Let's take our Bibles and turn to the book of Psalm chapter 15. Psalm chapter 15. How to approach God's presence. In Psalm chapter 15, we have arrived now at the second portion of our message on how to approach God's presence. We saw the two-fold question, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell upon thy holy hill? And we noticed that there was an 11-part answer. We saw that there was an answer in the negative, or excuse me, positively rather, in verse 2, walking uprightly, worketh righteousness, speaking the truth in his heart. We studied that last week. And now we're going to be looking, beginning with verse 3, at the negative implications in the answer. There are things that we are to avoid. And you'll notice in verse 3, our study continues. Notice that negatively, there's a reference to one's personal integrity in verse 2. or rather in verse 3, a reference to personal relationships in verse 3, and in verse 4 there's a reference to personal separation. Then we're going to notice in verse 5 a reference to personal stewardship. So last week we saw the reference to personal integrity, and that was dealing in a positive sense, but now negatively a reference to our personal relationships. There are things that we have to be cautious about in our personal relationships if we're going to have a proper approaching of God's presence. And you'll notice it begins by saying in verse 3, He that backbiteth not with his tongue. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. Now notice, he that backbiteth not with his tongue. You know, tail-bearing emits a threefold poison among the brethren. Number one, it injures the teller. Gossiping and tail bearing injures the teller, but it injures the hearer. And of course, it injures the person that's being gossiped about. The word backbite comes from the Hebrew word ragal, which comes from the root word foot, or to kick something around with your foot. And too often, people's reputations are kicked around like a kickball. We've often heard the phrase, he who throws dirt loses ground. In Leviticus 19 and verse 16, the Bible says, Thou shalt not go up and down as a tail-bearer among thy people. And then an interesting way of approach by word picture, in Proverbs 26 and verse 20, the Bible says, Where no wood is, the fire goes out. You ever wonder why something just won't die in a local church, and why it goes on and on and on and circulates around? Evidently, someone is throwing wood in the fire. And the writer of Proverbs says, where no wood is, the fire goes out, so where there is no tail-bearer, the strife ceases. Then don't forget the condemnation of Haman, where it's alluded to, I'm sure, in Proverbs 26 and verse 27, where it says, Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein, and he that rolls a stone, it shall return upon him. And oftentimes, that's exactly what happens with the tail-bearer. He gets snared in his own gossip. Will Rogers made an interesting observation. He said the only time people dislike gossip is when it's about them. Well, I think that that's a truism, isn't it? We forget the golden rule, though, when it comes to gossip. And we need to remember that if we're going to approach the presence of our Lord, we need to not only guard our personal integrity, verse 2, but we need to guard our personal relationships. But then I want you to notice, in verse 4, we have to guard our personal separation. Notice in verse 4 what it has to say. If we're going to approach the Lord's presence, we need to guard our personal separation. It says, In whose eyes a vile person is content. but he honoreth them that fear the Lord, he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changes not." In other words, verse 4 is saying that we ought not to show respect to people of immoral character. You know, it sometimes concerns me when I see teenagers in churches talking about the latest pop rock stars. and uh... people who oftentimes will hold up and and uh... look up it with with enamored concepts dot the hollywood crowd and the movie actors you know our believer ought not to show respect to a man of immoral character because of his wealth for his position whether we're talking about immoral sports idols or rock stars or anything like that we ought to honor those who fear the lord and you know by the way I believe that we ought to be heroes to young people in the local church. May the Lord give us heroes, even at Central Florida Bible Church, to our young people. Ladies that can be looked up to by the younger crowd. I'm not going to say who the aged women are, but you know, And sometimes we begin to see that there is a time, the Lord has given us years under our belts and in our lives, that we can help a lot of the younger women and help the younger men in the congregation. And may the Lord allow us to be leaders in the church that others can look to proper Christian testimonies. I thank the Lord that our beloved President has a testimony that we can talk about and try to use as an example to our young people and willingness to stand up. We're hearing about the corporate scandals in America and all of these things, and we're going to read about how exactly that's looked about in the Word of God here. But notice the second part of verse 4, it says here, he that swears to his own hurt and he doesn't change. In other words, if you make a promise, you're going to keep it, even if it's turns around to be not financially profitable for you. You made an estimate, and for one reason or another, to change it would damage your Christian character. It would be better that you eat it. and take the loss than to ruin a testimony that you may have taken years to build. cases of staff people, Christian school teachers that were brought into a staff and promised a certain salary and then all of a sudden when the Christian school teacher came on the scene it wasn't that at all and it was totally changed. And, you know, that's a bad testimony. It's a bad way to have a teacher start off the school year, and a very difficult... We need to honor our word, in other words, is what we're looking at. I think of... Most of you remember, and I think, David, you probably covered this on your series in Sunday school, but remember... Y'all remember way back in the book of Joshua, chapter 9, with the Gibeonites? and how the promises were made, the Israelites were deceived, they should have inquired of the Lord, and yet they were deceived, but they still honored their promise not to destroy them. They made them hewers of wood, and there were repercussions, but they didn't go back on their word, even though it was to their detriment. The children of Israel, the leadership, Joshua kept his word. We need to be men and women of our word. Then you think of Jephthah. Jephthah, whether you think that he actually offered his daughter as a sacrifice, or whether you take the perpetual virginity view, one thing has to be said, and that was that Jephthah kept His word, in the book of Judges chapter 11, kept his word even though it was to his own detriment. And how far you take it, I have my preferential view, but the point was he kept up on his word. And we need to be men and women of our word. And we say that we're going to pick somebody up at such and such a time. What time? Do you think we ought to be on time? We ought to be on time. We say we're going to be somewhere. I know emergencies happen. With the advent of cell phones, it sure makes it a lot easier. But we need to seek to be men and women of our word. It doesn't give a good testimony when we make commitments or we say we're going to be here or there and we don't show up and it's a habitual practice. and our reputation begins to develop to that effect. And that's not a good testimony. The Lord says that we ought to honor our vows and our commitments. And it used to be a handshake was enough, and now it has to be on paper, notarized between two believers, and all of that. So there's a concern there. Now, verse 5 is an interesting concept. It says, that we ought to have a proper relationship not only to our personal relationships and personal separation, but now it's getting into personal stewardship. And in verse 5 it says, He that putteth not out his money to usury. Now we have a dispensational concept here. We understand that we're under the dispensation of the law, but I think that most of us are aware that according to Exodus chapter 22 and verse 25, that an Israelite was not to charge interest to a fellow Israelite. According to Deuteronomy 23 and verse 20, he could charge interest to a stranger, although it should not be exorbitant interest. But, you know, there is an underlying principle for us today, I think, even though we're looking at this. And perhaps it might open up a can of worms for a lot of pastors that may be listening. But I don't know about how you feel about it, but a lot of churches are built with bond money today. And I just sometimes don't feel too comfortable about the concept of interest being charged and being provided on bonds from the revenues by other believers. and uh... basically you have uh... believers that are paying that for another christian it ought to be something that's considered for discussion our lord did encourage the wise use of money uh... interest gain was encouraged in matthew chapter twenty five and verse fourteen against believers no i don't think so And I just sometimes wonder, but as to, you know, sometimes the bond programs, you know, I'm in favor of paying as you're going, but a lot of the bond programs today, I think it's based more on pragmatism than on biblical principle. In other words, it works, so therefore let's do it. And a lot of that interest is coming from whom? People in where? In the church. And it's, in my opinion, a violation of some biblical principles there. Some of you may differ with me. I'll probably get some mail from some pastors that are in the middle of a bond program, and they say, well, we've done it this way, and it worked for us, and we've built four buildings this way, and there will be things that'll work. But my question is, are we biblicists? or pragmatists. Something to think about. Nonetheless, in this psalm, what David is saying is exactly what James said. Yea, a man may say thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. May I give you a quotation that I'd like for you to jot down somewhere? Do you have a piece of paper handy somewhere? I want to give you a quotation by a man called John Calvin. And I like this quotation so much that I'd like for you to copy it down somewhere and I think you'll be able to use it sooner or later. Here's the way it goes. John Calvin made this statement. Faith alone saves, but faith that saves is not alone. Did you get that? I'll give it to you again. Faith alone saves, but faith that saves is not alone. And there's going to be a demonstration of indwelling faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And today, many are saying that they believe that Jesus is coming, but there's not much consecrated living today. If you believe that you'll someday stand before God, you'll want to make sure that you live your life in such a way that it will count for God. And this passage, Psalm 15, is a very practical way, just like the writer of James says, to challenge us to guard our personal integrity, verse 2, guard our personal relationships, verse 3, We need to guard our personal separation, and we need to guard our personal stewardship, and follow in the paths of the Lord. Let's bow our heads together. Father, we thank you for your word, and Lord, for the time of prayer, and the emphasis that we can have, Lord, on diligently seeking your face. Lord, there are many needs present that we're going to share. Minister, Father, to each and every one of them, according to your riches in glory. Help us, Father, to live out our faith in shoe leather and, Father, to guard our hearts and our lives. Thank you, Lord, that we can come boldly before your throne of grace. We thank you for our Savior, who fulfilled each and every one of these eleven statements. so clearly and evidently in his life, and he's our Savior. He's the sinless Son of God. And Father, we thank you for that, and that we are saved through the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us now, and we'll give you the praise. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.