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Good evening. I invite each of
you to turn with me to Psalm 24. So we look at that passage
this evening. George Frederick Handel is regarded
by many as one of the greatest composers in the history of the
church. He's known by his famous oratorio,
Handel's Messiah, and it's the most popular of his works. It
has moved, and I know it's moved me many times, to worship God. But this masterpiece was first
performed in London on March 23rd, 1743. On this occasion,
the King of England, George II, was present. All who attended
and were listening were deeply moved as they heard the inspiring
music, the words came out, and they were overwhelmed. When the
Hallelujah Chorus was sung containing those powerful words, Hallelujah,
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Something unexpected happened.
King George II himself rose to his feet in an act of homage. Something unheard of, something
undone, but he couldn't help himself. This prompted the entire
audience to do the same, and they remained standing throughout
the entire chorus, recognizing the greatness of heaven's one
true king, the king of glory himself, Jesus Christ. And from
that time to the present day, it has always been customary
that when that song is sung and we come to the chorus, everybody
stands and remains standing. Went back to 1743. See, this
is the true heart of worship. It's a humble recognition of
the glory by triune awesome God and responded appropriately.
by presenting to Him our praise, presenting to Him our devotion,
presenting to Him our very lives. Authentic worship involves beholding
God's unveiled glory and responding to His magnificent splendor,
being overwhelmed again and again by who He is. It requires the
pledging of our loyalty to Him, ascribing to Him His supreme
worth, affirming His incomparable value. So true, genuine worship
is an all-consuming desire to give ourselves to God, yielding
all that we are to all that He is. That's worship, biblically
speaking. And so this evening, I want us
to look at Psalm 24, because I believe in Psalm 24, it describes
worship that is right, what worship should look like. And it is a
hymn of praise that directs the hearts of God's people to worship
God in a manner that recognizes and acknowledges His awesome
glory. Something we don't talk that
much about, or if we do, it's just simply words that come from
our lips. See, that's what worship is about.
It's about His awesome glory. It's about Him fully and completely. It's not about us. And this is a messianic psalm,
which means that ultimately it points to Jesus Christ. But the
majority of scholars believe that this was a song written
by David when he brought the ark back into Jerusalem. You could read about it in 2
Samuel 6. And there was an anniversary of that same occasion, a festival
commemorating that event. And it was a celebration of God's
entrance into the holy city. Symbolically, the God of Israel
was understood to be seated between the cherubim that sat on the
ark. He got the ark, which is a big box. And they have two
angels, two statues of angels with wings touching. And in the
text, it tells us that God, he said it several times to Moses,
he sat where the wings are. And so from a Jewish perspective
back then, when they see the ark, that's God coming in. That's
what was taking place at that time. So when the ark was taken
to Jerusalem, it would have been appropriate to have composed
a hymn like Psalm 24 for this occasion. Let's read this Psalm
together. It's a Psalm of David, and it
reads, the earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world
knows who dwell in it, for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers. Who may ascend into the hill
of the Lord and who may stand in his holy place? He who has
clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul
to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive
a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of
his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek him, who seek
your face, even Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O
gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory
may come in. Who is the 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. Selah. We learn from ancient rabbinical
sources that the Jewish liturgies of this psalm, Psalm 24, was
always used in their worship on the first day of the week,
which of course is our Sunday. So on the first day of the week,
this psalm, Psalm 24, would be read. So think about it, on the
day that Jesus Christ entered into Jerusalem, what we celebrate
as Palm Sunday, Psalm 24 was recited by the temple priests
at the very time that Jesus Christ was coming in through the gates
of Jerusalem on a donkey. So we have then, picture this,
is that you have the people who are outside the walls coming
in with Jesus on a donkey, and they were saying, Hosanna to
the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest, in Matthew chapter
21, verse nine. But what's interesting is that
inside the tabernacle, The priests were intoning, 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 they
were saying this, not realizing that Jesus Christ was coming
in. And yet he's the one who fulfills it. So the priests were
not joining in the cries of acclamation because less than a week later,
they're having Jesus Christ crucified. And even most of the common people
who were yelling out his praises, in less than a week they were
the same people that were crying out, crucify him, crucify him. And the point
I make here is that though they cried out these words, they missed
the point. They missed the point. And my
prayer has been that we do not miss the point. We do not miss
the worship that Psalm 24 calls for. And so Psalm 24 describes for
us when worship is right, and there's three sections to this
Psalm. Verse one and two, where we begin,
we see that we must genuinely recognize God's sovereignty.
And this is important, because what I mean by this is that we
don't just know it in our heads, but that we genuinely know it
in our hearts so that it really takes hold of us. It's very simple. for Christians to say, yes, my
God is sovereign, but that's the extent of it. Do we truly
understand the depth of this sovereignty to the point that
it grabs hold of our hearts and it doesn't let go? That's what
I mean by genuinely gripped, gripping our hearts. In verse
one, how do we see His sovereignty? Well, God owns it all. That's
what we see in verse one. The earth is the Lord's and all
it contains. I mean, think about that statement. Everything is
His. Everything on the earth, including
the earth itself and all it contains, it belongs to God. He owns it. The universal ownership
includes those who dwell in it. God owns you. God owns all seven
billion people on this earth. He owns it all. And all people
live under God's sovereign dominion, whether they acknowledge it or
not. He continues as the sovereign God. And here David uses the
two words, earth and world to encompass everything, including
that which is inanimate and animate. So people, trees, animals, everything
is owned by God. Nothing lies beyond his claim.
In fact, Psalm 89 verse 11 and 12 says, the heavens are yours,
the earth also is yours, the world and all it contains, you
have founded them, the north and the south, you have created
them. So all the vast stellar empires
of space, all the galaxies, all the countless trillions of stars
moving at incredible speeds, all of it is owned by God. He owns it. That means this planet
on which we live, on which we walk, belongs to Him. Every square
inch of this planet belongs to God, even the ocean depths. It belongs to God. That includes every individual.
So He owns it all. But we also see a sovereignty
in verse 2 when it says that God created it all. He not only owns
it, but the reason why He owns it, He created it. God's dominion over the earth
and all it contains is established because He created it all. For He has founded it upon the
seas and established it upon the rivers. So the poetry that
is used here pictures the world as an ordered creation founded
and established by God. It's like a large temple. The
earth is portrayed as having these foundations. And the language
that is used here recalls Genesis chapter one, where we read, in
the beginning God, what? Created. And what did he create? everything. In fact, there's
nothing that exists that doesn't come from God. So He created
it all. He is Lord over all the works
of His hands. He established everything, including mankind. The Hebrew word for founded means
to fix firmly. to build up, to lay that foundation. It's used of that which is fixed,
and it cannot be moved. So the world belongs to God,
because from generation to generation, He preserves and upholds it,
having settled its foundations. He's the one who's done that.
Our God of glory is sovereign over all that exists, because
He owns it and He created. It's in His hands, not man. So these words also indicate
that God is not just a national God that belongs exclusively
to the Jews. God is sovereign creator over
the entire universe. Therefore, He is the sovereign
God over all. He's not just the God of the
Jews, He is God of everyone. For He alone is God. He's the
universal God. So all that exists is God's property. It exists for His purposes. That's critical to understand.
Everything exists. You, right now, sitting in this
seat, you exist at this very moment for God's purpose. Otherwise,
you would not be here. Everything exists for His purposes. It is God's property. But contrary
to the 14th Amendment, he's deprived of this property without due
process of law. People take houses and cars and
businesses. They take parks and schools and
theaters and TVs and computers and internet and use them all
without consulting the owner of it all. Think about it. If I came to your house I didn't
ask you, I'm just going, I'm gonna take your house, it's now
my house. Your cars are my cars, your clothes are my clothes,
everything you have, I'm taking without your permission. It's
mine now. What would that do to you? I know many of you would
be furious. Yet we do that every day to God
without blinking an eye. Everything belongs to Him. And yet we deny His ownership
and act against His stated purposes for why these things exist. And
why does all things exist? Everything exists for one purpose.
God says in Isaiah that He created all things for His glory. Not for us. For His glory. So the world and all who live
in it and everything that is in it belongs to Him. That means
since you are a part of this world, you owe Jesus full allegiance
because He owns you. Full allegiance is our responsibility. And thus we have this great responsibility.
Let this glory of His sovereignty overwhelm you. Let it sink in
and understand, wow, He created it, He owns it, He owns me. He owns you. And He has a purpose
for you. It's for His glory. And everything
you own is His. We like to think we own stuff.
But my Bible tells me, my God owns it all. He created it all. And from this whole responsibility
to see His glory, there also flows a great blessing. As we
consider this incredible God, we must consider who can come
into His presence. Who is it that can approach Him
and live in His presence? Please understand, this is no
mere earthly king. This is the thrice holy God,
the God before whom the greatest of angels fall on their faces
in fear, hiding and shielding their eyes. So who can come and
live and dwell in His presence? Who dares come into that presence?
And the answer to this question is found in verses three through
six. And it's both wonderfully complete and profound. And that's
the second section. We must be prepared if we enter
into God's presence. If we're going to live in his
presence, if we're going to act in his presence, we must be prepared. And what we have in this section
is David preparing the worshiper to enter the holy presence of
the Lord by stating what type of worshiper can enter this presence. Notice in verse 3 and 4, there
is internal and external preparation. Both internal and external preparation.
In these two verses we see two questions in verse 3 and the
sober answer in verse 4. And I want you to look at these
questions in verse 3. Who may approach God? Who may
abide with God? Who among earth's inhabitants
is acceptable and able to come before this sovereign, majestic
King of glory and dwell there and remain there? Who can come
into His presence? The hill of the Lord, of course,
is a reference to Mount Zion or Jerusalem. This is where God
dwelt above the Ark of His covenant. So asked another way, we could
say, who may stand in this holy place? So the question that is
being asked is who is spiritually qualified to fellowship with
this indescribable king? See, we often take it for granted.
We don't even think about it. But who is privileged enough
to fellowship with this one before whom the greatest of angels fall
and shield their faces? The answer comes in verse 4, and it's four parts. He says,
the one who has first clean hands, then a pure heart, an undivided
spirit, and those who have honest words. The word clean literally
means to be empty, to be innocent, to be blameless. It means hands
that are clean, free from whatever may defile. your hands. And in the Old Testament, there
were several occasions in which the Jews washed their hands in
connection with religious rights. It was a very serious and important
ceremony for them. And you can read through the
law and you'll see again and again, they have to wash their hands,
they have to wash their hands, they have to wash their hands. It
was very, very important for purity there with the Jews. In Psalm 26, verse 6, David said,
I shall wash my hands in innocence and I will go about your altar,
O Lord. The word pictures hands that
are presented to God, they're lifted to God, showing that it
is pure, it is clean. So clean hands speaks of the
purity of a person's outward actions, how you appear, how
you live. How do you walk every day with
the Lord? Now, clean hands would not suffice
unless they're connected with a pure heart. That's internal,
right? Appearance of holiness is not
enough. Because clean hands are to be expressive of a pure heart. Here's what Jesus was speaking
of in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, blessed are the
pure in heart. Why? They will see God. A pure heart refers to an inner
soul that is holy, an inner soul that is undefiled, set apart
to God without any moral defilement. And so approaching God demands
a quality heart, a pure heart, one that's undefiled. We can
clean the outside of the cup or the plates as much as we please,
but if the inward parts are filthy, if the inward parts are not pure,
we are filthy in the sight of God. We will not be allowed in
his presence. Thus, worship is impossible if
the heart is not pure. That was the case for Pilate.
He washed his hands, right? Jesus was crucified, he washed
his hands. And what did he say? I am innocent of this man's blood.
That was only external. He was still guilty. He was still
guilty. Our hearts are more truly ourselves
than our hands are. So the godly person, the person
who is able to go into the presence of God is a person who's pure,
who's not false, he's not hypocritical. So together, these phrases indicate
that both the inner life, which is a person's character, and
the outer life, a person's conduct, are represented. These have to
be right. Hands and heart are brought together
in that we do what we do because we are who we are. So our outward
life, reflects what's on the inside. So a person's life must
be pure and clean if we are to approach God in worship, if we
are to walk every moment of every day in his presence. We are to
have that pure heart which overflows in clean hands, outward expression. The next description says that
he has not lifted his soul to falsehood. This is a reference
to idolatry, an undivided spirit. It refers to one who has a right
relationship to God. He worships a true God, not false
gods that are out there. God expects, in addition to loyalty
to the Lord in heart and life, a singleness of devotion. That's
what he desires. That's what helps a person to
walk in his presence. He must have no other gods before
his or her love for Him. They are to be loyal, they are
to have that one devotion for Him. And please understand it,
back in the Old Testament, back in the old days, they did have
statues and they did have temples that they would go to and worship
false gods. And so there's a lot of people
today who think that we don't have that today, therefore we don't
worship idols. Which of course is not true.
We do worship idols, it's everywhere. An idol is anyone or anything
that we love or fear or serve and pursue more than God. And
there are a lot of people who go after idols today. The idol
of money, job, prestige, whatever it may be. There's millions of
them out there. So ask yourself, constantly,
every day, ask yourself, what do I genuinely long for? What
do I genuinely have a passion for? Because see, the person
who's born of heaven does not lift his soul to falsehood according
to David. He is not distracted by the toys
of this world. If we pursue the toys of this
world more than we pursue God, then we are guilty of idolatry.
Our worship is false. So I would encourage you, ask
yourself that question, where is my greatest devotion? And then the fourth description
is integrity. Honest words, he is not sworn deceitfully or falsely.
This is one who has a right relationship with others. He's a person of
integrity. One who does not swear falsely
to get his way for his own purposes. He or she is a person of integrity. They don't say what they have
to say in order to get what they want. People that do that, they
swear falsely, they speak falsely, they lack integrity. So the one who approaches the
Lord is the one who has clean hands, pure heart, who is wholly
devoted and is not sold out to lies. And when you look at these
requirements, this is a shortened version of those that are mentioned
in Psalm 15, also written by David. In Psalm 15, David begins
by asking God, oh Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell
in your holy hill? And then we have the response
starting in verse two. He who walks with integrity and works
righteousness and speaks truth in his heart. He who does not
slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor
takes up a reproach against his friend, and whose eyes are reprobate
is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord. He swears
to his own hurt and does not change. He does not put out his
money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things will never be shaken. See, this is
the inner and outer character of those whom God approves and
those who can genuinely worship Him, those who can live and dwell
with God Himself. That's what the text calls us
to. And what will such a person find when he or she comes to
God? Well, the answer's in verse five. He will receive a blessing
from the Lord, the righteousness from the God of his salvation.
So the sure result is blessing from God. This verse is a remarkable
verse because it's the Old Testament statement of justification by
faith. It tells us that one who approaches God sincerely and
trustingly, they experience salvation from God. Now, this is not salvation
by works. Of course, we know that. But
the person who approaches God through repentance and faith
will be declared righteous by God. Thus, it's impossible for
all who reject Christ For all those who do not surrender to
Christ, it's impossible for them to worship. And there are many
in churches all across this land who have never surrendered to
Christ, who go through the motions, who sing these songs, but they
do not worship. It's impossible to worship God
without justification by faith. The person who does come to God
in holiness and humility will receive a blessing from the Lord.
Those who are justified by faith and walk according to what we
just saw in verse four are promised a blessing. And what is this
blessing? There's no greater blessing than
the joy of God's very presence. When we are justified by faith,
we live according to verse four, we walk in the very presence
of the King of glory. His presence and goodness and
favor extend to us. This profound blessing is unmatched
by anything this world can offer. Please never underestimate how
profound this is. Of all the people on the earth,
we have this indescribable privilege to live and walk in the presence
of the Most High God. There's nothing that compares
to that. And one day when we are there,
we will see it more profoundly. But until then, this is what
we're called to do. Notice in verse six, the spiritual
reality of such people is the pursuit of God. This is the generations
of those who seek him, who seek your face, even Jacob. So they
seek God's grace, first part of verse six, and they seek God's
face. The phrase this generation of
those who seek him refers to true worshipers. These are the
ones who are declared righteous by faith in verse five and who
live according to verse four. They are prepared in the sense
that the desire to worship God has become an integral part of
their lives. What's your desire like when
it comes to worship? Is it something you're just supposed
to do on Sunday morning, sing a few songs and that's it? Or
is it something that drives you each and every day? See, they are prepared in the
sense that the desire to worship God has become integral. It has
become central in their hearts. They are prepared in the sense
of their devotion. Their devotion is to pursue God,
that one devotion that they have. And this devotion to pursue God
provides direction and focus in their lives. So then those who come, as verse
four prescribes, are those who genuinely seek God. There's no
hypocrisy here. There's no falseness here, only
genuine and humble faith. And those who seek Him, they
are the legitimate worshipers. They are the ones who will walk
with Him. And please understand, to desire
communion with God is a purifying thing. When you have that desire
to pursue God, when you have that passion to seek Him, it
purifies your heart. It purifies your life. Thus we come back to the question,
for what do you long? What are you seeking in this
life? What is it that drives you each and every day? Desiring to commune with God
is the key to right worship. Do we have that desire? Thus, are you prepared to live
in God's presence here in verses three through six? Now the last
section, verse 9, is important. Because here we see the kingship
of Jesus Christ and it is a central theme. Very critical. And so
what we see here in verses 7-10 is that we must genuinely acknowledge
God's presence. See, verses 7-10 describe the
entrance of the King into Jerusalem. That, of course, is the obvious
climax. In verses one and two, the earth is prepared for his
coming. In verses three through six, his people, the inhabitants
of the earth are prepared. Now in this third section, verses
seven through 10, the king enters. He is present. Very important. Who is he? Well, we know him
as Jesus, who entered the city on Palm Sunday 2,000 years ago
in order to die for us, to open up the way that we may genuinely
worship him. And the reason why I say we must
genuinely acknowledge God's presence, because it's very easy to get
excited about something as beautiful and moving as this psalm, and
yet not mean it. Remember the priests, and remember
the people. They were singing this song,
but less than a week later, they were crying out for his death. Within a week, it changed. They didn't genuinely have it.
I've heard godly pastors preach that often Christians live like
practical atheists. They believe that God exists,
they trust in God, but too often when they live, you look at their
lives, they live as if God is not present, as if God doesn't
matter. That's what practical atheism means. Too often when
we go through life, God is sort of put on a shelf. And we live
and we walk as though He's not there. And that's why I say we
have to generally acknowledge his very presence. Because too
often we act as if God somehow left or we forget that he's present
with us. So in verses seven through 10,
we have this announcement that the king is present. Notice the
first announcement in verse seven and eight. The phrase, lift up
your heads, O gates, refers to the entrance of the worship into
the city of Jerusalem. David had recently conquered
the city and made it his capital. And so the gates of the holy
city, the gates of Jerusalem, are called upon to prepare themselves
for this triumphant entry, the ark that represents God is coming
in. Open your gates that the king
may come in. And he repeats it for dramatic
emphasis, be lifted up, O ancient doors. So in David's time, this
referred to the carrying of the Ark into Jerusalem. And as I
said before, the Ark represented the presence of the King of Glory.
So it's a triumphant procession, tremendous celebration, a celebration
of incredible praise. That's why they were cheering
and yelling and screaming. Of course, the ultimate fulfillment
is when Jesus Christ came 2,000 years ago and then also in the
future when he comes back that is the ultimate fulfillment But
the point is that King Jesus has come down to dwell in the
midst of the city of man. He dwells with us Every moment do
we acknowledge it does it grip our hearts that King Jesus the
king of glory the one who created all things owns all things dwells
with us at this very moment and Or are we like practical atheists
to say, yes, I believe him, I know he's here, but we live as if
he's not. That's what this last section is about. And don't miss
the identity of this king. In that phrase, king of glory
is mentioned five times. You think he's trying to get
a point across? Mentioned it five times. The emphasis is clear. Jesus is the all-glorious King
of glory. He is the Lord strong and mighty.
He is the Lord mighty in battle. The concept here is one of prevailing.
And Jesus shows himself strong and mighty in defeating all of
Israel's foes. And of course, he defeated the ultimate foe,
which was sin and death. He conquered it, he defeated
it, he crushed it. And when I say that he crushed
sin, he demolished it, he pulverized it. The reason why I say that
is that I was at a church Easter pageant one time, this is many
years ago, and they put on a skit. I don't like skits, but I put
up with it. In order to get the people excited,
they compared it, you know, to like a game, a football game. They had this skit and it was
very close. You know, they had somebody painting Satan and,
oh, we got the victory and all of this and that. And the pastor
was talking about it's close to game. It's like the Hail Mary
pass. It looked like Jesus was defeated. And down at the very
last second, they threw this Hail Mary pass and he caught
it. Touchdown, we win. When Jesus Christ died and gained
the victory, it wasn't that close. It was a done deal before it
happened. If you wanna score to compare the victory, it was
zero to infinity, Jesus won. It wasn't close. It wasn't down to the last minute.
What did Jesus say? No one takes my life. I lay it
down. Then after he lays it down, what's
he gonna do? He takes it back up. So it wasn't close. He is conqueror and he demolished
sin and the power of Satan. destroyed it completely. Oh how
important it is for us to remember that. It wasn't close at all. And then he repeats in verse
9 and 10 the second announcement. The repetition, lift up your
heads O gates and again lift them up O ancient doors. The
point here for you and for me is that the king of glorious
presence, will we open our hearts and our lives to him? Will we
open ourselves up to his very presence? Will we live and walk
with him every moment of every day? Or do we just take it for
granted and live like practical atheists? See, this psalm is
one of the central texts for understanding the breadth and
significance of the glory of his kingship. Please understand,
when we talk about the glory of the kingship of Jesus Christ,
it's not just merely a religious affirmation. It's not just that
we speak these words, he is the king of glory. Yes, we do that.
But we need to understand it as the basis of true worship
and praise. Without it, we don't worship. A true and genuine recognition
of the kingship of God will result in the worship of God. That's
why this is critical. That's when worship is right,
when we see this. And so the point here is that
it has to go deeper than simply just knowing it. It has to go deeper than just
merely saying it. It has to go deep down inside
and grab hold and shake us up. See, our hearts and our souls
are to be stunned and overwhelmed by it every day. Everything in
life is to be influenced by this. And what this calls for is a
lofty vision of the King of glory. And I would encourage you to
pray and cry out to God, Lord, give me this lofty vision of
the King of glory. Remember who prayed that prayer?
Moses. And what happened to Moses? He prayed the prayer, show me
your glory. God gave him a glimpse. When he came down, what happened?
He had to cover his face. They couldn't see him. He was
literally changed. Oh God, give us a loftier vision
of your glory. If we are to genuinely worship
God, the most important component is a high and lofty vision of
who he is. That's when worship is right.
with so much emphasis today on man in the news and in a lot
of our churches and we've lost sight of such a vision. We don't
talk much about the king of glory. We don't talk much about a lofty
vision of who this king is. We get so caught up with success.
We get so caught up with sports. We get so caught up with everything
else. We rarely hear people talk about a lofty vision of the king
of glory and yet that is the most significant thing in life. At work, at school, you walk
on campus, you go to work, what are people talking about? When
was the last time that you walked on the job and there's people
talking about a lofty vision of Jesus Christ? Hey, I'm a hospice
chaplain, people are dying and they still don't talk about it. We need to get ourselves caught
up with it. A lofty, transcendent view of God is the most important
thing about a follower of Jesus Christ. As a person's vision
of God goes, so goes his life. Please understand this. Your
life will never rise any higher than your thoughts of God. A high view of Jesus Christ will
lead to a high and holy living. A low view of Jesus Christ will
lead to low living. I love what Charles Spurgeon
said. He said, the highest science, the loftiest speculation, the
mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of
a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the work,
the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls
his father. Please remember, your life will
rise no higher than your right vision of God. After Queen Victoria of England
had ascended her throne, she was young, very young at that
point, she went, as is the custom of British royalty, to hear a
special presentation of the Messiah, or Turia. She'd been instructed
about her conduct, because she was young. And so they instructed
her, those who know the rules of protocol, they said, you must
not stand up when everybody else is standing, singing a hallelujah
chorus. So when the magnificent chorus
began, and they're singing, and they're singing, hallelujah,
hallelujah, hallelujah, people stood, and she was fidgety. She
couldn't stay still. It seemed as if she would rise
in spite of the custom that which she was told. But finally, when
they came to that climactic part where they said, king of kings,
lord of lords, this woman stood up with her head bowed down.
She could not contain herself. Breaking all rules of royal etiquette,
she was compelled to rise before and bow down before the true
king of glory. See, this is when worship is
right. When we acknowledge and see who
the rightful king is. And so we generally have to recognize
God's sovereignty overall. It has to grip our hearts and
souls. Then we have to be prepared internally, externally to be
in his presence. And then we have to acknowledge
God's very presence. Then we are ready for worship. It occurs when the whole person,
mind, emotion, and will, responds to God with genuine reverence,
humility, praise, and devotion. And this happens as we gain a
more lofty vision of the King of Glory. So pray to God, Lord,
give me that lofty vision. Now you may be here this evening
and you don't know anything and don't understand anything I've
just said. You've never heard of King of Glory. What I would
encourage you is to turn to Jesus Christ tonight. Trust in Him. Accept that salvation that He
offers and begin to follow and see who this King of glory really
is and see Him transform your life like you've never seen it
before. If you've never trusted in Christ, I would encourage
you to do that tonight. Come and see me afterwards. I'll be
more than happy to talk to you about it. But for the rest of
you, I would encourage you, pray and cry out to God, oh God, I
desperately need a lofty vision of you. Show me the King of glory. Let's pray. Gracious God and Father, we do
thank you for the psalm, Lord, for the grace that you've given
to us. Father, we thank you that you
gave your son, who is the king of glory, to die on that cross
and pay the price that we rightfully owed. And we thank you that because
of his death and resurrection, when we trust in him, we have
this incredible privilege to come into your presence and live
there, dwell there. Oh, our God, I would ask for
myself and for everyone here and those who may be watching,
give us a loftier vision of who you are. Stun us, shock us. Do to us what you did to Moses.
Grant us a glimpse and draw us nearer and nearer. May we be
those who walk in your presence every day. May we not be the
practical atheists that so many are. Grant that we would do worship
right. by living in your presence every moment of every day. Lord,
this is impossible for us, so we cry out to you as our Father,
please do this. Thank you, our God, for our time together. I
pray that it would be a fragrant aroma to your nostrils, and that
through that, your spirit will work in our hearts to draw close
to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
When Worship is Right
| Sermon ID | 61224185325795 |
| Duration | 42:35 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Psalm 24 |
| Language | English |
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