The sermon 'The Crown of the Sovereign in Psalm 24' by Doug Newell explores the themes of God's sovereignty, holiness, and the longing for a Messiah. It begins with the significance of the ark's entry into Jerusalem, symbolizing God's presence and the city's revival. The speaker highlights the sovereignty of God as the creator and owner of all things, emphasizing that all of creation, including humanity, belongs to Him. The sermon discusses the requirements to ascend the holy hill, which include having clean hands and a pure heart, highlighting humanity's inability to meet these standards due to sin. Through the imagery of gates opening for the 'King of Glory,' the sermon interprets Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of these requirements, offering salvation and righteousness to believers. It concludes by drawing parallels between the Old Testament events and the anticipated second coming of Christ, portraying Jesus as the ultimate King of Glory who will one day rule over all nations.

Sam Westman is going to preach this message. I plan on singing Psalm 24, but after that I'm glad that didn't work out. I'd hate to have had to follow that. So, thank you. Psalm 24, verse number one.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded upon the seas and established upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity, is sworn deceitfully.

He shall receive the blessings from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that they seek thy face, O Jacob. See look. Lift up your heads, O you gates. Be lift up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty and mighty. Lift up your heads, O you gates, and you lift them up. The everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come to you. Who is this King of Glory?

The Lord of Hosts. He is the King of Glory. See. In your imagination, if you would think back and put yourself in Jerusalem about 3, 000 years ago, a faithful servant of the king of Israel, and you see your king David towards the end of his life take such a hard fall from what he once was as a young man, a young king. You know that his days are quickly ending and you love him but you see his life coming to that tragic end and the way that his life had ended with his family and the consequences of his sin.

And thinking about your alien king and which one of his sons will end up sitting on the throne, you might sing the song David. You might recall as you sing those many years in Jerusalem, on the occasion that caused David to write this song, as he was inspired by God the Holy Spirit. The occasion of the song was the ark for the first time had been transported into Jerusalem, the city of David. All Jerusalem rejoiced as the Ark made its way into Zion, as the Ark had entered the city of David. And perhaps you see King David in the streets, dancing as the Bible said, with all his might before the Lord in worship.

And the city was in a great state of revival. Then one might think back to those days and think of this song, but then look at what had happened to David and through the trials and tribulations and problems that he had. And you see the great hero of Israel. We also see a fallen hero. You remember God's presence and deliverance and then he's saying that line, who is the king of glory?

I believe that this question is a question that those that sang the song and looked to the coming Messiah asked themselves. We know it says that the Lord is the Lord of hosts, but the song gave the Old Testament saints a longing for the coming Messiah. To know that God was their king and that God did deliver them, but also at the same time a longing for that king to come. And you see it in this Psalm, that it says clearly that the Lord, he is the King of glory, but there's also an anticipation in this Psalm. There's a longing for that which is, but that which is also to come.

A longing for that is what is now, but what they're also looking for. And I hope as we look at this tonight, we'll see the crown, the sovereign in Psalm 24. We've seen our Lord in these three Psalms as a substitutionary sacrifice and also a great caregiver. But He is also the King of Glory. And we'll see that tonight.

I think it also points to the literal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it also just displays the fact that he is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. In verses 1 and 2 we see that he is a sovereign king. He is a sovereign king, he inherits the Lords and the forenest thereof. He is a sovereign owner. Everything belongs to God.

Every square inch of this universe is God's. We say, we might say we have a piece of property or we have a house, we are stewards of what God has given us. Everything that we have and everything that we see, everything that we look at belongs to God. Every rock, every tree, every frog, every deer, it's all God's. Everything is His.

He owns it. And when we sit down to eat, we are thankful for food. And we ask God, we tell God we're thankful for what He's given us because it is He that gives it to us. God gives us the ability to work, to earn money, to go out and to plant a garden. But it's God that gives the increase.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And when this verse is quoted in the New Testament, Paul uses it for that very fact of food. So Everything that we have and everything that we see and everything that we have in our possession, it belongs to God and He gives it to us. Not only does God own all the possessions and the earth and the universe and everything yet, He owns you. Every person in this building is owned by God.

You belong to Him. People think that they're autonomous, that they have the right to do whatever they want, but that's not the truth. That's not the case. You don't have the right to do whatever you want. You don't have the ability to say what you think is true and right.

People today think that truth can be decided by the individual. Well, that's not true to me, or that's not my truth, or that's not what I think is real. People can think that they can pick and choose reality. And they say, well, you know, I was, a person will say that they can just change their gender or they can say, well, I think I'll just kill this baby in my womb or whatever that is. Because They think that they can define reality, they can define what is right and what is wrong, but that's not the case.

God owns you. He owns you and He has every right to tell you what to do. That you can do whatever you like just because you feel like it, because people say, well, I'm my own man. And even us, as the children of God, can say that. And we can say, well, I don't care what the word of God says.

I'm just going to do whatever I want. And that kind of autonomous idea is idolatry. Because we are owned by God. There's nobody that's their own man that's on an island by themselves and just can think that they can do whatever they please. No, God is king and he owns you.

You're not self-governing. There is a king and he is a lawgiver. People will say, well, I don't like that. Why do I have to listen to it and obey why do I have to do what God tells me to do because the Bible tells us here he is our sovereign not only the sovereign owner but he's the sovereign creator He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. You belong to God because God made you.

He owns you. He made you and thus you must do what he says for you are His creature and He is the creator. We made you, God made you, as the Catechism says. What else did God make? God made all things.

Why did God make all things for His own glory? And we are His, we are owned by Him. We are His possessions. He is our creator. He made us and he made us to glorify him, he made us to worship him, and we are his creatures, and people don't like to hear that, that we're creatures, but that's what we are.

We are created beings under the authority of our King and our Creator. He is a sovereign Creator, He is a sovereign ruler. Since God owns the world, and since God created the world, We must do as He says. He created us, He owns us, and we must as the creature do as the Creator tells us. He has made us moral creatures, and He has commanded people to be holy as He is holy.

And the King has said, you were to be holy, I have made you, I have placed you upon this earth and I have showered you with blessings and given you things, now you must do as I say, you must do as I command you. So we have in the first two verses a sovereign king, And then in verses 3 and 4 we find that he is a holy king. Not only is he a sovereign king, but he is a holy king. Who shall sin unto the heel of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath cleansed hands and a pure heart, who have not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." So here we have the king who has a holy heel, and he has requirements to enter up into that holy heel.

The mention of this holy heel gives you a longing to be there. As you read that, who shall ascend? It's a question of who shall stand, who shall ascend, but it gives you a longing to want to be there. And that's what the holiness of God does, that's what holiness is. And at the same time, terrifies us to think of a holy God, but it also draws us to it.

When the question is asked, who can ascend, who shall stand, it's because we're unholy. But at the same time we think of that holy healer, holy God, and we desire to be there. There's a longing to be with God, but also like Isaiah and Isaiah 6, there's a fear there. A fear and a terror of His Holiness. We're terrified by the prospect of a holy God, but His Holiness is so beautiful, we're drawn to it.

Let's think of the holiness of God in terms of the occasion which the song was written. It was whenever the ark was brought to Jerusalem by King David. You remember in the Old Testament when Eli was high priest that they were using the ark as sort of a, like it was magic. And they went out to battle and said, well we got the ark, we'll destroy the Philistines because it's a weapon. And they went out there and not only did they not destroy the Philistines, but it was one of the saddest days in all of Israel's history.

Eli's sons were killed in the battle, The Ark was stolen, Eli fell over dead, and the glory of the Lord had departed. It was a sad day. Well the Philistines took the Ark and said, well now we've got the magic box, and now we have the weapon. We're going to take it in there, we're going to mock Jehovah, we're going to take his ark and we're going to set it for our god. And then we'll have that.

Well, you know the story where God knocked down the Dagon to the idol to fall down before the ark. They had to pick their god back up and knock it down again. And there's nothing but stomps. And that's kind of a funny thing that God did. God probably thought that was amusing too to see them pick their God up and setting down there.

Well that wasn't it. God sent plagues among the Philistines. And everywhere that ark went, the plagues went. The Philistines weren't convinced yet. They said, well let's just put it on a cart and send it off and wherever it goes, we'll see if it goes back.

Then that's what was causing our claves. Well Israel, they went back to Israel, they got the ark and they were happy about it. And they said, well let's go look inside and see if the Philistines took anything. Well they went in, opened it up, and God killed over 50, 000 Israeli men. 50, 000 were killed because they opened up that ark.

You know what they said in first Samuel 6 20, who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? Who and whom shall he go up from us? That was the question that they asked because they opened it up and it was just God killed them. And they said who is able to stand before this holy God? Who can stand before him?

Who can come before his presence? Well God is holy who can't? But many years later David wants to bring the ark to Jerusalem and they decide that they're going to transport it back and if the cart was good enough for the Philistines it would be good enough for Israel so they build a cart and they put the ark on the cart and it was traveling along and they hit a bump and the other trying to keep it from falling down grabs the hold of it and God kills him. Because he came before the Lord. Now the word of God says that they were carried with staves, not on a cart.

And David went back, and David was perplexed why this kept happening. And David said, well, just take it to his house. Don't bring it back to Jerusalem. I always wondered what he thought about that. He Probably didn't like that too much.

They took it. But what happened is the ark was there and the lord was blessing Amen And they said alright we studied the word of God now we see where we messed up We weren't following what God said they got the stakes and they brought it back and it was great rejoicing It was great rejoicing when the ark came back to Jerusalem. And that's the occasion when this psalm was written. So the question is asked, just like they asked in 1 Samuel 6 20, Who shall ascend? Who shall stand?

Because God is holy. Who can worship such a holy king? Who can stand before him? Who can approach him? You can't approach the ark.

You couldn't go into the holy of holies in the tabernacle. God is not to be trifled with. And that's what this tells us, that God is holy and he's not to be messed around with. And we are to follow him and to worship him and revere him. Yes, he is the great shepherd, he is the good shepherd, but he is a holy king.

He is a holy God and who can stand before his presence? Who can enter into this holy hill of Mount Zion and come before him? Not those in the right family because you couldn't just be a Levi. You had to be a certain family to try to be a Levi to pick up the ark, not just anybody. And not those with good intentions.

Others had good intentions when we tried to keep the art from falling. It wasn't something evil in his heart other than disobeying the Lord. He had good intentions. He was sincere. Not those who did mighty works because it wasn't King David either.

There were requirements to stand before this king. There were requirements to enter into this holy Zion. What are those requirements? Verse 4, he had to have clean hands and a pure heart. That's a requirement.

What maybe a truer picture of holiness we don't have in the scripture here are clean hands and pure heart. The clean hands are our works and the pure hearts are our motives and our thoughts. And even those that we would call good, people with good characters, their hands are stained black with the blackness of sin. Who if not lifted up his soul to bandy, were sworn deceitfully? What's the requirements?

Well, all you have to do is have a clean hand, a pure heart, never sworn deceitfully, or never coveted, or never worshipped any type of false cock. That's all the requirement is. It's like the rich run the ruler, he went away sad because the only requirement was perfection. And that's what we are. We're standing at the bottom of the hill looking up at the holy hill of Zion and the glorious and wonderful King and the only requirement is a clean hand and a pure heart.

That's all you have to have to enter into the King. And who are we? We're the ones that rebel against the King. I look down on my hands and I said, the blackness of the sin of staining. And look, we inerrant to my heart and know the intentions and the thoughts of my heart the word of God tells me.

And I look to the King who is holy and will judge everyone who isn't. And I see the joys that await on Zion's hill for the cleaning of hands and pure of heart. Who makes those requirements? Well, nobody does. No one can march up the hill of Zion.

But wait, what do we have here? So that gives us a longing for this good king. But then it brings us to despair to know that we can't get there. But then we see verse 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and lift up everlasting doors.

Doors and gates shut people out, and the impure of heart and deed are closed out of that blessed city. The doors are shut, the gates are locked, But there's a cry. There's a cry from outside of the city. Someone beckons to lift up the gates and open up the doors because one has come to the holy hill. Who has made his way up to the holy hill?

Well, it's the king. The gates are lifted and the doors are opened and the hero has come. A hero has come, a man has come. And this man has clean hands. And this man has a pure heart.

And they say, open up the doors for the king of glory has come. Who is this King of glory? They say on the other side. The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. None other than the Lord Jehovah is the King.

Who has entered? It is the Lord who is strong and mighty. Well, who is the king? It is Jehovah the shepherd. And he has entered as the mighty victor.

He's defeated death, he's defeated hell, he's defeated the grave. And now he stands conquering all of his foes, saying, lift up, open the gates. The King of Glory is coming. The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. Who has entered?

It is Jehovah. It is He that has entered into these gates. Well, that brings us back to the question, who shall ascend and who shall stand? So here we have God there who tells us it's the King and it says it's his holy heal, he's created all things, but then you have the king coming out say open the gates so the king of glory can come out that kind of makes you stop and think that well how is that how is it that God is the creator of all things and then he's on the outside of the gates they open up the gates for the King of the Lord because the glory is coming in. That kind of puts two things at odds against each other so it would seem.

But then we go back who can you can ascend? Well the King has entered. The man Christ Jesus has entered and no other one in human history ever can Stand at the bottom of the hill looking up filthy and dirty And we think of the story this song The earth is Jehovah's The earth was created and sustained by Jehovah. It is God's heal to which we desire to enter. It is Jehovah's holy place to which we long to be.

Who was it that entered in? It was the same king of glory, isn't it? It's his. He created all things. But then who enters in?

It is Jehovah. So how is it that the Lord must enter into his own holy heal? The only way the Lord can enter into his own holy heal in his own holy kingdom as if he first left and condescended and then rose victorious and ascended up again. That is what this is showing us that the King, the creator, the sustainer came down and entered into his own creation that he could Defeat death in Psalm 22 and then rise again as the victorious King of glory and One day he will come upon this earth and he will rule this earth with the rod of iron. And he will stand in that literal Jerusalem.

And he will stand upon that holy hill. And then all of the earth will come to the king of glory. It was God who created this. It was man who was made in God's image that rebelled against the King. The human race now impure in works and thoughts and means banned from God's holy presence.

We're doomed because we don't meet the requirements. But God entered into his creation, the Word made flesh, the King of Glory, the hero of the Word of God lived in his wicked work. The King of Glory met the requirements of having a pure heart. He met the requirements of having a pure hand, a pure, a clean hands. He met the requirements who have never sworn deceitfully, or lifted up his soul on the banner.

He lived perfectly, and then offered himself as a sacrifice for his people. The King of Glory was our propitiation. And there the King of Glory died not for his sins, but for ours. And here's the good news of the whole song in verse number five. He shall receive the blessings from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

So how can we enter into his kingdom? Jesus is the only one who can fulfill verse number four with clean hands and a pure heart and he's the only one who can give us verse number five, salvation and righteousness. And that's what happened. Jesus fulfilled verse four, and then he gives us verse five. We receive righteousness from the Lord.

He shall receive the blessings from the Lord and the righteousness. We receive salvation from the Lord. We can enter into the gates because the King of glory took away our sins and he gave us his righteousness. He is the just and the holy one, the justifier who imputes his righteousness to all who will come to faith in Him. We don't just come to the Holy Heal in our own righteousness, but instead we come to the King who made the way, who made the pathway, and that we can follow Him and open up the gates because the King of Glory comes in and all those who are clothed in his blessed righteousness.

We come to the king who suffered in Psalm 22, and we come to the shepherd of Psalm 23, that we might worship the king in Psalm 24. And who is this king of glory? Who is that suffering servant? Who is that shepherd? It is the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the same. And one day King Jesus strong and mighty will come right in on his white corpse faithful and true and righteous. He will make war his eyes like a flame of fire in his head will be many crampons. He'll be clothed in a vesture dipped in blood. In his name is the word of God.

Out of his mouth will go that shark sword and he'll smite the nations and he'll rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, and there upon his thighs written, what, King of kings and Lord of lords. Who is this King of lords? When he sits upon Mount Zion, is thrown upon there in Jerusalem, the nations will come to worship Him. We will go to that holy hill.

We will go to Jerusalem. We will be there with our hands clean, washed in the blood of the King, and our hearts pure at gift of His grace, and we will worship his holy name. Who is this king of glory? It is Jesus. Jesus is this king of glory.

Worship his holy name. Who is this king of glory? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, we thank you for your attention.