Series:
Psalm
Title:
Question of all Questions
Text:
Psalm 15: 1-2
Date:
March 28, 2013
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
My
subject tonight is: Question of all
Questions. David asked the question
in Psalm 15: 1. Psalm 15: 1: LORD, who
shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
The
tabernacle of Jehovah and his holy hill, represents the place where God dwells,
in his church and in heaven. To put it simply, the question is, “LORD, who may
come into your presence and be accepted of you, forever?” That is the question
of all questions. And the LORD gives the
answer.
In
verse 2, note the ending, “in his heart”.
It applies to each of these three things. These first three things are
toward God.
Psalm 15: 2: He that walketh uprightly, and worketh
righteousness, and speaketh the
truth in his heart.
He whom
God will receive to abide with God, must be perfect in his walk, his works, and
his speech, in his heart, before the all-seeing eye of God. The next 4 things are toward men.
Psalm 15: 3: He that backbiteth not with his
tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his
neighbour. 4: In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them
that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. 5: He
that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the
innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
Proposition:
The one that has done all of these things perfectly is he who now sits as King in
God’s holy hill forever, God’s own Son the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as all
those created anew by the Spirit of God, who trust Christ for our full acceptance
with God.
I. HE THAT WALKETH UPRIGHTLY IN HIS HEART SHALL
DWELL WITH GOD (V2)
“Uprightly”
means entire, complete, whole, and perfect.
It means to walk in integrity of heart: without blemish, without spot, totally
undefiled in the heart.
Corrupt Heart
Since every man born of Adam is conceived in
Adam’s corrupt seed, we come forth from the womb corrupt and incomplete in our
hearts. Therefore we have no integrity of heart—we are unholy by nature. By our first birth, we do not walk uprightly
for our hearts are set on things of this earth.
Illustration: Animals walking on all fours seek food out of the
earth. That is the description God gives
of natural men. Of unregenerate preachers and those who follow them Jude 10
says,
Jude
10: But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they
know naturally, as BRUTE BEASTS, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Upright Heart
Christ Jesus was not conceived of Adam’s corrupt seed but
was formed in the virgins womb of the Holy Ghost.
Luke 1: 35: And the angel answered and said unto her, The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee: therefore also that HOLY THING which shall be born of thee shall be
called the SON OF GOD.
Hebrews 7: 26: For such an high priest became us, who
is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than
the heavens;
From
the womb to the tomb the Son of God walked uprightly in his heart: complete,
whole, and perfect before the all-seeing eye of God the Father in the integrity
of his heart.
New Heart
Those
born a second time, of his incorruptible Seed now have a heart like his heart.
1 John 3: 8: He that committeth sin is of the devil;
for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 9: Whosoever is born
of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God.
When
John speaks of he that is of the devil and he that is of God, he is speaking
about one man. In every believer, the fruits
of the Holy Spirit are in the inner man which cannot sin because we are born of
God and his Seed remaineth in us. Our sin is of our old man, of the devil, the
product of Adam and his transgression.
Walking Upright in Heart
Walking
uprightly means we live by the faith of Christ, led of the Spirit of God, and
no longer frustrate the grace of God by turning again to the law. Peter turned
back to the law and Paul said this:
Galatians
2: 14 But when I saw that they WALKED NOT
UPRIGHTLY ACCORDING TO THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL, I said unto Peter before them
all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do
the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? 15: WE who
are JEWS BY NATURE,…
Whether Jew or Gentile all believers are Jews by the new
nature created within us when Christ entered and we became partakers of the
divine nature.
Galatians
2: 15:…and not sinners of the Gentiles,…
We are not unregenerate sinners. Here is what we all know
as believers:
Galatians
2: 16: Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be
justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 17: BUT if, while we seek to be
justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the
minister of sin? God forbid. 18: For if I build again the things which I
destroyed, I make MYSELF a transgressor.
Such sin is of the old man, not of the new. Now notice how Paul speaks of himself as two
different men—one crucified, one alive.
Galatians
2: 19: For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me: and 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. 21: I do not frustrate the
grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in
vain.
Application: Brethren, Christ
joined his divine nature with human nature, walked before God uprightly as the
representative of his people so that through his blood he could make us
partakers of the divine nature by the new birth. So now, though sin is mixed
with all we do, in the new creation of God, we walk uprightly, knowing our old
man really has been crucified with Christ and the life we now live, we live by
the faith of Christ who loved us and gave himself for us.
II. HE THAT WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS IN HIS
HEART (V2)
“To
work righteousness” is to do that which is right and just according to God’s
holy law.
Working Unrighteousness
When Adam,
our first representative, broke the law of God he died, and his death passed
upon all men, for that reason, all have sinned. (Rom 5: 12) Some accused God of being unjust to charge
the children with their father’s transgression. They used this proverb, “The
fathers have sinned and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” So in Ezekiel 18, God said that they would
not use that proverb anymore. Then God
said,
Ezekiel 18: 19: Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear
the iniquity of the father? When the son HATH DONE that which is LAWFUL AND
RIGHT, and HATH KEPT ALL my statutes, and HATH DONE THEM, HE SHALL
SURELY LIVE. 20: THE soul that sinneth, IT shall die. THE SON SHALL NOT BEAR
THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHER, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the
son: THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL BE UPON HIM, AND THE WICKEDNESS
OF THE WICKED SHALL BE UPON HIM. 21: BUT if the wicked WILL TURN from ALL his
sins that he hath committed, and KEEP ALL my statutes, AND DO that which is
LAWFUL and RIGHT, HE SHALL SURELY LIVE, HE SHALL NOT DIE. 22: ALL his
transgressions that he hath committed, they SHALL NOT BE MENTIONED UNTO HIM: in
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT HE HATH DONE HE SHALL LIVE. 23: Have I any pleasure at
all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he
should return from his ways, and live?
The
problem is, while we are only conceived of Adam’s corrupt seed, we only do what
it is our sinful-nature to do. One, we cannot stop ourselves from transgressing
the law of God. Two, we cannot make ourselves turn from our sins. Three, we
cannot make ourselves do the righteousness of God’s law.
Application: So sinner, God is not unjustly charging you. God justly
charges you with your own transgression which you yourself have committed. No
one else is to blame. “THE soul that sinneth,
IT shall surely die.”
Working Righteousness
But grace
super-abounds over our sin. Christ Jesus did exactly what it was his holy
nature to do—he did only righteousness in perfect accord with God’s law. (Ps
40: 8)
Application: God sent his Son to fulfill the law FOR his people and
to REDEEM us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. And Christ finished the work! Every child, born of the Holy Spirit, does
what God has given him a nature to do—nothing—instead we confess our sins to
God and believe Christ to be all our Righteousness. Therefore, God justly imputes
the righteousness of Christ to us. It is
a just charge because God has made us the righteousness of God through the
obedience and blood of Christ. Within we
are created in the righteousness and holiness of Christ. And by Christ’s obedience, we have obeyed the
law and are justified from all sin. Sinner, stop trying to work for
righteousness. The righteousness of faith says,
Romans
10: 9: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. 10: For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation.
III. HE THAT
SPEAKETH TRUTH IN HIS HEART TOWARD GOD SHALL DWELL WITH GOD (V2)
Speaking Lies
Because
we are born with a deceitful heart we speak lies from the heart toward God:
about ourselves and about God.
Psalm 58: 3: The wicked are estranged from the womb: they
go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
1Timothy 4:2: Speaking lies in hypocrisy;
Natural
man puts on a show outwardly then speaks of himself as being righteous and
holy. By that he calls God a liar. He is living a lie in hypocrisy. Most men in
religion are hypocrites but ALL men outside of Christ are lying hypocrites
because they will not confess their sin and will not confess their need of
Christ.
Illustration:“You can’t handle the truth!”
Speaking Truth
But
Christ is the Truth, the Word of God. He spoke, and now speaks, only the truth
of God.
John 7: 16 Jesus
answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me…18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own
glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same IS TRUE, and NO
UNRIGHTEOUSNESS is IN HIM.
Christ is
TRUE. So he preached truth: that “except
ye repent, ye shall all perish in your sins.”
He preached, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent.” Christ was truthful with men
on a personal level. He said to
religious men,
John 8: 44: Ye are of your father the devil, and the
lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45: And
because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
The
chief reason men do not like to hear the preaching of the gospel is because
they know it is true: all natural men are unrighteous liars and Christ alone is
the Way, the Truth and the Life.
But
when Christ the Truth enters by the Spirit and speaks the Word into our newly
created heart THEN HIS WORD IS IN US, AND THE TRUTH IS IN US—and this makes the
sinner speak THE TRUTH IN HIS HEART toward God. Then we confess the truth to
God that all we are is sin: our walk, our works, and till now, our speech—is all
sin and then we confess the truth to God that Christ is the Son of God and he
alone is all our righteousness and sanctification and all our hope of
acceptance with God.
1 John 1: 8: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the TRUTH IS NOT IN US. 9: If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to CLEANSE us from all UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
10: If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and HIS WORD IS NOT
IN US.
But if
we speak the truth, confessing our sin, it is because truth is in us and his
word is in us.
1 John 2: 1: My little children, these things write I
unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2: And he is the propitiation for our sins:
and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world
Application: Sinner, is Christ the Word and the Truth in you? If so
you will stop being a hypocrite. Be honest to God about yourself and about your
need of Christ. Those who are honest with God shall dwell with God forever.
Through
Christ who walked uprightly in perfection of heart the elect of God are given a
new heart to walk uprightly in faith, trusting Christ for our acceptance with
God. By Christ who worked righteousness
in perfection the elect of God are created anew in righteousness and true
holiness and through faith the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. Through Christ who is the Truth and speaks
the truth into our hearts, we are made honest to confess our sins and our faith
in Christ. Christ is the one who did all
of these things in perfection and by faith we trust that by his obedience we
shall dwell with God forever in glory.
Amen!