The last time we spoke on Facebook Live, we covered the 23rd Psalm,The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want,
This may surprise you, but the Lord owns His people. He is in charge of His people. We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are characterized in the Scripture as sheep ruled by a Shepherd. Case in point:
Psalm 100:3 … we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 95:7 … For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand….
The Christian no longer owns himself, but is the child, the obedient child, of the Master. We are not our own – we are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23). We belong to God.
The Believer in Christ belongs to God.
The unbeliever also belongs to God.
But what of others who are not saved. What of the rest of the earth? To whom does it belong? Psalm 24 tells us that God owns everything. Read with me.
Psalm 24:1-10 The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. 7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.
To Whom does the earth belong? The earth is the Lord’s. To Whom does the produce and production of the earth belong to? The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. What of the people of the earth. We know that the Christian, the believer in Christ, the receiver of the Holy Spirit belongs to the Lord. But what of the unbeliever? We are told that The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Everything and everyone belongs to God. God made it, and that which He made, He owns.
God in His Grace gave dominion of the world over to mankind (this is both man and woman) after their creation. God told the first beings:
Genesis 1:28 … Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Humanity was given a stewardship by God. Humanity – man and woman – were given specific directions on how to manage that which they were given.
“Be fruitful”. Reproduce.
“Multiply”. Reproduce often.
“Replenish the earth”. Care for your stewardship.
“Subdue it”. You are God’s sharecroppers.
“Have dominion over”. You are not an animal. You are over animals.
Slavery is wrong because only God owns the person. He owns the believer, and owns the unbeliever. God recognized slavery in scripture, but never justified it. Mankind was to have dominion over animals and the earth itself. It is the stewardship that God has given us.
When a person says, “It’s MY body, I can do what I want with it”, there is an element of truth to this – but this is not the whole truth. Your body is a stewardship from God. Biblically – and I believe the Bible – everything that we see, touch, and are around are God’s possessions. Life itself is a stewardship. Everything you have and hope to have is a gift from God. God graciously allows us to have – albeit temporarily – all that we have. There is but one God and Father of all, Who is OVER all, THROUGH all, and IN all (Ephesians 4:6). The Apostle quoted Psalm 24:1 when he warned the Corinthian believers about greed and pettiness. He writes:
1 Corinthians 10:24-26 Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth. 25 Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: 26 For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.
Listen believers – and I speak to the child of God by faith in Christ:
Believers are sheep, and Christ our Shepherd. We must never allow the world to own us. We must never become slaves to darkness, greed, money, or hatred. The Apostle encourages us to seek to profit others rather than to fill our own pockets. God owns everything.
By God’s Common (universal) Grace He:
Matthew 5:45 … maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
God owns the world. God owns every soul. God owns the soul of that baby carried in the mother’s womb, and owns the soul of the mother as well. God owns the soul of the black man, minimized and often harmed by inconsiderate and racist people. God owns the soul of the red man, the yellow man, the brown man, the white man. When you look at another person remember God’s Words:
Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine …
Everything belongs to God.
God Made It, And Owns It. We Are But Stewards.
Psalm 24:1-2 The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 2 For {God} hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
It is God Who makes the land and the land masses. When God first made the earth, the earth was covered with water. There was no land that was not below the water. The Bible tells us that:
Genesis 1:9-12 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
God caused the land to rise up from the waters, and God created what we call the “continents”. When America was founded, it was founded by many people who were aware that God owns everything. America was blessed in it’s founding because the Founders knew God. Were they perfect Christians? No, but none of us are. Yet these Founding Fathers stated in the Declaration of Independence:
“We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by the Authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare , that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states …. with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence …”
America, like every nation and every land mass on this entire planet, belongs to God. In a speech given by Patrick Henry on March 23rd, 1775, he stated:
“we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us…”
America was an experiment that was supposed to fail. Great Britain was a worldwide super power that the disorganized and poorly equipped colonists certainly could not defeat.
America gained it’s independence. Why? I believe it is because America was founded to glorify God. It was founded to allow religious freedom to every person.
Though America and many of its Founders turned a blind eye to slavery of the black persons {something that was grievous}, in time God used godly men and women to overturn the horror of chattel slavery. As I said before, no human has a right to possess or oppress another human. Only God owns us, and God can do what us as He will, for it is He that made us, and not we ourselves. I spent a large portion of my adult life – 20+ years – in the United States Air Force because I love this nation, and love the concept of freedom embodied in our Constitution and in our laws. Though we are all flawed by sin I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, that the United States of America is the most blessed nation in the world. Our blessings are upon us because of God’s Grace.
Having Recognized The Truth That God Owns All,
Can All Enter Into God’s Presence?
If God owns everything and everyone, then it is logical to believe that we shall be with Him. That which I own will stay in my possession. So if God owns all, will all enter Heaven upon their earthly demise? The Psalmist asks:
Psalm 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
To go into the Presence of God is to “ascend”, to move upward from the earthly to the glorious Heavenly. The phrase “hill of the Lord” is a reference to the place where God is.
The Pulpit Commentary notes:
“God’s “hill” is, in reality, the highest heaven, wherein he has his dwelling-place. Its representative on earth was, at this time, the Mount Zion, where it was already determined in the Divine counsels that the temple should be built, and whither David was now about to transfer the ark of the covenant …”
We are told by God in Isaiah 66:1, “Heaven is My Throne, and the earth My footstool”. God abides in both Heaven and earth – in fact, everywhere. But God has also said in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them”. God is in the midst of His people when they are honoring Him. God will not allow any in His presence who refuse to honor Him in heart and hand. The Psalmist said:
Psalm 24:4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Those who have the right to enter the Presence of God is the ones who are clean outwardly (has clean HANDS) and who is pure inwardly (a pure HEART). The Bible tells us that, among the children of Adam,
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
No one has clean hands before God unless they have cleansed by God. God the Son said of the human heart:
Matthew 15:19-20 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man …
and God the Father declared through the Prophet:
Jeremiah 17:9-10 … The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
God must cleanse us so that we can enter His Presence. God must spiritually change our condition. The Psalmist said in another place:
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Among mankind we often think that “good works” will make us right before God. The Law contained a number of “good works”: animal sacrifices, feast days, dietary laws, circumcision. Yet none of these “good works”, though ordered of God, had the power to change the doer. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote:
Romans 3:19-28 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: THAT EVERY MOUTH MAY BE STOPPED, AND ALL THE WORLD MAY BECOME GUILTY BEFORE GOD. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
No “good work” can bring us into the Presence of God. We need Jesus Christ. The Messiah came to “bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The “good works” of the Law were teaching tools to show all that we need a Savior. Jesus Christ did the one absolutely good work when He died on Calvary for our sins. The Scripture says:
Hebrews 9:12-14 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood {Jesus} entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Jesus Christ alone is “the Lamb of God Who takes away our sins” (John 1:29).
Dying on the Cross of Calvary for our sins, Jesus in spirit and through the Holy Spirit entered into Heaven, that holy Hill of God, obtaining eternal redemption for us who believe. Jesus died for our sins so that we need no longer be circumcised, we need no longer offer animal and food offerings on a bloody altar. As that blessed song states:
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed me white as snow!
Who has clean hands and a pure heart? It is the one who has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is the one who has repented of being their own possession, and have agreed with God that “the Lord is my Shepherd”. I no longer belong to me – and neither do you. Christian,
1 Corinthians 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
By faith in Jesus Christ’s work the Bible says:
Hebrews 10:19-25 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21 and having an high priest over the house of God; 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 24 and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
The believer in Christ is freed from the slavery of sin to follow the Savior. Our hearts are purified daily by our indwelling Savior. Our hands will do the things He has commanded us to do.
Those Who Are Accepted Of God Are Sheep,
Not Pigs or Dogs or Wolves.
When a person is saved by faith in Christ, they are changed both outwardly and inwardly. They do not “lift their soul up unto vanity”:
Psalm 24:4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Word Study The word “vanity” is the Hebrewשָׁוְא shâvᵉʼ, shawv; or שַׁו shav which means “that which is empty, false, worthless, godless, destructive or evil”. This word is used to describe idolatry or fake gods. Those who are saved do not speak falsely about others (Exodus 23:1), and do not minimize the glory of God’s name (Exodus 20:7). Those who belong to God do not bear false witness against others (Deuteronomy 5:20), nor do they speak untruths to their neighbors (Psalm 12:2). If you are saved by faith in Christ, born again of His Spirit, you do as Jesus says. You will love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:37-40). Jesus expects those who are His sheep to radically LOVE. He said:
Matthew 5:43-48 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. …
We who belong to the Great Shepherd of our faith are not to lower ourselves to be like the world. Grace saves us, and empowers us to radically love even the unlovable. The Scripture says:
Romans 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Pastor Anthony Carter wrote:
“When Jesus freed the woman caught in adultery, He asked her: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, Lord.” Jesus then said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:10–11). When God has freed our consciences, it does not matter how others try to bind them. When Christ has washed our hands and hearts, it does not matter what other people say about them. We only must make sure that Christ has freed us, and that our consciences, hands, and hearts have indeed been washed in His blood.”
A Daily Personal Walk In The Presence Of God
Results in Great Blessing!
Psalm 24:5-6 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
God blesses us, dear believers, when we live as He commands. We keep our hearts pure by heeding and doing what our Savior commands. When we maintain clean hands and pure hearts by following our Savior daily, confessing sin as soon as it rears it’s ugly head, God promises to bless us. How does God bless us? We read:
Psalm 24:7-9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Word Study The “gate” in ancient times was the entry point into the large cities. People often did business at the “gate”. When you, dear ones, walk with the Lord your Savior daily, then “the King of glory shall come in” to your businesses. Do you wish to prosper in business? The let your gates (your businesses) be lifted up to the Lord. You religion must not be just private and in the home, but must permeate your daily walk where ever you are. When we lift our pursuits up to the King of glory, then He will defend us. Our “Lord is mighty in battle”.
Deuteronomy 20:4 … the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
King David sang unto God, “The Lord is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer; the God of my rock; in Him will I trust: He is my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower, and my Refuge, my Savior; Thou savest me from violence. 4 I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” (2 Samual 22:2-4).
Beloved, as we come through these difficult times in our nation’s history, let us give ourselves over to the Lord our God. Let us receive Christ Jesus as both Lord and Savior. Let us rely on Him. David ended this wonderful Psalm with:
Psalm 24:10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. SELAH.
The last word of this Psalm is “Selah”, which means “REST”. Are you resting in the arms of Jesus, or are you still trying to be your own possession. You belong to God, dear one. Rest in the arms of Him Who made you. Rest in the arms of Christ. Remember the wonderful invitation Jesus gives to whosoever will come:
Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Here is your Rest. It is in Jesus. It is in Jesus’ control, under His yoke. Give yourselves to Him, so that you can daily be in God’s Presence, and eternally be in God’s Presence. Do not delay. Call upon the Lord today. May the Holy Spirit touch your hearts to give yourselves to the Lord this very day. Amen and Amen!
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