The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 14: Who Can Ascend That Hill?

Episode Date: July 24, 2022

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart… – Psalm 24:3-4 Who shall ascend the hill? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. The King of Glory must do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Amen and amen. Hey, if you got your Bibles and I hope you do, grab them. We're going to be in Psalm 24. Psalm 24 to grab your Bibles, go there. And what we're going to see in Psalm 24 is that King David, who writes this song, is actually, he's a prophet carried along

by the Spirit of God, and he's talking about the gospel. Now, it's the only thing I preach about. I have one sermon, different illustration. So if you're new here, you need to know the gospel. Now, the problem is, is that church people need to hear the gospel as much as anybody else. And the moment I say we're talking about the gospel,

some of you that are like, well, I'm already a Christian, so this is for somebody else. It's because you don't understand the gospel. The gospel is not like the diving board. It leads you into the pool. It's the whole thing. It's not like the starter to the engine. It's like the bumper to bumper. It's not the ABCs of Christianity.

It's the A to Z. You see, because what we do as church people, church people are the worst. Do you all know that? Trust me. I spend a lot of time with them. And what we begin to do, the more you go to church, the more you begin to believe that you actually bring merit to the relationship that you have God. We think that somehow, like we know we're saved by grace, but then we can begin to think by our own good works that God's really pumped that he got a good deal, that he chose us to be a part

of his family because of how good we are. It could not be further from the truth. So if you've never surrendered your life to Christ, this message for you. And if you've been walking with Jesus for a long, like if you went to Sunday school with Moses, then this message is for you because we all need the gospel. David writes Psalm 24. And I think in Psalm 22, he talks about the crucifference, of Christ. In Psalm 23, he talks about the shepherding heart of Christ, and in Psalm 24, he is going to talk about the eternal rule and reign of the king of glory, Jesus Christ. Most theologians say that this was written when David brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. 2 Samuel chapter 6 is where you find all of this. By the way, you sounded really good today. You

sounded way better than you did two weeks ago, because last week we taught on how to worship, so keep it going, baby. Okay, you're doing good. So it's kind of appropriate. I don't know who you're clapping for you or me or Jesus. I don't know who you're glad for it. We did sound good, didn't we? Look at us. Okay.

But what happens is the Ark of the Covenant is the most, it's the holiest, most important piece of furniture in the Old Testament. There was a tabernacle that's eventually going to become a temple. And in the tabernacle, there was all kind of stuff, all kind of altars and candles and all kind of stuff. But in this special room and the very, like the deepest part of the tabernacle was this room called the Holy of Holies. And it's where the very presence of God dwelt.

And inside the Holy of Holies is this ark or a box. And inside the box were the Ten Commandments, the very stone tablets that God wrote the Ten Commandments on and gave to Moses. And the box is covered in gold. And on top of the box there's a seat. It's called the Mercy Steat or the Hillisterium or the Greek word is perpetuation.

And on either side of this box, this Ark of the Covenant, or two cherub them with their wings extended. And so it created like a throne, looks like a throne. And the very presence of God, God would sit on that throne on top of his law in the holy of holies. It's incredible.

Well, they lost it. They didn't like misplace it. Like the Philistines came and took the Ark of the Covenant. And so when David's going to become king, he says, we're going to get it back. Because it represented the very presence of God. So they go back and they're going to get the Ark of the Covenant. He takes tens of thousands of people to do it.

He whips all the people that have it, and then they get hold of the Ark of the Covenant. But the problem is that they treated the Ark, which represented the Presence of God, or they treated worship as common. You see, there's all kinds of instructions in the Old Testament, like in Numbers and Leviticus and places like that. They talk about how you are to handle

or actually not handle the Ark of the Covenant. You're not supposed to pick it up. You're not supposed to touch it, because it represents the presence of God and he is not common. So there's these elocas poles that you're supposed to pick it up with and only the Levites can do it

after they consecrate themselves, but they don't pay any attention to that. And so David and all the people go, and some guys like, hey, I got a new ox cart. Why don't we just throw it in the back of the ox cart? And so they wrap it up with one of those blue UPS, I mean, yeah, UPS blankets and they throw it in the back.

It's in the Bible, you should read it. And then they're just making their way back and they're treating worship. It's common, and it's not common. God is holy. God is set apart. God is just. He has demands.

And so they get to Obed Edom's house, you know where that is, and one of the ox kind of stumbles, and this poor guy named Uza just decides, I don't want it to fall out of the back of the truck, and so he puts his hand out to hold up the ark of the covenant, and when he touches the ark that you're not supposed to touch, God goes, boom, and he's dead right there. Now imagine, man, imagine.

Imagine if last week at the end of the service when I said, the Bible says, raise your hands in the sanctuary, And then we start saying somebody, I was like, not me. And then do him, you'd be like, okay. Whatever you need me to do, I'm in. So then David is like, well, I ain't bringing it to my house. Because who's a pretty good dude?

And if he killed him, he, I mean, you've heard the shady stuff that King David was into. He's like, let's just leave it here at Obed Edom's house. So they did. They didn't think about it for like six, seven months. Then Word gets back to David, and it's like, the presence of God, his own Obit Edom, and whatever he does turns to gold. Brother got married. They had triplets.

the Georgia Bulldogs won the national championship. Like whatever he thinks is holy is what is happening. And so David's like, all right, well, let's go get it back. So then they go to the Bible and they're like, because we didn't do it right lifetime, so let's do it the way the Bible says to do it. And they go and all the Levites consecrate themselves. They take this like baths and sacrifice a bunch of stuff.

And then they come with the acacia poles and they pick up the Ark of the Covenant like they're supposed to. And every six steps, they stop and they worship. Now, all you president-CEO types are thinking, well, that's not very efficient. It's not, man. Efficient seems matters when you're trying to create a product. But God is creating a people, and there's very little about following Jesus that is efficient. And so every six steps, they stop and they have a worship service.

It takes a long time to get home. And then when they get close to home, the Bible says that David is so overwhelmed with the mercy and the grace of God that he strips down to what the Bible calls is Lennon-Ephod. That's Hebrew for like tidy whitties. Like ain't nothing on under it. And if you Google Lenin Ephod, it doesn't even have sides. It's like a little like cloth kind of thing. And the Bible says that he's dancing before the Lord.

You hear that Baptist? He's dancing, literally spinning around in circles, all right? And then his wife sees what he's doing, and then she's embarrassed. Can you imagine that husband? His wife thinks he's embarrassing himself in the family in public. So when they finally get home, she's like, come here, I got to. I got to talk, okay? You ever notice when they said, we got to talk, we don't need to talk,

there's only one person needs to talk, that's a different sermon, okay? So she's like, listen to me. She says, listen, do you know how undignified that is? And then he's like, oh, you think that's bad? I'm going to be even more undignified than this. Now here's what I think is happening theologically. When Adam and Eve's sin, the first thing they did is cover their nakedness and their shame.

Now, David has experienced the grace of the coming Messiah, the forgiveness and the mercy, and so he's completely vulnerable before the Lord in worship. And then there's the ark, and it's before Jerusalem. It's like in front of Jerusalem. And he's going to write the 24th Psalm because they literally have to take the ark

from down here to up there. And with that in mind, he writes Psalm 24. By the way, I found out that in first century Jerusalem, like when Jesus was around, this was a liturgy that the rabbi would read through every Sunday morning. And he says this. Here's how he starts.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. In other words, this isn't just about an ark of the covenant that represents the presence of God just for the people of Israel. But everything on the planet

and everything in the planet, it is the Lord's. Like we sang it before. Holy are you, O Lord, and holy am I to you. Whether you believe in him or you don't believe in him, you are holy his. I mean, if I have people say, well, I don't believe in God. That's cute.

He believes in you. I don't believe he exists. You realize that what you believe about something does not change the character and nature of that thing. Like for a long time, they believe the world was flat, right? Nobody fell off of it. You ever noticed that? If you don't believe the sun's rising tomorrow, neat.

is still coming up with or without you. And so what he wants us to know, before he gets specific into how we know him, is that everything is his. Whether you believe in him or not, you are his. This is the way Paul will say it to the church in Philippi. In Philippians chapter 2, verse 9, after Paul describes Jesus humbling himself

and coming to earth and suffering on a cross for on our behalf, he says this, therefore God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God of the Father. So here's, you've got two options. You can bow or you can bow.

Those are your options. That's it, man. Every tongue will confess. You will know Jesus as Savior or judge, but everybody knows it. this is what he is establishing here. And every single one of us in our eternity will bring God glory. Some of us will bring God glory by surrendering our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and being with him in a face-to-face relationship forever and ever, amen.

That's called heaven. Some will reject God here on this planet and he will give you in eternity what you choose here on this earth and you want to go forget you, God. He'll be like, all right, and you go to an eternal place of torment that the Bible calls hell. and there you will glorify God in hell through the justice of God. This is what he is saying. We are all his. And then you look at that and you go, okay, okay, okay, that's kind of intense.

I thought you were funny. You're not that funny. What are you talking about here? So how do I, okay, well, I'd like to be on the heaven side. How do I do the pre-bow instead of the post-bile thing? Glad you asked. So David, he asked the question on your behalf. So who shall us sin the hill of the Lord?

and who shall stand in his holy place. Now, when he asked this question, it actually means like four different things. One of the things is it's a reference back to Moses, Exodus 19, goes up on Mount Sinai to receive the law of God. And God says, Moses, consecrate yourself, and only you come up on this hill. Because if anybody else, without my invitation,

touches the hill, they're dead. I don't care if your servant or your wife or your dog or your cat, they should be dead anyway. But nobody touches it because you're not holy and I'm the only one that's holy. It's also physically what they are experiencing right here, like 3,000 years ago. They've got the Ark of the Covenant at the bottom of the hill, and above David's palace is the tabernacle. It will one day be the temple, and in there is the Holy of Holies.

And what David is saying is, who is worthy to enter into the very presence of God? He's also, we're going to see, talking about the eternal kingdom that once we step out of this life and into the next, He's also talking about that eternal kingdom. And then there's one more hill he's talking about, but we'll get there in just a minute. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand? That literally means remain in his holy place. In other words, all right, if God is holy, if God is other, if God is just, if God is perfect,

then who can be in his presence? And he's like, well, I'm really glad you asked. And here's the answer, okay? So you want to know how to go to heaven? Here's how you go to heaven. verse four 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 that's all it takes and if you read that and you think okay cool then you're not reading it right okay you're order if you understand english and you take the

Bible seriously whatsoever and you go he who has clean hands in a pure heart you ought to read this and go uh-oh because the moment you're like I got a pure heart anybody with a pure heart want to raise your hand? Let me tell you best things about me, okay? My pure heart, my humility, and I'm a little bit better than you. Those are the three best things. The moment you identify yourself as righteous, you are by definition self-righteous. This is what he's saying. That the standard is kind of crazy. I hear people say this at other churches. I would not allow this to be said here at our church, but they say this little time, God's not looking for perfection. He's looking for progress. I know what you mean. I know what you mean. What you're talking about is progressive

sanctification, and all of us got a ways to go. The only problem is God's not just looking for perfection. He demands it. He requires it. Look, I'm not making this up. Matthew 548 from the mouth of Jesus. Be perfect just as your Heavenly Father is perfect. So who can ascend the hill? I can tell you who can ascend the hill. Perfect people. Righteous people. Clean hands, pure heart, never defiled your soul, never told a lie. That's who gets to go. So you look at this and you go, uh-oh. Well, I thought. Hold on, hold on, hold on, Pastor. I thought good people go to heaven. You know that is actually true

because there was only one good person and he went. The reality is there are no good people. Like, how do you say that? Well, here's what Paul says in Romans chapter three. Ready? He says, as it is written, this is verse 10, none is righteous. And what people like to do when the Bible says things

that you don't like to hear? Is they're like, well, see, what does that word none mean? I mean, what does it really mean? Okay. Paul is like, oh, I'm glad to your ass. Ready? Okay, here's what none means. None is righteous.

No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. Sorry to trigger you. Just take a breath, pray. It's the safe space, I promise.

It gets better in a little while. No one does good, not even one. Then by verse 23, he says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You see, God's standard is not good. God's standard is perfection. So who can ascend the hill of the Lord? Perfect people, pure people.

You see, good people don't go to heaven because nobody's good. And you're like, whoa, whoa, but what about me? Okay, let's talk about you. Just look at the standard he gave. There's over 600 laws in the Old Testament. Let's look at the four that he laid out here. How would you do?

Do you have clean hands? And I know we live in the day of like hand sanitizer and that's not what he's talking about, okay? You ever taken something that wasn't your, do you ever use your hands to steal? I met a guy in here, he walked in, and he was like, is this the old Walmart? Uh-huh, he's like, I used to rob this place blind.

You ever commit sexual immorality with your hands? Ever take something from her that wasn't yours because you did not vow your life to her with your hands? Yeah. You ever take the hands that God gave you to take care of people and in anger bawled them up and enact violence against somebody else with your hands? You ever pick up a remote control with your hands and look at things that you know, regardless of what you believe, I probably shouldn't be watching this.

You ever use your fingers which are attached to your hands and get on a keyboard and go to places that you promised you would never go back there again? I mean, we're just talking about our hands. You ever send a message by your hand on JTB? You're like, how does he know? I just know. I'm telling you. So we haven't even made it past the first one.

You see, our problem, the longer you go to church, like I said, man, you begin to think that you bring merit. You think you're pretty good as compared to who. And here's what I mean. This is why we're so judgy. This is why church people are so judging. This is what, the fact that you think you have merit is why when you get on Instagram and you're so judgey. You're like, I can't believe she would wear that and take a picture. But with this vague, how can they afford it?

There's a thing in there that begins to stir up, and we actually believe we have a pure heart in clean hands. And the problem is all these other people. Or what about a pure heart? If you've ever struggled with lust or anger or jealousy or pride or comparison. Or if anything, if any nastiness has ever come out of your mouth, do you realize, according to Jesus, the only thing that can come out of your mouth was first started in your heart? When you're like, I'm sorry, it just slipped.

I didn't mean it. Well, according to Jesus, man, you don't have a potty mouth, you got a potty heart. Or what about lifted up your soul to what is false? This is idolatry. When you treat money or power, you put your hope in people or some kind of possession or some kind of promotion

and you think I can't live about that thing, that's exactly what you do. We treat the temporary things of this world as if they are going to fully and finally satisfy. Or how about this? You ever swear deceitfully? You ever lie? I got really bad news for you.

But I love you, I'm gonna tell you, you're a liar. People get so offended when they're, are you calling me a liar? That's exactly what I'm calling you. If you killed somebody, you'd be a murderer. If you lie, you're a liar. Well, I don't, somebody told me this weekend, I don't, I'm not a liar.

Sometimes I just struggle with the truth. Well, you have more struggles than you realize. okay because I don't what are you talking about man let me just ask you this this week this week have you clicked a box and said I have read and agree with all the terms and conditions yeah man you're liar me too see good people don't go to heaven because there are none and even if even if good people did go to heaven you got to understand how much it breaks down because your next question has to be how good how good do you have to be is it 51% because if you get a 51 in English you don't get to go to the next English flag

you fail. Like, what's the standard? God, it seems like he would at least give us the standard and be like, all right, man, it's like college, C's equals degrees. Is that what it is? Or it's got to be like 80 percent? And you're hoping he's on a curve, right? Everybody's just pretty much banking on, all right, if good people go to heaven, then he's grading on a curve. And all of us understand that at one end of the curve, there's Hitler. He's the worst ever, according to everybody. At least I'm not Hitler, maybe not the highest standard. And then way over here, depending on your background, there's a tie for to the two holiest people of all time, and that's Billy Graham and Mother Teresa.

And everybody understands I'm somewhere in between Hitler and Mother Teresa. That's a pretty white gap. And then here's the thing, though. Some of you are a little more like Hitler, some of you're a little more like Mother Teresa. But the reality is, all of us are infinitely far away from the character and nature of a holy God. And here's another thing.

Not only do we not know what a passing grade is, if good people go to heaven, doesn't God owe you a progress report? I mean, where are you right now? Because I know this to be true. Some of you don't have enough time to make up for your failing grade in the rest of the semester.

You know what I'm talking about. Chemistry, sophomore year, and you're like, oh gosh, I need a 206 on the final. Pull the seat. Yeah, man. Yeah. You see, the reality is

good people don't go to happen. No, no, no. So you look at this and you go, okay, David, so we got a problem. Who shall us in the hill of the Lord? Well, not me. And if you say, so, Pastor, are you saying we're going to hell?

That's exactly what I'm saying. Like, do not pass go, do not collect $200 straight to hell. Now, this would be a worst time to leave. If you leave right now, you're only going to get like half the sermon. It gets way better on the second half. But when we see God for who he really is,

then we began to look at ourselves and be like, I need help. I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for myself. So what do I do, David? And David's like, I'm glad you asked. Here's what you need. Verse five, he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. When you receive something that you did not earn, that is called a gift. And David says, the God of our salvation has a gift for you.

What is that gift? it is the blessing of righteousness. Now in the Bible, when the Bible says righteousness, it doesn't just mean right activity. It means a right standing before God. Who can climb the hill of the Lord and who can stand before a righteous God? And David's saying, on your own, nobody can do it.

Nobody can earn it. Nobody can figure that out. But what you need to do is receive that right standing from God, the God of our salvation. And again, man, see, here's the crazy thing. Here's the crazy thing about the message of Christianity. Not that we're supposed to repent for our sins. Everybody believes you repent for even our sins.

They just define sin differently. But what the Bible says is that we've actually got to repent from our own righteous deeds when we get it right. Because if we think that our good deeds somehow are needed in order for us to earn a right standing before God, It is so offensive to God that Isaiah says it this way. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

If you've been around church, you know what polluted garment is. In Hebrew, polluted garment, the translation is actually used menstrual cloths. If somebody else confused next to you, just explain it because I don't want to, okay? And you're like, what? Yeah. So when we think the question is, who can ascend to Hitler of the Lord? And you're like, I can. This guy.

Why? Because I go to church. And I pray a lot. And I do good things. I'm a pretty good person. At least I'm not as bad as Hitler. And so, God, because of my good deeds, because of my righteousness, you owe me entrance into heaven.

When we present our own works to God as a ticket into heaven, it's as offensive to him as if you gave him a box of polluted garments. Husbands, just imagine. What about Father's Day if your kids were like? I got you a present, and you open it, and you were like, you wouldn't say, it's just the thought that counts. No, no, no, no, no. You would teach your children about the wrath of God. That's what you would do.

That's how offensive it is to God. So then what do we do? We need to receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. Then he says, such is a generation of those who seek him. They don't seek rules. They seek him. They don't seek religious activity. They seek him.

This is why this church is not just an organization and doing a bunch of stuff. We're a movement for all people, religious and rebellious. Grew up in church, first time in church. We're a movement for all people to discover and deepen. Here's the most important part. A relationship with Jesus Christ. And it says, such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek the face of God of Jacob. You see, when Jesus Christ showed up on the scene, then we get to see the face of God. Up to that point, you can't see the face of God. In fact, one time Moses was like, I want to see your face. Show me your glory. God's like, nope. If you got in the presence of a holy and just and perfectly righteous God,

without the blood of the land being slain yet, you would just die in judgment immediately. So he put him in a little rock, and he just kind of walked by and turn on the afterburners of his glory. And it still made Moses' face glow. But the fact that he says, those who seek the face of the God of Jacob, Jacob, we talked about this a few weeks ago,

Jacob was a deceitful person. He stole from his family, he tricked his brother, lied to his dad, and he was on the run, and like God always does, God relentlessly pursues his rebellious children. And while he was on the run, God chased him down one night while he was camping.

And the Bible says that the angel of God wrestled with Jacob. And the next morning, Jacob says, I saw the face of God and he allowed me to live. Now, we know this, that this is the second person of the Trinity. His name, when he gets to Bethlehem, will be Jesus. And he chases him down, and they wrestle. They wrestle.

And then Jacob grabs onto him and won't let go and says, I won't let go until you give me a blessing. And Jesus says, okay, I'll bless you. And then he touches his hip and he blows it out of socket. He'd be the key, he'd win the UFC every time. He's got the hip socket touch move. He can't obey it stop it. And those verses bother some people, they really bother some people.

Because they're like, how could Jacob hold on to Jesus and say, I demand something of you? Here's the only thing I can come up with. Do you know the prayer request that God answers 100% of the time? God, if I surrender, will you save me? 100% of the time, the answer is yes, and you'll be face to face with me. But when you walk out of here, you'll never walk the same again. Listen, I'm praying today. I'm praying today.

Because I see some of you come in here. You're walking like you're wrestling with the Lord. I see you. You start way back there and then you keep moving up, moving up, moving up. Kind of start mouthing your words to the song a little bit, you know what I mean? You start swaying. You're like, oh, no, no, no. And what he's doing, man, you're in a wrestling match.

And here's what's going to happen. I want you to surrender your life to the Lord'ship of Christ and walk with a limp for the rest of your days, okay? Because he'll change you. He will. That's what he's saying. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. And then it says this, Sayla.

I was listening to this old, he's probably dead now, this old preacher. And he said that what Sayla means is Salah is God saying, what you think about that? Most commentators will say, Selah is a moment of meditation and reverence to contemplate what has just been said. And this old Baptist preacher says, Salah is, what do you think about that? All right, David. As I think about this, as I ponder, so how do we do that? How do we receive that blessing?

And he goes, I'm glad you ask. And he's going to end with, he's going to repeat this a few times. Verse seven, he says, here's how. Lift up your head, O gates, and be lifted up, oh, ancient doors. That the king of glory may come in. That the one who is going to do for us, what we cannot do for ourselves, is this king of glory. Now, again, he's thinking on it on multiple levels, okay? They've got the ark of the covenant at the bottom of the city gates.

and they're like, hey, open up the gates. Who is it? Well, we've got the glory seat right here, the Ark of the Covenant. But it's also about that eternal kingdom one day. And he says that the way we get in is this. Lift up your head, O Gates, and be lifted up, oh, ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. And then they ask, who is the king of glory?

And he answers, the Lord, strong and mighty. Let me tell you what the New Testament says, who the king of glory is, that he is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile

to himself, all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross, the king of glory is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who the king of glory is. And he's strong and he's mighty. He says, who is the king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty and the Lord mighty in battle. What battle? I'll tell you what battle. He came here on a rescue mission. He came here on a rescue mission. He was born behind enemy lines. And there is an enemy, the devil, the king of this heir. And Jesus came to say, I am going to take what is rightfully mine. And he says, Jesus says things like, I didn't come to be served,

but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. And he lives a perfect life, and he dies in our place. And then he buys back unto the father his own children. And then he says in verse 9, lift up your head, 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. What you think about that? That's what he's saying. You see, if you would have heard Psalm 24 as David is writing it, you would think about, well, here we are. We're at the bottom of the

hill of the Lord. We've got to go through the gates, go past David's palace, get to the temple Mount where the tabernacle is, go through the outer court, to the inner court, to the holy place, and inside of there, there's the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant belongs. And one day a year, according to Leviticus 16, one day a year, there's a day called the Day of Atonement. And on the Day of Atonement, the people of God would gather together. From all over Israel, they would gather in Jerusalem. And the high priest would consecrate himself through these ritualistic baths and sacrifices. And he would stand before the people. And the people would confess their sins out loud. So you had to pay attention who you sat with at church that

week. You know what I'm saying? Like, I hate my neighbor. Oh, sorry about that. So you got to pay attention. And he would take the confess sins of the people and he would transfer the sins to the head of this goat. And he would take the goat out to the edge of the city and cast the goat. It's called a scapegoat. Take the scapegoat out. And the people would physically watch this goat that was carrying their sins. take their sins as far as the east is from the west. And then the high priest would come back to the temple mount, to the tabernacle. And he would shed the blood of a lamb. And he would consecrate himself, he put some blood on him,

he'd tie a rope around his waist with a bell on it. And he would go into the holy of holies, the only time of the year anybody was allowed in the presence of God. And then he would take the blood of the lamb, and he would sprinkle it over. would cover over the Ark of the covenant that held the law of God because we've already established, we break them every single day of our life. And the idea is that when God looked down on his people, he did not see the broken law, but he saw the perfect blood of a lamb covering over the blood,

I mean, over the broken laws for a year. And they did it year after year, after year, after year. This happened for a thousand years after David writes Psalm 24. Then about a thousand years after this. One day there's this weird guy named John the baptizer. He's homeschooled. He wears a Jedi robe. Kind of yells at people all the time. And all you homeschool people, don't email me, man.

Y'all are just easy to make fun of, okay? Give me a break. You and the Amish, but they don't email me, so take a lesson. So anyway. And he's out there yelling at people. Got crazy hair, likes to be outside a lot. eats weird food. And he's got one message and it's this, repent, repent. Prepare you the way of the Lord. He's coming. The Messiah is on his way. Get your heart right right now and come and get washed.

That's what he's preaching. And then one day, he stops everything and he says, behold. And there on the edge of the Jordan River, he points to his cousin. And by human terms, he's a nobody from a little nowhere town. And then he says, behold, the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin. of the entire world. Do you understand the significance of that? Not another Lamb of God that's here to cover over one people group until next year, but the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of the entire world. And then Jesus gets baptized.

God the Father speaks over him and says, Behold my son in whom I am well pleased. And then he begins to do earthly ministry. And he taught stuff for sure. He was a great teacher. And he set a good moral example for sure, but that is not primarily why he came. Because the things that he said,

if he is not who he says he is, were outlandish kind of things. He didn't have like, hey, he didn't do TED talks with like three ways to improve your business. That's not what he did, man. He didn't just do miracles to show that he knew how to do magic tricks. They were all signs to God redeeming his people.

And he said the most outlandish thing. He said stuff like, to see me is to see the father. Me and the father are one. I am the one. and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me and the religious people are like,

who do you think you're talking to? We're sons of Abraham. He's like, no, you ain't. You're sons of the devil. Yeah, he'd have been canceled in a second these days. He says, your sons are the devil, and he's a liar. And I know every time you move your lips,

you're lying too. And he said, you know the word, you still know the author of the word. And there's no way in the world that you could know the Father and reject the sun. It's impossible. Well, that got him kill. What's crazy is one Sunday that we know as Palm Sunday, the rabbis would have been standing in Jerusalem reading who is the king of glory. The Lord's strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, oh gates, and lift them up,

oh, ancient of doors, and the king of glory may come in. And that same Sunday, this Jesus, the Christ, gets on a donkey. On the other side of the Kidron Valley, he rides down the Mount of Olives, he circles around, probably goes up to southern steps, and he comes in. And the people,

they gather together and they say the right words. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They were calling him the king. The only problem is all they thought was temporary. They thought that he was going to kick out Rome and make them a superpower again.

Hosanna means Lord save us. And apparently for them, us was the most important part of that sentence. Because when he didn't do what they wanted, and later that week, the same crowd gets together and says, crucify him, kill him. And so that week, Jesus has miracles, and he teaches and he washes his disciples' feet.

He has communion with his boys. And he tells him plainly, I am going to be crucified, dead buried, and on the third day be resurrected. And so they go to this place where he loved to pray, the Garden of Gathamini. It literally means a place of crushing. And he tells the disciples, hey, can y'all stay here, you three, come with me.

Will you pray for me? He begins to feel the weight of the sin of the world on his shoulders. The Bible says that he was so overwhelmed, so stressed, that he was sweating blood, and he felt like he was going to die. And he comes before the Lord, his father, and he asks this question. It's the question a lot of people ask today. Father, if there be any other way, let this come. cup passed from me. The cup will be the wrath of God for the forgiveness of sin. Father, if there

be any other way, like if other people are good enough to climb the hill of the Lord, let's just let them be good enough. If you can just obey the Ten Commandments, if you could be a good person, if you could align your chakra, if you could just get enough laps around the bin until you make it to Nirvana. If you could just visit Mecca, if you could obey the five pillars, if there be any other way, Father, seems like a lot. an awful waste of my blood on Calvary tomorrow. And then he says, not my will, but your will be done. He's arrested. He's tried.

Nobody wants to be the one to slam him to gabble down and say this innocent man is guilty because they can tell he's not. Eventually, Pontius Pilate puts it up to the people. And he says, what will you do with this man named Jesus? By the way, this is the most important question you'll ever ask yourself in all of eternity. And they said, crucify him, kill him. And then Pilate says, I wash my hands of this. And the crowd says, fine, may his blood be on our heads. You realize that statement either dams you or blesses you. You realize that?

That if you believe that the blood of Jesus saves you, then his blood is on your head and it washes away all your sin. But when you reject him, then you are damned forever. They take him to the cross. And the only man who is fully God with clean hands and a pure, heart, an undefied soul and a clean tongue, marches up the hill of the Lord with a cross on his back. And they nail railroad spikes through his hands and through his feet. And he says seven things on the cross and he pushes up on his nail pierce feet. And the first thing he says is this,

Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do. He wanted us to know that he did not primarily come to start a religion, to teach us how to treat one another, to unify people. That's not. not why he came. Primarily he came to take away the sins of anyone who would believe. The last thing he says, he pushes up on his nail, pierced feet, and he says this, it is finished. It's been paid in full. And in that moment, the mortal blow to the enemy was inflicted upon his head. But he didn't say he was finished because he wasn't finished. They take him down, they put him in a borrowed tomb. The reason he borrowed it's because he only needed it for the weekend because three days later, he came out of the grave. to conquer sin and death, to put the keys of hell in death.

And in Philippians, when Paul says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, what we know through the powerful resurrection of Jesus is not only that at the cross our sins were forgiven, but through the resurrection of Christ, we are imputed or credited with the righteous life of Christ. The message of the gospel is not only Christ died for my sins. That is true, but he also lived a perfect life, fulfilled the law, fulfilled every prophecy and promise, and that whoever puts their faith in him, not only are the old bad things taken away, but we get credit for his perfect life. The way the Bible would say this is this. That God made him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness

of Christ. Or in 1 John 4.10. This is love. Not that we love God, but God loved us and sent his son as the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation is a payment that satisfies, which means this. When God looks at you, he doesn't see your dirty hands

and he doesn't see your impure heart. He sees the clean hands and the pure heart of his son, Jesus Christ, for anyone who would believe. That's what happens. And then he's still not done. The Bible tells us, he appears to over 500 people

for about six weeks in and around Jerusalem. And then before he leaves in Matthew 28, he gets about 120 disciples together, and he's like, all right, I'm out of here. Just like I told you I would be. But go. You take this message, this good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you take it and make disciples to the very ends of the earth, every tribe, every tongue, every nation. And everybody gets nervous.

And he goes, and lo, you've got to be scared because I will be with you always to the very ends of the age. And then the Bible says that Jesus ascends to the right hand of God the Father. Now, I wish there was a little more detail. I don't know if it was fast, you know, like Iron Man style, just real quick or if it was like real slow. I don't know. But the Bible says that many people saw that, him ascend to the right hand of God the Father, and they put their faith in him. They believe he is who he says he is. But then the Bible also says, that same crowd, there were some that doubted, which makes me feel better about my preaching, by the way. Because I feel like I fully explained what the gospel is, but there are people that saw the resurrected Jesus

to go up to heaven, and some people were like, it's him, and others are like, you know, I don't know. I mean, I don't, I saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel, like, what about the dinosaurs? I don't know. Crazy. And the last thing, the human beings in Matthew 28C are the souls of the feet of the Son of God with holes in them. And they don't see it anymore. And then David, there's no way he could know this. David carried along by the Spirit of God. In Psalm 24, then begins to describe what happens when after he ascends off of the earth

and he goes to the right hand of God, the Father. I don't know exactly how it works, but Jesus, the Reservent Christ, shows up to glory where the gates are. And he says, open the gates. Lift up your heads, oh gates, and lift him up, O, Ancients. of doors so that the king of glory may come in.

And they ask, who is the king of glory? And he says, the Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle, because he has just won the battle for you and for me. And then Jesus walks into glory, and he walks down the heavenly highway, I don't know what they call the streets, they made a gold, that's all they tell us. And he takes his seat on the Father's throne. And for all of human history, it's been planned from before, time, but for all of human history, the Father, through the power of the Spirit, because of his love

for his son, has been gathering unto himself a people. And maybe as Jesus sits on that throne right now, and he sees one of our missionaries take the gospel to an unreached people group, and for the very first time that group of people put their faith in Jesus. And Jesus looks out and goes, see, Father, there's one more. There's one more that's coming home. And then right now, today as he looks over our church services right now and he sees you he hears he you hear him call your name and you put your faith in him and he says okay okay father there's one more there's one more there's one more and then at some point according to matthew chapter 24 when we get the gospel to every tribe and every tongue and every nation and god has gathered unto himself all of his lost children and he gathers them unto himself

at some point known only to the father he's going to lean over to the son and he's going to He says, son, go get him. And when he comes back that time, he ain't riding a donkey. And he ain't a son of a Jewish carpenter. He's going to return in his glory. The Bible says he's going to have fire eyes, sword tongue, robe, dipped in blood, tattoos on his quads. You hear that, Baptist? And he's coming back to gather unto himself all of his people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation.

And then he's going to take us all with him. He's going to ascend the hill of the Lord, and we will all stand outside those pearly gates. And we will hear him say, lift up your head, oh, game. lift them up, oh ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. And they say, who is this king of glory? And he says, this time he says, the Lord of hosts.

You see, the first time it was because he came back home because he just won the battle. The next time he comes back, he's coming back as the Lord of Host, because over his shoulder is everyone who has ever believed and everyone who will believe and we get to ascend the hill of the Lord and be in his presence forever,

not because what we have done, but because who we are with. You get that? You see, about a year ago, not quite a year ago. My son turned 16, we started looking for a car. So pray for us. Please, God, pray for us. And he had to do all this stuff to earn it, and he finally did barely.

And so we go to look for him a car. But let me be clear, he does not have a car. Gretchen and I have three cars, and sometimes he drives one of my cars. You understand what I'm saying? Okay, so. And so we went to Auto Line, because the guys, on it, love Jesus, they met Jesus here, they run their company like, I mean, listen, if you want me to plug your place, act like the boys at AutoLine and I'll be happy to,

all right, so it's awesome. So I called him and said, hey, we need a car, looked online, like, yeah, come on out, so we do. J.P. and I go to their deal. And as soon as we walk up, this guy comes out, one of the salesmen, and he goes to one of our campuses. Is that Pastor Jobb, I know you, we go to church together. And then he says something to the effect of the Corey Boys, that's who runs Autoline. So the Corey Boy says, you're a VIP, Take whatever you want. Take it as long as you want. Don't have to show an ID.

Don't have to leave you in the shirt. We know you. Just whatever we can do. Brought us some refreshments. It's cool. It's not my typical car buying experience, but whatever. So we go, we drive all these things around. It's fine.

We come back, we're walking to the truck. And my son, JP, again, 16, a lot of hormones. Not the most tender little fellow you ever met in your life. It gets it honest. And it looks at me on the way back to the truck. He goes, Daddy. when I go to college, I'm a really miss going places with you. And I thought, oh, that's what I thought too, buddy.

And I began to wax eloquently about the love of a father for his son and how I also will cherish these moments the rest of my life. And he's like, no, I'm not talking about that. I was like, well, yeah, huh? He says, I think if I walk up on a car lot by myself, we don't get the VIP treatment. And I don't think I'm getting tickets to anything. and I don't get backstage past, because of your generosity,

we get to do all kind of stuff. And he's like, I'm not going to know any pro athletes. I'm not going to do any of these things. And I was like, you dang right, you're not, all right. So. But the reason he got treated, not just anything about me, but the reason that he got treated that way

was not because what he had done, he walks up in the parking lot, and he goes, I'm with him. That's a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we stand before the Gets. gates of heaven, and if the Lord were to say, why would I let you in? The answer is not because of anything that I've done.

The answer is simply because I'm with him. Because I'm with him. Now what's crazy about this, what's crazy about this is not only is it a psalm about the actual place in Jerusalem, and not only is it a psalm about heaven one day, and not only is it a psalm about Jesus ascending the hill on our behalf, it's also a song

Psalm about every single one of us individually. There's been a bunch of you, and you've been showing up and showing up, or maybe this is your very first time. And around the kingdom of your heart, you've got gates and doors that are closed. And right now, for the very first time, Jesus is coming to that heart, and he's saying, open the gates, open the doors that the king of glory may come in. And you say, who is the king of glory? And right now for the very first time, Jesus is revealing to you that he is the king of glory.

And here's what's crazy, man. It's just like what happened with Jacob back in Genesis. And what's crazy is if you open the gates to your heart, if you open the doors to your heart and invite the king of glory to come in, then he opens up the gates and the doors to heaven and you walk in with him one day. That is the invitation. So my question is, have you ever done that? I'm not asking you what you believe about God,

but have you ever gotten to the place where you put your faith, you put your hope, you put your trust in the reality when Jesus Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And when he came out of the grave, somehow that counted for me. I want to give you the opportunity

that forever and ever an amen, your faith would be on the foundation, not of what you do, not on what I do, but on what he did, and you would say, I'm with him. Have you ever done that? Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes?

And if you were ready to put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior for the very first time, if you were ready to open up the gate of your heart, open up the door of your heart, and in doing so, God opens up the gates to his eternal glory. If you're ready to admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior,

and I believe somehow when Jesus died on the cross that counted for me, then right now, right where you are, would you lift your hand high in the air and hold it up? Would you say, Father, here, I am. God, praise God, praise God. We just say, Father, here I am. I surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Our good and grace is heavenly, Father God, we love you. We thank you that your salvation is bringing the gift of blessing and righteousness on these men and women right now, not because their hands in the air, but because they are surrendering their life to you. And their eternity was purchased at the cross 2,000 years ago. And Lord, I thank you that in this moment sins are being washed away and you're a perfect pure heart and clean hands are being credited to their account. God, we love you because this is love, because you loved us first, and you sent your son

to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, the king of glory. And God, may he rule and may he reign in our hearts. And God, when the enemy begins to whisper lies, we pray that the king of glory, we would just tell him to shut up in our life. That every time the enemy tries to remind us of our past or remind us of our deeds, or remind us of our impurity. You, by the spirit, would help us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

And we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, do you please stand as we respond to the gospel? We're going to sing, and based on last week, I'm just going to warn you, we're going to sing a song and a half, okay? So like when it takes a little dip, after song one, we're not quite done. We're going to sing about our need for Jesus. that our only defense is His righteousness, not our good deeds.

And then we're going to roll back into Holy, Holy, holy, holy. And we're going to bring our first and our best, our ties and our offerings. Because we're not going to lift up our soul to the temporary things of this world. And we're going to pray. Because what's crazy is when the King of Glory died on the cross, then the curtain that separated the people of God from the presence of God. It was torn from the top to the bottom, which is an invitation for God's people to come and cast all their cares upon him,

because he cares for you. You know the only person that gets to wake up the king in the middle of the night for a glass of water? It's the children of the king. And that's what you are if you're in Christ. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond.