Who?

Who?

Psalm 15

Today we are talking about difficult questions.

For example, How does the average person get in to see the Super Bowl?

Suppose that the Super Bowl was being held at Soldier Field.  If you were in the least bit a fan, You would love to go, wouldn’t you? What do you need in order to get in?  You need a ticket!  If you don’t have a ticket, there’s nothing you can do – you can stand outside the stadium and look sad and plead with the ticket takers at the entrance, but unless you have a ticket, you won’t get in. But, imagine you do have a ticket. You’re standing outside the stadium, ticket in hand, and your friend walks up and says, “Let’s go in! Let’s go see the Super Bowl!” What are you going to say? Would you say, “Nah, I’d rather stand out here on the street. Maybe I’ll go pass some time sitting in the bus station.”

That would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it? You have the ticket! You have entrance into an exciting event! So you will go in!

Another question:

How does a team get to play in the Super Bowl?

One might think that to be a fairly straightforward process, but the answer seems to vary, depending whom one asks.  Some might say that one needs superior officiating.  Others would put the emphasis on special teams — and by that I mean field goal kickers.  

A leading newspaper that carries a daily column designed to answer readers’ queries,

Once listed its top ten unanswerable questions. Here’s just one:

“I am nine years of age and have a cat that eats regularly and needs to go on a diet. He also eats mice when he is out. How many calories in a mouse?”

Our text today is found in Psalm 15. There we find a most important question.  Unlike that 9 year old’s question in the newspaper,  this one is not unanswerable  Who can approach God?  We will discover…

The Problem (v. 1)  

The Prescription (vv. 2-5a)       and

The Promise (v. 5b)  

1. Body
1. The Problem (v. 1)
1. Many people today are searching for answers, they are looking for direction, they are longing for peace and security concerning their eternal destination. 
1. Some are hoping to live their lives “good enough" to make it to Heaven. They are trusting in their morality and good works to get them there. 
2. Others are trusting in religion, rituals and ceremonies to secure their eternal life. 
3. If you or someone that you know are one who is searching for answers concerning eternity, I can assure you the answer is not religion, works or morality, neither does it involve being “good enough” to make it.
2. For David this matter of living in God’s presence was a very real concern. Indeed the question he asks here may have come out of his own experience in bringing the tabernacle, and that is to say, the presence of God to Jerusalem. The story is told in 2 Samuel 6.
1. When David first attempted to bring the tabernacle or the ark of God to Jerusalem, they tried to move it on a cart. No one was allowed to touch the ark when it was being transported, but when the oxen stumbled and one of the attendants reached out and touched the ark in order to steady it, the Lord’s anger burned against him, and the Lord struck him down, and he died.
2. David’s response was to ask, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” That is, how can we ever bring God’s presence to Jerusalem? How can anyone ever live in God’s presence? So he left the ark at a man’s home.
3. Over the next three months, Obed-Edom and his entire household were blessed, so David determined to bring the ark to Jerusalem, the city on the hill. This time, they carried it as it was supposed to be moved. When it arrived in Jerusalem, they had a great celebration.  This is reflected in the Psalm we read earlier, Psalm 24.
4. Yet David knew that living in God’s presence had more to do with how you live than whether the ark was in Jerusalem, so as he meditates on his experience in moving the ark, he asks the bigger questions in this Psalm.
3. Who may abide/dwell?  Who is acceptable to God?
4. … not so much a question of the identity of those entering into God's presence as it is of what kind of a person may enjoy his fellowship.
5. Psalm 15 was most likely spoken by priests who confronted worshipers entering the Temple Mount to join in the worship of God in the temple.
6. The idea is to examine oneself before drawing near to God.  Deep reflection on the reality of being in God's presence inevitably leads us to ask, "How ought we to behave? " Psalm 15 offers the answer.
2. The Prescription (vv. 2-5a)
1. The wise are primarily characterized by the word "blameless". 
1. It is not synonymous with "perfect" but with an attitude of the heart desirous of pleasing God. The blameless are people of integrity in relationship to God and others. In their personal relations, they express a righteous and faithful lifestyle. Regardless of what God requires, the blameless do God's will on earth.  
2. Two examples in Scripture of people who are referred to as blameless are Moses and Abraham. Neither was sinless, but they were completely committed to the Lord, and sought to keep their character sound.
2. What you do?  Your character.  (Ethics)
1. Everybody wants character, but it seems to be hard to come by.
2. In 2006, The TIAA-CREF "Trust in America" survey asked the following question of investors: "Would you choose a financial services company with strong ethics or higher returns?" The response: Strong ethics—92 percent; Higher returns—5 percent; Not sure—3 percent.
3. This involves all aspects of who you are:  Walk, do, speak
4. What you say matters:
1. Jesus said that what comes out of our mouth comes directly from our heart. 
1. In Matthew 12, He said that those who are evil cannot speak good things. He went on to say that "...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks". 
2. Those who abide with Christ have a holy conversation, their conversation is not corrupt or vulgar. If the opposite is true, then you know that they are NOT abiding with Christ! 
3. Jesus said that the Pharisees attempted to honor God with their words but "their hearts were far from Him". (Matthew 15:8-9) They were good at following the traditions of men. But they were wicked, sinful people who had no true relationship with God. Their hearts were dirty! 
2. There is a story about a man who came to see a Rabbi and told him he had passed on some slander to another person. He asked the Rabbi what he could do to get right with God. The Rabbi said, “There are just two things you need to do: one today and one tomorrow.” The man said, “So what do I need to do today.” The Rabbi said, “Get a feather pillow, cut it open, walk through the center of town, and spread the feathers along the way.”
3. So the man did that, and he came back the next day and asked what he needed to do now. The Rabbi said, “Today, you need to go through town and pick up all the feathers.” The man responded, “But that is impossible.” The Rabbi said, “Yes, that’s the problem. That is why we need to watch what we say.”
5. So too, it matters what you do.
1. Ephesians 2:10 (says that) we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
2. As Christians we are expected to perform good works. We do not do good works to get saved, we do good works because WE ARE SAVED! 
3. He who "works righteousness" describes the Christian who realizes that he has duties to perform. We are to serve the Lord and we are to serve our neighbors.
6. Finally, your walk matters.
1. Walking "Uprightly" speaks of a pure walk. This is someone who doesn’t allow their feet to take them to places of wickedness. 
2. Is God pleased with how you are living your life? Is He pleased with the places that you go? Someone said "you cannot abide in high places and live the low life!”
3. Those who “walk uprightly" will flee temptation, avoid sin, seek after what is Holy and follow God. When you follow God and allow Him to direct you steps... you will walk uprightly!
   
3. The Second aspect of this prescription involves what you don’t do. (Behavior)
1. As you guard your speech, you don’t tread over people with your tongue.
2. As you mind your actions, you do not harm your fellow man.
3. As you walk uprightly, you are not fickle or greedy, neither are you a person who can be bought with a bribe,
4. As one commentator writes about verse 5; Those who desire God have a deep sense of integrity and must often make material sacrifices to be honest. Their honor is more important than their wallet.
5. Jesus spoke to all of this when He answered what was the greatest commandment.  He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  [Matthew 22:37-40]
6. Or as Paul wrote in Romans 13:10: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law”

1. The Promise (v. 5b)
1. “shall never be moved”: Another translation is shall not stumble. In the Old Testament, stumbling or falling is an image of ruin.  They may experience adversities, but they will never fall, as will the wicked. They will never be "shaken" (cf. 16:8). This is God's promise.
2. One father tells how his son demonstrated this to him:
1. My son Jason’s successes have come mainly in baseball, the most notable of which occurred in a single moment last summer. In the last three years, I doubt Jason has ever taken the field or the basketball court when he wasn’t the smallest player on either team. Last summer, his lack of height was all the more noticeable because he was a seventh-grader playing in a seventh/eighth-grade league.
2. A fire-armed pitcher--more than a foot taller than my 4-foot-9 son--blazed a fastball right down the pike. I’m not sure Jason even saw the ball. Strike one. The second pitch scorched across the plate for a called strike two. The third pitch, unintentionally I’m sure, came right at Jason. He turned to avoid being hit and fell to the ground. His bat went flying. His helmet bounced off. The ball seemed to have skimmed his shoulder.
3. "Take your base," said the umpire.
4. Standing in the third-base coach’s box, I was happy just seeing Jason alive, much less getting a free base. But now he was saying something to the umpire. What was going on?
5. "It didn’t hit me," Jason said to the ump.
6. "Take your base, son," said the ump.
7. Our fans were most likely thinking the same thing I was thinking: Take your base, son. You’ve been wounded, soldier; your war’s over. You’re going home…
8. "But honest, it didn’t hit me," Jason pleaded.
9. The umpire looked at Jason and out to the infield ump, who just shrugged.
10. "OK," said the ump, "the count is one-and-two.”
11. Should I intervene? Make him take his base? Jason was already digging in his cleats in the batter’s box. I mentally shrugged and headed back to the coach’s box.
12. The towering pitcher rocked and fired. A bullet right down the middle--the kind of pitch that would send the kid to the dugout. Instead, Jason ripped the ball into left-center for a stand-up double. Our crowd roared. The manager of the team in the field was standing a few feet behind me. He had no idea that the kid on second base was my son. He spit out his sunflower seeds and slowly shook his head.
13. "Man," he said, "you gotta love that.”

1. Conclusion
1. Think on these matters. Are you living in such a way that you can live with God on his holy hill?  
2. The man who lives according to the dictates of Psalm 15 will be God’s guest, and will be assured of a permanent welcome. In other words, he will have a welcome, not only as the Lord’s guest here, but he will be the Lord’s guest throughout eternity.  “I shall live in the house of the Lord forever!” said David in Psalm 23.
3. But where do we find such a man—the man who qualifies to be God’s guest? Well, we shall have to cross over to the New Testament to find Him. 
1. The only man who ever walked uprightly, working righteousness, whose innermost thoughts and whose every spoken word met the approval of God; whose words were restrained, righteous, respectful, and reliable; whose ways were always fair and whose path was firmly fixed was Jesus. 
2. He preached the Sermon on the Mount and then—under the all-seeing eye of God, and exposed to public scrutiny—He practiced what He preached. Then He passed His righteousness on to you and me.
4. As Christians we have an amazing privilege. Because of Christ's work at Calvary, we have been granted access to the Father. After enduring the agony of the Cross "And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." - Mark 15:37-38
1. The veil which was established to separate the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom. Up until this point only the High Priest was privileged to enter into this place. Not even King David, the “man after God’s own heart” and author of Psalm 15 could enter there.  
2. The veil being torn symbolized the fact that all may now have access to the throne of Grace. There are no words to accurately convey the awesome privilege that we have — to be able to approach a Holy God.
3. His righteousness has become our righteousness so that now we, even though we stumble, we can come into His house as a welcome guest at His table. 
4. What was the gracious word of Paul’s? “Let a man examine himself and so let him eat.” Examine yourself: I’m sure that like me, you will find out that you are not good enough to enter God’s house and sit down at His table. But when the time comes, the righteousness of Jesus covers your every flaw and blemish, and God will say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: ENTER INTO THE JOY OF YOUR LORD.”