Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with a hymn from the Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book,
number 42. Let's all stand together. We'll
sing, let us praise the name of Jesus, number 42. ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? Prophet, priest and sovereign king ? ? To him render adoration
? ? Laud and homage to him bring ? ? Let us praise the name of
Jesus ? God incarnate from above Came to save his chosen people
Sent by God in covenant love ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? Who upon Mount Calvary ? ? Shed his blood and sealed our pardon
? ? Died for sin to set us free ? ? Let us praise the name of
Jesus ? Risen, conquering, gracious friend, Advocate and mediator,
All our hopes on Him depend. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
for he brought us to his fold. Come, exalt his name and worship,
may the Savior be extolled. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
? Till we see Him face to face ? Then throughout the endless
ages ? Praise Him for His love and grace Please be seated. That we would be able to praise
Him as we ought. It's a glorious and a happy thing
to be able to come together and join our voices in praise. And
it's also, I don't know, frustrating. You
know, we just sang about praising the Lord, and in my heart I just
feel like I'm not capable. I'm not capable of praising Him
like I ought to praise Him. and sing hymns of praise and
mind wondering why you're singing, you know, it's awful. Whatever ability we have to praise
Him, He gives it to us. So let's trust Him for that. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Psalm 17, Psalm 17. If David is not speaking prophetically
as a type of Christ, there's only one conclusion we could
come to about David. That he was a proud, self-righteous
man. The things he says here can never
be applied to a man like David or me or you, except we'd be
found in Christ. Here's David's prayer. Here,
you see the right is justice. Lord, David's pleading to God
to be just. And he says, hear justice, O
Lord, attend unto my cry and give ear unto my prayer that
goeth not out of feigned lips. It almost sounds like what Job
was saying. When Job said, let me bring my
case before your court and I'll prove to you that I'm innocent.
David's saying, I'm calling out to you, God, out of unfeigned
lips. And I'm requiring, I'm asking
you to give me justice. Let my sentence come forth from
thy presence. Let thine eyes behold the things
that are equal. Give me equity. Thou has proved mine heart. Thou
has visited me in the night. Thou has tried me and shall find
me. I am purposed that my mouth shall
not transgress. Job said, I've made a covenant
with my eyes that I would not look upon a maid lustfully. That
sounds like what David's talking about here. I've made a commitment
with my mouth. Consider the words of men By
the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the
destroyer. Hold up my goings and my paths. And my footsteps slip not. I
have called upon thee or thou wilt hear me, O God. Incline
thine ear unto me and hear my speech and show thy marvelous
loving kindness. O thou that savest by thy right
hand, which put their trust in thee for those that rise up against
them. Keep me as the apple of thy eye,
hide me under the shadow of thy wings. All those things that
David said are true about Christ. And the Lord's pleased to to
see all those that are in Christ the same way Christ is. So these
things were true of David. They were true of David and they're
true of every believer, every believer. Let's pray. Our merciful heavenly father,
once again, you've blessed us with the opportunity to come
to this place and to open your word and oh, how dependent we
are upon thy Holy spirit to enlighten the eyes of our understanding,
to open that which no man can shut. We pray that you would
open the windows of heaven, Lord, that you would come down and
visit us. We pray that you would speak to our hearts and reveal
to us the glory of thy dear son and give us faith to have hope
in him for all our righteousness before thee. We ask it in Christ's name and
for his sake. Amen. Number 236, let's all stand together. Number 236, Amazing Grace. ? Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound ? That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart
to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. "'Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand
years Bright shining as the sun We've no less days to sing God's
praise than when we'd first begun. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with me
to Psalm 15, please? Psalm 15. It's called the Psalm of David,
just like the psalm we just read, and all the psalms. It's about the son of David,
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a gospel psalm. We could
say that about every one of them, couldn't we? I've not found any
of the theologians that refer to Psalm 15 as a messianic psalm. But there's not a psalm that's
more clearly describing the Lord Jesus Christ than this song.
And it answers the most important question in life. A life is full
of questions. A young person might be wondering
and questioning what they're going to be when they grow up
or who they're going to marry or what kind of career they're
going to pursue. An older person may be dealing with more serious
questions like what can I do to save my marriage Am I going
to be healed from this disease or? Life's full of questions. The unbelievers asking questions
like, what's the origin of life? Answer that question is real
easy, isn't it? Some answers are simple and some
answers are difficult. Some are important and some are
not. But there's one question that
trumps every question. There's one question that you
and I must know the answer to. Otherwise, all other answers
will be irrelevant. They'll be of no importance whatsoever. And the Lord asked that question
at the beginning of this Psalm. Here it is. Lord, who shall abide
in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill. How can a man be right with God? That's the question. How can
God be just and justify sinners? How can man be justified with
God? How can he be clean that is born of a woman? How can I be saved? How can I
stand in the presence of a holy God? Malachi asked the same question
and he phrased it like this, who may abide in the day of his
coming and who shall stand when he appeareth? Who's gonna be
able to stand in the presence of a holy God and be accepted
by him? The answer to that question is
the most important answer to any question in life and most
men don't have an answer to it. I was talking to a gentleman
just the other day and was trying to conduct business with him
and he started talking about politics and then before long
we started talking about religion and he found out I was a preacher
He started trying to impress me with a little bit he knew
about the Bible, and it happens a lot. And so I shared the gospel with
him. We had a good conversation. We talked for 20 minutes, I guess. And I answered this question
for him, and he said, I believe that. That's what I believe.
And then as I'm getting in the car, He wants to persuade me
to do business with him. And so as I'm getting in my car,
he says to me, he says, oh, by the way, he said, I take 10%
and then add 1% to it and I give it to charity out of this business. And I thought, after all of that,
you're going to dangle plastic mangoes before me? and try to
impress me with, you know, who's going to abide in his tabernacle? Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? Now in another place, the Lord
said, if the Lord should mark an equity, no one could stand.
Who's gonna stand in his presence? If he takes notice of one infraction
of the law, we're not gonna be able to stand. What is the tabernacle? It's typified in that Old Testament. The word tabernacle means tent
and it's a place of habitation. And the Lord told Moses to build
a tabernacle and he told him, He told him to be very specific
about how it was built because everything about that tabernacle
pointed to the tabernacle. The Lord, the scripture says
in John chapter one, that Christ, the word was made flesh and he
tabernacled among us. So who's gonna be able to stand
in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's a dwelling place. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Hebrews chapter eight, Hebrews chapter eight. Paul speaks of the tabernacle
of his flesh, this body, that we walk around in is a tabernacle
that we live in. One day we'll take off this tabernacle. We'll take down this tent and
be given a more permanent tabernacle in his presence. Hebrews chapter
8 verse 1 says, now of the things which we have spoken of, this
is the sum. This is the summary of everything
that's been said prior to chapter 8, particularly about Melchizedek. We have such a high priest who
is set at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not man. So when David asked the question,
who shall abide in thy tabernacle and who shall dwell in thy holy
hill? He's not talking about just that
tent that they had in Jerusalem or just the, he's not talking
about coming into the church, he's talking about being in the
tabernacle, which was made not with hands, the tabernacle, which
is in heaven. This is the same tabernacle that
John saw in the book of Revelation referred to as the new Jerusalem
coming down from heaven. Who's going to be allowed into
that city? Now I want to know the answer
to that question. You're in there Hebrews chapter
8, look at chapter 9 at verse 9. He's talking about the Old Testament
tabernacle. And he says, the Old Testament
tabernacle, verse 9, which was a figure for the time then present
in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not
make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the
conscience. So, all the sacrifices that were
made in that Old Testament tabernacle, they didn't put away sin. They
were a figure. that pointed towards the tabernacle
that was made not with man's hands. Verse 10, which stood
only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation. Now what the
religious refer to as the Protestant reformation was not a reformation
at all. Nothing was reformed. And nothing
is still not reformed. That's why we don't refer to
ourselves as reformed. You don't reform error. The only
thing reformed was the types of the Old Testament into the
fullness of the New Testament. A better covenant made on better
promises. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
order to fulfill all those types. And that's what was reformed.
The types were not error. The types were true. but they
weren't sufficient in and of themselves. They were pictures
of what the Lord Jesus Christ would come and do. And so in
verse 11, but Christ being come a high priest of good things
to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say not of this building, neither by
the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own blood, he entered
in once to the holy place having, and please notice the tense of
these verbs, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now, God told Moses that he was
to send Aaron in once a year and put the blood of that sacrificial
lamb on the mercy seat. And God said, here, I will meet
with you And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He
was the lamb. His flesh was that veil and that
veil was rent when he gave up the ghost and his blood was put
on the mercy seat. And what'd God say to Moses?
Here, I will meet with you. Here, I will meet with you. All
those Old Testament Judaism was a bloody religion. There was
never an end. to the sacrificing of animals.
But none of that blood was effectual. It was typical. That's all it
was. It pointed to the one whose blood
would put away sin and he having obtained eternal redemption for
us. So he's the tabernacle. Who's
going to be able to dwell in him? Who's going to be able to
have acceptance with God? Who's going to be able to enter
into His holy hill? That's the question. Now, the
Lord's gonna give us an answer to that question. Look back at
our text at Psalm 15. And I wanna point something out.
I don't generally do this, because I think it's... It usually clouds things and
it makes it seem like you have to have some education or whatever
to be able to understand the word of God. God's word is so
clear and plain. But I want you to know that the
verbs in the next two verses are active participles. Now an active participle means
that it is unbroken, continuous action. Unbroken, continuous
action. And now God's going to answer
the question, who's going to be able to come into his presence? Who's going to be able to be
saved? And now he's answering the question, he, The word walketh,
the word worketh, the word speaketh, the word backbiteth, the word
doeth evil, and the word taketh up are all active participles. They're all unbroken, continuing
action. So God says, you wanna stand
in my presence? You've got to walk uprightly
all the time. You've got to work righteousness
all the time. You've got to speak truth in
your heart all the time. You can't ever talk about anybody
else, ever. You can't ever do something wrong
to your neighbor. And you can't take up a reproach
against your neighbor. In other words, you can't give
a sympathetic ear to somebody else talking about someone else.
Ever. Ever. That's who's going to stand
in my presence. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, he's the only one that's going to be able to stand
in my presence. That's the Lord answering the
question. Here's the gospel. How is a person
like you and me who have never been able to walk uprightly or
work righteousness or speak the truth in our hearts or been without
backbiting who's never... How are we going to do it? Now
Paul said, I would do these things. I would do them. I want to do
them. It's within me to want to do
it. But how to perform that which
is good I find not. For when I would do good, evil
is ever present with me. I can't say that I do these things
continually. Matter of fact, turn with me
to Isaiah chapter 64. Isaiah chapter 64, verse 5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou art wroth, for we
have sinned, and in those is continuance." Now, an active participle is
a continuation, unbroken continuation of an action. What are we good
at being unbroken and continuing to do? In these is continuance. That's all we can ever do. So
how is a person who can only continue in sin going to stand
in the presence of a holy God when God says you must walk uprightly
all the time. Now that word uprightly means
without blemish, perfect, complete, a perfect walk every step of
the way. What about working righteousness? Working righteousness is perfect
obedience to the law of God. That's what working righteousness
is. That's what God says. You want to stand in my presence?
You're going to have to be perfect. You're going to have to be scrutinized
by the law of God, and you're going to have to be found sinless,
perfect in my presence. Now, I'm so thankful that those
of you, you already know where we're going with this. someone
who's never heard the gospel before saying well and I've talked
like this to people who are either they're they're bound up in religion
or irreligious and they and they they throw up their hands out
if that's if what you're telling me is true how can anybody do
that so we have to walk have an unblemished
walk perfect walk We have to keep the law, not
just in behavior, but in heart, in thought, intent, motive. Our motives are never pure, are
they? Even when we would do good, that's where, that's what we
see our sin, isn't it? That's what we see our sin. We're
so, we're so, our motives are so mixed. And speak of truth in his heart.
Now, in another place, Isaiah said, I have children which will
not lie and the children of God don't lie. They don't lie about
themselves. They confess that they're sinners
and in them is no righteousness whatsoever. And they don't lie
about God. They may have it one time, but
they don't anymore. They confess him to be sovereign. They confess salvation to be
all of grace. They don't lie about the perfect
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and they don't lie about
what God requires for salvation and how it is that God saves
sinners. They don't lie about any of that.
That having been said, that having been said, every thought we have
and every word we speak from the heart. You see, don't you
love it when the Lord said, speak of truth in his heart, in his
heart. You know what God said about
the heart? It's deceitful. It's wicked above all things.
Who can know it? We don't know our own hearts.
God said, when I look down through your throat, what do I see? An
open sepulcher. I see death in your heart. And
when I look from heaven into the hearts of men, men look at
the outward appearance, I'm looking at the heart. I see that every
imagination of your heart is only evil and that continually
and we know that's true. We just, we can't be perfect
in thought. Everything we do and everything
we think is infected with sin and yet God says, you want to
stand in my presence? You've got to walk up rightly
all the time. You've got to keep the law perfectly
all the time. And every thought of your heart
has to be without deceit, without any self-consumption, without
any... it's got to be perfect. It's
got to be perfect. This word backbiteth means to
slander or gossip. And again, again, it is an active participle. It's
a continuing verb without any exception. Every time you speak of somebody,
it's always got to be good. Nor doeth evil to his neighbor. Always esteeming others more
highly than yourself. Always looking out for the best
of others. Always treating others the way you'd have them treat
you. Always. Or taketh up reproach against
his neighbor. I never give a sympathetic ear
to someone talking bad about someone else. Ever. I always know my friends when
someone stands up for me. You know, I have somebody tell
me, well, someone's always saying this and this about you. I say,
well, what did you say? Well, I just listened. I just listened. You know, we
all defend each other all the time, huh? But we don't. There's only one person these
two verses can describe. Only one person. And that's why
Paul said in Philippians chapter three, I've got to be found in
him. I've got to be found in him.
And in him? All these things are true of
me. For when he, God put his people in Christ before time
began. So everything the Lord Jesus
Christ did in his life here on this earth, everyone that was
in him did them, did them. We've kept the law, not just
because he kept them, not just legally imputed to us, but we
actually kept the law of God. We actually walked uprightly.
We actually had perfect thoughts and perfect obedience to the
law all the time. Now, well, we'll get to this
when I get to the last verse. Look at verse three. In whose eyes a vile person is
contemned. And another place David said,
Lord I hate them who hate Thee with a perfect hatred. You and I are not capable of
having a perfect hatred. This man I was talking to just
the other day, you know, he said he was coming to come to church.
I hope he does. I don't know if he's one of God's elect. I
know this I hated his religion. I hated the things he said about
God and about salvation and about his church. But, you know, the Lord said,
love your enemies. We don't know who God's elect
are. The Lord Jesus Christ is able to look and he hates the
reprobate with a perfect hatred. And he loves the elect with a
perfect love. You and I can't do that. So this
word actually, see where it says vile person? The word person
is not even in the text. It actually means to reject,
refuse, or despise. And we do. God's people hate
it when someone rejects the gospel, when they despise the truth of
grace, when they rob from the Lord Jesus Christ His glory and
salvation. We hate that. We hate it for
them because if they continue down that road, they're going
to end up in hell. And we hate it for the fact that they're
shaming our Lord and we hate it for the fact that if what
they say is true, you're robbing me of my salvation. So we are
contemptuous in a sense, not towards the person but towards
what they believe. The Lord Jesus Christ is able
to be that way towards the person because he knows who are his. Jacob I've loved, Esau I have
hated. We don't know who Esau is. That's
why the Lord's called on us to love everybody. We may be entertaining
angels unaware. You know, this may be a child
of God. And we ought to treat everybody with that hope. But God looks at man. He knows who he's made to destroy,
the vessels fitted for destruction. And he has a perfect hatred for
them. And so when he says, in whose eyes, a person who despises
the gospel, refuses the gospel, rejects the gospel, And really this is a continuation
also. There was a time for every one
of God's elect that they rejected the gospel, hated the gospel.
The apostle Paul was in rage against the believers trying
to stop out the gospel. But he loved him, didn't he?
The Lord loved Saul of Tarsus. in whose eyes a vile person is
contemned, but, but he honoreth. And that word means glorifies.
Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I hold in contempt all
those who refuse me. But those that fear the Lord,
those that bow in reverence to me, I will glorify them. I'm going to honor them before
my Father. I'm going to speak up on their behalf. All those
who believe the gospel. And that's what it is to fear
the Lord. It's to believe Him. It's to bow before Him. It's
to not call Him in question or doubt what He says. It's to worship
him, to say, Lord, truth, Lord, truth, Lord, what you said is
true. Everything you said is true. And every believer fears the
thought of standing in the presence of a holy God without one who
has walked uprightly and worked righteousness and spoken the
truth in his heart and never backbited with anyone and never
done any evil to his neighbor. and never taken up an accusation
against someone else. The thought of standing in the
presence of a Holy God without the Lord Jesus Christ as our
perfect righteousness and advocate before the Father, that's a fearful
thought, isn't it? A fearful thought. Why? Because we know that it's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. We don't want
God to be angry with us. We want him to be expiated. We
want all of his anger to be exhausted on the Lord Jesus Christ. We
want the fire to be out. We want nothing but compassion
and grace and mercy. Micah asked this question. He said, what does God require
of thee? It's the same question. It's
asked over and over in different ways throughout the scripture.
It is the most important question of life. What does God require
of thee? And here's what God says, to
do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly
before thy God. Now to do justly means to work
righteousness and walk uprightly all the time, all the time. That's
what David was praying in Psalm 17. He was asking God for justice. And God's people love justice.
They love justice. I want God to be just with me,
don't you? I don't want God to change the
standards of His righteous law for me. I want God's justice
all the time. I don't want there to be any
exceptions. If there's any exceptions to a God who's perfectly just,
then we have no hope that He'll be just or unjust with us. We
want his justice to be carried out to the fullest extent of
the law. He said, I will not allow one
sin to go unpunished. I want the full justice of God's
holy wrath to be poured out on me in Christ on Calvary's cross. And so when Micah said, what
does God require of thee? to do justly. Do you love justice? You see what I'm saying about
justice? Sometimes we say, well, I don't want justice, I want
mercy. Well, there's no mercy without justice. That's why Paul
said God is just and the justifier. We can't compromise the justice
of God for the hope of our salvation. That changes the standard, that lowers
the bar of the law, doesn't it? We love justice, we want to do
justice, and we did justice in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we
love mercy. Mercy comes because justice has
been fulfilled. And we walk humbly. We know that
all of our salvation was accomplished by another. And we're humbled
by that. We walk humbly before our God. Go back with me to our text,
Psalm 15. In whose eyes a vile person is
contemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. Look at this
next phrase. He that sweareth to his own hurt
and changeth not. I had someone call me. Well,
I've had several people ask me, you know, I made a promise to
somebody to sell them a piece of property, but someone else
came along and offered me a better price. What do I do? I pointed
out this verse. You keep your promise. Keep your
promise. That's what he says. He that
sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. You see, the truth
is, look at the next verse. We'll go back to that in just
a minute. He that puteth not out his money for usury nor taketh
reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall
never be moved. Now we did all these things in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only thing that moves
our hearts to want to do these things in practice is when we
know that we've already done them perfectly in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why? Because we're following
Him. We're following after Christ. So when we say that we've already
done these things in Christ, we're not saying, well, we can
ignore them. If you've made a commitment to somebody to sell them something
and somebody else comes along with a better offer, you keep
your word. Even if it's to your hurt. And walk uprightly. And do justly. What's the motivation
for doing these things? What is the love of Christ that
constrain us? It's knowing that he's loved
us and he's already satisfied all these things before God that
causes us to want to follow in his footsteps. Now go back with me to verse
four. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. That's not talking about an agreement
that you made to sell a piece of property. That's the covenant
of grace where the Lord Jesus Christ struck hands with the
father before Adam was ever made. And he made a commitment. He
made a commitment. He made a promise. He said, father,
I'll redeem them. I'll go and I'll fulfill and
satisfy the demands of the law, and I'll satisfy your holy justice
by shedding my sinless blood on their behalf. And I'll do
it, and I'll succeed in what I'm doing. I'll be faithful to
you, Father." Oh, he swore, and he kept his promise to his own
hurt. No one ever hurt like him before.
No one ever suffered like Him before. No one ever bore the
sorrow and shame and burden of sin like Him before. No one ever
suffered the separation with God like Him before. No one ever
carried... You know, you and I, we carry
our own sins, and that's a pretty big burden, isn't it? I mean,
just the guilt of it and the shame of it that we constantly
have to go to the Lord to have that removed, aren't we? It's
the body of death that we carry around with us. Well, you multiply
that by all of God's people and that's what the Lord Jesus Christ
bore. That's what he bore on Calvary's cross. So he swore to his own hurt and
he changed not. That's why Micah said, I am the
Lord. and I change not. Therefore,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I kept my promise to the Father.
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. I was faithful to
walk uprightly. I was faithful to keep the law.
I was faithful to speak truth to men from my heart and to God
from my heart all the time. I was faithful to my neighbor A vile person was contemned.
Oh, the Lord did. He was able to look at those
Pharisees and call them snakes and whitewashed tombs. We don't talk like that to people.
We don't know what's going on with them. We don't know if they're,
you know, but the Lord did. He swore to his own hurt. And
he changed not. He kept his promise to the father,
didn't he? And that's who he's keeping his
promise to. The hope of our salvation is
that God was satisfied with the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus
Christ made and the promise has been kept and God's people have
been saved. There's my hope. He puteth not out his money for
usury. He's not a loan shark. He doesn't
give somebody money and then, you know, require, you know,
a high percentage of, you know, interest in return. He doesn't
require any interest, does he? Everything you have belongs to
him. Everything we have, everything we use is his. It's not ours.
And he's not demanding interest. or payment for those things.
He doesn't require us to, you know, we don't give it because
we're trying to pay God back. You know, that's plastic mangoes,
isn't it? That's just all that is. He puteth not out his money for
usury and he taketh not reward against the innocent. He's not gonna sell out his people. His innocent are the ones described
in verses two and three that are found in him, not having
their own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness,
which is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
innocent before God, innocent as he is. And he's not gonna sell them
out. That's what that means. He doesn't take up reward against
the innocent. He's not gonna let somebody buy
one of his children off of him. He's going to stick with them
to the end. He's going to keep them from
falling and present them faultless before the throne of God. He's
never going to sell them out. You're not going to sell them
out to Satan. You're not going to sell them
out to sin. You're not going to sell them
out to themselves. They may try to buy themselves.
No, he will not take up a reward against the innocent. So who's going to abide in his
tabernacle? Who's going to be accepted into
the presence of the Holy God? Well, Paul said in Ephesians
chapter one, our acceptance is in the beloved, is in the beloved. He's the one that did all of
this. And he's the one that causes us to do these things, to do
these things, that we shall never be moved, never. This is a Messianic Psalm, isn't
it? It's all about union with Christ. It's all about the hope
of our salvation in the successful accomplished work of our Redeemer.
If we're in Him. That's what I told this guy I
was talking to the other day. I said, I said, well, he said,
I don't know about all that. Cause he didn't, he said, well,
I don't believe in literal hell. And I said, well, I said, all
I know is that if you're in Christ, If you're in Christ, you'll be
accepted into the presence of God. If you're not, you'll be
separated from him for all eternity. That's who's going to be in his
Holy Hill. And I have set my King upon my
Holy Hill. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for the simplicity and the clarity of your word.
And we confess to you, Lord, that we're so prone to think in terms of
our works. Thank you, Lord, that you remind
us and teach us again and again and again that Christ is all
and in all. and he is to us our all. Thank you, Lord, for him. And we pray that you would continue
to be merciful to us. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 75, let's stand together, number
75. Abide with me, fast falls the
eventide, The dark and deep ends, Lord, with me abide, When other
helpers fail and comforts flee. Help of the helpless, O abide
with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? Who, like Thyself, my guide and
stake can be, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. Hold thou thy word before my
closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. Hems morning breaks, and first-made
shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide
with me.