Dakota Community Church
November 24, 2013
Who Shall Dwell on
Your Holy Hill?
Psalm 15
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbour, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honours those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
On the table here is life with a Holy God.
Who qualifies?
Here is what we must do if we want to live in God’s presence.
1. Walk blamelessly and do right.
Psalm 15:2a
2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right...
What does it mean to walk blamelessly and do right?
Is it to try your best? Is it to do more good than bad? What is meant by blameless?
Mark 10:17-22
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
God’s standard is so high as to seem absurd to us.
Our automatic response to these passages is, “It can’t mean what it seems to mean.”
When we talk about sin, is there ever a case when you must except blame?
When we talk about holiness, is there ever a case where you must admit to having done wrong?
What does this mean concerning your chances of living with God?
2. Speak only truth.
Psalm 15:2b
2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;
Think about what a wide range this is; first notice the phrase “in his heart”, this really expands the ground covered by this verse doesn’t it.
Psalm 44:20-21
If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
Luke 16:13-15
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.
So this “speaking” is not not only dealing with audible words, rather goes all the way to the heart level. Have you ever accidentally said something out loud and then thought, “Did I just say that out loud?” This includes the things you didn’t say out loud.
Now for a minute think about the other word in this little half sentence; “truth”
John 18:33-38
So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
John 17:14-17
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
So we are talking about speaking only what agrees with the Word of God AND we are talking about pulling that off at the heart level.
What does this mean concerning your chances of living with God?
3. Love Justice.
Psalm 15:3-4a
3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord
If you hope to live with God one day then you must do no harm in word in deed to neighbour or friend! You must hate sin and want justice for the sinner and you must see, believe in, and value the effect of the gospel.
Recognize the state of fallen man.
Recognize that God’s love and mercy does not in any way diminish His Holiness and Justice.
2 Peter 2:1-10
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
Do you love God’s justice the way you love His mercy and Grace?
What does this mean concerning your chances of living with God?
4. Keep your word even if it kills you.
Psalm 15:4b
...who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
Have you ever promised to do something and then later regretted it?
Does anyone here have an ex-wife or ex-husband?
Have any of you declared bankruptcy?
Have you signed a contract and later, feeling it was unfair, backed out of it?
Matthew 5:33-37
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
This is talking about being such a person of character that your yes or no is enough.
What does this mean concerning your chances of living with God?
5. Do not serve mammon.
Psalm 15:5
5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
Two issues to deal with here.
A. Loaning money and charging interest.
Do you believe in “business ethics”?
Have you ever profited from a brother’s loss and justified it by saying, “It’s not personal, it’s just business”?
B. Choosing money over justice.
If you have ever travelled outside of North America you may have come face to face with the horrible effects of corrupt police or government officials, not that N.A. is completely free of it, but it can be shocking especially in some third world settings.
What about you; have you ever turned a blind eye and allowed justice to be avoided? Have you ever taken bribe of any kind for any reason?
We already looked at a New Testament passage concerning the God of money so let’s go there again:
Luke 16:13-15
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.
What does this mean concerning your chances of living with God?
In light of these requirements who is ready to live in God’s presence?
Wait before you answer, consider the following.
Who walked blamelessly and did right?
Who spoke only truth?
Who kept His word and died?
Who tolerates no injustice?
Who shall dwell on the Holy Hill?
The one whose birth we are about to celebrate.
The one whose advent is upon us.
Only in Christ will any of us dwell on the Holy Hill.
One final question this morning:
Are you in Christ?
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
Follow Dan on twitter: @DanCormie
