sovereign's authority, we now come to see in verses three to six, the sovereign's ascent. sovereign's ascent. The question is asked in the verse number three. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? The next verse comes to identify the one who has the right to ascend into the hill of the Lord. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Now the question that comes to us is this, who among Adam's fallen race meets fully the requirements of verse 4? Who among us meets the requirements of verse number four. Who among us has clean hands? Who among us has a pure heart? Who among us has not lifted up her soul unto vanity? Who among us has not sworn deceitfully? I would suggest to you tonight that there is none among men who reaches the requirements God sets forth in the fourth verse. But before you And before I despair, let me direct you to the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who meets every requirement of the one who can ascend into the hill of the Lord and who can stand in his holy place, because who but Christ had clean hands. hands that were untainted, hands that were unsullied, hands that were undefiled, hands that were unstained. Who but Christ had a pure heart, a heart in which righteousness reigned, a heart in which there was freedom from sin, a heart that was unsullied by any trace of sin? Who but Christ had a soul that was never lifted up unto vanity? a soul to which vain things had no appeal or hold over, and who but Christ never swore deceitfully in his life, with lips that always spoke the truth, and whose mouth in which no guile was found. Surely it is the God-man who alone has the right to ascend into the hill of the Lord and to stand in his holy place. His hands were never stained by sin. His heart alone was a heart of unsullied purity. No vain thing in this world ever held attraction for his mind, no deceitful utterance. ever defiled his spirit and thus he and he alone has the right to stand in God's holy place because Christ and Christ alone meets the requirements and the qualifications set forth in verse number four for the one who can ascend into the hill of the lord and who can stand in his holy place only he only he fulfilled the law and perfect righteousness and thus he alone can stand in the holy hill Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus, John 3 verse 13, Now there's a riddle for you to work out. This blessedness to ascend into the hill of the Lord and to stand in this holy place belongs not only to the head, but his members, the body, they come to enjoy this blessedness too. Because I've said, there's none among us that can do this, and rightly so, not ourselves. But brethren and sisters, this is where the great doctrine of us being united to Christ, our union with Jesus Christ comes into play. Because in and of ourselves we cannot go to God, we cannot ascend to God. But because we are united to this man, this pure man, this holy man, this one who had clean hands and a pure heart, who had not lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully, because we are united to Christ, Therefore, we, through our union with Jesus Christ, can ascend into the hell of the Lord. And we can stand in His holy place. How can we do that? We can do that because He has given to us His righteousness. He has made over His righteousness to us. and therefore his purity becomes my purity and his righteousness it becomes my righteousness and his clean hands they as it were become my clean hands you see access to god is one of the blessed benefits that comes to the child of god through our union with jesus christ whenever you become a christian you are united to jesus christ you are in him you are in him and so your approach in prayer is in him through him this is why we pray in jesus name we're coming in his name we're coming in and buying through him and we're approaching the throne of god romans 5 verse 1 and 2 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ By whom, speaking of Christ also, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the glory of God. Ephesians 2, 18. By whom also, speaking of Christ, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. Ephesians 3, verse 12. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. We have access by the faith of Him. Tonight, by faith and by prayer, we can ascend into the hell of the Lord. And with such a glorious privilege being ours, let prayer ascend from these lips. and let intercessions and let supplications rise from these hearts. And brethren and sisters, let's storm heaven. Let's storm heaven tonight in the very first prayer meeting of this new year. Christ has ascended on high, and we have one in the glory, whoever liveth to make intercession for us. And in light of that fact, he having himself ascended into the hill of the Lord, let us draw near. with a true heart and full assurance of faith. The sovereign's assent. Having considered the sovereign's authority, the sovereign's assent, let me close with a thought or two on the sovereign's assation. Now the word assation is a word that you should be familiar with. It was used whenever Queen Elizabeth II died and King Charles The third took the throne. Ascension really describes such an event when a new sovereign takes the throne. That's Ascension. Well, in this psalm we come to see the risen Christ taking the throne on his return from the fight. Now, undoubtedly, the words point us, as many suggest, to the return of the Ark of the Covenant to its rightful home. But beyond that, we see the returning Christ from the field of battle as the all conquering king. You see, in ancient times, what happened whenever the king went out to fight, the king would have returned And as he returned with his armies and with the prisoners of war in tow, them being the spoil of the battle, there would be those who would have stood in the battlements watching out for the standard and watching out for the returning king. And whenever they saw that king return, they would have lifted up their voices in joy as they saw their king returning as the victor. And this is the picture that we have here we stand under heaven's battlements and we listen in to the angels as they sing and as they proclaim the returning Christ as he comes leading captivity captive. Here we find that the king of kings is returning from the conquest and he's doing so in victory. He has triumphed over Satan and sin and hell and the world and the devil and every other enemy. Matthew Henry, the commentator, believed that such an interpretation was valid, and therefore he wrote the following. When Christ had finished his work on earth, he ascended in the clouds of heaven. The gates of heaven must then be opened to him, those doors that may be truly called everlasting, which had been shut against us to keep the way of the tree of life. Our Redeemer found them shut. having by his blood made atonement for sin and gained a title to enter into the holy place as one having authority he demanded entrance not for himself only but for us for as the forerunner he has for us entered and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers now imagine the same this is the one who has taken on our nature in the incarnation he has taken on flesh Now he ascends to heaven as truly God and truly man, fully God, fully man, better term, truly God, truly man. He now comes to take his rightful position at the Father's right hand. It's no wonder that the holy angels ask the question, who is the King of glory? Who is this? Who is this? They stand on the battlements, as it were, and they receive the returning Son of God. They've never seen the likes before. A man, now think of it, a man walking into heaven alone without the aid of a mediator, without the aid of another, one who is divine, as it were. Without the aid of a mediator, here we find a man walking into heaven But brethren and sisters, this is no ordinary man. This is God-man. This is the God-man. This is the mediator of the new covenant. And to those holy beings, the returning son of God was almost unrecognizable from the one that they had seen leave heaven. Because he has now upon him the pure coat of humanity. And he has garments that are dyed red in his own blood, having trodden the winepress of God wrath alone. And so they asked the question, who is, who is this king of glory? Who is this man, this man who has the right to go to the very throne of God? But this is not just man, this is God. This is the God man, the Christ of God. This is Christ taking our humanity to a position that was never found in Adam. For now he takes humanity to a position that it can never fall. Oh, the wonder of it all. Is it no wonder then that they asked the question twice? who is this king of glory? And the reply is given, the one who is clothed in our humanity, this is the Lord strong and mighty. This is the Lord Jehovah that is mighty in battle. Let me say, brethren and sisters, Christ's entrance into heaven as the king of glory secures our entrance into heaven, he as the forerunner, has entered and opened heaven to all who trust in him. And since the head is already in glory, then every member of the body will be in glory too. He will have no dismembered body in heaven. Every member, though insignificant you may feel, Though little as you might feel within the body of Christ, the entire body is sure to join our Christ, our Savior in heaven. And someday we're going to see this king in all of his beauty, the king who has went to the very throne of God as he comes and as he will welcome all who belong into his kingdom of grace. And that's where he is tonight, he's on the throne. He's on the throne. This psalm, it starts on earth and it keeps going upward until it reaches the highest pinnacle in this universe. I am beyond this universe to the very highest apex in heaven itself. This psalm takes us from earth all the way to the very throne of God. where Christ is now seated on the holy hill of Zion. I have set my king upon my holy hill. That's where he is tonight, child of God. Do you believe it? I hope you do. I hope this is your king. He's reigning and he's ruling over all things, over all things, over your life and your circumstances and over my life and my circumstances. Now with this I close. G. Campbell Morgan, He connected this trilogy of Psalms, Psalm 22, 23, and 24, in a very interesting way. And as I said, this is how it goes. He wrote this, by our calendars, yesterday Christ passed through Psalm 23. Today, he's exercising the office of Psalm 23. Tomorrow, he will exercise finally the authority of Psalm 24. Yesterday, he went through Psalm 23. Today, he exercises the office of Psalm 23. Tomorrow, he will exercise, finally, the authority of Psalm 24. May God be pleased to turn the page of calendar, of the calendar, and bring us into tomorrow where Christ is King. And the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. There is one in the glory, there is the God-man, and there he sits and reigns over all. May our prayers ascend through him to the Father tonight by the help of the Spirit. And may we come to enjoy the benefit of access to God through our union with the God-man. May God be pleased to bless his word to our hearts for Christ's sake. Let's pray together. Let's stand for a word of prayer just to change our position. Our gracious Father, our loving God, we rejoice in our Savior, the one who has ascended the hill of the Lord, the one who now stands or sits in the holy place, the one who has the right to be there, and we through him, we through him, have the right to approach thee in prayer. We come with boldness because Christ has passed through the heavens We are therefore to come with boldness to the throne of grace and prayer. Help us to do that, even for Christ's sake. We pray our prayers in Jesus' precious name.