Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word read and heard. It is a blessing to our souls because it is your very word that you have breathed out. Lord, you have also set apart man by the laying on of hands to preach your word and to do so in the assembly gathered for worship. We believe with our forefathers that it is especially the preaching of the word that's made effectual unto salvation. And so once again, your servant stands before you in a time where we are weary and your people are here gathered in a time after a feast together. And it's easy for the eyelids to become heavy. We look to you to grant to us strength To heed your word preached, Lord, grant the unction of the Holy Spirit to your servant in the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I've chosen Psalm 24 because there is a connection between it and the text that we had this morning from Genesis chapter 4, sort of a revisiting of that text, a second look at it that I hope I was able to take off your skeptics' hats. when I went into such detail to try to exegete in particular verse 7, and to show what I'm convinced is the proper translation of that verse, and then the vistas, and it opens up in terms of redemptive history. It's really quite remarkable. Well, this afternoon I wanted to come to Psalm 24, and you'll see the kindred relationship, because I want to focus attention on this hour, about the one this morning and now, and what's taking place in the assembly of God's people gathered, and the glory that is manifest here, in this place. And this is the height of God's glory in this age here upon the earth, which is the assembly of God's people for His worship and how important public worship is, that this be front and center of the life of this church as it's been in the past but in going forward. And so that's why I wanted to look at the genesis of the four passages that we have. I also want to take a little time to teach you something. You know I love the Psalms. Many of you do. I do, and ever since reading Dr. Robertson's book several years ago on the flow and the arrangement of the Psalms, it's just opened them up to me in ways I never had imagined before. I want to place this Psalm, Psalm 24, where it is in the Psalter. I'm just going to teach you a couple of things here now. But one thing is when you're reading through the psalms, look for particular kinds of psalms or specific kinds of arrangements because they're bookmarks. One are the acrostic psalms. An acrostic psalm is a psalm that each succeeding verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. except for Psalm 119, where you have eight verses that begin with aleph, and eight verses which begin with bat, and eight verses which begin with gemel, through the entirety of the Hebrew alphabet. But this is a poetic construction we find not only in the Psalms, we even find it in the prose of Scripture as well. I mean, the acrostic thing. This is something that we find in the Psalms that's often used. When you find one, note where it is. Something's going on in terms of the arrangement. It's a bookmark. Another kind of arrangement is the coupling of a law psalm with a messianic psalm. These come from Dr. Robertson, O. Palmer Robertson, in his book, if you read his book. But a Torah psalm that's immediately coupled with a Messianic psalm, you find that three times in the Psalter, and they're uniquely placed. Psalm 1, Torah Psalm or Law Psalm. Psalm 2, Messianic Psalm. Psalm 18, right in the middle of Book 1, a Messianic Psalm. Psalm 19, a Torah or a Law Psalm. And then Psalm 118, a Messianic Psalm. Psalm 119, a Torah or a Law Psalm. Strategically placed. For now, we're going to be looking at the second, 18 and 19. It's a bookmark. Something's going on before it and after it. And so if you look after 19, you have 20, and then 21, and then 22, and then 23, then our Psalm 24, and then you have 25, and guess what 25 is? It's an acrostic psalm. I told you, it's a bookmark. So there are five psalms between this gospel law coupling 18 and 19 and the acrostic psalm. Now here's something else. If you have five psalms altogether, or an odd number of psalms, it can be 15, like the Songs of Ascent, that are thematically connected, you might have a chiastic structure. This is another poetic form, and this is the one that you find in prose as well. They're parallel structures. And your eyes go to the center psalm if you find these. But we have five psalms here, 20 through 24, an odd number. That makes 22 the middle or the pinnacle psalm. Are they thematically related? And what you find is they indeed are. They're all kingship psalms. Now something else to learn about the Psalms is there are two kingships that are extolled in the Psalter. There's the Messiah kingship, which could be David, Messiah with a small m. Or the Lord Jesus Christ, David's greater son, Messiah, with a capital M. There are Psalms that extol the Messiah as King. But there are also Psalms that extol Yahweh. In fact, there are nine Psalms in Book 4, beginning with 92 and ending with 100, that are all Yahweh-Malak Psalms. Yahweh is King Psalms. These two kingships you find in the Psalter. And this is what we find here. Look at Psalm 20. Look at verse 6 of Psalm 20. Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed. You see that language? His anointed, his Messiah. That's Messiah's kingship. And then down to verse 9, O Lord, save the king. Psalm 20 extols the kingship of Messiah. Then look at verse 21, O Lord, in your strength In your strength, the King rejoices. The King rejoices. Look at verse 3. For you meet him with rich blessings, you set a crown of fine gold upon his head. This is extolling the Messiah King. here on earth, 20 and 21. Now, let's go to the end, Psalm 24, our psalm. Which kingship is our psalm? Well, look at the last strophe of the psalm, beginning with verse 7. The question is asked, lift up your heads, O gates, be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Now, here's the question, who is this King of glory? What does it say? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. And if you look at your Bibles, it's probably spelled capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Is that what you find? That's a pointer. It's a pointer of the Hebrew translation that's telling you a particular Hebrew word is being translated Lord. And that word is Yahweh, God's covenant name. So Psalm 24 is clearly Yahweh is Malak or Yahweh is King Psalm. Well, what is 23? Well, you're going to say, well, 23 is not a kingship psalm at all. It's a shepherd's psalm. Everybody knows that. But do we know that? Is it only a shepherd's psalm? Before David was king, what was David? He was a shepherd, right? And when David exercised his kingship, how did he do it? He did it as a shepherd of his people. But to make it more plain, just sneak ahead to Psalm 80. Look at Psalm 80. Because what it does is it ties together kingship and shepherding in Psalm 80. Psalm 80 is about the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, which happened in 722 BC. But here's how it begins. Give ear, listen, O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. This is how we know it's northern kingdom. You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth. The shepherd of Israel is enthroned above the cherubim. It's Yahweh who is king. And how does he exercise his kingship? By shepherding his people. There's actually a paraphrased hymn in the Trinity Hymnal of Psalm 23 that makes explicit what's implicit. Do you know the lyric? The king of love, my shepherd is. Anybody familiar with that particular paraphrase of Psalm 23? Whoever did the paraphrase got it right. Psalm 23 is a Yahweh is King Psalm. So then you come back to Psalm 22. I know our text is Psalm 24. I recognize that. We're going to get to Psalm 24. But I want to teach you this because I've got you and I've got your rapt attention. And I don't know when I'll have another opportunity to do this. And so I'm going to do it anyway. You don't have anything else to do this afternoon. Psalm 22 begins with what words? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's the messianic king suffering on the cross. The first half of Psalm 22 is about Messiah King in his humiliation upon the cross. It's a vivid description of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But halfway through it, there's a shift and suddenly He's not crying from the cross. He's testifying before the assembly, before the brothers. I believe the assembly in heaven. This is post-resurrection, post-assurance as you turn to the latter part of Psalm 22. And what do you see in verse 28? This is what he declares. For kingship belongs to Yahweh. You see? Kingship belongs to the Lord. He rules over the nations. So both Messiah kingship and Yahweh kingship come together in the pinnacle psalm, the middle psalm, which is Psalm 22, of this poetic pyramid or chiastic structure that we find. Now, we're coming to Psalm 22. I just want to whet your appetite. If you do a nosedive into this, it is going to amaze you the things that you're going to discover in your study of the Psalter. And it will help you to remember the things that you learn. if you do that nosedive. Psalm 24. Let's read and see what it says. Look at how it begins. The psalmist here glorifies the true God and sings of his universal dominion in the first two verses. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. This is extolling Yahweh, who is not just king, but creator of all things, and it has you thinking back to creation. But then we move in the next strophe to a question. It's an important question. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in His holy place? Who shall ascend the Lord's hill? Who shall stand in His holy place in the presence of the living God? That's the question. And then the answer comes forth. Look at the answer as we read it. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, does not swear deceitfully. He'll receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation, such as the generation of those who seek me, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Let me ask you a question about yourself. Can you say that you have clean hands and a pure heart? Have you ever lifted, have you never, I should say, lifted up your soul to what is false? That is, worshipped an idol or a false god? As soon as you read this, you should start to feel, am I able to ascend the hill of the Lord and worship Him? My heart's not pure. What about yours? Are your hands clean? You say, well, yeah, they're washed by the blood of Jesus. That's true. But in your own stead, in your own right, in your own works, can you ascend the hill of the Lord and go into his presence? No, you're a sinner. Have you ever worshipped a false god? Calvin says your heart manufactures them. That's what it is. That's what your heart is. And so we realized that unassisted, there's no way we can ascend the hill of the Lord. Now, I want to make a connection here at this point to what went before this morning. We talked about Eden. I told you that Eden is more than a garden. Eden is a sanctuary. It's a sanctuary. Eden is the first holy of holies. Eden is a garden where Adam and Eve would ascend in the cool of the evening to commune and to fellowship and to walk with the Lord God himself. Adam was more than a vice-regent and king, Adam was also a priest. These things can be established. There are all kinds of pointers that show you the connection between what you find in the description of Eden and what you find later on in the law of God concerning the tabernacle of God and the house of God. There's something I didn't tell you this morning. about Eden. Eden's not only a garden. It's not only the sanctuary of God. Eden is on a mountain. Did you know that? Eden's on a mountain. Some of you knew that. Some of you heard that before. Ezekiel 28, a cryptic passage, no doubt. Talking about the fall of the king of Tyre and perhaps the fall of Lucifer. It's a cryptic passage, but it calls Eden the mount of God. Eden is the Mount of God. The other way you know it is that there are four rivers whose headwaters are in Eden, and they flow in four different directions, which tells you this is a mountain. There is a mountain motif that's established in Scripture that is clear, that walks all the way through the Scriptures. You have eaten the mount of God. What happened when they sinned? They're banished from the mountain. And this morning, what I was talking about, when Cain and Abel went to offer sacrifices and worship God, I think they ascended the mountain outside the gate and offered their sacrifices there, as later would happen in Tabernacle. But we see this mountain motif. Your toe touches down on it in Ararat. Your toe touches down on it in Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered up Isaac. But your foot comes to settle on this motif when you come to Sinai. And Sinai is Eden, typologically. I want you to understand this. Adam and Eve could go into the very presence of God when they were righteous. But after they're banished, they can draw near, but not all the way. They can't go past the gate. Why? They're a cherubim and a flaming sword of fire to guard the gate lest they enter and eat of the tree of life. We saw that this morning as we looked at the text from Genesis chapter 4. Remember Mount Sinai. Remember the top of Mount Sinai. Who could go through the clouds, the glory cloud at the top, into the very presence of God as it were face to face? Only the mediator, Moses. And when he asked to see God, God hid him in the cleft of the rock and showed him the backside of his glory. But even the priest, Aaron and his sons, could only go part way up the mountain. Part way, not all the way. We saw that this morning. The children of Israel themselves could not step foot on the base of the mountain. If they did, do you remember what was to happen? Shoot them through with an arrow or pierce them with a sword and leave their bodies to rot. Because that's holy ground. What if a cattle or oxen wanders onto it? You do the same thing. God spoke and thunder and lightning upon that mountain. The top of that mountain is like the Holy of Holies. It's like Eden. Do you see the metaphor, the picture that's being painted? And then the tabernacle. The tabernacle's the mountain. It's Sinai. You may say, well, no, it's not. It's a tent. But the tent was pitched, the Holy of Holies pitched on the eastern side, and the gate is on the western side that's there. And behind the veil and the Holy of Holies, it's like the apex of the mountain. It's like they're taking Sinai with them on their wilderness wanderings. And then ultimately, the theme comes to a head on Mount Zion. Mount Zion. Mount Zion was what? Well, it was a fortified city. At one time it had a king there named Melchizedek, you remember that, at Siloam, who was priest to Almighty God, who was greater than Abraham. But then later, it's David who takes that fortified city and turns it into Jerusalem, the city of peace, his capital city. And it's on Mount Zion. Actually, it's on two mountains. On the western side is Mount Zion. That was the seat of King Lerane. That's where David's palace was built. But on the eastern side, there was another mountain called Moriah. Did you know that? That when Solomon began to build the temple of God, we read that he began to build that on Mount Moriah. Where did God tell Abraham, take your son, your only son, and offer him as a whole burnt offering the mountains of Moriah? You see, it all comes together. These themes are interwoven. The tapestry of redemptive history is something that's extraordinarily beautiful. And so here we read, who may ascend the hill of the Lord, who may go up into the very presence of God on Mount Zion once the temple's built, who could go into not just the court of the Gentiles, not just the court of the women, not just to the court of Israel, not just to the court of the priest, not just to the holy place, who could go into the holy of holies? Who could go behind the veil? Nobody but the high priest and only on the day of atonement with blood. That's the theme that we saw this morning. And we trace that through to the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what we're going to do in this text as well. Who may sin? He who has a clean heart, a pure heart. He who has clean hands. Well, that leaves me out. I don't know about you. Unless someone goes before me and for me, someone who is worthy and able to go. Who do we know that always had clean hands and a pure heart? Who never swore to that which was deceitful? Never swore to false idols? Who only worshipped the Lord his God? Who said, my meat is to do the will of my Father? It's Jesus Christ. He's the only one who's able in his own right to ascend the hill of the Lord in the very presence of the Father. And if we are to go, we go in Him. You see, who can ascend the hill of the Lord? Well, then we have the question that's asked. This is extraordinary. You need to write this text down the next time the Jehovah's Witnesses come and knock on your door, okay? This is a key one that they're not gonna know about. Lift up your heads, O gates, be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? Yahweh, you see, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Yahweh, strong and mighty. Yahweh, mighty in battle. He is the king of glory. The picture here is of the king who's gone out to battle. He's done battle. He has conquered. He's bringing the spools. He's returning to the city. They see him coming. They say, lift up the gates. The king of glory is coming in. And it's repeated. Look at the song again. Lift up your heads, O gates, be lifted up, ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? Yahweh of hosts. He's not coming alone. He's coming with myriads of angels. He's also coming. With those people that He has redeemed, the elect of God, Yahweh of hosts, He is the King of glory. Now, I want you to think about this for a moment. When in the Scriptures do you see Yahweh, in particular the Father, when do you see Yahweh the Father returning with spoils after war in Scripture? You don't. But when do you see the second person of the Godhead returning with spools after he has won the battle? It's what we read about in Philippians 2. He did not, though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or held on to, even though he's equal with God as the second person of the Godhead. but emptied himself, not of his divinity, not of his divine attributes. No, he emptied himself by taking to himself a nature he didn't have before, which is a human nature. That's what the second person that God had did. And was obedient in the incarnation to the point of death, even the death of the cross. That's the work of redemption. That's the death you deserved. Because you're a sinner. But instead, you get to send the hell of the Lord. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ took the penalty in himself that you deserve. Don't let anyone talk you out of the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the center of the scriptures. That is your redemption. Without it, there is no redemption. Double imputation. Your sins were imputed, credited to His account. He suffered the penalty they deserve in His death and His righteousness. Remember, He's the one who would have the right to sin. The holy hill of the Lord is imputed to your account. You who are united with Christ, you who have faith in Christ, when you stand before the Father, He doesn't look upon your works, He looks upon the works of His Son. Those are the ones that are credited to your account, and you are blessed. That's how we're able to go. But here's the point, the text says Yahweh is the king of glory and he's depicted as coming into the gates with the spoils and with the host and the spoils of his victory. This is what happened on the other side of the cloud. Philippians 2 continues, therefore God highly exalted him. and gave him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's the exaltation of King Jesus. I'm convinced Psalm 24 is describing what happened on the other side of the clouds in Jesus' ascension. This is the second person of the Godhead. He's called Yahweh. Jehovah's Witnesses come and say, oh yes, we believe in Jehovah. We believe in Jehovah. Do you believe Jesus is Jehovah? No, no, no, no. Jesus is his son. And the Father, Yahweh, Jehovah, they would say Jehovah, Jehovah created the sign. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Have you ever read what we read in Psalm chapter 24? When have you seen Yahweh, the Father, returning with his foals from war? We see it in the Lord Jesus Christ and his exaltation. The Lord Jesus Christ is Yahweh. You can speak the name of Yahweh in connection with the three persons of the Godhead or any of the three persons of the Godhead. The Trinity is a mystery that's beyond our ability to comprehend. Thanks be to God. Because if you could comprehend it, then God would be like your pretty little brain, okay? But it's revealed to us in Scripture. We speak in theology of perichoresis, which is the other and complete inner penetration of the three persons into one another. Distinct persons, yet one God of one substance. God the Son is God. God the Son is Yahweh. God the Son took to himself a human nature. God the Son, who is Yahweh, is your Lord and Savior. And when he went through the clouds, he did his conquering king. The serpents had crushed, even as his heel was bruised at the cross, but in resurrection and ascension, The serpent's heel is crushed. The serpent's head is crushed. He enters his king, but he also enters in his priest. After the order of Melchizedek, back to Melchizedek, who was the king and priest in Siloam before Siloam became Jerusalem. And he also entered in with blood, even as the high priest would go behind the veil with blood, but not the blood of bulls and goats, he entered in with his own blood. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. We don't offer sacrifices anymore, except our bodies as living sacrifices. He has ascended and He has sat down. Actually, in Hebrews, we read that He sat down as priest. Did you know that? Because the priests never sat down. They had time. There are thousands of worshipers to assist in offering of sacrifices. It's go, go, go, go, go. But as the writer of the Hebrews tells us, I think it's Hebrews chapter 10, that the Lord Jesus Christ sat down as priest, there are no more sacrifices to be made. All the sacrifices of the old find their fulfillment in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world as we read this morning from John 1. And so now, even as we saw this morning, because he's gone before us, because he's gone before us with his own blood, because we are united with him by faith, we go boldly into the very presence of God, dressed in the righteousness of Christ, by grace and by mercy, not by works. I don't mean works are unimportant, because the God who justifies sanctifies. But we're able to ascend the holy hill of the Lord because of what Jesus has done for us. And He's gone before us. And every Sunday, we come here. This is what we're doing. You didn't know you were up on top of a hill. You didn't know you were on top of a mountain here in Lynchburg, did you? Figuratively speaking. Actually, Mount Zion wasn't much of a mountain. Except for God was there. Keep the worship of God central. Most of the church does not understand this. When they call the singing worship, or when they call the service preaching, they don't understand that it's a meeting of God with his people. Lynchburg needs to see this. And when people come in and they don't understand, what do you do? You patiently explain it. Do you realize what's going on here now? Come again, you'll see. You invite them to come to Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word from Psalm 24, for where it fits in the tapestry of redemptive history, for the beauty of your plan, for the centrality of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for how it brings into And to a precise view and understanding of the nature of our ministry is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, a herald of this gospel, but also to worship together and to glorify your name. Lord, bless your people with the understanding of what happens twice on Sunday. in this place, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, let's sing the Psalm, Psalm 24C.