Psalm 15

My sermon today is about the second most popular psalm in the Bible to the Jews. It's one that's called God's Gentlemen. It's a very short psalm. It's only five verses, but it contains a lot of vital information for all of us because of the title of the psalm. Who shall dwell on your holy hill? Who's going to be there in the mountain of the Lord? Who's going to be there in the Kingdom of God? This psalm is known to the Jews after Psalm 23. This is Psalm 15 as God's Gentlemen.

It is descriptive of ideal human behavior. When reading a psalm—and we certainly read psalms sometimes when we have a hard time saying, well, what should I study right now? A good way to do things is to just open the Bible to the book of Psalms and just read through a number of them.

We can read through them actually quite quickly, and the words can go right over our head if we don't think through just everything and every single nuance in the meaning. I'd like to read this psalm first and then go through aspects of it because it contains, again, vital information as to what constitutes perfect character, what constitutes the kind of nature that God is looking for, and what is vital for God's Kingdom. Who is going to be in the Kingdom of God? Certainly, we're there by the grace of God. Salvation is by grace, not something that we deserve.

But everybody that you'll find in the Kingdom of God is going to have these qualities in them.

I'd like to read through it first in the New International version, but I'll be looking at it as we read through it in the New King James.

He 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, he who keeps his oaths 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. You might already see valuable concepts there.

They say, well, that makes sense. Certainly, that is very, very important. And certainly, I've told you things that perhaps you have heard many times before. But I think that as we examine character, and those of us who have been around for decades know that we talk about being a character-building institution, is something that we build and something that is to be part of our spiritual growth and something that we present to God, because we're not going to be able to present much else to Him. The only thing we can tell God is, as we approach the Kingdom of God, you know, one thing that strikes me is that we enjoy our get-togethers physically like we do.

But time marches on. I've been in the ministry for 41 years. It'll be, in fact, this Sabbath today is exactly 41 years. I started right after the Fourth of July in 1969. There are some people that we'll have reunions with, but not here. It was Calvin Lee, who will enter into the mountain of the Lord, with Carl Montgomery, Dr. Calistead, many others who preceded us, both my parents in this Church. Our get-togethers and our reunions are going to be in the Kingdom of God. As the years go by, and one after another, as we come to the point of where we meet our Lord and we answer to Him and we bring something with us. Being a part of the Church is not some kind of exercise of a place to go or a good place for the kids, or they have a good youth program. It's a place where we learn some vitally important lessons, instructions, and requirements of what God is looking for.

We have gone through various tests in the Church, as you know. We've gone through tests on doctrine, and we'll continue to go through tests where we have to choose and we have to decide how I will live my life and how I will treat my fellow man. This particular psalm has to do with the way we treat one another and is vitally important. Again, eternal life is a gift, but we must meet certain minimum requirements to meet conditions that are required by God.

This psalm tells us exactly the kind of person who will be in the Kingdom of God.

Now, we know that the mountain of the Lord, at the Feast of Tabernacles, I think almost every year when I do an opening night, I speak from Isaiah chapter 25, which talks about the mountain of the Lord that we come to. So, the imagery is very, very common, very clear, and we have heard it many times before. But I think I'd like to read Isaiah 25 and verse 6 again. I'll be reading it here in Malawi in just a couple of months, Isaiah 25 verse 6. And in this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines and the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines and the leaves. He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away all tears from their faces. I want to be in this mountain. I want to be on this holy hill. I want to be there where there's no more death, where I will meet my parents, where I'll meet the people that I have known and that I have loved in this lifetime. People that we are separated from, but have a guarantee to be with again. One interesting thing about Psalm 15 is this, and it's no fluke because this common author, or the common one who inspired Psalm 15, also gave a sermon in the New Testament known as the Sermon on the Mount. The concepts that Jesus Christ portrayed in the Sermon on the Mount in a very, very interesting way parallel the concepts that we see here in Psalm 15.

So, I'll be turning between Psalm 15 and Matthew 5-7. There are some very, very interesting parallels here. So, let's take a look at the very beginning. Psalm 15, verse 1, 1, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your holy hill? Who is going to be in the kingdom of God? Jesus Christ begins his Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes and speaks about those who are going to be in the kingdom of heaven, or as Mark and Luke speak of as the kingdom of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, Matthew 5 and verse 3, and blessed are those who mourn, and blessed are the meek. We find strengths in the softer qualities of human character.

A person who is humble, and a person who is sorry, and a person who is teachable.

And that's how Christ began Christianity. He began it with these powerful words. Self-effacing, humble, though poor in spirit, the people who don't think anything extra themselves beyond what they ought to think. And people who are very quick to say, look, I know I'm not everything.

I don't care how long I've been around as a human being, but I don't do things right always.

I'm sorry. And the meek will inherit the earth. Those who could be taught.

The person who can be given not only words of instruction, but be given hints, and be nudged in the right way. And a person picks up on it. And a person who learns. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. A person who desires so badly to do things right correctly, properly.

Oh, we don't do them always that way, but we desire to do them. And before you go to bed, you say, God, I just know I shouldn't have said that today. I shouldn't have done it that way.

I shouldn't have expressed myself that way. I shouldn't have written that email. I shouldn't have whatever. But a person who can be sorry, and a person who can learn, and a person who can advance that way. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. A person who is willing to let go. A person who is willing to give others a chance. A person who is not oppressive. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, one who thinks the best, and believes the best, and passes it on. Best, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

The ones who find a way in whatever challenge or situation there is to bring peace and calm. The ones who are careful with fighting words, words that irritate and annoy. But a person who is a peacemaker and realizes that bringing peace and making peace is vitally important. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God. This answer is the question, who shall be and who shall dwell on your holy hill? But let's go on, verse 2 of Psalm 15. He who walks uprightly. These are all answers to the question originally in verse 1, that who may dwell on your holy hill, he who walks uprightly. This word uprightly, I don't want to get into a big discussion about definition of words, but I would like you to take a look at this word. It's a Hebrew word that has quite a diversity and quite a richness of meaning.

I'll just give you the Strong's number for you to look up at a time when you can. 8549.

They're done. 8549. In fact, one way to research this word is to go to Google and just type in Strong's 8549 and you'll find various applications and various definitions of it.

And if you look into Vine's dictionary of Old Testament words, you'll find quite a comprehensive meaning that really contains a lot of interesting thought. Abraham, I should say, he who walks uprightly. This is the same word that is used for Abraham when he left the promised land and Abraham was pronounced and adjudged by God to be blameless. This is the same word, 8549.

It's also a word that means perfect or mature. According to Vine's translation or Vine's definition, it means that nothing in this person's either outward activity or internal disposition is odious to God, that this person looks good, this person expresses himself well.

There's nothing inside of him that God says, this stinks. This isn't right. This is not a person who is just filled with anger and animosity. This is not a churlish person. This is a person who pleases God, means a person of great reputation or of a good reputation, a person who is sincere a person who is what he is on the outside is the same that he is on the inside doesn't leave two lives is what you hear and what you say is sincere and true about this person blameless a person of good report it's a word that the new testament has a very similar correspondent meaning of one of the qualities we look for in one who we ordain to be a deacon or an elder a person who's blameless you really can't find anything really wrong with this person oh yeah he's got his faults he has his personality quirks and he may have you know made a mistake or two but he is a person that certainly when you look at him he is not a person that you can really pin a lot on he doesn't have baggage as we say sometimes he's a person that overall has a good reputation and is a person that can be a servant you have a lot of baggage if you have a lot of things in your past and you have a lot of reputation for being angry or a person that's been vicious or has treated people poorly in the past now people are turned off cannot his ability to serve is greatly curtailed a person who is a person of integrity a person who's truthful from the standpoint of what you see in him is the truth when he speaks there's no spin what he's saying is intended to lead you to a conclusion that is true and not one where there's he said this but he left this out to produce or to give another impression also in the vine's translation or the vines i should say the lexicon the person who is 8549 is a complete person he who walks uprightly also it means a person with enthusiasm is a person who is excited and is enthusiastic about doing those things that are right i don't know if you've had people who work for you some of you may be employers and you've had people who have worked for you and i had you know they had various kinds of people the difference between an enthusiastic employee and one who just basically just barely getting by and only does what he's supposed to and only when prodded a couple of different times is huge as i mentioned i have a new lady working in cincinnati in our international mail in our russian division so to speak the russian division is composed of two people she is so phenomenal as far as her enthusiasm she has been an answer to prayer as far as the work that we have to do because she does the work of several people not from the standpoint of just doing a lot of extra work but a person who thinks ahead a person who wants to do more a person who delivers a person who thinks ahead of me i mean if we sit down there and we talk about our strategy for reaching people by mail in the soviet union or former soviet union and she finds ways to group things better to make things more effective to do a more effective renewal program she's doing it just with a lot of enthusiasm with a lot of innovation god wants an innovative person one who is full of faith the people who are considered the people who are faithful that you cannot be a faithful person without being enthusiastic for the faith one of the components of faith is enthusiasm is a person who doesn't have doubts a person who's moving forward a person who's moving on that is so important to god you know when we ask for wisdom as we were told in james five or the first chapter of james i should say but let him ask doubting nothing because god does not like a person who's wavering between two opinions but a person who is able to recognize what's right and be able to follow it very very fast very very quickly you find that when noah i should say when abraham left he was a person who was blameless but again it's the broader definition of this word of being a person full of enthusiasm whatever god asked him to do he just plain did it as the other faithful such as noah when god said build the ark noah responded right away well what do we start doing noah abraham when he was asked to move it says abraham went and he left the land which was adjacent to babylon and headed down to the land of canan he was a person who was enthusiastic about the job that he had he who walks uprightly and a person who works righteousness who works righteousness of course we know that what is righteousness what righteousness is is the commandments of god all your commandments are righteousness but an interesting concept is expressed here in matthew chapter 5 and verse 17 matthew chapter 5 and verse 17 do not think that i claim to destroy the law of the prophets i did not come to destroy but to fulfill for assured they say to you till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle will by no means pass through the law till all be fulfilled whoever therefore breaks what are the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven verse 20 for i say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of god they were to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees how could they do that a scribes and Pharisees were very particular about the first four commandments they were very particular about how the sabbath was kept about images but how far they could walk on the sabbath but they weren't too careful about the last six dealing with their relationships with other human beings they weren't too strict about how they honored their parents adultery was rampant among the Pharisees and other sins were extant as well that's why christ called him hypocrites our righteousness needs to be exceeding the way we look towards the law of god and how we respect it and honor it but also it says in psalm 15 a person who speaks the truth from his heart speaks the truth from his heart again christ was very very negative towards the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy in matthew chapter 5 Jesus Christ said that it's much more important or it's just as important to keep the spirit of the law on the inside as it is to keep the letter of the law on the outside you have heard it said verse 21 of matthew 5 that it was said of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment we know that commandment well but i say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and he who says to his brother raka you worthless person shall be in danger of the council and he who says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire christ said that it's much more it's just as important for a person to keep the full spirit of the law of not having ill will towards a person because that is the genesis of murder of hatred and whatever else leads to the breakup of relationships do you have any ill will towards someone that is unresolved what have you done to fix those things what have i done to fix that in my life i've had to take a look at myself and say do i harbor ill will resentment and hatred towards a person perhaps for some good cause in my mind again in song 15 a person not only who is righteous who works righteousness but a person who speaks the truth from his heart going on in matthew chapter 5 he says it was set of old in verse 27 that you shall not commit adultery but i say to you that whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart again a person may not physically commit adultery but a person whose mind is in all kinds of sexual deviousness and lust towards those other and towards others is breaking that law he's not speaking the truth in his heart he's being a hypocrite and those things need to be repaired god's gentleman doesn't do those things god's gentleman doesn't hate god's gentleman doesn't commit adultery god's gentleman doesn't lust after somebody else's property god's gentleman is one who does those things because it's the right thing to do not only physically but a person who is cleansing his inside chapter 6 in verse 19 another concept here brought up about where your treasure is in verse 21 there your heart will be also the things that we do that we want to do from our heart is what we consider our treasure and where our treasure is and what things that are valuable to us our heart will be also what god is looking for is a complete gentleman one whose heart and mind are unified a person who is wholeheartedly keeping the commandments of god that's what verse 2 of song 15 says not just in the letter but also in the spirit god had to look at myself these last couple of years in the work that i do and dealing with people's feelings and people's thoughts and what is said work through a period where people say irresponsible things and where i could be tempted to do the same and say what is my responsibility i have the freedom to be able to think good thoughts or i have the ability to let things build up with resentment towards people i never thought that i would get to this point in life i've had to ask god to cleanse me and to clean me up as david did cleanse me from my sins cleanse me from my thoughts wash me down on the inside don't let me just be a person who's slacks people in the back and smiles and just says good things to them but is not that way on the inside i truly believe that god is sending us right now through a trial where he did test us on the first four commandments about doctrine and we stood up to that the reason we're here is because we said we want to obey god in the way we've been taught his commandments are sure what we understand about life and death the future the kingdom of god we stood up for that i do believe the god is testing us also on the last six commandments as to how we will treat our fellow man our attitude towards those around us these tests do come and our responsibilities to go back to the very basics to the fundamentals as we see here in the book of psalms what am i going to be god's gentleman what am i going to do to be rock solid in the faith and not be swept away with thoughts and people and movements and so forth but what am i going to do as far as my bedrock and where i stand psalm 15 verse 3 actually i like this a little bit better here in the new international version he who has no slander on his tongue who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow man now this type of thing can be greatly exacerbated in our age where we have groups on facebook we have ways in which we can send out mass emails you know people are no longer separated by anything now i mean people in south africa and australia here are just as close as anything i mean we i remember when i was growing up how exciting it was to make contact with somebody in australia by ham radio oh it's just such a big deal now there is no boundary of where we can influence or be influenced and that's a marvelous technological phenomena but it's also one in which rage and hatred can be spread very very rapidly and very quickly there's going to come a time when we're going to face our god in heaven and i'm going to have to say this to god that i have not slandered anyone or i have asked forgiveness for the words that i have said about somebody that were intended to hurt they may have been true but they were intended to hurt to maim to undermine to minimize and to marginalize another human being that is so wrong before god now every morning the first thing i pray for and i know that i need it very very badly because it says the book of james infinity do not have wisdom you know wisdom is one of the gifts of god some people have it as a gift and there are some people that just are wise they just seem to have good sense about what to say there are other people that really don't have that gift but that doesn't matter because you can ask god he can give you wisdom but i ask god every day that what i say about another person or what i say to another person that i say it in the right way in the right manner with the right intent i don't do anything to hurt anyone give me wisdom in the things that i say i think that be a very very good thing for all of us to do is to how we treat our neighbor you know one thing i find too is the people who i love in the world the most now i've gotten to contact with many people in the world i'm a member of my rotary club in indianapolis now for 11 years but you know are these my friends yes but you know my real friends are in the church now you are my friends the congregations that i serve in terra hote and lafayette these are the people who are my closest friends now yesterday we were with hankaly and barbara we've known the lees for 40 years or more than 40 years may have not talked to hankaly a lot in the last few years but we pick up our conversations where we left off last dr ruben lang here before services and know him for 40 years we kind of pick up our conversations where we have left off stephen mary burke that have been very dear friends even though we have talked less than i have wanted to in the last probably five years or so but those are our friends that's our family sometimes families have the ability to because of knowledge and because of knowing each other too well because of familiarity to not be as kind you know to one another that's why when difficulties arise in relationships they tend to be very very painful because it's among friends and family we'd be very very careful the things that we say to one another because it's very easy to offend and to hurt whatever class or grouping of people there may be if somebody in my rotary club says something hurtful doesn't really don't bother me not that it's happened but if somebody says something rude doesn't matter i go home i just i'm not worried about it at all you know if i never see him again that that's okay but if it's from somebody like family or from a brother or from people who are close is painful and it hurts that's why these things get magnified in the new international heat of bat bites or slanders not with his tongue nor takes up a rich approach against his neighbor person who is not discrediting by spreading information about him we have to be so very very careful and there's so many ways now that information that slanderous as hurtful and painful is spread about people to hurt them god's gentlemen won't allow that to happen but look in verse four there seems to be a contradiction in verse four it says yet in whose eyes a vile person is despised but he honors those who fear the lord now what does that mean it says that we're not to slander anyone yet we're to despise somebody who's vile now jesus christ in the sermon on the mount and matthew chapter seven says the following first of all in judges apart me uh verse one of matthew seven judge not that you be not judged or with what judgment you judge you will be judged and with what measure you use it will be measured back to you we know this passage well about why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but not consider the plank in your own eyes now being careful about being judgmental of others when you yourself have your faults and your shortcomings this is hypocrite remove the plank from your own eye verse five and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye but then jesus christ says in verse 15 of the same chapter beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves so while we are to be careful as to how we treat one another we need to be careful and we need to be discerning about those who can lead us astray you will know them by their fruits do men gather grapes of thorn bushes or figs from thistles even so every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears fruit a good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire therefore by their fruits you will know them god's gentleman is able to discern what's right and wrong and withdraw himself from what is wrong now people have asked me at times you know over the years about associations with other people one example was this young parents you know with little children had their children play with others but they didn't really like the effect that another parent's children had on their children they would ask me am i being judgmental i really don't want my children to be with these people even though they are brothers i just want that influence upon my own children what should i do am i being a judge should i have my children be affected or just exactly what's the right thing to do well i'd be good if the parents could work it out where saying well i don't like the movies that they watch you know whatever it is that was the issue that i want my children when they come into that home not to have these influences but if those things don't change you might have to withdraw yourself and just saying well i just don't really want my children to be around those children i don't want my children to be affected even though it's a brother because i don't want them to have that effect be placed upon them so as a christian we're not to overly judge we're to look at ourselves but also we're to discern between right and evil the church does have a right to judge people's character sometimes we have to ask somebody not to come to services it's very rare it's extremely rare that we do that sometime in the future we'll be judging angels in the kingdom of god well just different ways in which judgment is shown where we have to discern between what's good and bad he who swears back to psalm 15 and verse four the second half of that he who swears to his own hurt and does not change he who swears to his own hurt and does not change christ says the same in matthew 7 and let your yes be yes and your no no and you say what kind of a how important a creative character is that why throw that in here now we're talking about really big things here about judging people and slander and so forth but here we're also talking about keeping your word is it that important a couple times i'm asked to write something to graduating seniors and this year i had one child actually who was becoming a teenager and his father came to me and said mr cubic i'd like you to write some advice to my son really mean a lot coming from you write something that's important to you and express it in a letter to him another one was advice or a letter that i was asked to write to an eagle scout recipient in our church i wrote basically the same thing to them so one of the most important aspects of character by which you will be known is by how you keep your word you say you'll be someplace you indeed will be there and people will establish your character and your reliability by the fact that you kept your word you said you'd be there next wednesday you said you'd be there next wednesday at 10 o'clock and sure enough at 10 o'clock next wednesday you were there no excuses or at least if you had to break the appointment you did it may seem like a small thing but i know that i'm impressed when people keep their word with me let's get together next week and talk about such and such and they actually get back to you and say that they will get together with you now to some people i don't know but to me it's important how somebody else keeps their word i know that it's important with me as a minister that when i promise something to someone that i keep my word and you know something if it's inconvenient i still do it because i said i would and it teaches me not to promise things that i can't fulfill but god's gentleman does this kind of thing he keeps his word and so both these young men i wrote and said when you say that you will do something do it if you have borrowed money and say that you would repay it at such and such a time you repay it that's one of the most important things as far as your relationships with others as far as building trust and being a person who can be considered trustworthy that's gentlemanly character he who swears to his own hurt and does not change and again as christ said let your yes bs and your no no make certain that you follow up on the things that you say i know it's hard sometimes to fulfill what we promised if so next time next time learn not to promise it and do only the things that you can do it's an important aspect of character he who does not put out his money at usury nor does he take a bribe against the innocent verse five of song 15 now how in the world does this get in there no talking about being a loan shark and how many of us are loan sharks here i doubt there's anybody here who has any kind of business lending money at 100 interest to people around him this is talking about a general attitude that this world has of taking advantage of others god is very protective of certain classes of people where he says he will listen to the cries to the prayers of a widow a person was out a man to defend her and help her or a person who's an orphan god is protective of those this world has gotten to the economic mess it has come to and the inequities that it has because of justice attitude there are certain laws in the old testament that i don't fully understand economically and i'm not an economist so i don't really have even too much to go on there but god had certain safeguards in the old testament about people taking advantage of one another making sure that land was returned to original owners after 50 years in the jubilee year had certain ways to kind of reset economies one of the things that really does upset me personally and that's why i've gotten into some of the humanitarian work that i have is just seeing the poverty and places in the world and asking myself how did he get this way how do these people become so poor and how is it that someone can have billions of dollars stashed away that he doesn't need and is the answer to equalize which really it isn't you know to give money from the rich to the poor because it's a more complex matter than that when we have the feast of tabernacles in Estonia or at least we had it in the earlier years 10 years ago i could see in the front row at our sabbath service a person who's come from Belarus for example for the feast and they make 50 a month they barely got to the feast i see a person from one of the baltic states who makes 400 a month sitting right next to them then i see an american transfer you know who's come to the feast who's probably making maybe five to seven thousand dollars a month or more i have no idea i say to myself what a divergence of wealth and what people have how did it get this way how does some of the countries that we work in in africa and the ones that you know i work in are so poor and yet you can have actually a dictator who runs that country have like in Zimbabwe who has billions of dollars stashed away in a swiss bank account this inequity is so wrong countries such as El Salvador are basically owned by 14 or 15 families that own all the land well own all the means of production own all the bananas and coffee beans in the country and everybody works for them for virtually nothing there's something fundamentally wrong with that and when we have a vision of the world tomorrow we have a vision of economies that are more even economies that are more flattened but not because you give money from the rich to the poor is because people don't take advantage of one another you don't find just a huge resource of cheap labor and you keep them at those levels to produce what you have to become more marketable to be more competitive i just thought it was this was you know one of the countries that's actually not even a poor country in Malaysia they had a nike factory that was producing tennis shoes and the total payroll for all the workers in this factory and i think we're just more than one factory was less than what Michael Jordan was getting to endorse that particular tennis shoe but there's just something wrong with that this kind of divergence of economies is what leads to resentment and it leads to conflict it leads to wars in James where i want this but i have not some good at by force i'm poor i'm going to fight for what i can get in god's kingdom in god's mountain you will not have people that will be using financing to advance themselves beyond all measure there's a couple very good documentaries one is called maxed out and one is over the limit they're talking about the credit card phenomenon in this country that has caused many many young people especially college students get into debt of 15 to 20 000 in credit before they graduate from college talks about young couples that are oppressed hardly barely being able to meet minimum payments for their credit cards there's something wrong with that if people taking advantage putting their money out to usury at 20 30 plus fines and penalties don't want to get a soapbox here about that type of thing but that's what this person is talking about a person who will not be abusing naive people for his own benefit nor he takes a bribe against the innocent quite a song quite a list of instructions here that are very very basic but they're very very thoughtful read them again he who walks uprightly and works righteousness person with enthusiasm a person with a desire to do right and to do that right and keeps the commandments from his heart in the spirit he doesn't backbite cast slurs on his neighbor or does any evil to his neighbor or cast any aspersions against those around him you know we wouldn't think of doing violent crimes against anyone but it seems like the crimes of just talking against somebody is very very easy to do because we can and we think we don't hurt but we cause a great deal of hurt a person doesn't cast slurs upon his friend and yet a person who's able to judge between what's right and good who can judge by the fruits of someone's life of whether it's good or bad he honors those who fear the lord he's a person who's reliable by one who swears to his own hurt one who keeps his word and does not change one who will not one who will be faithful and one who does not take advantage of others by putting this money out to usury you might say that symbolically in many different ways that could be done or credit or however else it could be defined nor does take a bribe against the innocent one who will not turn against those who are innocent and finally it ends with he who does these things shall never be moved and it's interesting how the sermon on the mount ends with the same thought matthew chapter seven verse 24 therefore this is the final words of jesus sermon in the mount or not the well yes it is a sermon the whole the whole things chapters five six and seven therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them i will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock as it says here in psalm 15 he will not be moved and the rain descended the floods came the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for was founded on the rock it's founded on principles that a person lived by values if the person held close and that he practiced everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand the rain descended the floods came and the winds blew and beat in that house and it fell and great was its fall sometimes wonder why do people collapse is it a collapse of character the one thing that i'm not going to take into the kingdom of god is my body not going to take anything that i own in this life i'm only going to take into the next life the experiences of how i look to my god and how i treated my fellow man that's the only thing that i can speak of and believe me the day is coming for all of us and we're going to be facing jesus christ asking these questions we're going to be stark naked when we do that and he will ask us a series of questions what are you going to say but also in the way that jesus christ indicates in this section here is that there will become a time of trial where we'll be tested on these principles if you have these values and these points of character as the way you live nothing is going to cause you to collapse but if you don't grape shall be the fall of it and so it was when jesus had ended these things that people were astonished that his teaching for he taught them as one of having authority and not as one of the scribes jesus christ inspired both psalm 15 and inspired obviously since he spoke the words of the sermon of the mount brethren let's take a look at our lives as to our experience in the church of god we appreciate our friendships we appreciate our relationships and we need to value them they're all pedicated and built upon values and principles that the bible teaches and the thoughts for this week are who shall dwell on your holy hill who will be in the kingdom of god i hope that all of us can say i know who will be there and i'm going to be one of them