Palm Sunday: The Conquering King

It has been said that Palm Sunday was the beginning of the week that has changed the world, and absolutely it did. For when Jesus entered into Jerusalem, he entered as the conquering king, and that is a prophecy of his reigning and ruling as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, which soon will take place. So celebrate and rejoice that our Lord Jesus is King.

Thank you for making Leading the Way part of your day, especially during this very busy Easter season. As part of the early church tradition, the words of Psalm 24 were often sung and read, particularly on Palm Sunday when the church celebrated the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Today on Leading the Way, Dr. Yusef takes you to the words of Psalm 24, revealing the powerful truth found in David's words as he looked forward to the victory of his savior as the conquering king. Accept Dr. Yusef's invitation now to join him in Psalm 24 as he begins this special episode of Leading the Way audio. Now I want you to turn with me to Psalm 24.

I want to give you a very quick historic context to this Psalm, because without understanding the history behind it, it may not be as effective in understanding it. The nation of Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines, the enemies of God's people. After seven long months of destruction and suffering in the Philistinia, they finally said, take it back. Give it back to them. We don't want all these illnesses. We don't want all this pain and we don't want all this suffering.

Take it back to the Israelites. And as you can imagine, of course, the day of the returning of that Ark of the Covenant to God's people, it was an extremely day of rejoicing. It was a day of celebration. It was a day of thanksgiving to God. And so in the midst of this unspeakable joy, King David sits down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and he writes down the Psalm, Psalm 24. He's celebrating the presence of God and joyful thanksgiving in the midst of his people.

So I want to tell you three things about this song, just to make it easier for you to follow. Three things, Psalm 24. This is a psalm that was sung by the priests and the choir and the ministers in the temple every Sunday.

And they sang it specifically on Palm Sunday and on Resurrection Sunday. So the first thing that our Lord wants us to know from his word is this. It is his declaration of his ownership of the universe, verses one and two. Secondly, the Lord's greatest offer of salvation to humanity, verses three to six. And thirdly, that the Lord's ultimate victory, the Lord's ultimate victory, the Lord's ultimate victory, the Lord's ultimate victory.

No, no, no, I'm not stuck. I just want to make sure that you get it. The Lord's ultimate victory is absolutely inevitable. Amen. Verses seven to ten.

Let's look at this very quickly. The Lord's declaration of his ownership of the universe, verses one and two. The earth is the Lord's, I love the old English translation in King James. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

And the fullness thereof. Some of you might say, as I anticipate, wait a minute Michael, I know that's the word of God. I know that's what the word of God said. But isn't the earth is Satan's? Isn't he Satan, the prince of the air? I thought the earth controlled by Satan.

Well, a good question. To be sure, there are many people on the earth belong to Satan. In fact, the vast majority of the earth population belongs to Satan. But I need to explain this very important.

Listen carefully. The Lord owns the entire universe. The countless stars and planets. The vast space empires. The unfathomable orbits. They all are his. They all are what?

His. One planet out of the millions and billions of the galaxies in the Milky Way is planet earth. It's a little dot.

Just a speck. But the tens of millions of stars that are spinning around the center of this giant disk, which is inconceivable. A hundred thousand light years from rim to rim. All of that is what?

His. Some thirty thousand light years from the center of the disk. There is a modest sized star called the sun.

The sun spins around the hub of the universe carrying with it a family of baby stars. Yet the maker, the creator and the owner of the whole universe focuses just on one planet. One of them and that's earth.

The tiny speck. Why? Why not Mars? Why not Mercury? Why not Venus? Why not Saturn? Why not Neptune? Why not one of the others? Why planet earth?

Which as I said a speck in relationship to the sizable planets. Simply because there is nowhere in the universe does God need to assert himself and his ownership as he needs to do with planet earth. Long before Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Long before the serpent in the garden.

Long before creation. Lucifer the angel of light who reflected the light of the throne of God. Lucifer who served at the throne of God. He rebelled against God and he thought he could conduct a coup d'etat against God and take his place. He was thrown out of heaven and he wanted to have his domain to be the earth. But he couldn't. He couldn't. Until, until Adam handed him the deeds of the earth when he sinned and rebelled against God.

He handed it to him. And that is why God had to reinstate his authority on planet earth. And that is why God had to rescue planet earth from the foreign invaders of his property. And that is why 2,000 years ago on the hill called Calvary the earth was restored back to the Lord its rightful owner.

Please hear me right. No matter what the atheist says the earth is whose. No matter what the agnostic says the earth is whose. No matter what the media says the earth is whose. No matter what some godless scientist says the earth is what. No matter what these funky professors say the earth is what. No matter what artificial intelligence says the earth is whose. Amen.

Amen. I want to give you an illustration. Every adult who ever bought a house or any real estate will understand this illustration. I'm going to try and explain it to you in a simple way experientially that most of us who have bought a house would understand. When we buy a house or buy any real estate we go through what they call title deed search. Why? To make sure that no one has claim on that property which we're about to buy.

And then even after we buy it, after we buy that house of the real estate we buy title insurance because we want to insure this particular property against any false claims that a person may have on that property. Are you with me so far? By far, by far, by far when God came to earth 2,000 years ago he came so that he may claim his title deeds and throw out the imposter and throw out the usurper and that is why now Satan has no authority over Jesus' followers. He has authority only upon those who have rejected Jesus Christ as their only Savior and Lord. The Lord's ownership of the whole universe. Secondly, the Lord's offer of a lifetime. Verses 3 to 6.

What is that offer of a lifetime? Look at verse 3. Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who can stand in the holy place? Answer, no one.

No one. None of you, none of your pastor, no, none of us. No one is good enough or righteous enough to stand before the Lord. You see in the Old Testament only the high priest was able to go into the holy of holies and there he had to go all sorts of cleansing rituals and then he goes there once a year and for the briefest of times and even then he goes in with such dread and fear lest the Lord's anger over unconfessed sin must knock him out.

That's why they had to put a bell on his foot. You see and there he will offer a sacrifice for himself and his sins then the sin of the people. But here in Psalm 24 David looks forward with the eyes of faith. He looks forward with the eyes of faith to the New Testament. He looks forward with the eyes of faith to the day of the Lord Jesus Christ and when the Lord issues that greatest invitation whosoever, whosoever, whosoever come, the exclusive Christ is giving an inclusive invitation. And so the question is who can come to Christ?

Verses 4 and 5 gives us the answer, every repentant sinner, every recipient of the grace of God, everyone who would come to Jesus and crown him Lord of his and her life. Question, what evidence do these people who come to Christ should exhibit? Listen carefully, the evidence of being washed by the blood of the Lamb, the evidence of being forgiven of all of our sins by Jesus Christ, the evidence of inward and outward obedience to Christ, the evidence of their thirst and hunger for righteousness, the evidence of having the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed on them, the evidence of inward transformation of life, the evidence of a desire for holy living, the evidence of deep love for Jesus. Those are the evidence, those are the evidence. You know the sad thing for me, especially as I circle the world and as I see things, one of the saddest things is that professing churches still live in the Old Testament, as if they're in the Old Testament.

You say, what do you mean by that Michael? Well, they profess with their lips, but their hearts far away from him. But the psalmist, just like Abraham before him, he looks through the eyes of faith and he sees that only those who have come to Jesus confessing their sins, that only those who are desperate for Christ's forgiveness of their sins, that those who are covered by the righteousness and the holiness of Jesus, that only those on whom the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed will come to him. The Bible said only Christ can wipe away our sins permanently, permanently. Only Christ removes our sins permanently, not just once a year like in the Old Testament.

Then they have to go through the process all over again every year. No, no, no. Only Christ can permanently remove our sins and the wages of our sins. Praise God. You know the one thing God cannot do? I remember when we were Sunday schools as kids, always the teachers ask, what is the one thing God cannot do?

And we always yell, sin. The one thing God cannot do is sin. But there's something else God cannot do.

If you're listening, say amen. You know what the one thing other than not sin, God cannot do? He cannot remember the sins of repentant children who come to him in repentance and faith. He cannot remember the sins of everyone who is born again. What does that mean? It means that God gets some sort of an amnesia, right?

No, that's not what it means. It means that he will not hold our sin against us in the day of judgment. Once you are justified, once you are redeemed, once you are adopted into his family, he does not keep a ledger.

He does not keep a ledger on his own redeemed children. Praise God. Now, beloved, the Lord's ownership of the universe actually makes him to be the only one, the only one who can offer this offer of a lifetime, eternal forgiveness and eternal life in heaven with him. The Lord's ownership of the universe, the Lord's great offer of salvation. And thirdly, the Lord's conquering and winning victoriously is absolutely, categorically inevitable.

How can you say the word inevitable with me? Praise God. Verses 7 to 10. Look at these three verses. The psalmist asked the question and answered it twice. He asked the same question, answered twice. Did you get that?

Underline them in your Bible. In fact, five times he affirms the coming, conquering powers of Jesus Christ. Five times. As if to say, did you get this? Did you get this? Now, did you get this?

Did you get it? Who is the king of glory? Twice he asked the question. Who is the king of glory? Answer, the Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. There come a second question. As if to say, please hear that right.

Hear me right, right? He said, that's how I got it from the psalmist. He said, did you hear this? Who is the king of glory? As if to say, I want to make sure that you understand this.

Get it. As if he's saying, let me say it again. So that hell may tremble. So that the devil might tremble.

So that the enemies of Christ may tremble. He is the king of glory. He is the almighty conquering king of glory. Our beloved, please listen to me.

The world might be going to hell in a basket, but we have a conquering king coming. The sad thing for me is that we don't reverence our awesome God. We take him for granted.

Some people treat him like the little pal down the street. We don't tremble before his majesty. And that is really the core of our problems. When we cease to fear God, we're going to go to business for ourselves. Make no mistake about it, the day is coming.

And I believe it is sooner than many of us think. When the whole world will tremble before the majestic power of Jesus. And listen, the reason in the Western world, and I'm familiar with it, the reason we have insipid churches, insipid Christianity, and insipid worship, and insipid living is because we have lost sight of the conquering king. When we think of our king going to the cross and dying and then buried. Then on the third day, he rose again with his omnipotent power to defeat death once and for all. That should make us tremble before his majesty. And you ask why?

Why? Why did he do this? Why did he leave the splendor of heaven and come to earth, die on a cross, rise again? So that he may win the battle for us. So that he may be able to say, it is finished.

So that he may be able to stand before his father in the center of the universe. And he says, father, I've accomplished everything you asked me to accomplish. Father, I defeated Satan on the cross. Father, I fully obeyed you and obeyed your will.

Father, I have arrested the deeds of planet earth from Satan. Therefore now, I receive from you all of the glory that belongs to me. Who is the king of glory? Lord almighty in the battle.

Who is the king of glory? You notice he didn't say, the Lord wimpy in the struggle. Oh, we have some false teachers and preachers all over the place who are saying God is struggling with us.

God is just feeling his way with us. What an absolute hogwash. False.

False. The apostle Paul said, we should know Jesus after the flesh no more. And that is why the book of Revelation, literally, God permitted that book to be his last book of 66 books. So that we know the victorious Christ.

Listen to me. Christ came in weakness so that we may have his strength. He laid aside the splinter of his majesty so that we may receive his power.

He gave up the trappings of his divinities, not his divinity, but the trappings of his divinity so that we may have his divine nature. Look at verses nine and ten with me again. The conquering king Jesus is now calling his elect from every nation, every tribe and every language. We are seeing it with our own eyes. Right now, I'm seeing it with my own eyes that those who were never his, that those for years pretended to be his, that those who have deceived us into thinking that they are his, they're falling away now.

They're falling away. And yet, others we saw with our own eyes recently can literally write their own death warrant when they get into the water of baptism. And they're coming to Christ in large numbers. I don't know what that says to you. I don't know what it says to me.

That the Lord Jesus Christ is gathering his elect from every tribe, every language and every nation. It tells me that the return of our conquering king is nearer than we think. The return of our conquering king is at the door. The return of our conquering king is about to sound the trumpet.

The return of our conquering king is about to take place. Let me ask you this, and please answer the question to yourself. Does this thought thrill you or frighten you? Answer it to yourself. Does this thought get you already excited about seeing the conquering king and joining in the parade, or does it make you fearful and frightened?

That question only you can answer to yourself. I pray to God that everyone at The Sound of My Voice would say, come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. Come conquering king. Come conquering king.

Now how about it? Does the thought of Jesus' return thrill you or frighten you? Maybe a conversation with one of the caring, leading the way pastors or counselors would help. Again, just by filling out a brief contact form at ltw.org slash Jesus. That's ltw.org slash Jesus. I want to thank you for taking time today for leading the way with Dr. Michael Youssef and his Palm Sunday themed message, The Conquering King. For the next week or so, our hearts will be pointed toward the crucifixion and the resurrection, leaning into how death and hell were overcome by the conquering king. Here are the reminders of how Jesus saved his church. It's only appropriate to learn about what he said to the church in his letters in Revelation and how those letters apply to Christians and the church today.

So allow me to mention a book that Dr. Youssef recently completed. It is sure to deepen your appreciation for the love that Jesus showed through his death, his burial and his resurrection. In it, he looks at the letters of Jesus in Revelation. It's called God's Final Call. As you read God's Final Call, you'll gain a clear understanding of the striking similarities between the challenges that the early church faced and the challenges faced today. Here is how to get your copy of God's Final Call on the way to you today. Call us. We're at 866-626-4356 or go online, ltw.org. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org or through your favorite social media platform.