Christ Life for the Self Life — E.A. Johnston

Psalm 24 and the King of Glory

When David penned Psalm 24, in a jubilant attitude, he was reflecting on his capture of the city of Zion and the moving of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. What excitement and joy the people of Israel must have experienced as they saw this witness, this return of their king with God's sacred Ark.

Worship as a Response to God's Character

Psalm 24 is the result of that occasion. And friends, Psalm 24 is a psalm of worship. It's a worship to God because of who He is. He is worthy to be praised. And when God shows favor to a servant of His, then that is even more cause for worship and thanksgiving to God.

I want us to read this striking passage of scripture now, friends. Hear now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein.

For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and His righteousness from the God of His salvation.

This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob, Sela. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the kingdom of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory?

The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the king of glory, Sela.

Clean Hands, Pure Hearts, and the Cross

Our text speaks of clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands describe our relationship to man in a horizontal position, or dealings with our fellow men. Pure heart speaks of our vertical relationship to God in our walk with Him, our life in Christ, both horizontal and the vertical meet here in our text in regard to ascending the hill of the Lord, and when they meet, they form a cross.

The Christian Life as Walk and Warfare

When God extends His grace to us in saving faith, He then implants in us a new disposition for holiness. The Christian life, friends, is both a walk and a war. It's a walk with God and a war against the flesh, the world, and the devil.

The Christian life is impossible to live in the flesh alone, and the only power we have is to make choices that will both be wrong for us and harmful to us. We need power from above so we can live above sin and the world.

This comes only through a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, growing in the grace and knowledge of Him takes all we have and all we are. Being a born-again Christian means both submission and surrender in vital union to a living Lord.

Surrender to God's Sovereign Lordship

Surrender to a sovereign God. We must surrender all we are to all He is, and He is Lord, and in our daily walk with God, we must be in submission to His Spirit through the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Christian life, friends, is lived via the cross by an indwelling Christ.

The Christ Life Replaces the Self Life

It's the Christ life for the self-life, the cross and the life of a believer, and the cross and the life of a believer is clearly seen in Galatians 2 .20, which declares that I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, in the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Union with Christ and Victory Over Sin

Salvation means that Christ's death on Calvary's cross and my union with Him not only saves me from the damning power of my sins, but I'm given a power from the dominion of sin in my life. Saving faith is no license to sin, but grace given to live a life of holiness unto the God of my salvation.

Not I means not the I that I was before, not the same man or woman, but now a new creation with a new principle, a new purpose, a new disposition. It is Christ in me who now lives. It is the exchanged life.

Our life in Christ has power from above to live for Him and to bring glory to the Father. And although our steps may falter, they may be unsteady at times by slips and falls, we are kept on the path of holiness unto the Lord because Jesus is Lord of our lives.

Christ Enthroned and the Love of God

Self has been dethroned and another enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us give glory to this King of glory who loved us and gave Himself for us. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Let each of us, friends, live our lives with a new purpose and power for Him. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.