Who is this King of Glory?

Psalm 24. We’re going to read the entirety of this psalm. It’s not that long as we pick up in our series, which we have, over a number of years, been looking at—the texts, the verses used in Handel’s Messiah. Again, this may not be something that all of you listen to, but I think the vast majority have some idea of it, and many of you will listen to it if you haven’t already started to. And as we go through the text, we’re not so much thinking about Handel; we’re thinking about the truth and the glory of the truth expressed, so that even as you listen to it—

That’s what John Newton did many, many years ago as he lived during the time when Messiah was just coming to the fore, for the first time with its performances. He had a concern that people would go and that the truth would wash over them and they wouldn’t really understand the power of the texts that were being put before them. So he took on, then, an effort over a series of sermons to go through every one of those texts and preach, This is what it means. And don’t miss that truth. So we’re doing something similar, though we’re just consigning it to the December time.

But let us read God’s Word, the Psalm of David, Psalm 24.

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness 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 righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King 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. Selah.

Amen. This, beloved, is the word of the eternal God, which you would receive, believe, and obey. The people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray. Lord, give help now in Thy Word as we come to the table that is prepared before us. As we anticipate sitting in this appointed fashion with these simple emblems, we pray that Thou wilt be in the midst. But not just then; we pray for the felt presence of God now. We pray for the condescension of God by the Spirit now. We pray for a meeting with God around the Word, that when we come to the table, we come in the joy of that welcome we have already experienced. Come, Holy Spirit, here and bless the Word. Bless it. Bless it beyond what we can imagine, what we can express, what we can ask. Bless the Word with such power. Bless the Word to the extension of the kingdom in ways that defy what we can quantify. O God, bless the Word. Let there be a ready receiving of the Word. Come today in glory and reveal Thyself afresh. May we have this testimony that the Lord met with me today. Drawn here now, give the Holy Spirit in great measure, we ask, in our Saviour’s name. Amen.

One of the remarkable aspects of Matthew’s gospel is that as he launches in the record of the Messiah and gives the details concerning the nativity, in chapter 2 he immediately launches with this recognition that the King— in fact, there’s a sense of the contrast and even the conflict, as you find in chapter 2 verse 1: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”

And the sentiment of the king being born and the king being in the midst of his people is carried all the way to the cross. Of course, it is rejected, it is opposed, it is questioned and denied, and yet ultimately it will be affirmed. This is the King. The King has been born. The King has died and risen again from the dead, and the King ascends and occupies the throne of heaven in glory and in power.

As we have, over the years, worked through the texts of Handel’s Messiah, we come now to Psalm 24. And from verse 7 through to the end, you will find the choir standing to count the details of these verses. And if you listen to it—and no doubt you will, and I encourage you to—you’ll see the way in which Handel has written the music and orders what’s going on: a kind of conversation, a conversation that is expressed almost in a kind of military way. It’s almost in a spoken fashion in which something is being announced, something is being declared.

So you have the women who come in in verse 7, almost like—as you were, the church coming in with the Lord, exalting Him: “‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.’” It’s a call to heaven to receive our King.

In response then, you have the men, those almost like guardians of heaven itself, asking the question, Who is this King of glory? And the women respond then, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. And so the men then respond, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” And then the woman, almost, I think, in a rhetorical fashion again asks the question, Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts; He is the King of Glory.

Now, as you go on, of course, the voices all blend in, expressing these truths repeatedly, but it’s powerful. It’s a powerful scene: a scene that is taken away from us beyond the visible eye of man to depict the welcome of the One who was born of a virgin, who left the glory of that place to be born here and to endure such suffering, but finally, through His obedience to the Father, to be received again into the place that He rightly occupies and received in such honor and distinction.

The historical setting of Psalm 24 is most likely sung when David brings the ark of God up to Jerusalem—that which was an emblem of the divine presence. As the ark was brought into the city, then there’s this depiction of a holy dialogue of welcoming that emblem of the presence of God to where it belongs: in the heart and the center of the people of God. But it has a more eschatological significance—something more forward-looking, not merely to an earthly Zion but to the heavenly; which upon the completion of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ is received as the King of glory.

So we want to consider this with the Lord’s help. I’ve titled the message simply, Who is the King of Glory? Simply look at the command, the confession, and the comforts that are here in this text.

Let’s consider then the command to receive the King—the command to receive the King. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” The language here explains to those that they approach that there’s something about to unfold. And it is, in a number of ways, we can consider this first a matter of victory.

It is a matter of victory. Yes, historically it may depict the ark returning to the place of worship, the central location amidst the people, but here we have depicted in a future the expectation that Messiah will return to the Father. The Son, the eternal Son of God, was made flesh—that’s what we just sang of. He was made flesh, veiled in flesh, the Godhead. See, hail the incarnate deity.

But this takes us beyond it: this One who left the glory of heaven to dwell in the poverty of earth, who had experienced being a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, being despised and rejected and crucified, and seemed to be of a kind of failure—broken by the weakness of His external frame—yet on the third day rises from the dead, and forty days later ascends to the welcome and coronation of heaven.

He did not go back simply as He had come from that place. He goes into heaven now in another form, as it were. Yes, still the same God, but now taking our nature into heaven itself. They can see that angelic host and all those that inhabit that glorious place. They see now the figure of a man glorified coming in to inhabit and occupy the place of authority.

These everlasting doors then open up to the One who is worthy to walk in and occupy the place of rightful rule. And so the text says, lift up your heads. It is language of victory. It is a call, because this One who was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, this is the One whom God has now highly exalted—Philippians 2. He is the One who, through death, destroyed him that had the power of death—Hebrews 2. And He comes now to heaven, comes before the Father in fulfillment of everything that was set out for Him to do.

Psalm 110 says, “‘Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.’” He has been received in this glorious way. In one sense, the battle is over. The primary work of substitutionary atonement has taken place. He has fought that battle. He has given victory over death and the enemy. And now those gates that were, in one sense, barred to anything unholy—and yet still are—now open because the King goes in and brings a train of those now justified by His work.

The fact that He has gone in and walked through those doors is the encouragement, as we shall see later, that we also shall enter through. One who represents—one who did what Adam failed to do—living in obedience to God, now seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, Hebrews 1. It’s a matter of victory. They are calling upon, let’s recognize it, the sense of procession—the sense of royal reception. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” Don’t hold Him out. Don’t keep Him out. He has every right to enter because He’s victorious.

It’s also a matter of validity. “The King of glory shall come in.” There is no hesitation. It is right for Him to go in there. It is right for Him to pass through, as it were, and occupy that location. Christ is not interested at all in standing outside heaven. Heaven is His rightful place. And He doesn’t stay outside then; He shall come in. Heaven knows that not only will they welcome Him, but He wants to come in and stand there in that place that is rightfully His.

He is the one who rightfully fulfills the challenge of verses 3 and 4 of this psalm: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” Shall anyone broach that area? Shall anyone rightfully enter in? Well, if it is going to be one, he must have clean hands. He must have a pure heart—one who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. That, beloved, is Christ. He is the one. He is being received into these everlasting doors because He has ascended the hill of the Lord. He has stood in the presence of God. He has fulfilled the will of the Father. “I come to do Thy will, O God.” And that was His delight, to do that will. And so, having fulfilled all of that, having journeyed through the world doing everything required of Him, still His hands are clean; at the end His heart is pure.

That’s not you and me. With the passage of time, we do not keep our hands clean. With the passage of time, we do not keep our hearts pure. Now, you look at your heart, and we’ve already considered the ninth commandment and you can see the shortcoming of your life. Why is it that we speak the way that we do? Why is it that we say the things that we do that we ought not? Because the heart is the problem. None of this corrupt heart proceeds the wicked speech of our lips. We can’t, therefore, ascend into the hill of God. We can’t walk into the presence—the immediate presence—of God, but the Lord Jesus can. Because He fulfilled everything necessary. Yes, what does, again, Hebrews say? In Hebrews 9, by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He obtained what no man could obtain: died and accomplished that which was beyond our capability.

He kept His hands clean, He kept His heart pure. Oh—Satan spewed out his filth; he came in that focused way to tempt Him forty days in the wilderness, endeavoring to end the weakness of His fasting, to break Him, to destroy Him, to make shipwreck of the whole plan of salvation. And he failed—utterly failed. And so Christ becomes the forerunner, entering in within the veil—Hebrews 6. And so He ascends, having done this work; He has received that benediction of the Father in the resurrection—raised for our justification, Romans 4. And this is what the Lord Jesus then was all about.

This is what He said to the two on the road to Emmaus. It ought to have been clear. He communicates as if, Are you not aware? Do you not realize this? Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? Isn’t this the whole heart of the expectation? Yes: to suffer before He enters His glory. And they wanted Him so desperately just to occupy a throne here on the earth and drive out the Romans. And His whole business was, well, number one, I’m going to suffer because I have to destroy death. I have to purchase eternal life. Then I’m not going to occupy a mere throne down here; I’m going to occupy a throne of heaven. All power is given unto me. And so if He has all power, then He should rightly reign from heaven.

All these gates, these everlasting doors—they stand there; they are barred; they are closed—not that the Philistines will enter in. And so even before we go any further, to think about that: not that the Philistines will enter in. If there is any sin at all in your life, you’re not getting in there. You will never cross that threshold—never enter that location, ever. You must have clean hands and a pure heart. You must be seen by an eye that sees all to be holy.

What’s the answer? If you’re honest, you’re going to say, there’s no possible way I can ever enter heaven. And I would say, yes: if you look at yourself, there’s no possibility of you ever entering heaven—none—except through the merit of another who freely credits that merit to all who believe in Him, turning from their sin, repenting of all their sin, embracing Jesus Christ as He is offered. They will then come in their turn into this presence, into this place as well.

He is welcome. The logic of the gospel is, in essence, that heaven opens to her King; therefore heaven is open to all who are in the King’s kingdom. One day we’re going to be there—those of us who believe. The very meal that’s set before us is an indication that we will be there; it is a foretaste. It is an expression of our right to participate when finally all is said and done, and we sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we dine there with the King and all those who are members of His kingdom. We’ll participate freely. And this is what it symbolizes.

Now, can someone who is not going there sit here? Certainly. There are people who participate in this meal and they have no business—no business—because they’re not members of this kingdom. They’re not believing in this King. They’re not trusting in His work. They’re believing in their own righteousness. They’re resting in some other expression of religious thought and ideology, but they haven’t turned solely, entirely, completely, fully to Jesus Christ. It is membership in His kingdom that grants admission. We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. Access by faith. This morning you have access by faith. You stand here because Christ has done this. And so the command one day will issue: let you enter. “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” Enter, enter the kingdom that is prepared for you.

Oh, I hope you’re there. I hope you’ll be there. Children, I hope you’re all there—that you have truly put your trust in Christ, turning from your sin, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ—that you won’t miss out when that day comes.

So I’ve seen the command to receive the King. The confession concerning the King is the second thing. The question is raised, Who is this King of Glory? (verse 8). Who is this King of Glory? It’s not that heaven doesn’t know. It’s not like they have no idea. Of course they know. But it is announced and expressed in this way almost to convey the idea that there are people who don’t know. And earth needs to recognize what heaven recognizes. Earth needs to see it. Who is this King of Glory? Well, a number of things we see about Him.

He is His glorious strength: the Lord strong and mighty. He’s strong. This King of Glory is strong. This King of Glory, who is laden with the weight of honor, is strong. And He depicts Himself as strong on behalf of His people. That strength is exercised for their benefit.

You remember whenever the children of Israel came out of Egypt in the Exodus and they had no weapons, they had no military power, no military might. But the Lord displays Himself as the one who will fight for them. “The Lord is a man of war”—Exodus 15. The Lord is His name: a man of war. His strength exercised for the benefit of His people. They stood helpless at the Red Sea, staring across it, going, What now? And the increasing thundering and vibrations of the chariots of Egypt coming behind them. What were they going to do? “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Look at this man of war, as it were—this One who will fight on your behalf.

And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ did when He came in His incarnation, when He took on our nature: He came in to do battle, to wage warfare. But when He entered into His ministry, that was what He exhibited over and over again: yes, showing His strength over the devil in the time of temptation; yes, driving out the demons; yes, healing the diseased; yes, even showing dominion over the creative order and saying to the storm, “Peace, be still.” The storm obeyed His voice. So He shows strength on behalf of His people all the way to the cross, still exhibiting strength as He faces death and suffering, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, showing the battle is won.

To the world that didn’t look like strength— the world that looked like failure— and even to those who were believers, it looked like failure. That was the reason for the challenge to the two on the road to Emmaus: others like them were mourning. “It’s over. We thought it should have been Him who would deliver Israel.” But alas, our hopes are dashed. Through the weakness, exhibited weakness with strength—conquering our enemies, spoiling principalities and powers (Paul writes), triumphing over them—Colossians 2—breaking the bands of death. And so He is glorious in strength: the Lord strong and mighty, mighty in battle. And He will do that for you. He’ll be that for you.

You may be here this morning facing fears and challenges of various sorts. It may be something physical. It may be something relational. It may be something economic. Whatever it is—you have these challenges and you look at them and it feels like you’ll never, ever see deliverance there. And I want you to go away knowing the Lord is strong, and that strength is not just something out there; it’s a strength expressed, applied, and experienced by the people of God. He will intervene in your circumstances. He will answer to the matters you face. Now, He may delay, or He may even see fit to permit the matter of struggle to carry on, and you feel in your heart, there’s no possible way that could be good. But what you’re going to experience then is not the strength of deliverance but the strength of sustaining grace, where He upholds you—where you look forward and say, If this goes on any longer, there’s no way; I will break. And He says, No, I am strong in your behalf, and you will experience My strength. Don’t question it. It’s glorious in its strength. Oh, we have learned of it many times.

Oh, yeah—back’s against the wall, and you’re just in a cloud of despair: everything’s dark; there’s no light, no hope, no promise of deliverance. But He is glorious in strength. He is. And He’s great in sovereignty. He’s great in sovereignty. He is the Lord of hosts—that’s how He’s described at the end of the psalm: the Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory.

So you see the expression of His sovereignty here as the host speaks of armies. He’s not one among many—He is chief among all. All the hosts, the hosts of the heavens, the hosts of the armies of the angels, the hosts of all on earth: He is over all. This He maintains even upon taking our nature. Though He was subjected to such awful suffering, yet He rises, and as I said already, in His encouragement to His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, as He encourages them to make disciples of the nations, He tells them, “All power is given unto me.” And that is language of sovereignty. That is language that is explicit: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

There is no one more sovereign, which of course has great implications. Satan, if he should come against a child of God, must seek permission so to do, as we see in Job. Here is the one who has the keys of death and hell. He is over all; sovereign. That’s what you need today. You need to see Him not just strong, but in His ultimate strength because He is sovereign over all. Nothing can limit Him. Nothing can challenge Him.

The call to even the authorities of this world—Psalm 2—because of all these kings and these mighty princes who imagine themselves to be sovereign and have some semblance of authority, they are warned, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish: when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” You better kiss Him. You better make peace with Him now. The day is coming when He is going to crush every one of His enemies—those who oppose His authority.

Let us take that to heart. We who profess His name sometimes oppose His authority. We don’t like what He has said to us. We’re not really comfortable with what He’s asking us to do. And so maybe you’re wrestling with that today. You know what He’s asking you to do. You know. It may be some of you who are not saved: what is He asking you to do? He’s asking you to repent and believe the gospel. And you’re not comfortable with that because you think of what you’re having to give up, or you think of what it might mean. If I repent and believe the gospel, then I have to be a Christian. And if I have to be a Christian, then that means I have to live the Christian life. And I don’t want to do that. I want to have all things my way. I want to live life according to my own terms. And the warning is, you better kiss the Son. You better make peace with the Son today. Because you’re not guaranteed another moment. None of us are.

So even the believer is to come to that recognition, because I think we can get into our minds—and certainly in some circles it can be encouraged, not explicitly but implicitly—that we’ve made our profession, we’ve called upon the Lord, we’ve settled that matter: we’re going to heaven, and it doesn’t really matter what happens between our confession of our sins and recognition that we’re sinners and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and then our death. It doesn’t really matter. We’ve settled that deal. It’s done. We’ve got the insurance policy in place. We don’t have to worry. That is a flawed understanding of the gospel.

Those brought to submit to the King remain in submission to the King. Acts of rebellion against Him will not go overlooked. An entire tenor of our life is to be subject to Him. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” We are to deny ourselves and take up the cross daily and follow Him—not once in a blue moon, not once in our conversion, but take up the cross every single day. Are you doing that, Christian? Tell me: is there not a need for revival in this area?

A revived sense of the professing church—and I’m not talking about out there, though it applies out there, as I pray. I’m talking about in here. My concern is in here. My concern is you and me. We are not beyond getting to a place of carnality and worldly drifting and a conditioned way of living the Christian life that is void of any real heart and soul. We are not beyond it.

How has the year gone? How has 2025 been for you spiritually? What has been conditioning you: the world, or the Word of God? What are you paying attention to? What are your priorities? How are your mornings and your evenings? How is it with your time with the family around the Word? The simple little things—and even those things, how are they being expressed when you pray and you read the Word? Is there any worship in it? Is there any worship in it? Get through the reading, or are we sitting down and saying, My King has a message for me this morning?

Now let me be quite blunt with you. There are many times when I read the Word and that is not the frame of my heart. So I am all too well aware of how we can just drift and an entire year can pass without any real semblance of living for Him. And we ought to order our decisions and we ought to talk to Him in constant fellowship, confessing our shortcomings and crying, “Lord, just be with me today. I can’t do this without You. Power me by Your Spirit.”

He is sovereign—the Lord of hosts. That’s who He is. Known also as gracious salvation. The Lord’s strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. I’ve intimated this already or made slight mention of it, but I want to just drive the point home that He fights for our salvation. It’s not just a battle; it’s not an exhibition where we see something of His power. It’s not just an exhibition. You have that sometimes, don’t you? You haven’t. I don’t know about the sports that you follow, but some of the sports I follow—sometimes they have exhibition matches. It’s designed in a more relaxed environment to give you a sense of their abilities. You get to watch some where there’s nothing really on the line, but they’re going to show you what they’re capable of. And you think, you see them, you think, “Wow, look at that.” And especially if you see it in person, you realize just how different they are. That’s not the Lord. He’s not about putting on exhibitions just to raise money for charity or something. He is mighty in battle to bring deliverance to your soul.

I am glad. I am so thankful that on the 13th of May, 2002, the Lord was mighty in battle for me. He was. He saw my unbelieving heart, and He came and did battle against it. And He overcame every resistance, every argument. And He won that battle. And I’m glad: ever since that day He’s been fighting a battle for me—that I might die unto sin and live unto righteousness; that I might hear His voice and obey; that I might see my sin and actually confess Him in an ongoing regular fashion. I’m thankful that to this day He has been mighty in battle, because if He had not been—only God knows at what point and juncture and where in the passage of the entire thing I would have completely made shipwreck. He is mighty in battle to win our hearts and to keep them. What glory this is.

Come to the table this morning—remember that. You’re sitting at the table remembering one who has been mighty in battle for you. Does it not—does it not—does the whole sense of that not draw from your heart a fresh appreciation that says, You know, Lord, I have trifled with the world too long. I’ve been trying to live my Christian life as close to the world, yet still justify that I’m still a Christian. Instead, Lord, I’m going to make it my objective to get closer to You, not to the world.

Oh, and He wins. He wins the argument. May we submit to it.

Finally, the comforts of knowing the King. The comforts of knowing the King. If we truly know this King—the Lord of hosts, mighty in battle—if we understand who He is and enter into the victory of His ascension, then we recognize that there are glorious comforts—or consequences, we might say—to this. What benefit is it today that I think of, or you think of, heaven receiving her King? Are we just looking back on an event in history—when, forty days after the resurrection He ascended and He disappeared out of their sight and they had to be told that this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven? Is that it? Is that all we’re thinking about, or is there something tangible, practical, beneficial and real to you and me today?

There are a number of things. First we can think of an assured access—there is an assured access. The comfort of knowing that through this reality of the King’s triumphal entry into heaven is that He has gone in. He has gone in and He occupies that place and represents us, so that the apostle can argue in Hebrews 10: we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. So the whole assurance of prayer in your life is based on this. The assurance you have today to pray with confidence, bring your petitions, offer up your burdens and your cares and your concerns and your fears—your confidence, young person, older person—is: He’s there. I have an assured access in prayer. I can come with boldness, with confidence. I don’t need to worry about my performance. I ponder His performance and all worries go away and I have access. So what’s your prayer? What’s your burden? What’s the issue? Bring it here today—this morning. Bring it. Surely there He is in heaven for me.

An active advocate—we have an active advocate as well, because this King is there advocating for us, ministering on our behalf. He hasn’t gone there forgetting about us; rather He has gone there bearing us upon His heart. He’s like the high priest of old bearing the twelve tribes of Israel upon that breastplate, so He has your name near to His heart as He’s there in heaven—He’s thinking about lowly you. I mean, why would you ever pray to a saint? Why would you ever pray to Mary or anyone else? Why? You have One in heaven who’s there, and your name is engraved upon the palms of His hand, and He is advocating for you. His entire heavenly ministry is for you. He is not merely enthroned; He is engaged in the ongoing welfare of His people—Hebrews 7—ever living to make intercession for us. His endless life exercised to intercede for you. See, He wasn’t just mighty in battle here in the earthly ministry; He’s mighty in battle there. He is welcomed in as the Lord, mighty in battle, but He’s not given up the battle. He’s still engaged in the battle—He’s just engaged in a different way, in that way of interceding for you and for me, praying for us.

“Yes, He died, He is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us”—Romans 8:34.

So there—every time you fall—yes, today—you say, “Preacher, I’m not really feeling like I’m up to sitting at the table today. I have sin in my life. I have things I have done, things I have said, things I am not proud of; indeed, I am ashamed of; and I’m thinking today that this is not a day to come to the table.” And I say, well, if you hold on to your sin—if you keep it close to your heart—if you intend to engage in it again, then stay away. But if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins today and cleanse you from all unrighteousness today. And He is mighty in battle then to make this real.

An advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous—1 John 2:1. That’s what we have.

And also an anticipated arrival. One of the comforts is an anticipated arrival because He has entered to pick up what we mentioned earlier. He is going to bring us there too. He has gone as the forerunner, as the pioneer. He’s gone in there and He is going to bring you there. It is His burden so to do. His prayer in John 17: “Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory.” The King of glory has been welcomed in and you’re going to see that glory one day—you are. If you’re washed in the blood of Christ, you’re going to be there. Oh, what it will be to be there.

So Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:11, “‘For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’”

So here we are: Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, the Lord of hosts—He is the King of glory. And this King says, dine and remember the grounds of My victory. Remember My accomplishment at the cross. Remember that your greatest challenge—your own sin—has been dealt with at Calvary. Remember it. Remember the body in which I offered the sacrifice. Remember the blood that I shed; remember its value; remember the Father’s pleasure in it and delight to raise Me from the dead. Remember these things.

We remember because we forget. We forget. We know our own sin. Our sins come and they’re right there—the forefront of our mind: there’s my sin this past week; there’s my sin over recent weeks; there’s my sin over this year. There’s my sin. David got tormented with the sins of his youth as an old man. And you’ll get tormented too. But you’re to remember—spreading this cup—see through that once-for-all sacrifice for sin on your behalf to deal with your sin. And as I say, we can spiritually take the application, I think: If heaven is open to receive this King, if heaven says, Come in, then should your heart say, You’re not welcome? No. No—your heart should say, The King of glory, come in. And you know what? If you repent and believe, the King of glory shall come in. He shall come in.

You say, “Preacher, how do you know He’ll come to my heart?” I know because of the veracity of His character and the word that He’s spoken: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” It’s not going to happen. I say to you then: the King of glory, invited by the penitent heart believing in Him, that King of glory shall come in. He’ll come in to your life and your heart. He’ll reign there. He’ll establish and further His kingdom there in your life. And He’ll give peace that passeth all understanding and a joy that cannot in any way be replicated by anything in this world.

“The King of glory shall come in.” Is He in your life? Is He? Is He in your heart—really? I mean, where are we? Where are you today? Let’s just, before we close in just a second, take stock. Where’s the King of glory in my life? Have I pushed Him out? That’s what the Laodicean church did, didn’t they? They pushed Him out. They managed to carry on singing in the name of the King of glory, making lip service about the King of glory, talking about the accomplishments of the King of glory. But the King of glory was outside. He was outside.

That could be true of this church. I mean, if it was true of a church that was there in the first century, how could it not be true now? It could be. It could be that the assessment of this King as He looks—He says, You know what? I’m outside the door. I’m not here. I’m not in this place. You’re still talking about Me. You still refer to Me. But through one thing or another, you’ve managed to push Me outside the door. I’m not here. That could be true. But you can’t correct the whole church; neither can I. But you can correct your heart. If we all take responsibility for what is ours—our own heart—then we can get to the place and say, collectively, The King of glory, please come in. And He will. The King of glory shall come in.

Oh, may He come. And may He come in greater power than we’ve ever known. Let’s bow together in prayer. In just a moment we’ll sing and sit at this table. Let there be a moment of preparation. Let there be each one of us thinking upon, pondering, inviting the King of glory afresh.

Lord, come here. Be mighty and battle in all the areas where there is a battle—in every heart, in every aspect of this congregation, in every territory of this community. Be mighty and battle. May we surrender to Thy just reign and authority. Help us now to sit at this table in a manner that reflects our genuine faith and repentance and love for our triune God. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.