Episode Transcript
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Let's turn to another Psalm now,
Psalm twenty four, and here this portion
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of God's word. We read and
sang this a few weeks ago. Psalm
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Twenty Four. The Earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof the world and
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those that dwell therein, for he
has founded it upon the seas and established
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it upon the rivers. Who shall
ascend the hill of the Lord and who
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shall stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure
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heart, who does not lift up
his soul to what is false and does
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not swear deceitfully. He will receive
blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the
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God of his salvation. Such is
the generation of those who seek him,
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who seek the face of the God
of Jacob. Lift up your heads,
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O Gates, and be lifted up
o ancient doors, that the king of
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glory may come in. Who is
this King of glory? The Lord Strong
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and mighty, the Lord Mighty in
battle? Lift up your heads, O
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Gates, and lift them up,
oh ancient doors, that the king of
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glory may come in. Who is
this King of glory, The Lord of
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hosts? He is the King of
glory. Amen. Here in Psalm Twenty
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four we have the advent of the
king. The king is coming, he
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is about to arrive and hear the
people of God sing his praise. They
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call out even to the gates,
the ancient doors of the citadel, perhaps
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as the king of glory of drives. It's a mighty song. It's the
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kind of song that would be sung
in a grand procession, the kind of
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processions that you might read about in
fairy tales or perhaps see on TV,
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a great victory parade of crowds and
people. Some scholars think that perhaps the
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Psalm was used when David brought the
Ark out of its wandering into into the
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temple, and that is God represented
there and the arc advanced in. The
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people would have sung this song.
Perhaps we even have some back and forth
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singing going in versus seven and eight
and nine and ten. It's hard to
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say about these specifics in particular,
but what we can know for sure is
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that this is a very kingly royal, Royal Song, as we do so
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are as we look at it.
Let's let's look at some of its parts
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and consider our king of glory and
what we can expect of him. The
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Psalm begins and verses one and two
with the proclamation of the extent of his
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rule. The Earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof the world and those
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who dwell there in God's kingly rule
is as far as the I can see.
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Let's say you decided to start a
business and you worked very hard.
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Let's say you opened up a restaurant
and you poured your life and your money
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into it and finally got going and
it was going well and after a couple
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years you opened up I don't know
what we would call this. We'll just
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call it number two. You opened
up the second restaurant in another part of
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town, and you'd be so proud
of yourself right that you will open a
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second restaurant and then maybe, after
thirty years, you would even have a
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chain of these things, if you
things went really well and throughout the city
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you might have five or six or
maybe even ten, and we would congratulate
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this person, we would be happy
for them. Here, though, is
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not just a building here and a
building there and a business here in a
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business there. The Earth is the
Lord's. It all belongs to him,
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and not just this little piece of
land or that little piece of land,
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all the land and not just the
land, but the waters too, and
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not just the waters but everything in
the whole world and all that dwells in
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it. This king is glorious if
you think about different aspects of creation,
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on whether it is perhaps physical things
like a mountain or a sea creature,
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or you think of the Stars and
the heavens, or you think of small
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things, little microbiomes. At each
of these, anywhere you point, you
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can see the glory of the Lord, and you add all of these things
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up and you have something that's more
glorious than we can even imagine. The
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Glory of God is evident in this
world, and that he has made the
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earth itself testifies to these things,
to this king of glory. Not only
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does it belong to the Lord,
but there's a reason it belongs to the
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Lord, and that's given to us
in verse two. He created it.
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It is his because he he made
it. This wasn't a buyout. He
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didn't happen to accidentally fall into an
inheritance. The Lord made this by the
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power of his own words, and
the strength of his power is also expressed
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in verse two by noting in particular
that it is founded upon the seas and
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it is established upon the rivers.
The water is a nice thing and we
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enjoy it when we're taking some time
at the beach perhaps, or looking at
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a creek up on mountain lemon,
but the water, when you think of
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it in this global way, is
often a terrifying thing. It's not a
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place that really sustains humankind very well. We have to work very, very
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hard to put together a boat,
let's say, to to have a cruise
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or to send out a an aircraft
carrier. It's a lot of work to
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create this, and even then it's
temporary where ultimately it seems land creatures.
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What what we able are able to
establish is always limited. We never can,
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we've never been able to any way
to establish any kind of great city
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or kingdom on the seas alone.
The seas for a long time have represented
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and are represented in the scriptures as
being those which are filled with chaos.
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They are a formless place. You
can't grab onto them, you can't contain
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them. They are powerful and when
they spill their bounds destruction, as we
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see in the tsunami's from Hurricane sometimes
the force of the seas and the power
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of the seas, though, doesn't
begin to compare with the God who made
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them and who establishes the Earth upon
them. He separates the sea from the
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dry land and he creates an inhabitable
place for mankind, a place where all
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around us, if you think globally, in this big picture of perspective,
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we have these giant bodies of water
contained at bay where we are safe and
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and protected. This is particularly important
because there have been a lot of people
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throughout history who have maintained that these
waters are themselves gods or controlled by the
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Gods, powers and forces which we
ought to give our respect and even worship
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to. That's not correct. God, Yahway, the Covenant King, the
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King of glory. He has founded
the Earth upon the seas, he has
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established it upon the rivers, and
every other false god is a shamed in
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his light. In verses three through
six, then the psalmost sort of focuses
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in on a particular hill. I'm
God, in various times and places throughout
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history, has promised to set his
name in a particular place on that north
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and they involve mountains, these great
spectacles, these marvelous aspects of God's nature
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which which create in us even a
sense of fear and awe and majesty.
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God Use is these places, to
not contain himself by but to set his
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name there, that we might,
in a human way, begin to understand
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his glorious nature. And so we
consider the hill of the Lord, Not
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Sinai on Zion. And then we
have this question that's asked of us.
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WHO Shall Ascend? How shall we
relate to this God, who is this
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glorious who can go and stand in
this holy place? The answer is clear.
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The one who is holy verse,
for says he who has clean hands
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and a pure heart, who does
not lift up his soul to what is
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false and does not swear deceitfully,
he will receive blessing from the Lord and
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righteousness from the God of his salvation. Here, of course, we were
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we come to know more about the
Lord, that he is good, that
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he is holy, that he is
pure and he desires these things. We
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also learn something about ourselves that if
we are to be in that place,
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if we are to share in his
glory, his kingly power, his might,
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his victory, his protection, all
of these things, then we must
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be a people who can be in
his presence, or or else we will
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be rejected, set away. We
also learned that, in order for this
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to happen, we must be saved, says he. Verse Five says he
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will receive a blessed or receive blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God
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of his salvation. We don't come
to God as a God ready to make
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a deal, ready to divide the
land or establish some sort of peace treaty
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with him or a compromise. No, we come as servants. We come
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as people that are entirely in need. We come up his holy hill to
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seek his favor, to find his
grace, to know him, to serve
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him and to praise him. And
God says that when we are holy as
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he is, then we will receive
these things, not only the one who
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ascends, but all who assends.
Such is the generation of those who seek
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him, who seek the face of
the God of Jacob. Then, in
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verses seven through ten, we have
identified for us the one who will ascend
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and, interestingly, paradig oxy Clee, it's God himself who will send the
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hill of the Lord. Where the
Lord is? The answer is the Lord.
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Lift up your heads O Gates and
be lifted up o ancient doors that
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the king of glory may come in. I imagine this. I imagine this
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grand procession, right, the king
coming back from victory in battle. I'm
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moving towards those ancient doors on the
citadel, on top of the mountain,
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in the doors creaking open hearth,
you know, as going to accept the
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king. The king is welcome in
this place. Right, Citadel's fortresses,
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even temples, are guarded right and
against the enemy. You don't fling open
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the doors, you protect the doors, you bar the doors, you pour
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hot oil over the doors, you
create moats in front of the doors.
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Not here. Here, open the
gates, all ancient doors open up.
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The King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory?
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The Lord? Yeah, this one
who's promised himself to Jacob, to Abraham,
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this one who has promised himself to
David. Here he is, and
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now it is time to welcome him. The Lord is at hand, and
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so we have these praises being lifted
up. The Lord of hosts. He
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is the King of glory, The
Lord of hosts, strong and mighty in
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battle. Amazing, amazing thing.
What this Psalm teaches us is that,
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ultimately, our place in the holiness
and the glory of God is going to
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only be obtained by him. By
the Glorious One, the God of our
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salvation, and what we come to
learn as we continue on in scripture,
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is that God accomplishes this victory by
sending his only son into the world to
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become victorious over his enemies. But
this victory is not achieved as people think.
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You remember, that is Jesus entered
into Jerusalem for His crucifixion. The
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crowds were cheering has ANA, here
is the king. Indeed, they were
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right, but what they forgot and
what they didn't realize, what they were
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failing to see, is that this
kingdom would be established as a king not
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only of glory but also one of
grace. You would be a kingdom that
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would be established by grace, through
the suffering of this king, through dying
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on a cross, so that death
itself might be a defeated. And this
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is why this parade, this advent
of the king, the joy that we
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have in our hearts as we wait
for the King of glory to enter in
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you so substantial, eternal and ultimately
satisfying, because every king throughout human history
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has ultimately and always failed at some
point. Even the best kings, as
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recorded in scripture, hand their kingdoms
over to worthless people. The kingdoms that
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they establish eventually fall apart, often
by the sins and the the fractures in
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of their own making. But not
this time, not this one, this
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king whom the Lord Sends, this
King of glory, though he's veiled in
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flesh, he takes on flesh so
that the final victory, the fine,
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no conquering, would be completed.
And this is, of course, what
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Jesus does in a hymn that will
sing in a moment. Him Two hundred
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and ninety seven, and they take
the the author takes this Psalm, Psalm
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twenty four, expresses its content and
then makes some applications. I want us
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to think about this and then sing
it as we close. The hymn begins.
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As the psalm ends. Lift up
your heads, you mighty gates.
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Behold the king of glory waits.
The King of glory is drawing near.
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The Savior of the world is here, a help or just he comes to
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thee his chariot, his or is
humility, his kingly crown is holiness,
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his scepter pity in distress. It's
a remarkable kingship, an unusual one that
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his, that is power also comes
in great weakness and suffering. Nevertheless,
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it is it is a it is
a true power and sold. Verse Three
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says, Oh, blest the land, the city blessed, where Christ is
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the ruler is confessed. Well,
happy hearts and happy homes, to whom
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this king in triumph comes. Then
verse four, it makes it personal and
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it says fling wide the portals of
your heart. Right, so the call
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is first to the ancient gaze.
Those ancient doors open up, and now
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it's to US ourselves. You remember
that the Kingdom is not just a place
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that God establishes, it is a
people. The people the Kingdom that God
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establishes, our people that are not
standing around with their arms cross going.
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Well, we'll see how this one
goes. There the Kingdom of people whose
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hearts have been flown open, the
portals of their hearts open wide to receive
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this king of glory. Fling wide
the portals of your heart. Make it
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a temple set apart from earthly use
for heaven's employ indorned, adorned with prayer
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and love and joy, verses five
and six. And with a prayer redeemer,
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come, I open wide my heart
to thee here. Lord abide,
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let my let me thy inner presence, Feel Thy Grace and love in me
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reveal. So come, my sovereign
enter in let new and nobler life begin.
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Thy Holy Spirit Guide us on until
the glorious crown be one. And
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this is, of course, the
prayer of the Christian that we would be
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God's Temple, that we wouldn't just
observe him from afar, standing back from
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his holy hill, wondering if only
we could maybe someday participate in it,
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if we finally get our act together. No, we come standing in the
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grace of Jesus, standing in the
glory of his satisfaction, and we are
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a part of that parade as he
enters into that city, as he ascends
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into that on that Holy Hill,
so that when it asks who can ascend
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the hill of the Lord, we
can say I can because of the one
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who leads me there. And as
this has already happened for us, the
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Lord of Glory has come into the
Earth to dwell among us, Emmanuel,
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we now only are waiting for his
final return, when all of these things
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will be consummated and brought to their
final and glorious completion. And so until
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00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:56.559
that day, we do ask the
King of glory the Holy Spirit even to
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00:20:56.720 --> 00:20:59.519
guide US until that glorious crown be
won.
