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The Glorious Gospel of Grace in Psalm 24
February 8, 2009
Pastor Mike Evans
 
“The Glorious Gospel of Grace in Psalm 24”
February 8, 2009
Psalm 24:1-10
24:1 The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
2 for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
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,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
5 He will receive blessing from the Lord
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
7 Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle!
9 Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory! Selah
Eighteen months ago a very charismatic 47 year old Computer Science Professor by the name of Randy Pausch gave a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was part of a yearly lecture series called “The Last Lecture Series.” Each year a different professor is asked to give the one lecture he/she would give if they knew this was their last one.
I thought this was a novel concept until I started doing a little research. Within two minutes I found that Arizona State, San Diego State, the University of Massachusetts, and probably many others also have a yearly series with this same title. The University of Virginia has been doing this for 17 years in a row. This is not a novel idea.
What made Randy Pausch’s last lecture intriguing was the fact that he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and had been given only a few months to live. In other words, this was not a theoretical last lecture for Dr. Pausch; this would actually be his last lecture. In a brief window of strength, the professor appeared before 500 guests on September 18, 2007, to tell fellow professors and students what meant the most to him.
Ten months later he died (on July 25, 2008). Since that lecture, there have been more than six million downloads of it and it has captured the attention of the entire world. Some of the nuggets he threw out were the following:
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” (True).
“No one is pure evil. Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you.” (Even the doctrine of total depravity does not teach utter depravity).
“We can’t change the cards we’re dealt, just how we play the hand.” (Life is not a card game but we cannot change God’s unalterable plans).
“Never lose the child-like wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us.”
“We’re not going to talk about spirituality and religion. Although I will tell you that I have experienced a deathbed conversion. I just bought a Macintosh.”
“It is not about achieving your dreams but living your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”
“Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them.” In a world where absolutes do not exist story telling might be sufficient but that is not the world in which we exist.
Randy Pausch was an optimist who loved life as well as his wife and three children. His life story and his lecture, on balance, would bring tears to anyone’s eyes. However, when the ink has dried, I sense that something of great importance was missing. I don’t know much about his spiritual convictions other than by his own admission he regularly attended a Presbyterian Church until he turned 17, and that he liked Unitarianism (a religion that includes Buddhists, pagans, Hindus, atheists, etc. with no creed) because of its appeal to reason rather than dogma.
In the spirit of this same lecture series, I think it would be of great benefit if every pastor on this planet did the same kind of thing once a year or once every couple of years. To pare down what one believes are the most important things is a good practice.
Please don’t think I mean to be communicating anything under the table by way of giving this message on this Sunday. My theology and hopefully your theology as well affirms that every moment of our lives is in God’s hands and therefore He can always be trusted. It is our plan to go to Mayo Clinic next week, have the surgery, come out with flying colors, recuperate for a time, and then step right back into this pulpit.
James said that our lives are but a vapor and none of us knows what tomorrow will bring. Not a single one of us. No doubt, some of you sitting here today, if you only knew what tomorrow held would have far more cause for anxiety than we do. You just don’t know yet what tomorrow holds. And that is why each one of us needs to live every moment dwelling in the shelter of the Most High even as we rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
For my first installment of the “Last Sermon” series I want to communicate a clear presentation of the Gospel message. I could just share some random thoughts, family stories, a few Bible verses and tie them all together. However, if I were to give my last sermon, I would want it to be one that characterized my calling in life: namely preaching God’s Word in a systematic, expository way, with the message coming from a text and not simply my own ideas.
And so, today I have chosen to unpack the 24th Psalm because in it I see the things that matter most in this world, the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. The word Gospel means the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ’s life, death, and Resurrection. We must always remember that the Gospel is only good news if it gets to a person on time…in an understandable way, and if that person responds to it.
In this text I see five anchors of the Gospel. First, we must understand that God is the loving Ruler of this world. The psalmist begins in verses 1-2 by saying, “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.”
The earth belongs to the Lord and the fullness thereof. This word “fullness” means what fills it up. Most often it is used with land and speaks of the fullness or the entire contents belonging to the Lord.
Think with me for a moment of the fullness and grandeur of this earth: Mount Everest that soars nearly five miles into the sky…it’s God’s! The crystal clear Mediterranean Sea. It’s God’s! Niagara Falls, Queen Victoria Falls and the Falls of Iguacu in all of their breathtaking splendor…all belong to God! Volcanoes, Redwood forests, and even the Jack in the Pulpit hiding in the forest floor that no one has ever seen in the two hundred years it has been alive… all of it, God’s! The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof! There is much fullness!
Do you see the logical connection between verses one and two? The reason that David can rightly say that the earth is the LORD’s and everything in it is precisely because (for) he founded it! He established it! He owns it all! Every square inch!
I don’t have time this morning to argue for the existence of God. I am trusting that each one of you will be honest with your own conscience and admit that God exists. The next important question then is this: What is His role in this universe? Is He a god who sits back and watches in desperation as His creation falls apart and as sin takes over the world? Or…?
No. God is Almighty and all-powerful. He is the One who owns the earth, the universe, and everything that dwells in them. He has founded (ordained) it upon the seas and established (prepared) it upon the rivers.
This is a poetic way for David to say that God rules the world! He rules. Therefore, we dare not intrude upon His world as if we were more than we are. All things are from Him, through Him and to Him. To Him be the glory. Paul tells us in Colossians that “…all things were created…in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16-17). This is the first anchor of the Gospel: Acknowledging that God is the loving ruler of this world.
The second anchor of the Gospel is the truth that we naturally reject God as the ruler of this world, every single one of us (v.3). In verse 3 David asks, “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?” Whatever David means by the “hill of the LORD”, he means to tell us that there is a massive gulf between sinful human beings and a holy God. If any of us could ever enter into God’s holy presence, something of infinite value and recovery must be done.
The Bible is crystal clear on the fact that each and every human being is a sinner. Romans 3:10-12 says, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside.” My friends, we are all in bad company for we have all turned away from the loving ruler of this world. We have rejected His rule and have insisted on going our own way. For thousands of years sinners have continued to make a mess out of this world.
Do I even have to provide any evidence for this fact? In the 20th century alone, about 170 million people were murdered by their own governments, completely apart from the losses in wars (From D.A. Carson, Christ and Culture, footnote number 13, p. 120. See website “Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War” at www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html). Also, The Society of International Law in London states that In the last three centuries there have been 286 wars on the continent of Europe alone (J.K. Laney, Marching Orders, p 50).
Clearly we have not acknowledged that God is the rightful ruler of this world. Each of us has gone our own way. By nature we do not want God to tell us what we must do. We are rebels without a clue apart from the grace of Jesus.
“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? Who shall stand in his holy place?” Answer: not any of us left to our sinful and rebellious ways. God is the loving ruler of this universe and each one of us has rebelled against His authority.
The third anchor of the Gospel is the truth that God will not let us rebel forever (v.4).
Verse 4 tells us who it is that can stand in God’s presence: “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.” Well, who in the world could that possibly be?
David asks a profound question here that sounds much like the question in Revelation Chapter 5: “Who is worthy to open the book and break the seals?” Of course we know that there is but one man, the perfect God-man, Jesus Christ. David did not qualify as having clean hands because he murdered a man; neither did he have a pure heart, for he lusted and committed adultery and murder. He showed a prideful heart when he numbered the people. The only king who can qualify is Jesus Christ.
The word for “heart” in Hebrew signifies a person’s total being. Clean hands and a pure heart are also requirements for being in God’s presence. How many of us does that leave out? It’s not just that the hands and the heart must be clean, but it is also the soul that must not be lifted up to what is false.
The word soul just means “life” or a “person.” It is the physical being. Also, there is a requirement that the soul not swear deceitfully. David is not speaking here of using bad words or using God’s name in vain. He is referring to the practice of making a sworn oath or a promise in a deceitful manner.
The word of every true Christian must be their bond. We don’t hear much talk these days about lying. There are other sins that are far juicier. But let us never forget that hell is filled with liars and cheaters and slanderers…with people who cooked their own financial books for decades (see 1 Cor. 6:9-11), many of whom would claim to be followers of Jesus.
Satan is the father of lies, and those who follow blindly after him will one day be with him forever. Unredeemed liars spend eternity in hell. There is no such thing as a redeemed liar, only a sinner saved by grace striving by the grace of God to overcome that particular sin.
In Hebrews 9:27 we read, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment…” There is not a one of us who can make our way to God based on our own good works…by having clean enough hands or a pure enough heart. And that’s just the point. At every point where we are honest with ourselves, we can see that we are sinful rebels that deserve nothing less than God’s eternal wrath.
Billions have lived in open rebellion against God throughout history and billions continue to do so today. But there is coming a day when God will decisively deal with all rebellion. Why? Because the God of the Bible is a holy, holy, holy God.
The fourth anchor of the Gospel is the truth that Jesus Christ was sent into this world to die in our place and take the punishment for our sins (vv.5-6). No one naturally lives under the rule of God, but Jesus has eternally existed under the rule of God. And then, at just the right moment in time, God the Father sent His Son into this world to take upon Himself the punishment that purchased our redemption.
You may be asking yourself, “Where does he find that in these verses?” In verses 5-6 David says of the one who will stand in God’s presence: “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.”
This is a Psalm that had a present fulfillment but it was most certainly also looking forward to greater fulfillment in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. The one who would stand in God’s presence will not have a righteousness of his own. It cannot be, because there is none righteous, not even one.
In Philippians Chapter 3, Paul talks about all of his credentials that he formerly thought would impress God: He obeyed the Law almost perfectly. He was a true Jewish man to the core. He was not only a Jew, but a Pharisee…and those men were as devoted as they come.
Yet in verse 8 Paul says, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish (Gr. skubala =dung), in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith….”
Can you see that this righteousness does not come from within us, or because of us, or because of a certain level of commitment or effort? This righteousness of God is imparted entirely by faith. First Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…” At the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is this glorious fact that Jesus died as a substitute for sinners. Because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, forgiveness is available to any and all who will trust in His glorious work.
The fifth anchor of the Gospel is the truth that Jesus Christ has conquered sin, death and hell by rising from the dead (vv. 7-10).
These verses are among the most glorious prophetic verses in the Old Testament, for they speak of the conquering Christ who would one day in the future reign victoriously. For millennia the gates to redemption had been closed. I don’t mean to say that
Old Testament saints could not be saved. But what saved them was their faith in God’s promises to be fulfilled in Christ later in the future. You see, it was foggy. Now it is crystal clear.
Who is this person? What are his credentials? What is his office? What qualifies this man? Who is this man? The glorious answer that comes wave upon wave is this: “The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle!” “Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!”
In Luke 2:14 at the birth of Jesus, there is a multitude of God’s angels praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” How much more so then, 33 years later, after conquering death, sin, and hell…rising up from the grave, should the vaults of heaven break loose with enraptured royal praise!
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O 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, 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 (the heavenly armies…not white winged wussies), he is the King of glory.”
In Revelation 5:12 the Apostle John sees in a vision a picture of heaven that includes tens of thousands of angels singing in unison, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” While Jesus humbled himself and became obedient even to death on a cross….while Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a humble donkey…while Jesus didn’t lift a finger to save Himself from the agony of the cross… this is the truest picture of Jesus we find in all of the Scriptures: Jesus Christ in heaven and all of creation singing their highest praises.
Because the Father accepted the Son’s sacrifice as the just payment for our sin, we, through faith, become acceptable to God. Not through our actions do we gain any merit with God. But by grace alone through faith alone. We cannot earn it. Jesus bought and gives it freely to all who trust in Him.
First Peter 1:3 says, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…”
These are the five anchors of the Gospel as I see them: First, we must understand that God is the loving Ruler of this world. Second, we must understand and admit that we reject God as the ruler of this world. Third, we must accept the fact that God will not let us rebel forever. There is a price to pay and that price is death and judgment. Fourth, we must embrace the truth that Jesus Christ was sent into this world to die in our place and take the punishment for our sins (vv.5-6). Fifth, we must embrace the truth that Jesus Christ has conquered sin, death and hell by rising from the dead (vv. 7-10).
Where does this leave us then? It leaves us with a decision to make. There are clearly two very distinct ways of living life: Our way or God’s way. If we insist on continuing to live our way we will continue to reject the Ruler of this universe. We will do things our own way, with the end result being that we will be condemned by God and face death and judgment.
The other way of living is God’s way. In this scenario, a person submits to Jesus as the ruler of their lives. They trust in Christ’s death and resurrection, with the end result being that we are forgiven by God and given the precious gift of eternal life.
This is the decision that stands before each one of us today. If you are already living under the rule and authority of God and relying on Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins, then keep doing that.
If you are uncertain, then you are faced with both a question and a decision. First of all, which way do you want to live your life from this day forward: Your own way, or God’s way? If you say “my own way,” then something is not yet resonating in your soul. Maybe you just can’t believe that God will actually judge you for your sin one day. If so, I encourage you to read the Bible and ask God to reveal Himself to you.
If you know that you are in rebellion against God and you truly want to live life God’s way, then what can you do about that? First, talk to God about it. You must admit to Him that you have rebelled against His authority and that you deserve punishment. You should let God know that you are appealing to His mercy based upon Jesus’ death on the cross. You may also want to pray that God would help you change from being a rebel to a follower.
Here is a prayer that you could pray: Dear God, I know that I am not worthy to be accepted by you. I don’t deserve your gift of eternal life. I am guilty of rebelling against you and ignoring you. I need forgiveness. Thank you for sending your son to die for me that I may be forgiven. Thank you that he rose from the dead to give me new life. Please forgive me and change me, that I may live with Jesus as my ruler. Amen.
Next, you will want to begin putting into practice submitting to the rule of Jesus Christ in your life. Through the reading of the Scriptures, praying, interacting with other Christians, and through the Holy Spirit who now lives in you, you will find the strength to live the new life.
Finally, you will need to keep trusting in Jesus Christ day after day after day after day. You will continually need to look back at the Cross of Christ and remember what it is that Christ has done for you.
As much as I can admire the memory of Randy Pausch, in some ways I simply cannot agree with him that “if you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.” There is no “right way” to live one’s life apart from submitting our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
In John 3:36 John the Baptist declared of Jesus, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
If I were beginning a yearly “last sermon” series, this is what I would say. Lord willing, I would say it differently next year but the essential truths would never change. God is the loving ruler of this world. We reject God’s rule. God punishes our rebellion through death and eternal judgment. Because of God’s great love for us, God sent His Son into this world to take the punishment for our sin upon himself. God raised Jesus up from the dead. We must decide how we will live: under our own rule or under God’s rule.
May the Lord Himself cause us to want to live under His full authority all the days of our lives that we might dwell in the house of Lord, with endless delights, forever and ever. Amen.
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