The Acceptable Worshiper of Psalm 24

I just want to say good morning again. Welcome. It's our first service of the new year and Again, I think I said this for our pastors away for a time of rest and renewal He will be back with us next Sunday to be leading us again We'll be going back to our study in the book of Ephesians next week We had to pry Chris away from the study in the book Ephesians to get him to take a vacation in December But he'll be back leading us next week So my way of introduction our sermon this morning is gonna be called the acceptable worshipper of Psalm 24 the acceptable worshipper of Psalm 24 If you've still got your Bible's open there That's where we're going to be most of the morning and just as a note We're going to bounce around some but if you want to leave your Bible's in Psalm 24, that's perfectly fine I've actually got some handouts here out front that after the service you want to pick one up It's got a lot of the Bible references that we're gonna talk about today if you want to take one of those with you And I'll talk more about what that is Later, but we've got those if you just want to stay in Psalm 24 If you flip everywhere with me, you're gonna have some fast fingers So just maybe stay where you are in Psalm 24 and you'll be just fine So today's January 2nd.

It's the new year and in Mississippi. We're so ahead of ourselves We've already breezed through I think all four seasons of the year in like two days A winter spring summer and fall we've knocked it all out and it's not even January 2nd is not even over yet So we're ahead of the curve here Usually this time of year people take time to evaluate Around New Year's time the holidays can be a bit like a roller coaster And at some point we have to get off that roller coaster and evaluate the damage, don't we? Maybe it's our health.

Maybe it's our careers or it's our financial goals that we take stock off Maybe you're like my wife and I and you need to Gather the the broken and destroyed rim and remnants of your budget after Christmas and just try to piece something back together for the new year Maybe you have plans that you're making for the upcoming year I had plans to fly out to for work stuff next week and those have already been canceled because of Covid and other reasons canceled flights and a lot of other things.

So We're already making and canceling plans So this morning we're gonna see what Psalm 24 has to say about how we evaluate ourselves as worshipers of the Lord To some degree this study this morning is autobiographical for me Long not long after I became a Christian as a teenager. I got involved in worship leadership To some degree or another. I think I graduated from working the Next key on PowerPoint back when we used to use PowerPoint to play in a bass to play an acoustic guitar and just kind of slowly Crept up there but for about 20 years.

I've led worship for churches and youth ministries and summer camps And I have seen many many worship services and I've seen many many things done in the name of worshiping the Lord over the years and I came to Christ during something of Resurgence in our culture of worship music and worship culture And as a young person, I kind of had to sort through through through that from pretty early on to figure out What is to borrow phrase from Hebrews 1228? acceptable worship and Inversely, what is unacceptable worship see throughout scripture?

You see great examples of both you see times when God naturally affirms somebody's worship and says this is good and pleasing or Supernaturally rejects somebody's worship and there are equal amounts of both and usually on the other side, especially the Old Testament, there's usually a Some some dead bodies on the floor because of unacceptable worship So that's what we're looking at this morning. What is acceptable worship? So in light of those questions Psalm 24 became an object of my attention for years But my perspective on the psalmist change over the years and I want to share with you this morning Some of that shift in perspective.

So let's let's begin by reading Psalm 24 again in its entirety starting in verse 1 Psalm 24 verse 1 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 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart He does not lift up his soul to what his faults and does not swear deceitfully He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation Such is the generation of those who seek him who seek the face of the God of Jacob Lift up your heads.

Oh gates and be lifted up Oh ancient doors That the king of glory may come in Who is this king of glory the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battle? Lift up your heads. Oh gates and lift them up Oh 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 as in way of introduction We're gonna talk a little bit about the context of the psalm before we dive into our study of certain sections of this so The historical context and we're not entirely sure about this but most commentators will point to Historically the event when King David brings the ark of God into Jerusalem Actually, it's his second try when he brings the ark to the newly conquered city of David what was eventually going to be called Jerusalem He wants to bring the ark from where it's been into Jerusalem You may remember that the ark had been gone for a period of time It had been captured through a very long tragic history a period of time where it was captured by the enemy and then supernaturally Returned to Israel but had not made its way back to what was now the central city in For Israel which was Jerusalem.

So this is David bringing the ark into Israel and this psalm was written as For that occasion to be sung on that occasion as the ark was brought in procession to into the city of Israel So getting a visual image of these things in my head is really helpful to me It might be helpful to you as well King David is leading a procession of thousands of people Possibly even up to 30,000 people which the text says in his first try That's how many people were there we can kind of assume maybe on the second attempt to bring the ark into the city That many people are also there as well possibly even more So at least 30,000 men were gathered with him in this procession With the ark in celebration with music and singing and dancing into the city You might remember this is the occasion when David danced before the Lord and was criticized by Michael for being unkingly It didn't end well for her.

That's a whole other story there So they're winding through the streets of Jerusalem in this procession Up the natural incline of the city to a high place where the tabernacle has been set up and where the ark will be placed Back into the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle after a prolonged absence so knowing all these things Gives us some context of the enormity of this event So when this psalm refers to ascending the hill of the Lord and standing in his holy place These references had something of a literal meaning as well spiritual They literally ascended up the hill through the city to the holy place where the tabernacle had been set up There wasn't a temple yet.

It was still the tabernacle where the ark would come to rest So that's the historical context. There's also a bit of a thematic context this psalm as well This is an antiphonal song that was to be sung back and forth by two groups of people I don't know this but I can imagine maybe that the priests would sing part of this psalm And then the people would respond back and sing the other part of the song Maybe it was two groups of priests or maybe they did it classic youth ministry style and you make the girls and the boys sing different Parts either way it was antiphonal in the sense that it was sung back and forth We sing a song called Is he worthy that is somewhat antiphonal in that the worship leader sings?

Is he worthy and the congregation sings back? He is that's antiphonal which is kind of the style of this psalm is written in you can see some of this kind of natural break here in the text if you look at Those verses that we read before and you see when he asked Who is this king of glory and then comes the response the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battle?

So you can kind of see a natural break there that might have been the call and response part of this psalm So you can see from the historical and thematic context what an incredible moment this was for the people of the city the people anticipated the coming of the king into his newly conquered capital city and the people and the protect people in the Procession anticipated the ark the very presence of God going up the hill the Lord to come to rest in the tabernacle in their in their city So this is a big deal So they have the new conquering king David and they have the ark which for them is the very presence of the Lord and represents just huge history and and Present context for them it being the very presence of God.

This is a big deal for them So this is a very important psalm that was written for a very important occasion So our major point number one if you're taking notes is the personal perspective What does psalm 24 say about what makes our worship acceptable? And there's a lot there's a lot and we're gonna look at verses 4 through 6 to give an answer to that question Who may ascend the hill of the Lord and who will stand in his holy place remember there?

Literally in procession going up the hill and they're asking themselves this question The priests are seeing out this question who may ascend the hill of the Lord and who may stand in his holy place as they go with the ark This is a very relevant question to them. It's a very relevant question to us They are these are the requirements for the worshipper who desires to draw near to the presence of the Lord and there is profit for us To examine these requirements and make application to ourselves as we desire to draw near to the presence of the Lord And bring offerings of worship that are acceptable to him So the first requirement is given in verse 4 He who has clean hands he who has clean hands Clean hands are representative of our outward actions both towards the Lord and towards the people around us and for the Jew There were some ceremonial cleansing things that are in view here But more importantly for them and for us there are spiritual things in view here of having clean hands But for us and for them We understand how important it is for a medical perspective to have clean hands You wouldn't want to see your surgeon go directly from handling a Uncleaned things maybe even a deceased corpse and then coming in to do surgery on you You would you maybe have a little panic there and be like can I have another doctor or a kid at least like wash his hands We understand how how biologically important that is for us to have clean hands spiritually, it's it's also important and Have we spiritually speaking had our hands or our lives touching unclean things?

Have we by our actions? Sinned against the Lord. It's a pretty straightforward question Are our hands clean? Have we had our hands or our lives on sinful and unclean things? What needs to be washed away from our hands and from our outward actions? So that's the first requirement. The second requirement also in verse 4 is a pure heart a Pure heart is representative of inward spiritual activity We may have been outwardly doing the right things But what about the inward motivations of our hearts are we doing the right things for the right reasons with the right? motivations This requirement concerns our motivations in serving the Lord and the people around us Fake it till you make it is not good enough here We are required to do the right things for the right reasons And you can see how progressive some of these requirements are Start on the surface and then start to drill a little deeper and go because you know a lot of us can say maybe our Outward actions are okay, but as these requirements go on it starts to drill a little deeper But have you done the right things for the right reasons?

Do you have pure heart? Before we give ourselves a pass on this requirement think I have not hated the Lord or my neighbor in my heart Let's think about whether our motivations are worthy or not And what do I mean by that? For me I've served in the local church many many times with unworthy motivations I've never secretly hated coming to the church or serving but I have served many many times out of Obligation or a sense of duty Now these things aren't necessarily bad motivations, but they aren't worthy motivations either I should serve the Lord because our God is worthy to be served I should serve because I love the Lord my God and joyfully desire to bring him the honor and Glory that he is worthy of I Can't bring him what he deserves because he is an infinite God and deserves infinite praise But I can bring him what he is worthy of which is everything I have Romans 12 9 says let love be genuine let love be genuine and The first and second greatest commandment that Christ talks about in the New Testament Start inwardly in our hearts in our motivations.

You can't fake this Matthew 22 37 through 40 says and he Christ said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart And with all your soul and with all your mind This is the great and first commandment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on These two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So these are the first two requirements in just verse 4 clean hands and pure heart and We can stop even just right here and ask the question. How are we doing so far? How am I doing? How are you doing? We're not even halfway through verse 4 yet How are you doing?

The next requirement still in verse 4 is he who does not lift up his soul to what is false Now first of all, let's let's talk about what we mean by lifting up our souls That's if you try to translate that literally it's a little odd you like remove your soul and hold it up high What does that mean? We're talking about worship worship is in view here the offering up of the soul in an act of worship For the Jew there was a real temptation to worship foreign gods for their own gain What you see historically with some of these foreign gods was a transactional relationship Where there was something to be gained by making offerings to these foreign gods and that was an ever-present ongoing temptation for Israel Transactional meaning that these people would offer up something to this foreign God and they would get something in return It's very much dummy get down to say it's like a vending machine But the concept is there you give something and you receive something in return and that sounds that may be a whole lot easier to the Jew than a relationship with God where holiness is required because they know they can just give something to this local God or this local deity that's foreign to them and they can get something in return whether it's Some sort of blessing or some sort of blessing for their crops or money or whatever it is They get some sort of transactional relationship with this with this God and it was a constant temptation for them to go to these foreign gods So again before we check this one off because we haven't made any animal sacrifices to any local deities lately That I'm aware of Let's let's kind of dig down into the core of this requirement because we can't get away easily from any of these requirements What if I put it this way?

We don't give offerings of our lives or souls to false promises We don't worship falsehoods Have you ever taken something that should have been the Lord's and given it to something else that in one way or another Promise to give you something in return Can we do that with our hobbies? Can we do that with our careers? Can we even do that with our own families? Can we expect purpose and fulfillment from things that God never intended us to find such purpose and fulfillment from? When you remove anything from God's authority and lordship and make offerings to it with some expectation from it What is that called?

It's idolatry It's idolatry Have you ever over invested in a hobby with an expectation of fulfillment from it? And I'm not talking. I'm not saying hobbies are bad again The context here is you take something that should have belonged to the Lord and you give it to something else with an expectation Of getting something back from it Can we make our children's extracurriculars an auto? Can we sacrifice that which should have been the Lord's for the sake of the season of ball games? I?

Can't give a definitive list of things that could be idolatrous Because there is no end to the list of things that we can make idols of and what may be idolatrous You may not be of any concern to someone else. That's how devious idolatry can be We may not believe that we have a transactional relationship with a local local idol, but we do We do we take things that should be the Lord's and we give them to something else expecting something in return So our last of these only four requirements in verse four is He who does not lift up his soul to what is false and then the next the final requirement and does not swear Deceitfully and does not swear deceitfully The last requirement that we just spoke of was that we don't offer ourselves in worship to falsehood and this requirement is that we don't tell falsehoods ourselves And scripture has a lot to say about how God feels about lies and falsehoods Being that one of the core attributes of God is that he is truth We can clearly see how God would feel about people who manipulate or bend the truth or outright fabricate lies Our culture is so invaded with falsehood that we don't even bat an eye When it's discovered that people in the spotlight have blatantly lied to us I Would go so far as to say that we expect our leaders to lie to us and we expect them to get a job done By lying to get there We don't value truth Lies are more of a valuable commodity in our culture today than truth And again before you check this requirement off your list and off my list and think I don't I don't lie to people Let's rephrase the question again.

Are you a truth-telling person? Not just have you told lies, but are you a truth-telling person? Are we truth-telling people? Are we a gospel bearing people? If we believe that Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life have we been a truth-telling? Gospel-bearing people to those around us The Lord gives each of us unique and divinely orchestrated relationships in our lives and our families in our workplaces Are you availing yourself of those opportunities to be a truth-telling person?

Or does your silence and does my silence? swear deceitfully I've heard our pastor tell the story on many many occasions about how after he came to the Lord He went back to the people that he knew in his life that claimed to be Christians He actually went back to some people that he went to high school with Who walked around with the Bible in his high school and claimed to be believers and after he became a Christian himself He went to those people and asked them. Why did you not tell me about Christ?

Very directly and I can't imagine what their response was, but I imagine it probably stopped them right in their tracks Does our silence swear deceitfully? Let me remind us that these requirements are represented in one verse of this psalm and ask the question again How are we doing so far? These things dig deep Personally speaking I put this psalm before myself and study personally and as a worship leader as the requirements of God for acceptable worship and at times Felt like I was driving a motorcycle into a brick wall at full speed.

Oh It's been time praying over these things before walking out on two stages to lead people in worship and just be devastated over these things feeling very Unempowered feeling very reluctant to step on stage and lead other people in worship after I've just read these verses and thought man I've blown it at every turn. I Did not meet the requirements to ascend the hill of the Lord and I felt like the world's biggest phony trying to lead other people Worship leader is a title we've invented in our culture and at times.

I felt like the first thing from that title But the Lord and His patience and gentleness taught me Over a long period of time that where I have failed in these requirements Christ has succeeded It is interesting and it's useful for our transition here that immediately after these verses Laying out the requirements of worship. We're given a reference to a specific person in Scripture. We're given a reference to Jacob Look back at those verses in verse 5 Psalm 24 verse 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord again.

We're following up the requirements with the results So these are the results he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation Such as the generation of those who seek him who seek the face of the God of Jacob And it's ironic that of all people to be mentioned from the Old Testament Jacob is the one mentioned here as in the context of a generation of people who are blessed for meeting these requirements If you have studied the Old Testament if you studied Jacob's life You know that he is a and I say this unapologetically because the Bible says it's about him. This is not judgment This is scripture.

He's a lying cheating Kniving individual who is nobody's poster child for righteous behavior He made such a mess of his life through his lies and his conniving that when it all caught up to him He was literally going to lose everything that he had including his life Now if you want to read that text I encourage you to go back and read about it because his life it all came down to a single point in this moment where all These things were coming back and the bill was due and he could not pay it his brother was on his way to We don't know what he was on his way to do But I don't think it was anything good because Jacob had connivingly stole his inheritance from him And after many many years of being away was suddenly going to come face to face With a man that he had robbed and not just any man If you know the the story of Jacob and his brother his brother was the wild man of the woods he was not somebody that you wanted to mess with Jacob was the It's not flattering the tent dwelling person of the two pair of brothers He was the one that dwelt him on the tents and maybe followed his mom around He was the mama's boy and he saw his brother was out on the woods killing something and bringing it back to eat All right.

So this is not a good moment for Jacob. This is a bad moment for Jacob In the fact that when the reference in the scripture is those who seek the face of the God of Jacob is also interesting Because this is one of the most odd encounters in Scripture So this moment comes in Jacob's life when he's about everything's about to come do for him He's about to face his brother who probably wants to kill him and he has this extremely odd encounter Where a man comes in the night and wrestles with him all night long Now I'm not here to unpack that for you I'll let somebody else do that but a man comes in the night and wrestles with him and afterwards in the morning when the man leaves Jacob gives the place a name and he calls the place a Specific name because he says quote.

I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared To make a simple point from a very odd encounter Jacob the human trash bag met God Maybe even the pre-incarnate Christ. We don't know all we know is it says he wrestled with a man Is it somehow an incarnation of God? Is it an angel? Is it the pre-incarnate Christ? I don't know But afterwards he said I met God face to face and I lived so I'll let you fill in the blanks there He wrestled with God and he lived and he was a changed person after that He was a changed person not just his outward circumstances, but the inward person was changed after he met Christ So why why I mentioned this why is this our transitional point?

Because like Jacob we have failed to meet the requirements of God and we need to see Christ in the psalm So let's go back and look at the totality of psalm 24 from a different perspective Point number two is the messianic perspective The messianic perspective. What does psalm 24 say about who makes our worship acceptable? We already asked what does psalm 24 say about what makes our worship acceptable?

Now we're going to look at what psalm 24 says about who makes our worship acceptable Now first of all, we dove straight into a section of the psalm without consideration for the whole and that's never a good idea To take a piece of scripture out of context and just do with it what you want. So let's look at the whole We're going to see Christ in psalm 24 because he's there he's there from beginning to end And this is something that I missed for many many years of my life That's why I said this is somewhat biographical because this is the trans the progression of my understanding of psalm 24 Let's start with verses one and two 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 Now creation is obviously in view here and the new testament provides wonderful revelation about christ's role and authority in creation Now these are some of these new testament scriptures I'm going to refer to that maybe just hang out here in psalm 24 Pick up one of these handouts later if you want to go back and look at these but hebrews 1 1 through 3 says Long ago at many times and in many ways god spoke to our forefathers uh by the prophets But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things Through whom he also created the world He is the radiance of the glory of god and the exact imprint of his nature And he upholds the universe by the word of his power So if the question is how is christ in these first two verses?

The answer is this not only you see the heir all of all things but all things were created through him and for him All things were created through him and for him a concept that's affirmed in other places in scripture including john 1 1 through 5 Also, it says that the universe is upheld by the word of his power Now this is not over exaggerating because scripture says it but the word of christ's power causes adams to hold together That all things in creation are held together because of the power of christ That's his role and authority in creation We see how integral christ is in these things all things were made through him and for him So in verse three we return to the question of who who's worthy to ascend the hill of the lord It says who shall ascend the hill of the lord and who shall stand in his holy place?

Let's remember that the the earthly temple that the jews had Was just a shadow and a copy of things that were revealed to moses So when moses was on mount scioni god gave him A model to build the tabernacle from so the question is where did that model come from? God allowed him to see heavenly things to make a copy of to build earthly things So the things that jews had the tabernacle and eventually a temple Were just shadows and copies of things that exist the realities of which exist in heaven So while david may have ascended the hill in jerusalem with the ark Christ ascended back into heaven after his resurrection to enter the true holy of holies Where god dwells to make intercession for us before the throne Mark 16 19 says so then the lord jesus after he had spoken to them was taken up into heaven And sat down at the right hand of god Romans 8 34 says who is to condemn?

Christ jesus is the one who died more than that who is raised who is at the right hand of god who indeed Is interceding for us? Now, I don't know how much you think about what jesus has been doing since he ascended back into heaven, but this is his role He's before the throne of god making intercession for us. We sang about that today We sang about that today He ascended the hill of the lord and he stood in god's holy place every prayer every offering every song That we bring goes before god through christ our great high priest He is our great high priest Now we could spend a very long time unpacking the reality of christ as our great high priest But for the sake of time, let's let's move on to the following verses So continue in verse four Here comes the requirements that we've already talked about He who has clean hands and a pure heart This is hebrews 4 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are and yet without sin Not only was every outward act of christ without sin But every inward inclination of his heart from cradled across was sinless and pure And i'm going to give you some things to think about to kind of flesh that out because you have to kind of let your imagination run with that because jesus knew the hearts of men You have to think about the fact that he laid hands on people and healed people that he knew were going to abandon him That he served people every day that he knew were not going to stick around That only came around to see miracles and get what they wanted from him.

He served those people With good intentions in his own heart with no mouse towards those people His hands are clean His heart is pure Every time think about every time jesus ministered to and poured into the life of judas He knew He knew who jesus was And served that man for years taught him at times fed him I can't imagine maybe some of the late night conversations They had where judas and jesus were face to face and jesus looked him right in the eye and loved him Even right up to that moment when judas takes christ's face in his hands and kisses the side of his face christ had no malice in his heart for for judas His hands are clean and his heart is pure Every time a roman soldier struck him with fists or with whips Or forcefully rammed the crown of thorns on his head the thoughts and intentions of his heart were pure and without malice His hands are clean christ's heart is pure The next requirement in verse four is he who does not lift up his soul to what is false and and i'm This one just absolutely thrills me This is matthew 4 8 through 10 Again, the devil took him To a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory This is christ and he said to him all these I will give you if you fall down and worship me Then jesus said to him be gone satan for it is written.

You shall worship the lord your god And him alone him only shall you serve? He who does not lift up his soul to what is false Does that sound like a transactional relationship the devil was offering him You worship me you bow down to me. I'll give you all this Now it's it's interesting and ironic because all this Was already coming to jesus, right?

It's already his he's the heir of all things in the entirety of time all things will be subject to him and yet here comes the devil to offer him a shortcut to getting all things I have no doubt that it's a legitimate offer that he has the ability to offer up him All things in creation to give him authority over those things and yet christ Will not lift up his soul to falsehood because He satan is not god and he is to worship the lord alone So he quotes scripture back to him shuts it all down and he meets that requirement He does not lift up his soul to what is false and the remaining requirement of psalm 24 in verse 4 is He who does not swear deceitfully And again, you may think that of course jesus didn't tell lies But remember that we're also talking about being truth tellers even in moments when it may be costly to do so So this is first timothy 6 12 through 13 Fight the good fight of the faith Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession In the presence of many witnesses I charge you in the presence of god who gives life to all things and of christ jesus Who in his testimony before ponchas pilot made the good confession?

To keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our lord. Jesus christ Now you may thinking what good confession? It's recorded for us in scripture and it's more simple than you think look 23 3 And pilot asked him and this is in the course of the events leading up to the crucifixion And pilot asked him are you the king of the jews? And he answered him you have said so Now why is that the good confession you have to ask yourself is why is this a loaded question in this moment? Christ is standing before the one man with authority in this city To shut everything down To say no, you're not going to take this man.

You're not going to crucify this guy. He's he's innocent All this is trumped up. This man has the ability to shut it all down And he looks jesus right in the eye and he asks him a very simple question Are you the king of the jews? And jesus gives the good confession he says it's true. You've said so i'm the king of the jews He gave the good confession christ is the truth teller in a moment where a costly answer His answer was going to be costly.

He told the truth Because immediately following that pilot just washed his hands in the whole situation and said do with him whatever you want He claims to be the king of the jews He was a truth teller. He was a gospel bearer even in moments where it was costly to tell the truth So verse five talks about the results of christ meeting these requirements Verse five he will receive blessing from the lord in righteousness from the god of his salvation And you may think again, of course, jesus was blessed But think for a moment what jesus did after receiving the blessings of fulfilling his role as a redeemer and high priest He gave that righteousness and those blessing That were his a way to us his church Ephesians 3 8 To me though.

I am the very least of all the saints this grace was given to preach to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of christ Ephesians 1 3 blessed be the god and father of our lord. Jesus christ who has blessed us in christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places Ephesians 1 7 in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace And first christians 1 30 And because of him you are in christ jesus who became to us wisdom from god righteousness and sanctification and redemption Again verse five from psalm 24 He will receive blessing from the lord in righteousness from the god of his salvation And christ turned away and gave that all away to his church All that belonged to him and blessing and riches he turned around and gave to us the church So verse six speaks of the kind of people who seek god's face Such as the generation of those who seek him who seek the face of the god of jacob Jacob wrestled with god all night and lived to tail the tail And jesus wrestled in prayer all night in the garden of giftsemane Asking god to take away this cup from him and then willingly died on the cross in submission to the will of god Speaking of the face of god the apostle john got a look at the revealed face of christ and told us what he saw on the book of revelation revelation 112 through 16 says Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands And in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest The hairs of his head were white like wool like snow His eyes were like a flame of fire His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace and his voice was like the roar of many waters In his right hand he held seven stars and from his mouth came a sharp Two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in full strength This is the face of god And the rest of psalm 24 concludes with a commencement in verses 7 through 10 In anticipation of the coming of the king of glory into the city listen to these verses again Lift up your heads.

Oh gates and be lifted up. Oh ancient doors that the king of glory may come in Who is this king of glory? The lord strong and mighty the lord mighty in battle Lift up your heads of gates and lift them up. Oh 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 the psalmist calls on the gates and doors of the city to be thrown open and even to Supernaturally be enlarged to receive the king of glory.

He's saying the gates aren't big enough make them bigger The king of glory is coming you see the anticipation here Now david led the people Into the city and up the hill david was the warrior king The priestly king leading them in worshipful procession into the conquered city of jerusalem He was a type and shadow of the christ who will return as the true conquering warrior king Let's remember those verses who is this king of glory the lord strong and mighty the lord mighty in battle And listen to this from revelation 19 11 through 16 Then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse The one sitting on it is called faithful and true And in righteousness, he judges and makes war His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems And he has a name written that no one knows but himself He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called is the word of god And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen white and pure were following him on white horses From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of god the almighty On his robe and on his thigh.

He has a name written king of kings and lord of lords Who is the lord strong and mighty mighty in battle? It's christ It's christ And we anticipate the coming of our king again Just as the jews anticipated king david the conquering warrior the conquering hero king the the the worshiping priestly king We anticipate the coming of christ The conquering warrior king our great high priest revelation 2220 Says he who testifies to this thing these things says surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come lord.

Jesus And second timothy 4h says now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness Which the lord the righteous judge will award me on that day and not only to me But also all who have longed for his appearing Are we longing for his appearing? Am I anticipating the return of our conquering warrior king our great high priest the lord jesus christ? Now let me ask you again Who is the hero of psalm 24? It's christ He's written in from verse one all the way to the end.

It's about christ We've examined two perspectives on psalm 24 a personal perspective and a messianic perspective Is there value in evaluating ourselves based on the requirements given here? Very much. So but stopping there is is almost criminal You see if it is if if I was a worshipper in that day in the city if I was with these people in procession My attention would be on king david. He's leading procession He is the lead worshipper in the situation. He's dancing before the lord as they take the arc He's the one that conquered the city He's the one that had the arc brought back in the city.

My attention would have been on him If my if I was there that day and my attention would have been staring at my own feet as we walk along Or or staring at my own garments to make sure I don't get any dirt on those garments I probably would have just fallen over which if you were here the last time that I preached I didn't almost fall over and hit the ground there I have my attention would have been on king david But if I fix my gaze on christ And all his splendor and all his riches that he's giving his people Then i'm going to stay on the path with the procession Now this is a subtle distinction here that i'm making in it It may make no sense to you, but it made a lot of sense to me as both a christian individually as a worship leader That when I look at that psalm and I see how I've failed the requirements of a worshipper It's much more important than I see christ As the one who met the requirements for me and is my worship leader leading that procession Up to ascend the hill of the lord When the day came for megan and I to get married We were all uh gathered at the chapel keith was there Chris was there.

He was our efficient and i'll tell the story because I think we have time Chris was so nervous That in the back while we were waiting for the whole thing to start he was reciting his line He had his bible open and he was muttering to himself because he was reading through his lines It was just me and him in the back hallway We're waiting for our moment to go out and he kept saying the word wringer And I heard it twice and I thought that's weird And then we went out and we did the you know, the the wedding started He started reading his parts and twice I think keith may correct me.

He used the word wringer I think he said, you know now jared's gonna take the wringer and put it on her finger and what's funny is is that afterwards when I Obviously made fun of him for doing so he went he said I said what now Completely unaware the fact that he was saying the word wringer He was just so intense in that moment that he was just completely oblivious to the fact that he had said wringer twice but the other part a memorable part of our uh, our wedding was that when Everyone's waiting we'd all come out the groomsmen have brought the bridesmaids up Luke stopped to give me a high five if you know luke johnson, you know, that's just something typical of luke We're waiting for that moment when the bride comes in the music starts to play People all turn their attention towards the back where the bride is supposed to come in The music continues to play and the music continues to play And then the music stops and starts again and plays over again because there's nobody coming through the doors yet And i'm obviously i'm standing in the middle aisle and i'm looking down the aisle and I can see people's heads Just absolutely whipping back and forth because they're they're looking at me.

They're looking at the doors as if to say Is this a runaway bride situation? We what's what's happening here? Is this really happening? And I I really I'm being honest in that moment. I was not worried because I knew there was Nothing that was going to keep my wife from from coming that day and being being there and she did come in And you know like any wedding the bride comes in Everyone stands and everyone's attention turns to the bride And I can say this because she's my wife.

She looked good She looked real good and everybody needed to have their attention on her But the very unique thing about that situation is that everyone is looking at her And my wife is looking at me Her eyes are on me the whole time that she's coming down Everyone's looking at her. She looked glorious And she's looking at me She was the star of the show And everyone may have had their eyes on her but she had her eyes locked on me the whole time She didn't stop and stared herself in a mirror With her white dress and her pre-flowers, but she she looked at me the whole time And the reason why that's meaningful to me is because of song that I came across Later, it's called the sands of time or sinking sometimes it's called Emmanuel's land It's a song about meeting christ in eternity and the last verse goes like this The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face I will not gaze at glory but on my king of grace Not at the crown he giveth But on his pierced hand The lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land I need to see jesus in psalm 24 I need to see my own shortcomings.

Yes, but I need to see jesus in his riches in his supply in psalm 24 So I want to leave us with a couple of takeaways before we wrap this up The first of which is never evaluate your own deficiencies without taking into account christ's sufficiencies I've got some handouts. I I told you about here in the front and what it is.

It's it's basically what we've done today It's psalm 24 broken down verse by verse with other scripture that corresponds to that requirement how christ fulfilled it If you want to take one of these Maybe you can go home And and as a worshipful act do a little responsive reading do a little antiphonal thing I don't know if you want to sing it or you just want to read it But read it have someone read psalm 24 and have someone else read those responses as a worshipful act because we need to see christ's sufficiencies Along with our own deficiencies Number two make sure the yoke you are burying is christ's Matthew 11 28 through 30 says come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls For my yoke is easy and my burden is light Make sure the yoke you are carrying is christ and not some yoke of self-righteousness Which is really a yoke of sin and death You may say well, what's the difference?

One is easy and light and the other is Will drag you down to the ground because it's based on sin and self-righteousness And it can't be carried. It's a burden that cannot be carried Christ's yoke is easy and light And number three to kind of follow up number two Serve with the correct motivation love Obligation and duty may get you where you need to go But they have a tendency to drag you there kicking and screaming I have done a lot of serving out of my own flesh In this church and in other occasions i've done a lot of serving for the wrong motivations And those remember we talked about those things.

Those are the unworthy motivations It'll get you there, but it'll just drag you behind it the whole time. But when we allow god to do an inward work The outward fruit that's born is good and pleasant and when we serve out our own flesh It's like dumping garbage into a wood chipper Nothing good goes in and nothing good comes out the other side And we have as a church a lot of work to do this year We are to be gospel bearers to our communities and our families If we're going to endure then we have to have gas in the tank and nothing fills my tank like the love of god and the riches of christ Uh, we're going to wrap up with this verse out of afeasians afeasions 3 14 through 19 For this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with his power Through his spirit in your inner being So that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love May have strength to comprehend with all the saints What is the breadth and length and height and depth?

And to know the love of christ That surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of god My challenge to you is to go back look at psalm 24 See how christ has fulfilled the requirements And answer the question who is the acceptable worshipper of psalm 24? It's christ jesus And because he is the acceptable worshipper of psalm 24 Excuse me. I get to be an acceptable worshipper myself because my eyes are on christ as he leads the procession He's our worship leader He's the one that leads us and makes our worship acceptable Let's pray.