Juan R. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Theology at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Psalm 24 in SWBTS Chapel on September 26, 2024.
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Juan Sanchez 0:00
Well, good morning, Southwestern family and Texas Baptist College. I bring you greetings from the High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, and from my wife, who is a brand new grandmother and is probably making her way up here this evening, this afternoon, to be with our newest grandson that’s here right on your campus. And so that always gives us a wonderful excuse and opportunity to keep coming up here and to be here often. It is my privilege to be here and to expound Psalm 24. It is an honor and privilege to be here. Thank you, Dr Dockery, for the invitation. I thank God for Dr Dockery and the work that the Lord is doing through him here at Southwestern Seminary. And so I have grown to love this place and to love you, and it is a delight to open the Word together.
Juan Sanchez 0:51
Now pray with me. Our Father in heaven. We have sung your praises. We have declared your word, and now, Father, we confess our need. Father, we are weak. We are needy. We need you to show us your glory in the face of Jesus Christ from Psalm 24 by the ministry of your spirit. I need You, Father, to be of […] help to your people here this morning. So fill me with your Spirit and be with my mouth. In Jesus name, amen. It’s a controversial statement, but I’ll go ahead and say it, your God is too small. That was the title of JP Phillip’s book, his bestseller in 1953: Your God Is Too Small. He was seeking to confront wrong views, small views of God. And you won’t be surprised if this book is still needed today, as you look around in this United States. The American view of God is pretty truncated. Everyone wants a manageable deity, a God created in our image that we can manage and that we can shape and that we can mold, or a God that we’re reacting to. Maybe some people think God is just a cranky sheriff in the sky, always waiting for you to mess up, to pull you over. Maybe some people view God as the loving grandfather [who] invites everyone on his knee, everyone on his lap, no one is excluded. He never corrects. He never rebukes. He’s always kind and he’s always gentle. Maybe some people view God as a great therapist. Therapeutic culture, and this God is there to listen to you. He’s there to listen to you without any judgment whatsoever. He will even invite you to a group hug. Maybe the view, probably that most people have, because this is the God of all religions of the world, and it is the eternal Santa Claus. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I’m telling you. Why have you ever noticed that the eternal Santa Claus is not a God of good news? Because you either end up on the naughty list or you do good works that get you on the good list. But the eternal question is, how much is good enough? How many good works do I have to do to get off the naughty list? These views may seem silly, even childish to us, because we’re theologically trained, right? We’re in Texas Baptist College or Southwestern Seminary. So we know better, don’t we? Or do we? What about the God of process theology? Always evolving, always becoming, needing us to actually become what he aims to be. What about the God of open theism? Future is open to this God because he cannot contradict our freedom. And if he knows the future, then we’re bound and not free. This is the God of the academy, the gods of the academy.
Juan Sanchez 4:26
And if we’re not careful, we, too, will create a God in our own image. Just think about it. Depending upon your own experiences, maybe your theological frameworks, you might be tempted to create a God that looks just like you or looks like what you want him to be. For you, a God who is primarily or only love, or a God who is primarily or only wrathful, depending upon your experiences or theological frameworks, you actually may be tempted to dismiss a God that you don’t want. We hear people say, I would never worship a god as father, because my own father was abusive. You might refuse to worship a God who allows so much suffering in the world. What kind of God would allow so much suffering? I can’t worship a God like that. Or you might say, I would never worship a God who would punish his son by killing him. That’s just divine child abuse. You see, we’re all tempted toward distorted, even truncated views of God. And here’s the irony, no matter what you are facing, what you need most is a view of the one, true, living God who has revealed himself in the Scriptures. When your world is crumbling out from underneath you, you need that God. When you are in the depths of sin and sorrow, you need that God. When you are on a mountaintop and delighting in God, you need that God. Wherever you are in your life, you need the God who has revealed himself in Scripture. And so I ask again, is your God too small?
Juan Sanchez 6:16
In Psalm 24, we have a declaration of who God is. God is the King of Glory. Friends, this is our God, the God that we just sang about. And the main point that I want us to see from this psalm is simply this, that the King of Glory is the sovereign creator who redeemed us and who fights for us. Let me put it another way. The King of Glory is the God who is transcendant, wholly other, and yet he is God with us and God for us. And this is what I want to show us in three movements from Psalm 24. Right there, just those three stanzas that form the structure of our Psalm, The King of Glory is the sovereign creator. Dr. Dockery, you read verses one and two already. Let’s read it again. The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants belong to the Lord, for He laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers. The King of Glory is the Lord. As the Lord, He rules over all things. This name, “the Lord.” is God’s essential name. This is God’s personal covenant name. In Exodus 3, he tells Moses, I revealed my myself to you by My Name, the Lord. I did not reveal myself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by my name, “the Lord.” To them, I revealed myself as the Lord Almighty. This is God’s personal name, his covenant name, and we find it here in verse one, verse three, verse five, verse eight, twice and verse 10. God reveals Himself to us by His names, as Herman Bavinck says. God reveals Himself, so who is he in his names? He Himself becomes knowable to us. God has condescended to reveal who he is, and the only way that we know who he is, his nature and his being, his character and his attributes, is by his name. And he has revealed to us himself, by His name, the Lord, “I am.” I simply am. God always has been, and he is Yahweh. He revealed Himself to Moses by this name in the burning bush. He acts in such a way as to reveal that he alone is the Lord. Go home and read Exodus chapter six. At the end of Exodus five, when Moses is frustrated and he actually has the nerve to say to God, you have not saved this people at all. God says, now I’m about to show you, because I’m going to act in a strong and mighty way. I’m going to show you that I am the Lord. And so He reveals Himself to Israel by this name, the Lord. This is a name [by which] he reveals himself to Israel Mount Sinai, when he made a covenant with them. And he says, You will be my people. I will be your God. And so God is the covenant-making covenant-keeping God.
Juan Sanchez 9:38
And in the New Testament, this name is attributed to Jesus. In John 8, Jesus says, Before Abraham was I AM. You may be surprised to know that in the New Testament, the Lord is also said to be the Spirit. In 2 Corinthians, 3:18, the Lord is the Divine Name. And interestingly, the Great Commission reminds us of this fact, doesn’t it? We’re to baptize all nations in what? In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Did you catch that that name is singular? The Father, Son, and Spirit share in the divine name. God is one. We worship one singular God who exists in three persons. The Lord is the triune covenant, King and Lord, this is who has revealed himself to be. And the Lord is the one covenant-making, -keeping God who exists in three persons from all eternity. This is the King of glory. This is how He has revealed Himself. And this King of glory, who is the Lord, is also the sovereign creator. He rules over everything by virtue of the fact that he created all things. This is what we see here in verse two. He laid its foundations on the seas and established it on the rivers. Therefore he owns everything, and he owns everyone. Everything belongs to him. The fact that he is the creator and we are the creature makes us different. There is a distinction between the creator and the creature. This King of glory, is self existent. He is independent. He needs absolutely nothing. He transcends his creation. This is not the God of pantheism, where all is God and God is all. And you might think to yourself, oh, who believes in pantheism? Go Google modern pantheist, and you may be surprised. Or just watch Disney’s Pocahontas, as she sings “The Colors of the Wind.” This is also contrary to the God of process theology, the God who is always becoming. The King of Glory transcends his creation. He is not like us. He is wholly different. The King of Glory doesn’t need us, but we need him. We belong to Him because He created us, and there is nothing he cannot ask of us. Let me just say that again, he is the King of glory. He is a ruler over all things. There is nothing that he cannot ask of us. The King of Glory has revealed Himself to us by His names so that we may know him truly, in order to obey Him and worship Him rightly. This is the end goal of theology.
Juan Sanchez 12:49
Theology here at this seminary is not simply so that you will know everyone’s positions, not simply so that you will have your head filled and debate other people. The end goal, the purpose of theology is to know this God truly that we would worship Him rightly. If your theology is not practical, if your theology does not lead you to worship, if your theology does not lead you in humility, to say, God, how may I serve you? Then your God is too small, because theology, the doctrine of God, everything flows from God. What we study in theology is all from God. We’re either studying God, his being in nature, or we’re studying God’s works. There’s nothing else. Everything flows back to this God who has revealed Himself as the Lord, the King of glory. We worship the one true, independent, triune, covenant, Lord who needs nothing, but he chose to create us in order to relate to us that we might glorify Him Who is this King of glory. He is the sovereign creator.
Juan Sanchez 14:08
But secondly, in the second stanza, we see that the King of glory is the Holy Redeemer. Let’s read the second stanza together, Who may ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and who may stand in his holy place, Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem, the mountain, the Temple Mount. Of course, this is a Psalm of David, so the temple has not been built yet, but still, the people of God came to the mountain in the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting. Once it was settled, once David brought the tabernacle from Shiloh to Jerusalem, there’s still this understanding God reveals Himself from mountains. Mount Sinai, here in Jerusalem, is a mountain of God, the holy hill. And the question is, who can come into the presence of this God, who may stand in his holy place? And the answer comes back, The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. This question flows out of verses one and two. This King of glory, the sovereign creator, who can come into His presence? Who can ascend to the place of his dwelling? You see, the King of Glory is holy. The word “holy,” we know it means separate or to cut, but really it indicates consecrated to. By implication, it is to separate from. And so God being holy means God is consecrated to himself. He is dedicated to his name. He is dedicated to his glory, and by implication, he is separate from everything else. And that’s what it means for us to be holy, that we are holy, dedicated to God, consecrated to God, and by implication, we are separated from the world. This King of glory is holy. And yet notice, this King of glory condescends to live among his people. So transcendence is not the only thing we can say about this god. This God is also imminent. He is God with us, and this is important for us to see. Who may ascend to the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? This God, who transcends everything, chose to dwell in the midst of his people. This should blow our minds. This creator God has chosen to live with his people. And we see this initially in the garden, when God dwells with Adam and Eve in that sacred space. Then, as a result of sin, they’re exiled from the sacred space. But God is not done with his plan. He creates a people for Himself. He places them in the center of their known world so the surrounding nations could see who he is and what it’s like to live as His people, consecrated to him, separated from the world. And this is what he says to them. It really is amazing. As he brings them out in the Exodus, and they’re in the wilderness, living in tents. God says, Make me a tent so I can live in your midst. The tabernacle was God’s tent. It had a dining room table, it had a lamp. It is where God lived in the midst of his people. And then, of course, once David comes along, he wants to build this temple. He is prohibited, and so he prepares everything for his son, Solomon, and Solomon builds this temple. This is the holy mountain. This is God’s holy place. God had already chosen his mountain, and mountains are where God reveals His glory.
Juan Sanchez 18:25
And in verse three, David asks the question that is raised by God’s holiness and by his desire to dwell with His people. This is a question that’s dealt with very early on in our Bibles. In fact, this is a question that the Book of Leviticus deals with: How can a holy God dwell with a sinful people? And God, in His mercy, provides a system of sacrifice whereby the repentant sinner could bring a substitute to receive their death penalty so that their sin would be atoned for. The only one who can enter into the presence of God is someone who is clean on the outside and on the inside, someone who has clean hands and a pure heart, someone who is integrated wholly as a human being. That’s what the word integrity means. Who has not appealed to what is false, who is not sworn deceitfully. This is who can come into the presence of God. And those who can approach the presence of God receive great blessing. Verse five, he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who inquire of him or seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. This is a God who made covenant with Jacob, with Israel, with the people of God. The covenant-making, covenant-keeping God.
Juan Sanchez 19:29
But you know the problem, don’t you? Who has clean hands and who has pure hearts? Not me and not you. All humanity has inherited Adam’s sin, guilt, corruption, and condemnation. We are born guilty before God. None of us has clean hands, none of us has pure hearts, as a result of Adam’s sin. Everything we do is tainted with sin. But God provides. He provided the sacrificial system for Israel. But imagine these morning and evening sacrifices, day after day after day after day after day. Can you imagine how much blood was spilled? Can you imagine the smell of accumulating blood? Can you imagine also the daily reminder of our own sin, and yet that provision was meant to point us to a greater provision. You see, there is only one who was worthy to ascend the mountain of the Lord, the Lord Jesus. He is the only one who had clean hands and a pure heart. No deceit was found in his mouth. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:22, And he approached the mountain of God. And as he approached the mountain of God, […] he turned his face toward Jerusalem, everyone yelled out, Hosanna, hosanna, son of David! They were praising his name. They were welcoming the King of glory into the gates. Open the gates. Welcome the King of glory. Welcome the son of David. And days later, they crucified Him, this one who alone was worthy, because only he had clean hands and a pure heart. [He] went from being declared the King of glory and the son of David to being mocked as King of the Jews on a Roman cross, and he became a sacrifice for sin. He was the once-for-all sacrifice that provides a way for anyone who repents of their sins and trusts in him to enter into the holy place, to enter the mountain of the Lord. When Jesus was crucified, the veil that separated the holy place from the Most Holy Place was ripped apart, indicating that Jesus now is the way. He is the way that we can ascend to the hill of the Lord. He is the way that we can stand in his holy place, not in our righteousness, but in his. And God vindicated him by raising Him from the dead on the third day, and he exalted him to his right hand. And he, God the Father, placed him on the throne, and he gave him the name that is above every name.
Juan Sanchez 22:33
Philippians 2, He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But the name that is above every name, you know what? That name is the Lord. He was always that in His divine nature, but in his human nature, he won the name that is above every name. He received all authority in heaven and on earth, and He is enthroned on high, and he is bringing every enemy under his feet. In Christ, we now can have clean hands and pure hearts because he has given us new hearts. If you’re here in this room or within earshot, or see this video sometime later, and you do not worship this one true, living God who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die as a sacrifice for sin, whom he raised on the third day, I appeal to you, turn away from your sins and place your trust in this king. This is the only hope that we have for clean hands and pure hearts, by which we can enter into His presence. In Christ, we may approach God boldly as our father. Can you imagine the benefits and the glories of all the spiritual blessings that we have in union with Christ? If not, read Ephesians 1:3-14, Everything that we have, we have in Christ. Whenever your life is falling apart, whatever crisis hits you, in Christ, we can run boldly into the throne of our Father in heaven and share our needs, because He cares for us and we come in the name of Jesus, the King of glory.
Juan Sanchez 25:19
But there’s a third picture that we have here in the third stanza, in verses seven through 10. Listen to it as I read it. Lift up your heads, you gates. Rise up, ancient doors. This is an antiphonal Psalm here. As the Ark is coming back, when the Ark would go out to war. The picture here is the Ark coming back from war. The army is victorious, and you hear the antiphonal cry, Raise up the doors, or open the gates, or lift your heads! And as that is happening. Rise up, ancient doors, then the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates. Rise up, ancient doors. Then the King of glory will come in. Who is he? This King of Glory, the Lord of Armies, He is the King of glory. So in stanza one, we see this is the God who transcends everything. In stanza two, we see that this is a God who is with us. And in stanza three, we see this is the God who fights for us. You see, the King of Glory is the divine warrior, and this is the picture that we see here. In Verse seven, we’re reminded that when Israel went out to war, they took this ark, and the Ark is coming in. The Ark represented the footstool of God, where God promised to dwell in His glory here on Earth, in the midst of his people. And his army comes back, returning victoriously. They’re singing this antiphonal hymn back and forth in celebration. And then someone asked, Who is this King of glory? And the answer comes in verses eight and 10. The King of Glory is the divine warrior. He is the one who makes war to protect his people. He is strong and mighty. He is the Lord of Armies, the Lord of hosts, Sabaoth. He not only is God with us, He is God forus.
Juan Sanchez 27:30
When Jesus first came to Jerusalem and was hailed as the son of David, they were expecting him to come in and make war against Rome. He did make war, but not against Rome. He made war against Satan and sin and death. He made war by handing himself over to the governing authorities and to the Roman armies and to the Jewish authorities. He made war against Satan by defeating death, by taking death upon himself and being raised from the dead. What happened on that cross? I would point you to Colossians 2:14-15. God the Father erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. Do you understand what happened at the cross? Whatever list was against you, of all your sins, of everything that you’ve done wrong that was nailed to the cross by the father, so that there’s nothing that stands against you. You stand in the righteousness of Christ because you have placed your faith in Christ. But that’s not all that happened. Paul goes on and he says, He, Jesus, disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly. Our God disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly. He triumphed over them, in Him, in Christ. In other words, God, the divine warrior, made war on Satan, sin, and death at the cross. Jesus is God with us, and He is God for us. He has made war against our enemies, and he continues to intercede for us.
Juan Sanchez 29:23
But Jesus, the divine warrior, is coming again, this time to make war against the remaining enemies of God and His people, making an end to them once and for all. Jesus, the King of Glory, is on His throne. He is placing every enemy under his feet, and he will return with a sword, and he will crush all his enemies, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. He is the King of glory and the Sovereign Lord Who created us. Therefore, we should obey our King. There is nothing that he cannot ask of us. He is transcendent and worthy of all our praise and honor and glory. This is the King of glory. But the essence of sin, listen, the essence of sin, Paul says in Romans 1, is not honoring God as God. That’s the essence, the root of sin, not honoring God as God. When our God is too small, we do not honor him as he really is. God is already revealing his wrath against those who do not honor him as God. That’s what Romans 1 is all about. But Jesus is coming again, the divine warrior is coming again to make war against all the enemies of God. This is our God, the King of Glory, who redeemed us and who fought for us.
Juan Sanchez 31:02
Have you ever thought about how children think about God? I used to have this little book called Children’s Letters to God. It is interesting. They write and say things like this, Dear God, there isn’t school in heaven, is there? Maybe some of you are asking the same thing. Dear God, I bet it is hard for you to love everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in my family, and I can never do it. Dear God, would you make me a little brother. I want someone to boss around, amen. Children’s views of God are funny. They are childish, aren’t they? They’re way too small. When I was a child, I acted like a child. I talk like a child. I behaved like a child. I viewed God as a child. Friends, we’re grown ups. Let us put childish ways behind us. Let us put these childish views of God behind us.
Juan Sanchez 32:25
When you are in the midst of sin and your life is spinning out of control because of the choices that you have made, you need the God who is holy and transcendent, but who came to dwell with us and fights for us. You need a God big enough that you can run to him, uncover your sin, knowing that he will cover your sin in the blood of His Son. When your life is falling apart and you receive that diagnosis, when you receive that Dear John letter, when you receive that failing grade, whatever it is that brings a crisis into your life, you need the God who is big enough to be in absolute control of everything, knowing that you don’t have to understand everything, but my God is the Lord. He keeps his promises. He’s in control, and he’s not only with me, he’s also for me. So whatever I’m facing, I may not know, I may not understand, but I can trust him. When you are doubting your faith, when you’re struggling and wondering, What is going on? Is God good? Is God loving? Is God wise? You need a God who is big enough, that you know, because he saved you, He will keep you. And though it may not feel like it, he is fighting for you, and He will bring you all the way home. And behind him, we will ascend to the holy hill, into the presence of this holy God, we will lift up our heads and we will praise his name forever and ever and ever. The King of Glory is the sovereign creator who redeemed us, who is with us, and who fights for us. Who is this King of glory? Psalm 24 tells us believe in Him, worship Him, obey Him. Let’s pray.
Juan Sanchez 34:51
Our Father in heaven. We thank you that you have not left us in the darkness to figure out who you are or to figure out what we need. But you have revealed yourself over time in your creation, in redemption, through the prophets, through the fathers, and ultimately in your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the King of glory. Father, help us to put away childish views of God, because what we really need is the view of the one true living God, the King of Glory, the covenant-making, -keeping Lord, who is God with us, and who is God for us. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.
