Pursuing God: Clean Hands
Well, good morning, everyone. My name is Luke. I'm one of the pastors here at Conduit, and it's my privilege to say welcome home. It is always our hope, our desire that whether you've been walking with Jesus for a long time or you're still figuring that out, that you could find a place to call home here, place where you can figure out what your next step closer to Jesus is. And so that's what our prayer for you.
Speaker 1:And so we're hopeful that you can find a place where you can do that here. I don't have you'll notice pastor Cameron's not here today. He's, away in New York City at a, conference on prayer, and he's from what he's told me, he said it's been a very beneficial and fruitful time for him. So we're very grateful he gets that opportunity to go away and benefit in that space. So, yeah, he was well, as I was getting ready to work on the sermon for this week, he said, you know, Luke, it's gonna be Groundhog's Day.
Speaker 1:He's like, you should just preach the sermon I did last week. See if anyone notices. So, I'm not doing that. Don't worry. I'm, although it was tempting.
Speaker 1:Let's take a moment. Let's pray and we'll open the word together. Heavenly father, I pray that you would bless the preaching of your word or Jesus Christ have mercy on me. As I open your word, might it have your desired effect? Might your spirit be in and around the preaching.
Speaker 1:In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. So God likes kind of thinking about this and, you know, Valentine's day is coming up and, you know, I I don't know if you guys are you guys are probably like me. I hate when people cancel plans on me. Right?
Speaker 1:Like, that's like just like a, like, a bad experience. Like, you're planning to go to, like, a concert or something, and someone's just like, hey. I I can't go. I got other things going on. You just go on about me.
Speaker 1:That kinda stinks, doesn't it? Right? Like because, like, you're like, well, I mean, the concert will still be fun, I guess, but, like, I was kinda hoping to do this with you. Right? And I'm like, why is that?
Speaker 1:Like, it it's because it matters who you're with. Right? It matters who you're with. If on Valentine's day, your date or spouse or whoever, you've got plans is gonna go to a show. You're gonna go do this thing.
Speaker 1:And, you know, your date just says, you know, I'm not not feeling it tonight. You go on without me. Are you going without them? Right? Like, that's that's the right answer.
Speaker 1:No. You're not going. You're gonna because it matters who you're with. You know, like, that's just, like, kind of a thing. Like, it matters who we're with and when we do those things, like, we don't do things apart.
Speaker 1:I thought of this earlier this morning. Like, I was like, you know, like, this is even kind of like there's certain TV shows that my wife and I might watch that I don't watch unless she's not there with me. Right? Or at least I shouldn't. Right?
Speaker 1:Because it matters who you're with. It matters like this is the thing we do together. And if I doing this by myself, there's something that's kind of broken there. And, you know, like, if we were to even you know, like, it it matters who you're with and what you're doing and where you're going and being with someone. And that's kind of, you know, a core principle that we've had sit here in our minds as we've been kind of going through this.
Speaker 1:See, we've been looking at this passage in Exodus chapter 33. We just kind of mentioned it, as we've been talking here in the beginning of the year. Exodus 33 in the beginning of your bibles is in the middle of this, like, very dramatic and dynamic story that's happening with Israel. They've left Egypt. They've crossed the Red Sea.
Speaker 1:Moses has gone up to the mountain. He's gotten the 10 commandments. And then Moses comes down from getting the 10 commandments to find that Israel has already broken the 10 commandments. He smashes the 10 commandments, grinds them up. Pastor Cameron talked about this a couple weeks ago when he talked about idol worship, ground up the, the idol and made the Israelites drink it.
Speaker 1:There was this punishment that came because they were worshiping a false god. And then God kind of has this conversation of Moses, kind of like this aside. Like, after all that's done, God is like, I don't think I can go with you guys. I don't think I can handle this. Because you guys I'll well, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1:You guys can go ahead. You can go to the promised land. You can have all the things you want, the milk and honey, the whole thing. I'm just not gonna go with you. I'm gonna stay behind because if I think if I go with you, I just might destroy you guys because you guys are stubborn.
Speaker 1:And this is the conversation that he says, you know what? I'll even send an angel with you out ahead of you guys. You guys are gonna have everything, but I'm not gonna go with you. And then this is the conversation that Moses has with God in chapter 33. We're gonna look here at verse, fifteen and sixteen here.
Speaker 1:And he this is Moses. He said to him, Lord, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, and I and your people? It is is it not your going with us so that we are distinct? I and your people from every other people of the face of the earth.
Speaker 1:It's like, if you don't go with us, what makes us different? What makes us different from anyone else? We don't wanna go anywhere if it's not with you because it matters who you're with. It matters that we focus our eyes on the Lord and that we are fixed on being with him, on being in his presence, in his presence being with us, not running out ahead of him or lagging behind him, but in step with where he is leading us. I was thinking of, could you, like, imagine just a wedding?
Speaker 1:Could you imagine a wedding for a moment? And let's just say that the groom is up here. It's expectant for the bride to come down the aisle. And then all of a sudden, one of the bridesmaids comes down the aisle and just hands him a note and says and says, dear honey, like, I love you dearly. We're still getting married today.
Speaker 1:I just want you to say I do for me and you. I'm gonna go have a party with my gals, have a great ceremony. Right? That'd be pretty doggone terrible. Right?
Speaker 1:Like, just to ignore all of that. Right? Now this is a fictitious story. I don't know that that's ever happened, and hopefully it hasn't. But that that would be such an atrocity.
Speaker 1:Right? For the bride to just ignore the groom and say, you know what? Like, it doesn't matter whether or not I'm there or not. We're still married. This is all good.
Speaker 1:But that's not true. Right? Like, but the thing is, is that the Bible uses that imagery of a bride and a groom of a husband and a wife to describe Israel throughout the new test or through the old Testament. And then when we get into the new Testament, that same language is adopted to describe the church. Let's turn for a moment to second Corinthians chapter 11, Paul picks up on this language of a bride and a groom in second Corinthians chapter 11.
Speaker 1:The Corinthian church was a church beset by many issues and problems and distractions. They were encountering false teaching. They were having a difficult time with, extreme sexual sin inside their congregation. And then Paul has this to say to them in verse 11, one through three in second Corinthians. He says, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness.
Speaker 1:Do bear with me. He's like, I'm about to tell you kind of a weird, like, analogy here, just like I just did. He says, for I feel a divine jealousy for you. Since I betrothed you, I engaged you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ, but I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Paul's saying, I'm afraid that you guys are distracted and you guys are gonna leave your groom standing at the altar while you chase after just about anything else.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty strong word specifically to the book, to the Corinthians. But I think it's a word to us here today as well. Because it's so easy for us to get distracted, to not look at the groom, to not look at Christ or God, but to be distracted by the things of God. Right? It's a subtle difference right there.
Speaker 1:Focusing on God versus focusing on the things of God. What are the things of God? Well, like, for example, like, maybe the Bible, maybe theology. Maybe we're really good at studying this book and memorizing the verses and and knowing our theology and our systematics and all of these different things, but it just kinda puffs us up, makes us proud, makes us able to win theological battles. We know we're right.
Speaker 1:But if we met the lord, have we been humbled by the image and the character? Are we becoming more like him? Maybe we're so concerned and wrapped up in our serving in the church. Well, I'm really needed here in this ministry, and I have to do this. And people kind of look up to me and they see me a certain way and this makes me feel good.
Speaker 1:But if we missed looking at Christ, the Lord who we're serving and not just how we're being perceived and how we're needed and how our time is filled and serving. Or what about worship? We're up here and we're singing these songs. We're raising our hands. We're enjoying the feelings of singing along to the music and singing those truths.
Speaker 1:But God, isn't a feeling God isn't an emotion. You can enjoy worship as much as you want, but if you're not fixed on who we're worshiping, you're missing the point. We can be so sidetracked by so many good things that we missed the best thing, and that is God himself and the relationship he's invited us into. Our heartbeat, the thing that we're all about this year, the our emphasis is we are seeking the face of God. You've heard us talk about that.
Speaker 1:We say we're not seeking the hand of God, meaning we're not seeking God to do something. We're just seeking his face, his presence, knowing him. We are not after gifts. We are not after blessings. We are not after promises.
Speaker 1:We are after God himself being with us. That's our focus. That's where we are aiming at. We're seeking the face of God through prayer and Sabbath. We've been talking about this and we've been going through Psalm chapter Psalm chapter 24, which is where we'll be in a moment.
Speaker 1:And it's been about seeking the face of the Lord. And we're gonna hear after this Sunday, the next Sunday, we're gonna start a sermon series through the rest of the month of February on prayer. And then in March, we'll do a series on Sabbath. These are the two maybe practical or practice ways that we feel as a church, we need to be stepping into living in a way of prayer, in a way of Sabbath so that we can create room in our hearts, our lives, our schedules for the presence of God. So that's where we're going.
Speaker 1:But the question still remains is how. Okay, Luke, that sounds great. Seek the presence of the Lord, seek his face, but how exactly do we go about seeking his face? And that's what we've been asking and talking about in Psalm chapter 24. If you go ahead and you want to, you can turn with me there in the middle of your bibles and Psalms.
Speaker 1:And let's just walk through this this Psalm together. We'll go cover the whole thing today, but I just want to walk us through it and we'll pull out the portion that is for us today. Psalm chapter 24, verse one says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, everything in it, the world and those who dwell therein for, he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. So just first for a moment, those first two verses make up the first section of the Psalm. It's saying, who are we talking about?
Speaker 1:We're not talking about any other god. We're not talking about Baal. We're not talking about Asherah. We're talking about the Lord. God, Yahweh.
Speaker 1:We're talking about him who created the entire world and set everything that's in it. Everything belongs to him. It's all his. That's who we're talking about. Verse three says this question, the first of several questions in the psalm, it says, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
Speaker 1:Who gets to go up to his holy place? Who shall stand in his holy place? Who gets to be where God is? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and who does not swear defeat deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Speaker 1:Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of god of the god of Jacob. That should sound really familiar. We just sang that song, give us clean hands. Give us pure hearts. So we've been talking about that.
Speaker 1:We've kind of each week, we've broken down particularly that verse four. We talked about what does it mean to have a pure heart? What does it mean to not lift up our soul to what is false? Or other translations not lift our souls up to an idol? And then, what does it mean to not swear deceitfully?
Speaker 1:What does it mean to not speak falsely? And then today, we're gonna talk specifically about what does it mean to have clean hands? It's the last portion that we've not talked about in that passage. So what does that mean? Right.
Speaker 1:What does it mean? Not, what does it mean to have clean hands and what does my hygiene have to do with me seeking God? Right? Like, that's the thing that comes into my mind. Right?
Speaker 1:Like, you talking about clean hands. I immediately go back to 2020. Ugh. I go back to 2020, and I remember just seeing all of these videos going around the Internet of just, like, this is how you use soap and water, and this is how you wash your hands. Right?
Speaker 1:I was just like, I thought we knew how to do that. But apparently, not everybody did. But I just remember all those hand washing videos and everything. We live in a world where we're very conscious of germs and bacteria and viruses. It's flu and cold season, and that could be really nasty and, like, all of that.
Speaker 1:And we've got hand sanitizer everywhere. We live in this place where we're very aware. And so when I say clean hands, your idea is like, oh, clean hands. Like, I better not get any germs. Right?
Speaker 1:Let's do a fist bump, not a handshake. Whatever comes to your mind. But that's not at all what this is talking about because they had no conception of germs. Right? The the bible, the authors of the bible, it's not that they didn't they used to know anything about germs.
Speaker 1:They didn't think of it that way. So they're they must be meaning something else than just hygienically clean hands. So what exactly are they talking about? What exactly is this pairing of a pure heart and clean hands? Do they go hand hand in hand?
Speaker 1:Ugh. You know what I mean? Right? So what's that mean? So I wanna answer this question by turning to a teaching of Jesus in Mark chapter seven.
Speaker 1:So if we go forward to the gospels, Matthew and Mark, Mark chapter seven has this interaction of Jesus with these Pharisees. And this theme comes up the same theme of hands and hearts. And I want us to look at what Jesus has to say in this particular context and see if it illuminates a little bit of what this Psalm is getting at. Mark chapter seven will read the first seven or so verses. Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, some of the scribes who had come to Jerusalem to gather around Jesus, they saw that some of his disciples ate with their hands that were defiled, that is unwashed.
Speaker 1:For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels in dining couches. So real quick. Again, like I said, the Pharisees, the Jews, they're not interested in hygiene.
Speaker 1:They're washing these cups and their hands and these dishes because of ceremonial cleanliness. They're afraid that if they eat something that's physically dirty, that that would somehow make them internally, spiritually dirty. So that's their concern. And so the Pharisees and the scribes, they see the disciples over there, the disciples didn't wash their hands, eating whatever they're eating at the dining table. And they're like, those disciples are his students.
Speaker 1:So they talking to Jesus and they say, why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but they eat with defiled hands? And Jesus said to them, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain, do they worship me teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold the traditions of men.
Speaker 1:So Jesus responds by rebuking the Pharisees. And he's like, look. You guys talk a good talk, but you're not walking the walk. Man, I need to stop the alliterations. But he's just like, you guys are talking, like, a a really good game here.
Speaker 1:But are you guys living it out? Are you guys actually putting it into practice? Because you're saying one thing with your lips, but your heart means another thing. And he goes on to give this example where the Pharisees were saying, you know, there was the the commandment honor your father and mother. And they're like, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, mom, dad, I honored you by giving money to the temple. So I don't have to support you this month. That's what they were saying now. That's dirty. Right?
Speaker 1:He's like, you're making this tradition. And he's just like, you're making this kinda law and this rule that you don't have to support your parents and care for your parents because you can get out of doing it by, like, tithing more at the temple or something like that. He's like, that's not the point. He's like, you've missed it. You've started to elevate this tradition and this kinda loophole you made over actually keeping the commandments of God.
Speaker 1:There's another passage where Jesus is talking about the Pharisees, and he says, woe to you because you are whitewashed tombs. He says, you're pretty on the outside, but on the inside, there's nothing alive. There's only dead bone. So there's something that's not matching up between the way you talk and the way you behave, what you do. Jesus elsewhere says in the same story, he says, it's not it's not what goes into a man through his unclean hands that makes a man impure or unclean.
Speaker 1:It's what comes out of the heart that makes you unclean. Jesus is calling out the Pharisees here for this duplicity, for doing things in such a way to try and get an appearance of holiness, but not actually having a heart of holiness. And so when we in here and when we're looking at Psalm chapter 24 and it says, he who has clean hands and a pure heart, they're put right next to each other. The hearts, the pure heart, that's our desires. That's our longings, that's our the seed of our being, what we think about, what we focus on.
Speaker 1:Right? That certainly should be fixated on God. But so also should our hands, the things we do things with, our actions, what we do when no one else is looking, that also has to be in alignment. Because what good does it say to to to say to somebody like, well, this is just from James, from the book of James, where the author says, what good is it if you tell a man, be blessed in the Lord, brother, but then give him nothing to eat? What good is that?
Speaker 1:What good is it for me to say, oh, I love the Lord, but none of my actions line up with that? Or what is it good is it if I show up to church every single Sunday, I do all the rules. I do the things. I'm the perfect outward looking Christian, but inwardly, I I don't care. I just kinda do it.
Speaker 1:That's what I kinda always have done. It's kinda my fire insurance, however you wanna think about it. And you're just not actually all that concerned with God. There is this way that John Piper, a well known pastor and preacher, put it in a book, titled god is the gospel that has always just stuck with me. He said, there is going there's not going to be anyone in heaven who is only casually concerned that God also happens to be there.
Speaker 1:It's like, you get that? Like, the way we talk about salvation so many times is like, oh, I'm saved. Right? That means I'm not gonna get, like, in trouble, and, like, I'm not gonna go to hell, and I'm not gonna experience any pain or suffering. And heaven, oh, heaven will be like this paradise.
Speaker 1:And will God be there? Oh, yeah. I guess God will be there, but I don't really care. I just want paradise. He's like, that's not the gospel.
Speaker 1:You've missed it. The concern around the gospel is our focus on Christ, on the Lord, on knowing God and possessing and having relationship with him. That ought to be our focus, and that needs to come out of an alignment with both our actions and our heart. Being in this alignment, God is looking for our hearts and our hands to be in agreement about our desire for God. He's wanting our hearts to be in agreement with this our behaviors over our desire for God.
Speaker 1:It does mean no good if I say, yes, Lord. I want you, but I'm not doing anything about it. Our hands must be clean. They must be clean in pursuing the Lord. And so must our hearts.
Speaker 1:Another way of talking about this is the Lord wants our Mondays to match our Sundays. Right? Because it's so easy in the culture we live in right now. It's like, come to church, say amen, get excited, take some notes, raise a hand. But how much does that match up with how we live our life Monday through Saturday?
Speaker 1:Where's the alignment? You come and say my name on Sunday, but is that the only time my name is on your lips? Is the rest of your life matching up with what you're saying on Sunday morning? Is your whole life a living sacrifice lived out and poured out for the Lord? Lord is looking for our hands and hearts to be in agreement about our desire for God.
Speaker 1:Now you might be hearing all of this and you might say, pastor Luke, is this just all works? Like, am I supposed to just like, kind of work really hard, get my, make sure my hands stay clean, keep my heart pure, not worship idols, not swear by anything falsely. If I just do all of these things, do I earn God's favor? No. Short answer to that question.
Speaker 1:But if we look at the next verse in chapter 24 of the Psalms, verse five, See what this says. It says, he, the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Doesn't say he will earn blessing. It doesn't say he will earn righteousness. Doesn't say he will earn salvation.
Speaker 1:It says that he will receive it, that the Lord gives these things not out of merit, but out of graciousness. I can think of a different passage. The book of James has something similar. Let's turn to James chapter four for a moment after the book of Hebrews. James chapter four, verse seven, Listen to this passage and see where it resonates, where it rhymes with what was being said in the Psalms.
Speaker 1:Says, submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be wretched and mourn, weep, and let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Speaker 1:Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Notice that it says draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. There's this relationship dynamic that's being had. We were talking about in the men's breakfast last time we were together, we were talking about the parable of the the lost son. I think that's anyways, I'm not gonna preach a whole pair sir sermon on that, but we're talking about the parable of the prodigal son.
Speaker 1:And we're talking about god's desire and his pursuit of those who are lost. And, you know, and we were kinda noticing like, oh, like like, the sun had to kinda come to his senses and leave the far country. He found himself in a pigsty, and he was like, what am I doing here? It would be better for me to return to my father's house and be a slave there. And so he does.
Speaker 1:And the part of the story that's always stood out to me, the part that just is, like, so beautiful to me out of that story is that the father is standing. The father doesn't stand on the porch of the house and look out and see his son come and doesn't just stand there leaning on the porch post saying, when he gets here, I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind. No. That's not the father's heart. The father runs off of the porch, runs down the driveway, runs across the property, and meets the son halfway and wraps him up in an embrace.
Speaker 1:There's this relationship dynamic where the Lord invites us to seek him. And when we do so, he will seek us and meet us. The Lord is not going to force himself on anyone. He says, turn to me and I will be there waiting. We think about this dynamic between a parent and a child.
Speaker 1:Does the child earn that relationship? Do they earn the love? Do they have that by the merit of who they are? We've been called sons and daughters because of the blood of Jesus Christ by proclaiming that we have faith in Jesus. We're now in Christ.
Speaker 1:My works are no longer mine. My sin has been removed from me, and I've been given the righteousness that's not mine. When God sees me, he sees a child. He sees a son. He sees a daughter.
Speaker 1:I didn't earn any of that. I don't deserve any of it. I'm in that relationship. But does the father also want us to say, hey. Can we hang out?
Speaker 1:Can we spend some time together? I want to get to know you more. Yeah. A parent will always pursue their child. We'll always say let's, Hey, let's have dinner together.
Speaker 1:Hey, let's have some time together. But how excited is a parent? And when a child comes up to the parent and says, Hey, can we, can we go play ball? Can we hang out? Can we go watch a movie?
Speaker 1:How much does that elevate the parent's heart? That's the dynamic that we're relate we're invited into. God invites us into a relationship where we seek the God who first loved us. God has already loved you. He has already invited you into relationship.
Speaker 1:And if you've put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are a son and a daughter. But that doesn't mean that your relationship with God has stopped growing, has nowhere to go. He is inviting you in deeper still. So Psalm 24, it's got this beautiful portions. That's the second portion.
Speaker 1:Right? If we remember Psalm 24, the first two verses is kind of this declaration of who God is. The next four verses are a declaration or an answer to that question in verse three. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? And then the last four verses seven through 10 begin to describe who the Lord is and what he's doing, where he is and where he's coming.
Speaker 1:There's a interesting wordplay that's evident in some of the translations of this passage. And verse four says, he who has clean hands, a pure heart, he who does not lift up his soul to what is, excuse me, to what is false. Right? That word lift up, that word is repeated in verse five. The word receive has the same root word.
Speaker 1:It's not the same word. It has the same root word. There's this word play of lifting up. Notice how verse seven starts. Lift up your heads, o gates.
Speaker 1:Be lifted up, o ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. We get another question. Who is this king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, o gates.
Speaker 1:Lift them up, o ancient doors, and that the king of glory may come in. Who is the king of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. Amen.
Speaker 1:The Psalm is asking, it's this call and response of who is the king of glory? Who is he? And make way for him. We know that this psalm, before I get ahead of myself, talking about the glory of the Lord, we might say it's a word that gets in our worship songs. We say it in church, but what exactly is the glory of the Lord?
Speaker 1:What does that mean? It's it the best way I know to describe it is it's the radiance of his character. It's the thing that it emanates from him that elicits praise and joy and awe from us. It is himself. I wanna turn to John chapter one for a moment.
Speaker 1:John chapter one has some language in it that I think is important for us to hear because it's going to tie together this old testament Psalm. I'm gonna tie it together with the new testament with Jesus. John chapter one is probably one of the richest theological passages of the new testament, in my opinion. And I just wanna read for you, the first eighteen verses or so, and just listen for how Christ is described here because he's the word. You hear all that over and over again.
Speaker 1:That's referring to Jesus. How is he described? Who is he said to be? Verse one. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.
Speaker 1:The word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was not anything that what not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Speaker 1:The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Speaker 1:He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave them the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the world became and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. His presence was with us.
Speaker 1:And we have seen his glory, glory as the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this is was he who I said, he comes after me and ranks before me because he was before me. For from he for from his fullness, we have received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Verse 18.
Speaker 1:No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father's side, but he, Jesus Christ, has made him known. Jesus is God. Yes. God made his glory and his character visible to all of us through the coming of Jesus Christ. When we open the gospels, when we read the stories of Christ, when we read the words of Christ, when we see his heart, his behavior, his kindness, his love, when we look up to the cross and behold Christ crucified, we are the we are looking at the glory of God displayed.
Speaker 1:We are looking at the love of God displayed. We are seeing his character displayed for all of us to see. That is the truth of the gospel. He is the king of glory. He is God's glory made visible for you and I to see.
Speaker 1:Yes. Psalm 24 is an interesting let me pause before I talk about that. This passage there's this lifting up our soul. Don't lift up our soul to what is false for seven and eight and nine has this word of lifting up. Lift up your heads, oh, gates.
Speaker 1:Lift up, oh, ancient doors. This passage is encouraging us to lift up our heads, our eyes, our minds, our souls to God's glory in Jesus Christ. We are being beckoned in to behold Jesus Christ, to look at him, to look at God, to not get so fixated on what's going on in the world and all the concerns and the things I could be concerned about and worried about, but to have a sense of God's presence with me, to not be so consumed before day to day that we forget that, oh, God's here. God walks with me in the middle of the storm, the middle of the raging sea, as I feel like I'm walking on raging waters. I'm not walking alone.
Speaker 1:The Lord walks with me. God wants to be in your life day to day. See, one of the things is is that you might be hearing this and you're just like, well, Luke, like, does that mean, like, I gotta feel like I'm on a mountain top every day? Or, you know, like, I don't know if I can keep the, like, summer camp church revival energy going my, you know, Monday through Saturday. You know, I don't know if I can do that.
Speaker 1:But the thing is, in my experience and the experience of so many Christians, and I think the invitation of the Lord is that the Lord is a lot quieter and still and present than you might realize. It's not, I'm not talking about, we're always gonna be on like this. When we say fire, we talk about this kind of passion or energy and life's all good. Have at it, please be that way. But what I'm saying here is that the Lord wants us to seek, let us seek God's presence in each and every ordinary day.
Speaker 1:That the Lord is with you. That tomorrow when your feet hit the ground and you start to go about your schedule, God is just quietly alongside you. He's quietly saying, Hey, just so you know, I'm right here with you. Whether it's a good day, it's a bad day. It's up or down.
Speaker 1:He's with you and he has an invitation to you. I think I think if we were to have a clearer picture, a clearer awareness of God's presence with us, I think we would have more peace in our ups and downs. I think we'd have a greater perspective. We wouldn't be so concerned or worried about how this is going or what's upsetting me. We'd have a sense that, okay.
Speaker 1:God is with me. This is tough, but this is in the perspective of eternity, and I know that God has got me. I think we would have more clarity and truth. I think we would be less distracted by lies. I think we'd be less worried about trying to prove things.
Speaker 1:I think we would just be grounded in who we are and who God is. And then I fun finally, I think we'd have greater direction in our purpose. I think we wouldn't be so concerned about, do I need to go do this and make someone like me, and I need to earn this and get this and achieve this? But we would simply say, this is what the Lord has for me today. I think that kind of knowing that the Lord walks with us in this quiet, calm, persistent way gives us a way to see the world entirely different, our day to day entirely different.
Speaker 1:I think we are invited by this Psalm to lift up our whole selves and to behold Christ and his glory. This psalm, Psalm chapter 24, there's a number of different theories kind of around it and its writing. It doesn't really tell us when it was written. But one supposing, theory is that this psalm was written when king David brought the ark of the covenant into the city of Jerusalem. The ark of the covenant is the this golden ark.
Speaker 1:If you've seen Indiana Jones, you know what I'm talking about. But it's this golden ark, had the 10 commandments inside of it, had these cherubim and those wings, and this is where the Lord's presence dwelt. It's where he was. It's where his presence himself was and where he belonged. And so the tabernacle was this physical space where God happened to be.
Speaker 1:And Jerusalem is this city, and it's built on a hill. And up towards the top of the city is where the tabernacle was placed, and, eventually, the temple and all of that was built. And David didn't build it. His son, Solomon, did. But there's this whole story and everything that goes on about the ta about the ark of the covenant coming into the city.
Speaker 1:But it's wondered if perhaps this is the Psalm that was written for that occasion because it's, it's got this whole sense of who is it that's coming? The Lord, God, Yahweh, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord. Who's gonna go up to the place at the top of the city, the tabernacle, the temple, Those who have clean hands, who have a pure heart. And then it has this wonderful phrasing at the end. It says, lift up your head, oh, gates.
Speaker 1:Open the gates of the city. Be lifted up, oh, ancient doors. The king of glory may come in. Who is the king of glory? You can imagine that this almost being kind of done in this kind of drama where the questions, who is the king of glory, is called out by someone who's on the other side of the wall.
Speaker 1:And as the procession comes, they say, the king of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your head, o gates. Lift them up, o ancient of doors, that the king of glory may come in. Now the other thing we learn about Psalm 24 from history and other documents is that the Psalm was used regularly on what we now call Sunday. That day of the week was part of the ritual worship that would have been said in the temple every single Sunday of the week.
Speaker 1:And so what that tells me, and we can infer, is that on Palm Sunday, this Psalm was sung by some priests in the temple. All the while the king of glory is riding into the city on a donkey as the people cry out hosanna, and he would be crucified but five days, six days later. The king of glory. And so this passage is an invitation as we say lift up your head, oh, gates. Be lifted up, oh, ancient doors that the king of glory may come in.
Speaker 1:Let that be the prayer of our hearts. Might we open the gates of our hearts. Might we open the gates of this church, of our homes, and invite the king of glory to come in and reside for him to dwell among us and for us to be his people defined by him and who he is making us to be, that his glory might be dis be displayed in us as we become more like him.
