Who May Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? (Psalm 24)

[Sermon from Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

Standing at 29,029 feet, Mt. Everest is the highest peak on the planet! And it was on May 29, 1953, at 11:30am that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people ever to climb this glorious peak. And since that day, there have been over 2700 people who have reached the summit of Mt. Everest. And while these 2700 people were able to go back home with some pretty amazing bragging rights, there are over 200 people who have perished attempting this treacherous climb, of which there are close to 150 bodies that were never recovered.

The quest to climb Mt. Everest demands the absolute best of those who attempt it. It takes over a year just to prepare your body and mind to make this climb as you are stretched to the absolute limits of what you can handle mentally and physically. And not only the training, but the financial burden is no small matter, as the required permit alone costs over $20k. Not to mention all the equipment and supplies. The quest to climb Mt. Everest means that everything else in your life takes a backseat. For a solid year, anyone who dares to climb Mt. Everest must have a singular focus. It demands everything of those who dare to climb.

When George Mallory, a mountaineer who made three attempts to climb Mt. Everest was asked why he wanted so badly to climb this treacherous mountain, he quickly and simply replied, “Because it’s there!” “Because it’s there!” This statement has been called “the most famous three words in mountaineering.”

Whether it’s Mt. Everest or the K2, the grandeur of the highest mountains beckons us upward. Even for those of us for whom climbing means taking the escalator from the first floor to the second floor at Easton, there is something deep within us that is moved beyond words when we behold the splendor of the highest peaks on the planet, as if God dwelled there.

Last week, John Cook started a new teaching series entitled, “Called to Worship.” And he talked about what worship is and how we are to worship as the living body of Christ. And today, as we finish up this series, I want to shift focus from the act of worship to look at the worshipper; to move from the activity of worship to the person who is doing the worshipping. Because, as John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard movement said:

We learned that what happens when we are alone with the Lord determines how intimate and deep the worship will be when we come together.

What if worship is more than what we do at church? What if, in fact, worship is more about what happens from Monday through Friday? What if what God is really after is not so much about what we do, but rather, who we are becoming? What if, more than the act of worshipping, what truly touches the heart of God is the kind of worshipper we are becoming? What if?

I want to spend the brief time that we have together to ask a question which I believe to be the most important question that any person can ask. And so today, borrowing from the passage that we will be studying, I’ve entitled my sermon, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?”

So before we dig into Scripture, please bow your heads with me in prayer. Let’s pray.

If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Psalm 24. If you do not have a Bible, we have Bibles on either side of the stage, so please feel free to come up and grab one.

Psalm 24:1-10
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. 3 Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god. 5 They will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God their Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. 7 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory.

The Premise
What a marvelous passage! The Psalmist begins with a broad sweeping statement that sets the stage for all that is to follow. He writes in verses 1 and 2 these words:

Psalm 24:1-2
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.

The Psalmist says first that before any attempt is made to ask that question of questions, we must first understand the premise. And in his mind, everything revolves around the fact that there is a God, and that he created the earth. And not only the earth, but all who live in it, you and me, we, too, have been formed by the mighty hands of this creator God. It starts there.

As Christians we believe that there is a God. As Christians we believe that this God is a God of love. We believe that he created the heavens and the earth and all who live in it. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe that he came to seek and save the lost. We believe that he died and that he rose again from the dead. As Christians we believe that there will come a day when Jesus will return, that day of days when he will sit on his glorious throne, where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord! And so as Christians, we worship. We worship God!

Because God exists, worship exists! Worship is God-centeredness. Worship is to be consumed with who God is. Worship is the forgetting of ourselves in remembering who God is and what he has done. Worship is the movement from apathy to awe. Worship, from start to finish, is all about God, all for God, and all to God. Worship begins and ends with God! Because God exists, worship exists! And this is the premise upon which we ask this question of questions.

The Question of Questions
The Psalmist writes in verse 3:

Psalm 24:3
Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?

If there indeed is a God, if indeed he made the earth, and if indeed he made you and me, really is there a greater question that we can ask than this one? Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?

This is the cry of every generation! And this is the fundamental question that every single religion is trying to answer: Who is able to meet with God? Or to put it another way: Who is that man, woman, or child, who can see God?

This is the question that has consumed mankind ever since the great fall in the Garden of Eden. Since that day, in an attempt to ascend this mountain of the Lord, to stand in his holy presence, to see God, we’ve created Golden Calves, we’ve built the Tower of Babel, we’ve built monasteries, we’ve made pilgrimages to the Holy City, we’ve built $9 billion dollar particle accelerators to collide subatomic matters. All because we want to see God!

Who is the mighty man or woman who can scale the towering heights of the Mountain of the Lord? Let us examine ourselves today and ask, “Is it me?”

The Answer May Surprise You
So what is the answer to this question of questions? Well, I think the answer may surprise you. The Psalmist declares that what God is after are not the strong people, the smart people, the self-confident people, the successful people, the accomplished people, or even the religious people. But this is what we read in verse 4:

Psalm 24:4
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god.

What God is after, what God is longing for, what God is searching for are people who have clean hands and a pure heart, people who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false God. So what does it mean to have clean hands?

In the Bible, hands are used in many different symbolic ways. To shake hands is to enter into a formal agreement, to clap hands is to celebrate, to put one’s hand over his mouth signifies silence, to put one’s hand over his head means grief. And of course, to lift “holy hands” is an act of worship. So, the question we are asking today is, “Are these hands, these ‘holy’ hands that we raise to God, clean hands?”

And what about pure heart? What does it mean to be pure in heart? Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, says this:

Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The gospel of Jesus is first and foremost concerned about the heart. All of the emphasis in the teachings of Jesus is centered around the heart of a person. Why? Because the heart is the fount out of which everything else flows. It is the origin of all of our words and our actions. So we read in Luke 6:43-45:

Luke 6:43-45
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

It is out of the heart that all that is good, lovely, and beautiful comes. But the heart is also where the darkest parts of who we are reside. So, we read in Matthew 15:19:

Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

When someone murders, when someone has an affair, when someone lies, all those actions have their origins not in the brain or the eyes, but the heart.

A pure heart is a heart that is without hypocrisy, a heart that has absolutely nothing to hide. A pure heart is an undivided heart. And is it not the divided heart that is the fundamental problem for us in attempting to ascend this mountain of the Lord? “I want so much to see God but my eyes keep wandering!” So how clean are your hands? How pure is your heart?

Four Costly Offerings of Those Who Dare to Climb
There is a great story in the Bible where King David wanted to build an altar to the Lord so that he can offer sacrifices to God. So he looks around for a land to buy where he can build this altar. And as he approaches this plot of land that looks promising, the owner comes out and he immediately falls flat on his face. King David tells him that he is looking for a land to build an altar to the Lord, and upon hearing this, the owner tells King David that he can have absolutely anything he wants for free. And this is what King David says:

2 Samuel 24:24
I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.

What have you offered God lately that cost you something? When was the last time that you gave God something that was actually painful for you to give? When was the last time that you actually deprived yourself of something to honor God? When was the last time that you offered God an actual “sacrifice” of praise, worship that cost you something?

For those who dare to climb the mountain of the Lord, what God is asking of you is for an offering that costs you something! The journey up the mountain is a costly endeavor. And there are four costly offerings that are required of those who dare to climb:

1. The Costly Offering of Repentance
So, the first costly offering of those who dare to climb is repentance. To be that person who can ascend the mountain of the Lord, we must first deal with our sin. The great pastor and author John Stott said this:

Sin and the child of God are incompatible. They may occasionally meet; they cannot live together in harmony

There is a time in our worship to be joyful, to be loud, and to celebrate. But there are also times where the most worshipful thing that we can offer God is repentance. Sometimes the loudest worship is profoundly silent!

Here is one thing that I would recommend you try: Instead of rushing to church and running in as worship begins, what if you made it a point to arrive at church just 15 minutes before service begins just to sit here in silence before God while holding the communion elements in your hands, to reflect on your week, to pray, and repent. To sit alone with God for just 15 minutes a week, if you take this seriously, it will revolutionize your life! Worship will take on a whole new dimension in your life. Just 15 minutes every week! I double dare you to try!

Have you learned to despise sin in your life? Have you matured enough as a Christian to absolutely hate sin? Have you put to death your sins?

Romans 8:13
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

To become a person who has clean hands and a pure heart, we must, by the Spirit of God, put to death the sin in our life.

2. The Costly Offering of Self-Denial
The second costly offering for those who dare to climb is self-denial. Going back to Psalm 24, here is what we read in verse 4:

Psalm 24:4
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god.

Self-denial means removing the idols from your life, removing the false gods in your life, starting first with yourself.

Colossians 3:5
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

So what are the idols in your life? What are the things that you’ve put up on a pedestal? It is easy to point out things like sexual immorality, lust, and greed. We say, “Of course we need to remove those idols!” But what about the idol of comfort, the idol of safety and security, the idol of marriage, the idol of family? Sometimes the biggest idol in our life is a good thing which simply takes the place of that greatest thing, which is God.

Let’s take, for instance, money. It is arguably the great idol in most of our lives. To remove an idol, you must break the stronghold that it has on your heart. And if money is your idol, I think the best way to loosen its grip is to give it away, as much as you possibly can, as often as you possibly can, to the point that it hurts a little bit. If you haven’t been tithing, start there. And if you are already tithing, try this: Every year, give just 1% more. If you are giving 10%, start giving 11% next year, and then 12% the year after. So that 10 years from now, you are giving 20% to God. Can you imagine giving 20% to God when the average American gives only 3.2%? The truth is, the more we make, the less we give. Period. What better way to loosen the stronghold of money in our lives than to become that person who gives away more and more each and every year?

To remove the idols in our lives, we must radically orient our lives toward God, and we must often find ourselves humbly on our knees before God, that most fundamental posture of the Christian. Have you humbly kneeled before God lately or have you been kneeling before idols?

3. The Costly Offering of Perseverance
The third costly offering of those who dare to climb is perseverance. Anybody can climb anything once. But what truly distinguishes the pros from the amateurs is perseverance, that ability to climb again and again and again. To persevere means to become a marathon runner rather than a sprinter. To persevere means delayed gratification, paying the price now to receive that glorious prize at the end.

James 1:12
Blessed are those who persevere under trial, because when they have stood the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Maybe some of you are on the verge of giving up. Maybe some of you have given up already. And if that is you, I want to say to you gently, kindly, sincerely, “Get up!” Get up! Get up and climb again! There is no failure so big, there is no hurt so huge, there is no sin so great, that God cannot redeem you, that God cannot restore you, that God cannot use you again. So, get up and climb!

4. The Costly Offering of Faith
So far we talked about the costly offering of repentance, self-denial, and perseverance. But none of that means anything without faith! More than anything else, what is required of those who dare to climb is faith!

Because here is the rub: No matter how hard you try, no matter how much you repent, no matter how much you deny yourself, no matter how you persevere, it is ultimately God who gives us the clean hands and a pure heart. You cannot do this on your own. You simply cannot do this on your own. The whole notion of clean hands and a pure heart is reserved purely for people of faith, those who put their trust in Jesus, and him alone!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher at Westminster Chapel, said this about the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus taught, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

The Sermon on the Mount… comes to us and says, “There is the mountain that you have to scale, the heights you have to climb; and the first thing you must realize, as you look at that mountain which you are told you must ascend, is that you cannot do it, that you are utterly incapable in and of yourself, and that any attempt to do it in your own strength is proof positive that you have not understood it.”

In other words, as we read in Proverbs 20:9:

Proverbs 20:9
Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?

Who among us is sinless here today? Who among us can keep our hearts pure? We cannot do it. We simply cannot do it! But thanks be to God because:

Matthew 19:26
With human beings this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

It is God alone who is ultimately able to give us clean hands and a pure heart. It is ultimately God alone who can make us into true worshippers. And what we are called to do is to humbly kneel before Jesus, that most fundamental posture of the Christian, and echo that prayer of David:

Psalm 51:10
Create in me a pure heart, O God.

It is God who cleans hands and purifies the hearts. And the means with which he does this is faith. To become the kind of people who can ascend the mountain of the Lord requires faith. Well, to climb at all is an act of faith, isn’t it? That’s why we read in Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Those who dare to climb the mountain of the Lord, those who dare to stand in his holy presence, those who dare to see God, they do so by faith!

So no matter where you are today, by faith in Christ Jesus, you, too, can ascend the mountain of the Lord. You, too, can stand in his holy presence. You, too, can see God! You, too, can worship God! By faith!

The Reward for Those Who Climb
The Psalmist writes in verses 5 and 6, these words:

Psalm 24:5-6
They will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God their Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.

The great reward for those who climb is blessing and vindication. So, what is blessing? What does it mean to be blessed? Well, contrary to popular belief, to be blessed does not mean that you get to drive around in a Mercedes with a bumper sticker that says, “Too Blessed to be Stressed!”

To be blessed means to be approved by God! To be blessed means that God is smiling down on you. To be blessed means to receive the “applause of heaven.” He is approved by God. And there is no other approval that is more significant than this approval which comes from God, the creator of the Universe, he who made us, he who knows us intimately, he who has no beginning and no end, he who holds all things in his hands. To be approved by God, he is indeed a blessed person! This is the reward reserved for those who dare to climb.

And then we read that he will not only receive blessing from the Lord, but that he will also be vindicated. So what exactly does it mean to receive vindication? Well, to be vindicated means to be justified, to be acquitted, to be exonerated. Vindication is something that is reserved for those who have been unjustly blamed and punished. So, how exactly does this apply to us? Why do we even need vindication? For what? From whom?

Living as salt and light in this world is not always easy. There will be times when people will mock you, when people will insult you, when people will laugh at you, when people will persecute, when people may even try to kill you because of your faith. Actually, Jesus tells us that this is a part of what it means to live by faith. So, when by faith, you choose to live a life of obedience to God, when you choose to save sex for marriage, when you choose to have that baby instead of getting an abortion, when you choose to tithe even when you are struggling financially, when you choose to obey God even when it costs you something, or maybe even everything, I challenge you to persevere, I challenge you to not give up, because God will bring vindication.

Those with clean hands and a pure heart, this is the generation that is seeking after God. Can you, today, say this of yourself? Can we say this of Vineyard Columbus? Are we that generation, who with clean hands and a pure heart, are ascending the mountain of the Lord?

The Prayer of Worship
The Psalmist concludes this wonderful Psalm with a prayer of worship.

Psalm 24:7-10
Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory.

The Psalmist, with eyes of faith, sees Jesus! With eyes of faith, he sees Jesus who ascends up a different kind of a mountain, a hill where he is nailed to a cross. With eyes of faith he sees that it is only because Jesus ascended that mountain that we are able to ascend the mountain of the Lord. With eyes of faith, he sees Jesus, and he cries out, “Who is this King of glory? The Lord almighty – he is the King of glory!” This is the prayer of all our worship!

One of the most striking stories in the Bible, for me, is found in Luke chapter 7. It is the story about a woman, who the author Luke makes the deliberate point to describe as a “sinful woman.” This woman hears that Jesus was eating at the house of this religious leader, a gathering where people of her caliber were clearly not welcome. But still, she must see Jesus. As she gets closer to this house where Jesus is eating, she sees that there is a crowd gathered around this house. And seeing the crowd, her heart sinks. She sees how people are looking at her with disgust in their eyes. She can feel on her skin their indignant judgment. She can taste in her mouth their foul whispers and murmurs. But still, she pushes through. She has come here on a mission. She makes her way through the crowd, carrying in her hands the most valuable thing that she owns, a jar of perfume that is worth about a year’s wages. And quietly, with love and adoration in her heart and tears of joy in her eyes, she walks right up to Jesus, gets on her knees, and begins to clean the feet of Jesus with her tears and her hair. And after all the dirt has been wiped clean from his feet, she gently kisses them and lavishly pours this precious perfume on the feet of Jesus. This sinful woman, in faith, ascends the mountain of the Lord holding in her hands a costly offering, and she receives love and the forgiveness of her sins. She sees the face of God! Praise the Lord that Jesus loves sinners!

Geoge Mallory said that the reason that he climbed Mt. Everest was “because it’s there!” For us Christians, those who worship God, we ascend the mountain of the Lord because God is there! We need no other reason!