Psalm 15

I give the sermon is...for my feast sermon, I was going to talk about what God is doing in us and what our purpose for living is. And you might remember the booklet we used to have, Why Were You Born? Well, we had the same booklet basically written under a different title, many of the same concepts and thoughts, called What is Your Destiny? And it's been one of our staple booklists that you may have read a long time ago and maybe not have read again of recent times. I just reread it in preparing for the sermon, and I hadn't read it in a long time. And what brings it to mind is in talking about the Ukrainian cepitarians, they wanted...you know, them operating in secret so much was oral. They had a ministry that was basically word of mouth that basically had only the Bible as their literature. And so when they found another Sabbath-keeping group like we were at that time when I came to visit them in 1992 for the first time, I brought over a number of booklists that we had translated when we had a Russian department back in the 1950s, 1960s. I don't think we realized we had a Russian department of what we said about literature. And we had a number of booklets translated. A booklet about healing, Why Were You Born, Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath Day, What Kind of Faith Is It Required for Salvation, about seven or eight booklets, which I had copies of those that I brought over to them. And they read them. I mean, they just read them with an absolute passion. And they commented about the booklet, Why Were You Born, which was our number one booklet. It was our number one bestseller. We never sold it, but it was the number one requested booklet. And they said, whoever wrote this booklet really has the mind of God. I said, that booklet really put it into perspective like we have never heard. This was Why Were You Born. Well, I was in preparing my remarks for the sermon. I read the booklet again. And sometimes it's good not to have read something for a long time. It kind of strikes you brand new for the first time. It's about our purpose in living and the question about why were you born. It's interesting that those Sabbatarians, when they became free in 1992, it was their desire to go to the world. It's interesting that people who were basically put down, were stuck in their villages, couldn't travel, all of a sudden felt this passion to preach to the world. And on the Sabbath, when it was okay to publicly speak, in the city of Hust, every city had the main square. And usually at the main square they had a statue of Lenin. It's almost like universal through the city. Well, in 1991, one of the first orders of business was to tear that statue down. And to this very day, in that city, there's just a little platform where his statue used to be. But the Sabbath keepers, what they did is stand up on that statue, on that platform, on the Sabbath, afternoon after services, and preach to the world. That was their kind of place where they did their public evangelism. It was just in their blood. They said a Christian should speak to the world. A Christian should share his faith. And that's what we did. But a group of these Sabbatarians decided to go back to Siberia. The reason they wanted to go to Siberia is because many of them had spent time there. And they said the people there are so godless. I mean, there's no even history of Christianity. And they said, we have to go there. So they got together with some Sabbatarians in Germany who brought over a couple of bands, and they drove to Siberia.

I mean, that's a lot further than I was driving to Europe. It was 5,000 miles that they drove. They had no money. They had no budget. They just had singers and preachers, you know, in the car. Two bandfuls of people. And they just knew people along the way that they could stop and get food and gas.

And they got all the way out there to Siberia, and they established a church. They went to a local newspaper, and they said, here's some booklets that we had from the United States. Can you please reprint them for us? And so they had the booklets about which day is the Sabbath of the Christian day, and the other booklets printed on just newsprint. I mean, I hope I still have some, but they brought them over, and they had them reprinted the typeset, and they still had copyright 1958 radio church of God on there.

They even had that translated, you know. It was just really interesting how they did that. But they established a church of 25 or 30 people way out there near China. They drove out there all that distance, because they said, this is what we must do.

But the booklet that they said was the one booklet for evangelism, they said, is Why Were You Born? And you should read it again. We had the booklet actually first produced—it was our first booklet for the United Church of God in 1995, 1996, and Roger Foster rewrote it.

And we kind of wanted to include more things than just some of the concepts of Why Were You Born? So we had a section back called The Key Steps in God's Master Plan, and it was about the Holy Days. Well, in about 2004, when we had the Holy Day booklet, and What is the Kingdom of God? We decided to leave that part out, because that's pretty much important.

We beefed it up to the new booklet. But I give you an assignment, if you have an assignment for this class, is to reread this booklet. I just really found this to be inspiring. I had not read it probably in a dozen years, and I found it to be just very motivating, as I recall getting Why Were You Born in 1962. It was 50 years ago. 50 years ago was not first sent from our first literature. But today I want to talk about, in preparation for the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles is, again, as I said, is not a Jewish festival.

The things that they did on that day we don't really do, such as build temporary shelters. In principle, you know, we go to hotels, we go to the place where the Lord your God has chosen, but we don't do things the same way. Neither do we have the exact same purposes as they did, except for the fact that we are there to learn, to fear our God always.

We are there to rejoice. All those principles are there. But they are principles that the Jews themselves were not even familiar as to why they were rejoicing. They were rejoicing because they had a good crop, they had a good harvest. You read in history books or commentaries, Jewish commentaries, and you have no reference to the Kingdom of God. You don't have references to Jesus Christ, God forbid, in their references as to what these days mean.

They were days that they kept as part of the law that God had given them, which is all right and good. These people were given principles, these people were given foundations of things such as a Passover, but the Jews don't keep the Passover to speak about a Redeemer, Jesus Christ. That's not their purpose. For us, the feasts of the Lord and the feasts as Jesus Christ kept, and Jesus Christ himself revealed himself as the Lamb of God, the one who was sacrificed for mankind. This is where that teaching began to come from Judaism, or actually not from Judaism, but from the Bible.

Judaism was not the religion of Moses. It was developed as the religion of the land, but it was not something that was owned by the Jews to be kept by them and not to be shared with the world as much as they have tried. Christianity is to be shared with everyone. And it's amazing how the Bible has been an instrument. The Bible has been an instrument that has had phenomenal coverage in the world.

More than 7 billion Bibles have been printed. That's according to Wikipedia. I'm just saying is that 7 billion Bibles. In the United States, regularly, 10 million Bibles are sold a year. But if anybody had a book out that sold a million, that's a big, big event, you know. But the Bible just sells and sells and sells.

It's had tremendous coverage. It's been translated into nearly three and a half thousand languages and dialects. There are versions of the Bible in Morse code, even, digital, braille. I mean, any way you want to cut it. It's been... and it always seems to be the first... anytime a new form of media is developed, such as the first movable printing press, they wouldn't think of anything but the Bible, the print. That's the most important book in the world.

When I had my first IBM PC, the very first book, you might say, that was available, came on like 11 disks, was the Bible. You had to take disks in and out. It just felt like it has got to be something about the Bible that's very, very important. It's amazing how the Bible has gone through now. You can go to Amazon and you can buy King James for 99 cents.

You can get other versions of the Bible for free. The most expensive ones are the New King James and the NIV, which it had paid $8 for, but everybody could have access to it. I've got the Bible on my Kindle. I have three or four versions there. I've got it on my Nexus. I even read it now. The last several weeks, I haven't even brought the Bible to church. I could look it up faster on my Kindle and just follow along. It's an amazing proliferation of this book. But we come here to the Feast of Tabernacles, and we learn. We come to rejoice, and we come to fear God. That is to deeply respect Him.

Now, a number of the Psalms are called Millennial Psalms. It's interesting that they speak about a future time, a future period. It's a little bit hazy, and even among Jews it would be misinterpreted or would not be taken as that's what it really means. But they do talk about character and they talk about special attributes that a human being is to have, almost extraordinary attributes that a human being is to have to be part of something bigger. There's a Psalm after Psalm 23, and Psalm 23 is regarded by both Jews and Christians as the most popular Psalm, the Lord is my Shepherd. Probably hands down, everybody knows that Psalm, and probably many people, even many of us, could recite the whole Psalm by memory. But there's another Psalm which is called the second most popular Psalm. It's only four verses long, but it's called God's Gentlemen. God's Gentlemen. This is Psalm 15. Who shall dwell on your holy hill? And that's the way the Psalm begins. Who is going to live on your holy hill, your holy mount, your holy mountain? The Psalm is provocative in that it engages the person that has come to it, asks the question, well, what kind of a person is going to be there on this holy hill? Who will be qualified to be on God's tabernacle? I'm going to spend my entire time in two sections of the Bible. One is Psalm 15 itself. In fact, I'd like to just read the Psalm to get an overview of it, which will take me about a minute. Psalm 15. Verse 1, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? The answer is come. He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart, verse 3, he who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend, verse 4, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord. He swears to his own hurt and does not change. He does have five verses. I said four. He who does not put out his monorail usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. So the question, who's going to be on God's holy hill? Who's going to be in God's tabernacle, God's house? It's a person who portrays these characteristics. And again, this psalm is very popular, known very, very widely as God's gentleman, the person that God regards in a very, very high way. Now we know from various passages, Isaiah 25, verse 6, which no doubt will be read at the Feast of Tabernacles, the mountain of God, speaking about a kingdom, speaking about a future. The book of Isaiah is such a powerful book, such a phenomenal book. Sometimes it's called the fifth gospel, because it's really like it talks about Jesus Christ, it talks about his life, about his first coming, it talks about his second coming. It's a book that really is truly amazing. But here is a reference in Psalm, Isaiah 25, verse 6. And in this mountain, of course, those of you who have been around the church for years and years have remembered reading this being read in services. In this mountain, talking about the mountain of the Lord, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines and alleys, the fat things full of marrow, a well refined wines on the lees. It talks about this mountain, this place of habitation, this future place of happiness, of joy, of utopia, if you will.

The kingdom of God that we will be celebrating at the feast of tabernacles. The kingdom of God, I truly believe, and maybe this is me stepping out a little bit, I feel is the most important, distinctive that we have from others. Now, I'm not trying to separate myself from others. I'd like to find as much as common we can. I know the Sabbath is a very important distinctive. The Holy Days are very important distinctive. But you ought to understand really what the true gospel is, what the true good news is. I feel the best news, the happiest news, the good news is the gospel of the kingdom of God. It's distinctive in the Bible, but in that people don't really understand what it is. If we're to go on a street in Beloit, Rockford, Chicago, and ask on a street where the kingdom of God is, you'll get everything from its heaven, its a feeling, its a church. You'll get everything but what it is. It's God's family, it's God's rule, it's God's government, it's God's mountain that's coming to this earth. And what we are, what's happening is God is inviting us to become part of this.

He's inviting us. In fact, if you read the booklet, the question is asked, why were you born? It's answered in that way. Why were you born? You were born to have a family relationship.

God is developing a family and He wants you to become part of that family. That is why you were born. I remember when I got that booklet, I was more excited about why were you born than it was about some of the other gory prophetic things. You know, those booklets that talked about future events that were terrible and horrible. I was so excited about it because I was an educated person by church. I worked with a priest. I understood the theology of our church. But I never understood these things. It was like a covering taken off my mind, where I saw my purpose. Some of the theology was that we were to live forever in some bodyless state, staring at God forever. That was scary. It was frightening. But to be able to create, to be like God, to be part of His family, called by His name, to live in a meaningful way, to have a relationship, to me really made a lot of sense. It wasn't somebody just making this stuff up. It was right in the pages of the Bible and began to have a lot of meaning for me. So the Kingdom of God is where we are headed. The Kingdom of God is what we want to become a part of. We want to become part of the family of God, part of the rule of God on the earth. I'll be talking about that at the Feast of Tabernacles.

The other section that I'll be turning to you may want to stick your finger in it because we'll be flipping back and forth is the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. We'll be referring to that. Why are we going between these two places? One of the interesting things about the Bible is that one mind created the Bible. It was one intelligent designer that had the books placed where they are. He put Genesis where it was supposed to be, and he put Revelation where it was supposed to be. The contents in Genesis line up with the contents of Revelation 21 and 22. The Tree of Life appears in Genesis 1. The Tree of Life appears in the garden of Eden. The Tree of Life disappears. Man is kicked out of the garden of Eden, and man lives his destiny in this age. Revelation 21 and 22, the Tree of Life reappears. The Tree of Life gives life. It bears fruit for the healing of the nations. In Genesis 3, a serpent appears that dissuades mankind from doing things right. God probably knows that, because Jesus Christ is already prepared to redeem mankind. But nonetheless, Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out of the garden of Eden. And this serpent who expressed a lie, you shall not die, and mankind did die, passed this all on to us. Revelation 20, coming to the end of the book, Satan is put to the end. He is thrown into the lake of fire. You will never hear from him again. His influence will never be there. In Revelation 21 and 22, it is a world without evil. It is a world that is there. And for having somebody to design this book in this way, it couldn't be just a group of men who said, hey, let's take some writings here from Moses or this story about Adam and Eve incident in the garden of Eden and attach the history of Israel and the coming of the Messiah and the writings of Paul and the prophecies of John and to make them into the beautiful, corroborative book that it is, is truly a miracle. It's a godly designed book. And God has preserved it. God has preserved it in an amazing way of accuracy throughout the years. Anyway, let's get to our sermon, Psalm 15 and verse 1. Psalm 15 verse 1, you know, who's going to be there? It's a question and introduction. Jesus Christ and his Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus Christ ultimately was the God of the Old Testament who inspired the Psalms, included certain things in the Beatitudes, or I should say the Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes being the first part, that talked about the basic characteristics of a person who will be in the kingdom of God. Note with me. And, of course, a sermon about the Beatitudes is one that would take, you know, a series of sermons, but I'm just pointing to you, this section is like an introduction to what he will be saying. In the Beatitudes, he speaks about the requirements, the attitudes of who will be in the kingdom of God. Now, the book of Matthew refers to the kingdom of heaven, which we all know is the way that Matthew referred to it. It's the kingdom of heaven, it's not the kingdom in heaven, it's the kingdom of God that's in heaven. But he speaks about what characteristics in human character are most vital to be in that kingdom. There's not a single statement here made to intellectual capacity or any kind of degrees or even lots of knowledge. It's so much attitude and it's so much dealing with the characteristics of the human heart.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, Matthew 5, verse 3. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of God is given to those who are poor in spirit, the people who don't think highly of themselves, people who are humble. In fact, the first several, the first characteristics, the first Beatitudes have to do with humility, which has been the downfall of the human race, pride, and was the downfall of the one who became Satan the devil. He wanted to rise up. He wanted to be like God. He thought he had a better way. He was proud. Verse 4, Psalm, I'll be Matthew 5, verse 4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they should be comforted. Morning. I'm not talking about crybabies. He's talking about people who mourn for what they are, the way they think. People who say, God, I am not what I should be. I'm really sorry.

There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong about asking for forgiveness. We're to ask forgiveness every day from God. That's a mourning process. You mourn for the mistakes that you have made. You mourn for your shortcomings. You mourn for the fact that you could do better.

Any one of us, every single one of us, can do better. But a person who is in this state is a person who will be granted the kingdom of God. Not a person who feels like he's got it made and can start thumping on others and directing and dictating and judging and criticizing others, but a person who sees their faults. Verse 5, Blessed are the meek. Can't he get off this subject? He seems to kind of get right back to these aspects of character that have nothing to do with grandeur, discipline, or anything of sort. It has to do with a state of heart and mind. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. This inherit the earth is part of this kingdom of heaven, this kingdom of God. The point of Christ's message here is talking about the kingdom of God. Blessed are the meek, the teachable, the uh-huh, yes, I see it. Maybe I'm misunderstood. A person who is teachable, a person who wants to know, a person who wants to compare, a person who can make judgments, a person who can learn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those, verse 6, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. Then it talks about the merciful, pure in the heart, peacemakers, you know, it goes on here to the characteristics. So these are the people who will be in the kingdom of God. Okay, now back to Psalm 15, and look, it says, hold your place in Matthew 5. He who walks uprightly, he who walks uprightly and works righteousness. What does uprightly mean? This is a Hebrew word, tamiin, t-a-m-e-e-m, which means, without moral blemish, wholehearted, perfect, sincere. Not a complacent, not an apathetic, not a half-hearted person. There's something about being wholehearted in uprightness way, and this is the same word that was applied to Abraham. Abraham, in Genesis 17, verse 1, that Abraham walked uprightly. He walked enthusiastically. He was a yes-sir type of a person with God. Abraham had all kinds of people around him that dissuaded him, including his wife, including, you know, making certain mistakes. But one thing about Abraham, when God talked to him, God always paid attention. And he was a person whose works, whose patience was judged to him as righteousness. He was a person who was enthusiastic about what he did when God said, Abraham, I want you to move from near Babylon, near, you know, Baghdad, you know, that area where he lived. It really wasn't Baghdad. It's north of there. And I want you to move down to where Jerusalem is. It wasn't a small move. This is where Abraham went. It wasn't just him. We knew that he had a little private army of 400 men, you know, that he took with him. It was a major move. And this was post-flood. The world was still not populated with a lot of people. So this was a big move. And there was some reason that God wanted to get him out of there, out of the center of Babylon-ish, you know, religion and so forth, to a virgin territory, you know, down to the area of where Jerusalem was, which seemed to be uninhabited because God gave it to him and his family. So the people went and settled. But we see that there was no backtalk.

He said, Sarah, we're moving. Mayflower, you know, pack up and we're going. Because God wants us to be there. He went. And we see with the other things that God had asked him to do, even to the point of knowing that God was right, even though it's a tough thing even for us to go through to understand why he would go on to sacrifice his son, which he never did, but was good as doing it, because he believed that what God said was true, that through Isaac, his continuance and lineage would go on and the blessing of God would go on to the whole world, to Israel, to the whole world, to the many nations, to the father of many nations. And it would be through Isaac. So he knew that what God was telling the truth.

He was tested on something very, very tough, something that I think that most people would not take. But he was the person who did what God told him to do.

So, God wants us to be as the faithful in Hebrews 11.

Read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, which speaks about the faithful. We could give a biographical story of every single one of these people about their enthusiasm and doing the things that they were supposed to do and their faithfulness.

People who were wholehearted, such as Moses. Moses, he had to give up a lot. He was in line to rule in Egypt. He gave that up to lead this group of slaves, which were his people. He knew it out of Egypt into the Promised Land.

We see people like Noah, who God said, hey, I've got a job for you.

I've got an ark. You've got to build this ark. It took him a hundred years.

Much of the derision of the people around, but he did it.

And these are the kind of people that God is looking for. This is the kind of test that maybe you won't have to have, and I certainly hope that I don't have it. I hope that whatever is given to me, I can do. It's within my limits to do. But these are people who obey and follow God, because they understand that he is the ruler of the universe. He cannot lie that what he promises he will make come to pass.

Next, in Psalm 15, it's part of verse 2, he who works righteousness.

All your commands in Psalm 115 and 172, all your commandments are righteousness.

Our ability to keep the commandments makes us righteous.

Now, in Matthew 5 and verse 17, unless anyone failed to mention about Christ's attitude towards the commandments and the law, let's read Matthew 5 and verse 17.

Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Just in case there's somebody who thinks that I'm some kind of a smart aleck who came here when my father was the God of the Old Testament, being a tough taskmaster, and I have come to make things liberalized and maybe disagree with him, think not. Don't go there, he says. For assuredly I say to you, verse 18, until heaven and earth be passed away, not jut or one tittle, who by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

It's pretty clear about the importance of obedience to God's law.

Oh yes, Christ talks about grace, he talks about forgiveness, and part of the model prayer that he gave us, forgive us our sins, is we forgive our debtors. That's part of what we do. That's part of what we say and accomplish daily, is to ask forgiveness.

But that does not do away with the standard that he has set for us.

Then he says, 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.

The scribes and Pharisees, as we know historically, were so particular about keeping the law. Is that true? Yes and no. Now people think of this righteousness of the Pharisees about being extra strict about the Sabbath, being so extra strict about having any images that they had, even in Christ's time, virtually outlawed art so that nobody by mistake would make any kind of a statue that represented God. People who were so careful, ultra careful about the first four, about the Sabbath, they didn't let Christ, they didn't give him credit for people he healed on the Sabbath because that broke their standard. That's where they were ultra strict and went way in a direction that was not right. But you know the Pharisees on the other six commandments?

People don't realize they were very loosey-goosey on them. Christ condemned them for the fact that they didn't honor their parents. In fact, here in this sermon, the mounts talked about how he said, well, give instead of taking care of your old parents, give it to the church.

You know, he said, you really are dishonoring your parents.

The Jews were very known to be hypocrites, even the leaders, as far as adultery and sexual crimes.

Sins, same thing. They were very, very loose in that area. The Pharisees who condemned the woman, Jesus Christ said, who is without sin, let him cast the first stone. Nobody could.

They were not as righteous as people think. They were not as righteous as people think.

And of course, if you're a hypocrite, you're a liar right away. So, just in case when Christ was speaking to these people, when the Pharisees held themselves up as being ultra super law keepers, so they earned some type of status with God, he said, don't look to those guys.

This standard isn't as high as you are led to believe. Your righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the law, of the Pharisees and scribes. But here in Matthew, in Psalm 15, there's an interesting statement made as part of verse 2. He who speaks the truth in his heart.

He who speaks the truth from in his heart, or actually can be translated and speaks the truth from his heart. And he goes on in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 21 to comment. You have heard that it was said to those of, well, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. That's just quoting from the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. He says, just to avoid killing somebody is not keeping the commandment. It's not just that it's all that's required. You can hate somebody, but you know you won't kill them. And one reason why people don't kill others is because they'll go to prison and you know they'll spend a lot of time with. But people probably would kill more people if they could get away with it. Enough people are killed, and most people are killed in family disputes. Most half, half of all murders are family murders. People who know each other. Usually when somebody kills somebody, you don't randomly kill somebody unless it's a burglary or something of that sort. But he said, you shouldn't even hate somebody.

Christ said, it's got to come from the heart down deep.

You've got to work on those motives that lead you to a murder.

You know, when a crime is a murder is committed, you're the first thing that a prosecutor, the DA, okay, what's the motive? What's the motive? Okay, what family is involved? Immediately, they try to find out what led to that murder. Whether they'll make it murder one, whether they'll make it second-degree murder, whether they'll make it manslaughter, you know, whatever it is. But they go down to motives. If it's premeditated murder, you know, to that's first-degree murder. Then there's crimes of passion and so forth. But Christ starts working on motives and said, don't hate somebody. Reconcile. This is that person of God's gentleman who speaks the truth from his heart, keeps the commandments from his heart. You know, that you're being a gentleman is something that is part of your nature. How many times we talk to people who are so hypocritical, they say, let's reconcile, but you know, they're not reconciling. They still hate you. They're still not able to resolve an issue. They still hold something against you. They're still not able to forgive. And the ministry of Jesus Christ was a ministry of reconciliation, of truly making your heart one and right with God. You know, some of the issues that we've had even in the church, you know, where people were upset with one another and had gone on into, you know, long periods of discussion and talk and talk and talk and try to talk through things, but there was no change in the heart. It didn't work. It's gotta, it's gotta be scrubbed out there from the heart. We have to be doing those things and obeying those things from the heart. In this case, it talks about murder. Next example. Verse 27, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. And that's the physical act of adultery. And that's what, you know, people kind of say, okay, can't get that far. I can't get, you know, I know that if I go to this point of physically committing adultery, I have broken the law. He says, uh-oh, that's far from obeying that commandment. I say to you, verse 28, that whoever looks on a woman at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if you're involved with a relationship with someone of the opposite sex, could be man to woman, man to woman, to man, as good as committing adultery. If you're involved in porn, you're committing adultery.

A person who's God's gentleman is a person who doesn't allow those thoughts, who is able to overcome those thoughts. It's a person who doesn't go there with his mind, and his motives are pure.

He speaks the truth from his heart.

We've had cases where I have been involved where a couple of cases where a woman found out her husband was involved in pornography. He says, he has committed adultery. That's it. I'm done. I'm done with him. And it is. According to Jesus Christ, a person who lusts after another person has committed adultery with them in their heart. Okay, we move on here, verse 3 of Psalm 15.

He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a re-croach against his friend.

He's a person who does not seek to discredit anyone by spreading information about them, whether it's false or whether it's true. He's not a person who backbites and slanders another person.

The word to love a person as our neighbor, as ourselves. But in Matthew 7, verse 1, in verse 1, Christ goes into that subject.

Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged.

And with what measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

You know, it is a characteristic of people, whether it's a habit or whether it's just a nastiness to criticize and to find fault and to judge and to tear a brother down. There's some people that just just part of their nature to find fault and criticize. Of course, the internet makes that very, very easy. Now, people can say any old thing on the internet, set up a forum, and it just sucks up everybody's time trying to go through all these allegations and things that people, you know, bring up. And they can really hurt a lot of people. You can hurt a lot of people by things that you just say, you know, on the internet. They have entire companies that their job is to help your reputation, you know, the reputation cleaner-uppers that try to, you know, get some of the bad things that are said about you to kind of fall into a lower place where people won't find it.

But people sometimes really like finding fault. They'll find fault with people they get to know, find fault with those in their families, they find fault with their wife, they find their fault with their husband. It's a habit. We had a young lady here just a very short time ago that, no matter what directive that was made by the church, you know, or any announcement or any good news or anything, is, what about this? You know, what about that? You know, how can we do that? How can we, you know, such and such? Everything was brought up. We finally had to talk to her, or at least the people from ABC had to talk to her and say, you know, but why? All the time. It's just you all the time that is bringing these things up. You know, we're really concerned about you for the habit of just feeling that you've got to pop off about something negative all the time and find something sinister in what's happening. Well, how many times do we find fault and judge that we don't really realize in accusing others, of suspecting others, of passing on your thoughts and your accusations to others, and not realizing the damage that is caused? You can, when you stab somebody, hurt somebody, it was illegal, and you'll go to jail for anything from battery to attempted murder. But with words, and now with the internet, you can say horrible things that hurt somebody for a long period of time. I just looked up a person's name on the internet for different reasons. I just looked up because I needed to find something that he wrote one time. I found something that he said that wasn't really quite right, that showed up from an event that took place at a feast site years ago. There it is on the internet. It's just there. So if somebody wants to look for it, it's still sitting out there. One thing that God will do is, we'll be accountable for every idle word that we speak. How could God ever keep track of every word? Well, Google does. Google keeps track of every word that is spoken by everybody. In fact, any time you use Gmail, which I use too, all that is recorded. They have it in their vaults. Someday they'll sell it to you if you need it. What I'm just saying is that right now, with mass storage, things are saved forever. We had a campaign in Indianapolis where I lived, where so many young people were texting irresponsible things and posting irresponsible things, like on Facebook and before that, in other MySpace, other places, that were very, very responsible, like about fellow students or teachers. There was a campaign in Indianapolis for a while, you know, to really teach kids about thinking before they post. In fact, that is, think before you post. And, you know, they had, here's what your words can do. And here's the things that you can say that can't just be erased. Because once it goes viral or once it goes on to other students, you know, it can be very damaging. You've heard of some of the cases in court, like one student wrote about another student they knew was gay and committed, and it led to that gay student to commit suicide. You know, that type of thing, you know, can happen is people...

Well, David understood that. You know, Jesus Christ understood that, you know, as he teaches this to us. Don't pass along hurtful knowledge about people. There are other ways to resolve matters that are issues with you outside of telling it to somebody else or going to others.

The very well-known psalm about fasting, Isaiah 58, which is all about fasting, except the last couple of verses which talk about the Sabbath, it brings up as one of the most important reasons why we fast, to get off of other people's backs. You know, to take away the pointing of the finger, taking away the accusations, taking away the automatic reflex of finding something wrong and picking specs in people's lives, in other people's lives. The devil is called the accuser of the brethren. There are two things the devil is primarily called, liar and accuser of the brethren. And you know, the devil has... he knows everything about us. And he said they're shouting to God and shrieking to God, don't you know about Galen Morrison? You know, or don't you know about this person? You know, here he is, a leader in the church, you know, don't you know this, don't you know that? He's there shrieking all the time. He was there doing that to Job.

He's the accuser of the brethren. He's also a horrendous liar. Those are spirits of the devil.

Our job is not to evil to his neighbors, Psalm 15 verse 3 says, and it's also as Matthew 5 verse 43 says, love your enemies. Love your enemies. So certainly as part of loving your enemies, you're not going to be spreading things about them, you know, to others. But here in Psalm 15 verse 4, we have almost what appears to be a contradiction of what David says in verse 3.

But also, verse 4 of Psalm 15, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord. I thought he said we're not supposed to say bad things and pass on accusatory things about people to others. But yet, it's not but yet it says in whose eyes a vile person is despised.

How do we reconcile this to what we just read about accusing people?

We should be able to judge people by their character and make an assessment of them. The San Sino commentary on this verse says the following.

It's not the chaotic state of the world due fundamentally to the fact that vile persons who had steezed power were not despised. You know, people didn't resist them.

People allowed them to get into power. People didn't stop them. I know that you might have, I know that when my son was growing up, that he had various friends from school, some of them I liked very, very much.

There's one particular one that really bugged me, because whatever he did, which was wrong, was the habit that my son picked up. He didn't pick up the good habits, he picked up the bad habits.

And it just always gold me that he would not see the good.

And I always wanted to... So I put restrictions on him being with that person, because I just felt like whatever that person thought, he had a certain charisma about him, which oftentimes went in a way that was not good, was picked up on. And I just wanted to control it as much as I possibly could. Now, we have to avoid the bad influences in our lives and to make judgments about that. Jesus Christ here speaks about that here in verse 15 of Matthew 7. In the same chapter he talks about, do not judge and do not be overly critical. He says in verse 16, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves, which again we just had, you know. He says, be aware of these people, because they'll come across real nice as a prophet, but down deep they're ravenous wolves. They're causing damage. They're causing hurt. And he says, beware of them. Steer clear of them. And I wish that if anything, we would have taken stronger action at the time that we did. You will know them by their fruits, verse 16. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree bear good fruit. And every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown to the fire.

Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. What are the results of the actions of certain people? Do they cause harmony? Do they cause good relationships? Do they cause goodwill?

A good spirit? Or do they cause churning and unrest, instability? You know, you tell them by their fruits. Tell them by the results of what they do. So, we have here the ability of a Christian, God's gentleman, to not be accusatory, yet be able to judge good from bad, and take evasive action if necessary, but nonetheless to be able to judge and to discern between good and evil. Beware of false prophets in this particular case. Verse 4, Psalm 15, He who swears to his own hurt and changes not. This impresses upon us the need to say what we're going to do and to commit ourselves to our words. Some people don't consider this to be a very important aspect of character, but it's among the characteristics brought up in Psalm 15 of those that define God's gentleman. A person that even if it's going to be inconvenient, if he said he was going to do it, he better do it. How many people have been disappointed when they were promised that, I'll do this for you, I'll be there, I'll do this for you, I know that I've had people who worked for me who are excellent. My assistant in Cincinnati right now is a person of the finest of character of the things that he says he will do. If he can't do it, then he'll make it very clear, but he's a phenomenal assistant. And I know that when he says that something will be done by two o'clock or by four o'clock or the next day, I will have an email. It will be done. It'll be done exactly as he has promised. I've had people who have had to ask him the same thing over and over again. I knew it was at a third or fourth time that they finally get around to getting something done because they didn't see that as being important. I'll be there. I'll meet you tomorrow. They're not there. Over and over again. It's very, very important to keep your word or to make arrangements if you have changes. How many times have people that have been your superiors, whatever, have had amnesia? Well, I don't know if I said that or not. It's so irritating, so irritating when people who are supposed to be leaders who say certain things don't hold up to them. One of the greatest downfalls of the political process in America is that all these promises that are being made will be here in all kinds of things in the debates starting this coming Tuesday. Of course, they spend more time smearing each other than really promising things. I think maybe one reason why they promise less is because they're so busy smearing each other. But nonetheless, the things that are promised and everybody knows that those promises can't be kept, they're all bring all the troops back. I'll lower the deficit. I'll do this. And people will actually vote based on the things that they said.

And they'll be disappointed. Sad is they're going to vote for the same guy again, makes the same promises, and won't keep them again. That's one of the downfalls of human government. Human beings aren't able to perform and to come bring to pass what needs to be done. In Matthew 5, verse 33, it's amazing how many of the subjects that come up in Psalm 15 are covered in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, verse 33. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oath to the Lord. Christ said, I've got something better.

Christ said, I've got something better. But I say, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for the city of the great king. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your yes be yes, and your no-no. Christ said this in his Sermon on the Mount. This is one of the bullets of his Sermon on the Mount. And when you say you're going to do something, yes, it better be done.

In the final verse, he who does not put out his money to usury, nor takes reward against the innocent.

Why in the world include that point? I don't think that we realize just how the economies of the world... I'm not an economist, but I do know this. The world has people who are extremely rich, not very many of them, percentage-wise, and it's people who are ultra-poor.

And probably one of the biggest things that has brought that about is that the rich people have developed their own economies where the little people are held under the thumb. They're the ones who pay the interest. They're the ones who pay the high rates. The rich people just get richer and richer. That's an oversimplification of this. But we live in a world, one reason why it's ready to crack, is because of the economic disparity of this world. My wife and I work in Zambia and Malawi, where we have sizable churches. We have 400 people in nine churches in Zambia, and we have three groups, two groups in a Bible study group meeting in Malawi, and about 140 to 150 people. They'll have the Feast of Tabernacles. Malawi is the third poorest country in the world, and Zambia is the fourth poorest country in the world. The unemployment rate is about 60 to 70 percent. The 70 percent who are have no job. I mean, they're just no job. They basically live off of subsistence. In other words, they raise part of an acre of maize and some greens, and they basically live off of that year-round. Very, very poor. And one reason why I've started working there, starting in the year 2000, is that I was just appalled as to how our brethren were suffering. They had no cattle. They had a few cattle that they had. They lost to disease that spread through them seven years earlier, and they had no milk for their kids. They used their cattle to draft power for the plows, and they had women and children pushing those plows. But average families' income of our church people was about $200 a year, and that was how much money that they had for the year.

And so that's when we started working with them. But the country also has some extremely rich people who have very little thought, you know, for the poor. Also has money coming in from Europe, and coming in from USAID, and coming in from other places that never get down to the lower people. The point of what he's saying here is a person who does not take advantage economically of people that would be hurt by excessive interest, or by bribes, or be in any way economically acted on in that way. We have seen this so much in the countries we work in. Ukraine, which became free after the Communists. Did life become better there? No, it didn't. In fact, there are some people, including my relatives in Ukraine, that wanted to go back to Communism. Because at least the government took care of them. But they said that after freedom came, that everything was available. You could travel anywhere you wanted to, but you had no money to do it. And the mafia basically took over controlling the way businesses were set up, and set up their rackets, and everything else, and everybody knew it. There was also, it was supported by the government, and the people were held under the gun economically. Anybody who tried to get a small business started was dealt with extortion, high taxes, and basically rubbed out.

And the subway, these people were controlled. The Bible has a great deal to say about vulnerable people. It starts out with talking about helping widows, the fatherless, and this is even as far as even to the Feast of Tabernacles, to take care of people that are poor economically in your midst.

And I know that we've been working in Africa. We have replenished cattle. We have helped people with education. We have helped the standard of living of our church, to where we have very visibly seen our people at the Feast look better, you know, economically be raised up, and it's been a great joy. That made them rich, but they're no longer the $200 a year at range. They can buy luxuries now, like soap, you know. They said, we can buy soap now. And we put in water wells, so the women don't have to carry a five-gallon bucket on their heads two miles to a well, five, six times a day. I mean, this is the kind of miserable life that these people have. But the point that he's making out, making in this, is that we are to not take advantage economically of people, not put as money out to usury to make big off of little people.

There's a study done one time in inner-city drugstores, you know, where the poor went, you know, to the cost that the poor people were paying was much higher than in suburbs, you know, where people could buy things in quantity. The Cascos and other things were people in the little, you know, in, like, this was in Harlem, in a very poor area of Harlem, we talked about how high the prices were for little people could only buy very little and how big a profit was made, you know, on them. And the people who run these things know what they're doing. They just know these people have no choice, that they're under the gun, that they are, you know, poor and they're just being taken advantage of. God has economic system that we don't understand yet. One thing for sure is that it'll be recycled every 50 years, you know. There's certain safeguards built there where one family, like in Central America, where, like, the country of El Salvador is owned by 14 families. You know, 14 families basically own everything. They own the bananas and coffee beans and everybody else works for nothing, you know, for these rich people. But land will no longer be something that's a commodity to be acquired and amassed by one family. But it will return back to the original landowners after 50 years. So think ahead, you know, what you buy. You know, in the 49th year is not a time to buy, so they'll be big things, but it'll be a fair process, which I don't fully understand. I just know this is that God says woe to those who take action against widows, that take action against the fatherless, and against the poor. The Bible has a great deal to say about that, starting in the Pentateuch and all the way into the New Testament. That's another subject of its own.

In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 38, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 38, give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you, turn not you away. That those people that need the help, you know, be able to to help them and to lift them up.

I was reading about this bank in Bangladesh that was set up to help poor women in their small businesses of knitting, sewing, and creating cloth. And talked about the loan sharks that had come in. These are even poorer than Africa. These were incomes that were in a range of less than a hundred dollars a year. But the interest rates, even though the loan sharks came in, were charging, the loans were small, the interest rate on them was 20, 30, 40 percent. And when they have nothing to make that up with, but if he's got a lot of people he's doing with, he's making a lot of money, but the people aren't getting ahead. A true Christian does not think that way. That is not loving your brother, and that is not something that is all stated.

In Matthew chapter, let's see, Matthew, I'll conclude here, the last part of Psalm 15.

Psalm 15.

Psalm 15. He who does these things, this is the last part of verse 5, shall never be moved.

And I've said a lot, I could say a lot more, about all the permutations and examples that we looked at here in Psalm 15. But Jesus Christ and his Sermon on the Mount, at the very end of it, ends this way. Therefore, verse 24 of Matthew 7, Matthew 7, verse 24, 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.

Almost the same thought and concept. He who does these things shall not be moved.

The rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But whoever who hears these sayings 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, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was his fall.

That was the end of his sermon. And that's the end of Psalm 15. But more interestingly is the fact that Psalm 15 answers the question, who shall dwell on your holy hill? Who's going to be there in the kingdom of God in that mount of God? That's what we'll be learning more about as we go to Wisconsin, Dallas, or wherever you are headed. Most of you probably are headed for the Wisconsin Dells. We're looking forward to seeing you, running into you at the feast in Wisconsin Dells here in a few days.