So congregation, this morning, let's open the Bible to Psalm 15. Psalm 15. Both this morning and this evening, we will be in the Psalms. Tonight, to Psalm 1, to consider biblical meditation a forgotten spiritual discipline, largely. And we want to take some care with that tonight. This morning, Psalm 15. And if I might ask you for your continued prayers, we'll return, Lord willing, to Mark next week and that most serious, significant, weighty, difficult, almost unpreachable text. And I'm honest about that. It's very difficult. So not to overstate it, but would you please continue in prayer for that matter of next Sunday morning. This morning we have rather weighty things to consider as well. So to the word of God, to Psalm 15. A Psalm of David. Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary, who may live on your holy hill, he whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow man, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent, He who does these things will never be shaken, or a better translation of that last word, moved, will never be moved. So beloved, the word of the living God. Let's come before him this morning and ask his help as we continue, shall we? Our Father in heaven, we are so very thankful for your word. It is a word that both blesses us and undoes us. We ask, Lord, that you, by your Spirit, would do that which is necessary for each person here to a right acceptance of, understanding of, and living out of your word. May we be built up in truth as we begin this new year. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, the congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Psalms, if I can think of them as a broad category of truth, hold, the Psalms hold a special place in the hearts of many Christians. When you feel yourself discouraged or troubled or facing some trial or difficulty or something's going on in your life, if you've lived any number of years, you often, for comfort, turn to the Psalms. You find wisdom and direction there. You are encouraged in what you read in the Psalms, and that's good, and that's appropriate, and as it should be, but there is more. There's more. And we need to make some connections this morning with things expressed in the Psalm here. Psalm 15, a Psalm of David, which if we're not honest, if we're not forthright in how we deal with it, is a matter easy to push away. A matter to minimize. And in the Christian Church, it has been this way through the ages, and so our day is really no different. These things are ones that make us uncomfortable and so we quickly turn away from them. I would implore you to not do that this morning. We need to make an honest assessment of ourselves, the Lord doing that through his word. And so the psalm in this regard is an important touchstone, it's a directive, it's counsel, it's guidance for us in a different direction than sometimes We come to the Psalms to find. It's evaluative, it's undoing, it's directive, it's challenging what we have here. And that's a good thing at the beginning of a new year. It's good for us to be challenged. It's good to us to ask how much we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And what that believing looks like. You've probably already made plans. Maybe you already began a diet. Did you already decide a Bible reading plan for the year? How's it going? Have you scoped out your vacation schedule, your goals, your resolutions? How's it going? But the assessment of the psalm and the goal of this portion of scripture is beloved. I'll say it again. It's not for the timid. Neither is it for hypocrites. You see, the Lord declares that living with him requires a comprehensive holiness. This is Psalm 15. The Lord declares that living with him requires a comprehensive holiness. But are we going to ask the question? You see, by grace we ask, and by grace we get an answer. Well, what's the question? Verse one, Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? Now, why is that such an important question? Because it is comprehensive to the issue of how we view this new year we've just entered into. It's 2025. As you think, what will my life be like in the new year of 2025, how do you begin to categorize it? What's the overall thrust of what's going to be meaningful to us in this new year? I could list off a number of things and you would probably agree with a number of these things. Things that are going to be important to Christians in this new year. Things like our health. Is that important? Our financial stability. Is that important? Where am I going to live? What will my job be if I'm at that place of life to have a job? What new relationships will I enter into or what stability will I find in my current relationships with other people? These are all important questions. These are all things that we commonly consider and think about at various times, especially at the beginning of a new year. But do we consider this question as the primary overarching question that envelops everything else about us? Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? who may live on your holy hill. And I submit to you again, beloved, what we have in the first point of the sermon outline is a significant matter to be aware of now, that by grace alone do people ask that question. The psalmist asks it by grace of the Lord. The Christian is engaged now in the sermon and considering the text, and so you are asking by grace the question of the Lord, but the unbeliever has no interest in the answer to this question. The unbeliever could care less. Notice the distinction here, Christians. of the great dichotomy and the great separation between the believer and the unbeliever on the most fundamental question as we begin the new year, who can dwell with God and who can't? You are interested in the answer to that question. Those in Hollywood, those in governmental authority in realms of power in human terms do not care. But you do, by grace. You care a lot because you want to know, are you included? Is the answer to the question of verse one, me? May I? Will I? Am I one of that number? And so already you're in deep interest to know the answer to the question. Beloved, rejoice in that. Rejoice that you want to know. Think about that in terms of those you live around who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. You're concerned about them. You have an interest in their eternal state and security in Christ. And ask them to wonder about this question. to be concerned at this point, who will live with the Lord? Who will not? You see, it is our duty to ask that question. And because we're asking it, it means we have a burning in the heart or the matters that will unfold in this year, matters that will unfold in view of God and under his purview and within the universe that he controls. Such, and I could say this, not racing to the end too quickly, but I could say it this way, beloved, that this is the year, 2025, where the Lord will lay you down in your grave. You will not fear. because you know that you are in God's hands, because you are asking this question, will I abide in God's presence? Will I dwell near to him? There's actually a very interesting double parallelism in verse one, just in verse one already, and the Psalms are repeat in doing this. The Psalms do this a lot. Notice the parallelism. The question dwell and the question live and the place sanctuary and the place holy hill are parallels. That adds to the force of the question you see. Who may abide? Who might live? who might be near God. When the people of God were wandering in the wilderness, and the Lord moved them by the fiery pillar, by the cloudy pillar, and brought them to a new spot, and said, we're going to stop here, never told them how long they were going to stop at that spot. Right after God brought them to the new location, they set up the tents. And the tents were set up in such a way that each tribe had its assigned location in relationship to the tabernacle. The tabernacle being in the center and the tents erected around the tabernacle in the structure God had ordained, each tribe would be able to go out of their tent and look to the middle, and in the middle of the area would see the presence of God. And this, you see, is what the psalmist is getting at. Will we see God as central to our year? Will we see Him as the primary person, holy, glorious, that is before our view this year? Will we dwell with the Lord? Well, we need an answer to that question, don't we? I want you to notice, secondly, that the answer includes the warning about a mere profession. The answer includes the warning about a mere profession. Because the answer begins, verse two, he whose walk, he whose walk. The reason why the basic question must be our first concern, not only in terms of verse one, but of the psalm is actually because of the structure of the psalm. The psalm begins with the question, we've dealt with it for a moment now, verse one. There comes, in verse 5b, the very end of the psalm, the resolution and the rejoicing, but the meat of the psalm is found in verse 2 to the beginning of verse 5. And all of that meat, beloved, is about walking, doing. Why is that such a challenge? Because if you're anything like me, the tendency of our human nature is to think in terms of a mere profession. Because it's easy for us to say, I believe. It's easy for us to say, oh, yes, sure. Of course. I affirm. I agree. I profess. I want you to see, beloved, that in verses two through five, that facade is stripped away. The propensity toward a mere profession does not stand against the assault of the psalm. The mere professor, you see, does not regularly, does not consistently, does not passionately do the things that the psalm says are the things required for those who will live in the presence of God. Those things come positively. Look at verse two. He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart. And then come the things that the true Christian refrains from doing. Verse three. He does not slander. He does his neighbor no wrong. He does not cast a slur on his fellow man. But then it looks at a more broad issue of how we view the world and our minds. He despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord. And it comes down to the practical matters of our contracts and agreements, who keeps his oath even when it hurts and lends money without usury, does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Or to summarize it, it covers everything in terms of doing. The mere professor. Is not interested in that doing. The hypocrite. Has no heart guilt. About violating any of the things that the Lord calls us to hear in the psalm. He's not bothered about any of those things. Now. There is need here, I think, for caution and caution in two different directions. And so I want to give you that caution. But one direction of that caution is much louder in this Psalm than the other direction, but we're going to start with the softer caution first. Because. Some might come to the conclusion that what is being preached right now is. Live in such a way as to have God accept you. Some might think that what is being preached right now goes something like this. If you don't live in a certain way, God will not accept you. If you don't live righteously, you cannot be with God. And unless you do all things perfectly, God will reject you. Beloved, that is not what is being preached. Or let me say it differently. That has been done by the Lord Jesus Christ for us. I need to say that it's a minor caution from this text because it's too easy for us to say, well, the text is talking about a righteousness by which we earn God's favor. No, beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who could ever live perfectly in all the ways that are given to us here in this text. And unless you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you are outside of the presence of God's favor. Now I pray we heard that minor caution. The work of Christ on our behalf, our status of justification comes first. Now I say, however. Just like Paul and James are not contrary to one another, but that Paul and James stand back-to-back fighting different enemies, I need to issue to you the second caution. And it is actually the caution that is being shouted in this psalm. And it goes like this. If you're about to say, if you're about to think, Christ's work on my behalf allows me to have no concern or cause for upset about pursuing holiness. Be warned. If we say that because Jesus Christ lived perfectly for me, I therefore do not need to be concerned about living righteously, be warned, Christians. This caution, the psalmist is shouting. Do you see that he says that? Do not say or do not even think that, well, Jesus Christ has done it, therefore I don't need to be concerned about it and I can live like I want to. You are in danger of damnation if that's how you're thinking. Do you see what the Bible says? This text is a caution against that gross error. Who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? The one whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart. You see, beloved, thirdly, the answer addresses the common issues of life. I will not, I cannot. Stand before God and allow for a lie. A lie that many believe. To be that which you speak on your lips when you stand before the great white throne judgment and say to him, well, I thought that Christ has done it, so therefore I can live like I want. I will not allow that lie to exist. As much as within me is. And so the answer addresses the common issues of life. I want you to notice, beloved, that the Lord here is clearly talking about life, isn't he? Here are the actions of the Christian life. Here is the new obedience to which the Christian is called to live out. Verse two, walk, does, speaks. Verse three, no slander, does not do his neighbor wrong, does not cast a slur on his fellow man, despises, that's the mental consideration in all the areas of life, this person, this Christian is dedicated to holiness. Is this you? Is it me? Do you say I will not sin with my speech? Do you say my behavior will be morally upright in terms of God's word and will? Do you say about yourself, verse four, that I want in my inner man, in my inner person, in my thought life, I want to love what is good and I want to despise what is evil. Notice verse four, I think that word is so important, who despises a vile man. Is that what we do? In terms of our interaction with other people, verse 4b and 5a, do we set forth our life in godliness in terms of contracts and oaths and business dealings and finances? In all things, does it begin in the heart and go out through our fingertips? Do we love what God loves? Do we hate what God hates? Dearly beloved, surely this is where the rubber hits the road, isn't it? These now then become the activities and the behaviors of assessment. This is where we should really be questioning ourselves. We should be honest with ourselves. We should be engaged and wanting an honest answer of ourselves. Am I an upright man, woman? Am I an upright adult, child? Am I an upright husband, wife, father, mother? Am I an upright church member? Am I engaged in the things that God calls me to? What is the trend of my life? In what areas of my person and activities is my life subject to blame? Where are my weaknesses? What is it that I am doing that God would say that's out of bounds? Come back into the camp. When last, when last did you give actual waking thought to your own behavior patterns? When did you think about you? And say, oh God, this is who I am. This is me. Now would that leave us depressed? Only if at that moment we don't run to Christ, it would leave us depressed. For you see beloved again, what we need to understand is that these things are the matters which about honesty come forth and bring us to the foot of the cross again and again and again and again. Are you coming to the foot of the cross regularly? Are you saying, and did you say when we read the psalm the first time, well, he's gonna talk about somebody that's not me, or he's gonna talk about Christ because it can't be me. Or are we, beloved, when we hear this psalm, when we contemplate this psalm, are we the ones who say, Lord, have mercy on me? You see, the answer, fourthly, mandates we show our profession. We could come to the issue of the psalm from a slightly different direction, but a related point of view by asking about love. Whenever I think of love and hear that word, I often think of scripture passages like you do, but also I think about the third question of the profession of faith form. Right now you're trying to remember those four questions. You know what the third one is? It's the most simple and I think the most unnerving question. When a young person or somebody who has not known the Lord Jesus Christ before stands and answers the questions, the third one comes and it's this question. Very simple, very unnerving. Do you love the Lord? Do we? Do we? Is that our testimony? I love the Lord. What did Jesus say in John 14, 15? If you love me, can you fill in the rest of the verse? John 14, 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. It's what the psalm is dealing with. Who may dwell in the presence of God? Answer, the one who shows his or her profession by what we do. Because this is what the psalm ends with. He who does these things will never be moved. Remember I said that's the better translation of the Hebrew word here. Because we don't want to be moved, you see, from nearness to God. That's where we don't want to be moved from. Because we want to be near him, not far from him. We want to be close to him, not cast out away from him. We don't want to be cast into outer darkness where there's weeping and the gnashing of teeth. We want to be kept near him. We want to be by the one who Psalm 46 is our place of refuge, and Psalm 27 is the one who places us on a high rock above our troubles. Who are those people? who are near God, I'm gonna say this as bluntly as I can. It is not what the commercial continually tells us he gets us. And those people who think they can do whatever they want because God understands, can live whatever behavior pattern they choose because God accepts them, it is not those people, that is a lie. It is those who by Christ have a blameless walk and speech and thought life and dealings with other people whose pattern of behavior of life is righteousness and uprightness and holiness The Lord, you see, beloved, determines these things. Now, if I were to say to you just now as we close that this is, of course, not all the Bible says about Christianity, you would know immediately what I mean. And there is so much more. But beloved, we're living in a day when this is being ignored. To the peril and death of the church. God calls us. In the patterns of our lives. To rightness. Beauty of ethic and moral. And a glorious manner of life. Yes, by grace, amen by grace, but a glorious manner of life that others can see. And here. and experience from you. May this new year, beloved, be for us by grace a year of holiness. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we know that in certain ways a text like this does undo us. Because we sin. Lord, we thank you that we hate it when we sin. because the unbeliever doesn't care about his or her sin. The Christian, we hate it. And yet, Lord, we pray that you would give us a greater love for holiness and righteousness and a determination by grace to live in a godly way in the words that we speak and the things that we think and the ways we act and react. Oh, God, make us a holy people. Grant us richer measure of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to live for holiness, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's sing of it as well, beloved 318. We'll stand to sing holy, holy, holy.