15th Psalm, verse 1, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Now, that's another way of saying
Who will be in heaven? Now, what I'd like you to do
right now. Is imagine that you only have
one week to live. Try to think about that. The doctor said you're going
to die in a week. And this is your last week here
on Earth. You know, it may be. But how
important would this question be to you then? Who will be in
heaven? Lord, who will abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Who will be in heaven? I want to know. If you'd ask
the Baptist, I suppose he'd say, I'll be there. I'll be there. I remember my mind was brought
to a Time back when I was in the second grade, we had some
neighbors move in, new neighbors. And I came over to visit the
kids and I asked them what kind of religion they had. They said,
well, we're Methodists. And I said, well, you're going
to hell. And he, he was upset and started crying. I said, well,
I'm sorry, you don't have a chance. You know, you're a Methodist.
I said, only Baptists are saved. I thought that. And his mom came
running out. He came in crying to her and
she said, Baptists are going to hell. She said, the kids.
I said, well, I went ahead and went home. Ask the Catholic who will be
in heaven. Well, the person that's in the
church. The person who eats the sacraments. Ask the charismatic
who will be in heaven. The person who speaks in tongues. Church of Christ, person who
will be in heaven, the person that's baptized. Ask the Arminian. Well, the person who has decided
to let God save him. But who does David address this
question to? The Lord. Lord. He's the only one who can
answer. Lord. Who shall abide in thy
tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill. Now there is a
place called heaven. No sin. No pain. No tears. No disappointment. Perfect joy. unspeakable bliss
in the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is also a place called
hell. A place that I don't even know
how to describe. Both places will be populated. Now, if I've only got a week
to live, I want to know who will be in heaven. Will I be in heaven? Well, the Lord tells us who will
be in heaven in verses two through five, and he gives 11 things
that will characterize that person who will be in heaven. Now, let's
read these carefully. This is who will be in heaven.
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh
the truth in his heart, he that backbiteth not with his tongue,
nor doeth evil to his nor taketh up a reproach against
his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is condemned or disesteemed,
but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to
his own hurt, even when it's going to hurt him, he's going
to remain good to his word and change his not. He that putteth
not out his money to usury nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall
never be moved." Now when I read that psalm, one of the things
that occurred to me is it takes understanding to understand.
God's got to give you understanding or you will not understand. That psalm would terrify me if
I had no understanding of the gospel. But do you know that
this psalm is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ? And
it's a beautiful picture of everybody in him. Now, Christ is the tabernacle
of God. Lord, who shall abide in thy
tabernacle? Who shall remain in your tabernacle?
Remember, John 1.14 says the word was made flesh and tabernacled
among us. is the tabernacle of God. And
God's people abide in Him. You know what that means? They
consciously desire to be found nowhere else at any time. Now
this is all I want. Okay, I'm going to die in a week. I'm going to die tonight. There's
only one thing I'm concerned about, and that's to be found
in Christ. So that when God sees me, all
He sees is Jesus Christ. I don't desire anything else. I don't want to stand before
God in any other way but in Him. That's the desire of my heart. Now, who shall abide in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Who shall dwell in thy holy hill
of heaven? Now, to enter heaven, I have
to be without sin. No unclean person will enter
heaven. I have to have a clean record. blameless before God. I must be righteous. I must be righteous, altogether
righteous. God's not going to accept me
if I personally am not perfectly righteous. I must have a holy
nature. a nature fit for communion and
fellowship with God, someone God can commune with. Without
that, I will not enter heaven. Now, Psalm 15, like I said, is
a beautiful description of Christ himself. And remember, this is
this is one of the reasons we can look at a song like this
with joy. This describes Christ And His life is my life before
God. This actually describes me. Because
if it describes Jesus Christ, it describes me. Because Christ
is my righteousness before God. I don't have to worry about the
law. I come before the law and say, look me over through and
through. You'll find nothing. Because Christ is my righteousness
before God. This is my life before God. It really is. If I'm a believer,
his life is my life. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and what? The life. His life is my life
before God. So when I read this 15th Psalm,
I say, there's me. There's me. If it describes the
Lord Jesus Christ, it describes me. And this also describes the
believer. So what we're going to do, we're
going to read this Psalm twice. And we're going to look at it
as a description of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who's
going to enter heaven. You know, somebody once said,
if my mom's not in heaven, nobody will be there. You ever heard
that before? Well, I know somebody that's
there, whether your mom's there or not. Christ Jesus, the Lord. He's there. And those in him. Now, surely this is a description
of the Lord Jesus Christ. David says, Lord, who shall abide
in thy tabernacle, and who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly in
wholeness. In integrity, in sincerity, oh,
how He walked in the days of His flesh before His Father.
I love to think of the Father looking upon Him as He walked
in His flesh and He said, I'm pleased. Oh, I'm pleased with
Him. I'm pleased with this life. I'm
pleased with His thoughts. I'm pleased with His mind. He
walked in uprightness before the Father. He that worketh righteousness. What is righteousness? Now let
me tell you exactly what righteousness is. It's a perfect standing before
God's holy law. That's what righteousness is.
Sin is the transgression of the law. Righteousness is a perfect
standing before God's holy law. And he worked righteousness. He kept God's law perfectly. He loved God with all of his
heart, and he loved his neighbor as himself. He did no sin. He knew no sin. In him was no
sin. He worked righteousness. He said
this about himself. I do always those things that
please the Father. He could say to his detractors,
which of you can convince me of sin? How easy would it be
for you to convince me of sin? To convict me? Oh, you'll be
around me five minutes and you'll come up with something real quick.
But he could look at his detractors and say, you can't even convince
me of ever committing a sin. He worketh righteousness. And look what it says in verse
two. And he speaketh the truth in his heart. He never lied. He's not like me and you. He
never lied to God. He never lied to himself. He
spoke the truth in his heart. He said, you've not known him,
but I know him. He said this to the Pharisees,
you've not known him, but I know him. If I should say I know him
not, I should be a liar like you. I love the way the Lord
talks to people. But I know him and keep his saying
in his heart. He spoke the truth because He
is the truth. You see, He said, I came to bear witness to the
truth. And His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension,
His seated at the right hand of the Father, His return, that's
the truth. You want to know the truth concerning
who God is? All you're ever going to know of God is Jesus Christ
the Lord. You want to know the truth about
yourself? You want to know what you're really like? You look
to the cross and you see where God took his hand away and let
men do what they wanted to do. They nailed his son to a cross. That's truth about you. That's
what you would do. You want to know the truth about
salvation? He is salvation. He is salvation. And he spoke
the truth in his heart, in his mind, in his affections, in his
will. He spoke the truth in his heart. Look what verse three says. He
that backbiteth not with his tongue. Now that word is slander. Search out. Spy out with a view
to expose. He doesn't slander. Now, this
is true in a couple of ways. First, he didn't come to condemn me.
Y'all already were condemned. I already was condemned. He came
to save. He doesn't need to slander anybody.
And as far as that goes, when the devil seeks to slander his
people, he doesn't hear it. He's not
going to slander his people. He's going to tell the truth
about his people. He's going to say, I and the children which
God has given me, both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified
are all of one for the witch cause. He's not ashamed to call
them brethren. He's going to own me as one of
his. He's not going to slander me. He's not going to expose
me. You see, he doesn't expose. He
covers sin. He doesn't expose any of his
people. Wouldn't it be horrible if your
sin was exposed to everybody? The fact of the matter is, if
you're a believer, you don't have any sin to expose. He does
not backbite. He doesn't seek to slander. He
doesn't seek to expose. You know, if you love somebody,
you don't want them exposed, do you? You want their sin covered. And
that's what he does with his people. He's no backbiter. He's
no slanderer. He's not seeking to expose. He that backbites not with his
tongue, nor doeth evil. to his neighbor. He only did
good. He truly is the good Samaritan. He doesn't take up a reproach,
verse 3, against his neighbor. He doesn't receive a reproach
or a disgrace, defame against his neighbor. As a matter of
fact, when someone says something about his people, you know what
he says? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
God to justify them. Don't you talk about them that
way. They're perfect in my sight. Who is he that can condemn? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather than risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God. He will not take up a reproach
against his people. Verse 4, in whose eyes a vile
person is condemned or disesteemed. That vile person who hates God,
who hates his gospel, who refuses to believe, he sees them for
what they are. He doesn't say, well, they're
believers. No, it really bothers me when people, when somebody
rejects the gospel, doesn't believe the gospel, people want to maintain
that they're believers, they just haven't been instructed
well enough. No! He contends, he disesteems
a vile person, that person who does not believe the gospel.
Now, people under the guise of love, they act like, well, charity
is going to look at them in the most positive light. Not if you
don't believe the gospel. He that justifies the wicked
and he that condemns the just are both alike an abomination
to the Lord. He condemns, he condemns, he
disesteems that vile person. Oh, but he honors those in whose
a vile person is condemned. He honoreth them that fear the
Lord. He honors them. He sets high
honor. He sets high value upon them.
He looks at them as altogether lovely, the excellence of the
earth. He looks at me as sinful as I
am in and of myself, and he honors me. He heaps upon me abundant
honor. He's one of my children. Now
this is our Lord. No man may honor me, but he does.
What a blessing that is. He honors them that fear the
Lord. Then it says in verse four, he
that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. The most obvious example, this
is the cross. If he would have kept his mouth
shut, he wouldn't be nailed to that cross. But he knew what
it was going to cost him. But he did it anyway. He remained
true to his word. He swore to his own hurt. But look at what a blessing that
was to his people. And change is not, verse 5, he
that putteth not out his money to usury. Now, usury is interest. He puts out the person who charges
usury, he charges entry. I'm doing this in order to get
something out of it, in order to gain something from it. But
you know, the Lord, everything he gives is absolutely free. He never charges usury. Freely
you've received, freely. You know, I love what the Lord
said to that poor woman at the well. He said, if you knew the
gift The absolute free gift of God. And who it was that says,
did he give me to drink? You know what you'd have done?
You'd have asked. And you know what he would have
done? He would have given this living
water. Everything He gives is absolutely
free. No strings attached. There's
nothing you need to do in order to earn it or merit it. This
is not a performance-based thing in any way. It's free! He never does you free. Aren't you glad the Lord doesn't
do that? Nor taketh reward against the
innocent. He doesn't take bribes. You can't
bribe him. You can't make certain silly
promises that you'll do if he does this to get this. No, he
takes not reward against the innocent. He that doeth these
things shall never be moved. Now, isn't that a beautiful Picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious Savior He is. Now that description I've just
given of Him is the life of every believer. That's my, that beautiful
life is my life before God. So I can boldly come into God's
presence with nothing to be ashamed of because this is me. This is
me. If it's His righteousness, it's
my righteousness. Their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord. Oh, I'm so thankful for him. Now, this also describes the
believer. Let's look at it in that light.
Verse one. Lord, who shall abide in thy
tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly. Now, understand this. The righteousness of Christ is
imputed to the believer so that his life is their life before
God. And it's equally true that every
believer is given a holy nature. That which is born of God doth
not sin. It's a holy nature. And this is one of those things
that I think are just so mysterious because I, in and of myself,
I sure don't feel holy. I don't feel holy. But thank
God, if I'm a believer, I do have a holy nature. And it's
the holy nature that sees my sinfulness. The reason I understand
that I have two natures and a sinful nature is because I've got a
holy nature that sees that. And this holy nature is the nature
that walks uprightly. And it's the walk of faith. The
walk of faith is an upright walk. It walks uprightly before God
in sincerity and integrity. The walk of faith is an upright
walk. It says he worketh righteousness. You see, faith worketh by love. Doesn't the scripture say that
in Galatians 5, 6? Faith worketh by love. Love to God has works,
and these are the works of the new nature. We read of the work
of faith and the labor of love, and what I thought about I thought
about that woman who took that precious box of
ointment and broke it. And somehow she knew that the
Lord was going to die because the Lord said, she's prepared
this for my body for the burying. But she took that precious box
worth a year's wages and she broke it and she poured it on
the feet of the Lord. in gratefulness. And the disciples,
what I think is so interesting about this is the disciples criticized
her. They didn't think it was a good work. They thought it
was a waste of money. But the Lord says, why trouble you, the
woman? She hath wrought a good work
upon me. Are you going to tell me that's
not a work of righteousness? It's the Lord's righteousness. It's
the new nature. But see, that which is born of
God, how can that which is born of God sin? It can't. Now, you can't see the sinlessness
in the sense that wherever you got the new nature, you got the
old nature funneled into one person. And so that's always
there. But the new nature worketh righteousness. The scripture says in 1 John
2, he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He worketh righteousness. And
let me say another thing about this working of righteousness.
If anybody's thinking, man, I look pretty good here. You've missed
it all together. Remember those fellows in Matthew
25 where The Lord said, I was hungry,
you came to me. I was thirsty, you gave me a
drink. I was sick, you visited me. We didn't know we did it. But they did. But they did. Inasmuch as you did it to the
least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. Verse 2, the
believer speaks the truth in his heart. He's honest before
God. He speaks the truth. In his heart,
in his understanding, it's deep. It's not just the outward audible
words. The truth is spoken in his heart,
where he loves the truth, where he wills the truth. That's what
he wants, where he understands the truth, the truth concerning
who he is. He's honest before God, the truth
concerning who God is, the truth concerning Christ. He speaks
the truth in his heart. Oh, he loves I've got to have
the truth, and I've got to have it in my heart. Thy word is truth. And then it says in verse 3,
He backbiteth not with his tongue. Now, what's that a reference
to? Have you ever spoke ill of somebody? Sure you have. It's wrong. It's wrong every time you do
it. But what this is a reference to, backbiting with your tongue,
is seeking to expose your neighbor. Now, I don't want to expose my
neighbor for two reasons. First, because for me to do so
would be an act of hypocrisy, because I'm worse than my neighbor. I really am. And if I expose
you, I'm guilty outwardly and inwardly of worse than what you've
done. And that's the way a believer
feels. So I don't want to do that. I don't want to expose
my neighbor. That's what that backbiting has to do with it,
exposing against somebody they love. He knows
he's worse. And secondly, he doesn't want
to do it because love covers a multitude of sins. If I love
you, I don't want to expose you. I want all your sins to be covered. And I don't want to bring them
up to anybody if I love you. He doesn't backbite. This is
what real love is. The love of God in the heart
of a person. It makes them actually love people
where they don't want to expose their neighbor. He does no evil
to his neighbor. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.
Love is the fulfilling of the law. It says, nor taketh up a
reproach against his neighbor. He doesn't take a bad report. A reproach is a disgrace. Now,
if I love you and somebody brings you bad news, a bad thing about
you, you know what I'm going to do? I'm getting mad at that
person and I'm not going to listen to it. I'm going to reject it. If I love that person, I don't
want to hear that. Even if it's true, I don't want
to hear it if I love you. I'd rather not know about it. But
this is how a believer feels toward everybody he loves. He's
not going to take a bad report that somebody brings concerning
that person because he loves that person. Verse four, in whose eyes a vile
person is contemned, he disesteems that person who hates the Lord.
He doesn't call him a brother. That person who does not love
the Lord, he does not call that person a brother. I think of
what David said. He said, Do not I hate them that hate thee?
I count them my enemies. I hate them with a perfect hatred.
Now, this is not fleshly hatred. You know that. It's a regard
with loving the Lord. If you love the Lord, you hate
those people that hate him, that seek to bring him down. Now,
you love all men in a very real sense. You want them all to know
the Lord. But when somebody tells lies about the Lord, they're
not your friend. You disesteem that vile person. But he honoreth them that fear
the Lord. Everybody who loves the Lord
Jesus Christ, I honor them. They are high in my esteem. Every believer feels this way. He that sweareth to his own hurt,
verse 4, and changeth not. This has to do with confessing
Christ. All of God's people are martyrs. Every single one of
them. By the grace of God, they'll
die for the truth. And they can't be bought. They
can't be bought. Because they, well, for one thing,
you don't have anything that's worth it to buy from. What they
have, if Christ is all, what could you pay for that? They
cannot be bought. They're willing to die for the
truth no matter what it costs them. They confess Christ. He
that swears to his own hurt and changes not, he that putteth
not out his money, to usury, using people, oppressing people
for your own advantage. Nor taketh reward against the
innocent. Once again, that's about being
bribed. You don't have anything valuable
enough to bribe a believer. It can't be done. Nor taketh reward against the
innocent. He that doeth these things shall
never be moved. If the Lord has done something
for me, and my hope is what he's done for me, if the Lord has
done something for me, he's done something in me. And the evidence
that he's done something for me is that he's done something
in me. Now, here's the scriptural definition
of what I'm trying to say. Paul said in Colossians 127,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now the ground
of my hope is what Christ did for me. That's the only ground
of my hope, what Christ did for me. That He died for me, paid
for my sins, that He kept the law for me, that He was raised
for me, that He sits at the right hand of the Father for me. That's
the ground of my hope. I don't get confidence from His
work in me, but His work for me. And what is the evidence
that He has done a work for me? Christ in me. the hope of glory. And this is a beautiful description
of Christ in a man. It's a description of Christ,
and it's a description of Christ in you. Now, who will be in heaven? Only the person in Psalm 15. That's it. Oh, that I might be
found in him. Let's pray together.