Sermon(Ps 15): The Life of God's People

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025251853

 

 

>> 1 O Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tent? Who shall dwell on thy holy hill? 2 He who walks blamelessly, and does what is right, and speaks truth from his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor; 4 in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 who does not put out his money at interest, and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. (Ps 15) <<

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What does the Old Testament mean for the New Testament? Is it right to say that all the people of God in the period of Old Testament must have gone to hell, in accordance with the New Testament's words, "You'll be saved only if you believe in Jesus"? Really I've seen a Christian who says so. No, they didn't go to hell. Salvation is given in a relationship with God. If God forgives your sins and acknowledges you as righteous, you have salvation and eternal life. There was the system of forgiveness and justification based on the law in the time of O.T. (Old Testament) while in the time of N.T. (New Testament), based on the gospel, that is, based on the merits of Jesus' crucifixion and on our faith.

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Salvation is a great gift of the Triune God that he gives us in our intimate relationship with him. It is unimaginable that the God of mercy would disregard all past intimate relationships with someone and send him to hell because he (for some reason) was not pardoned for breaking a clause of the law. God sees more attentively humans' lovely side than their faults, and keeps his mind on their praises and thanks to him more than their trivial sins. In the days of O.T. also, God the Son, together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, was dealing with humans. Do you think that God the Son who was very stern in the O.T. suddenly became an infinitely merciful God in the N.T.? It's wrong. God the Son was no less merciful in the time of O.T. than in the time of N.T. Is God the Father a strict God, and God the Son an infinitely merciful God? It's wrong. God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit have the same divine nature. Above all, God the Father loved humans and gave his only begotten Son, God the Son, to them for the redemptive sacrifice. There is no difference in the three Persons' love and mercy for humans. I don't think that the doctrine of forgiveness of sins in the O.T. is stricter than the gospel of N.T. The salvation in the N.T. is personal so that man is saved by his faith and right religious life, while the salvation in the O.T. was collective. So Israelites set a day every year for Atonement Day, when they all confessed their sins and was cleansed of sins. In home, the father could decide whether the vow one of his family had made to God ought to be kept or not. Therefore an Israelite was living under God's promise of salvation unless he was not a wicked sinner, if he was in the religious community of Israel or, as one of God's people, lived in a house where the leader of the house believed in God. So an Israelite in Israel or in an Israelite family, unless God forsook the whole Israel or the whole family, had eternal life even though he didn't confess his sins thanks to lack of memory and was not forgiven the sins. Those who were living in Israel were saved by God because they were God's possession and God was their God.

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Today's biblical text tells of the qualifications of God's people for eternal life. In the times of N.T., the emphasis on faith tends to neglect the practice of faith too much. The above words of God are the essential virtues of our faith even in the age of grace. David tells us briefly and clearly who can sojourn in God's tent and dwell on God's holy hill.

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1. The people of God keep away from falsehood. "He walks blamelessly, does what is right, and speaks truth from his heart. (v. 2)" only sons of Devil tell lies. A man of falsehood looks frivolous, and a woman of falsehood looks selfish. God wants Christians to be honest. God is glorified when Christians are honest. The people of the world belittle the church and the God when Christians like to tell lies. We must give thanks and praises to God with honest heart. A man of honest heart has a clean conscience and can live confidently. A man of falsehood is foolish. The tongue of falsehood makes the whole body dirty. A false tongue always pierces one's conscience and puts him to shame. The life of him who likes lies nullifies all his thanks and praises to God. It makes God disgusted.

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2. The people of God do not harm their neighbors. "He does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor. (v. 3)" Do not walk around slandering others with false tongue. If other Christians walk in the religiously false path, first you have to admonish them personally. If those who harm society and religious community refuse to follow your advice, they must be punished according to due legal process. You should not tell scandalous things about someone publicly if possible, even when they are facts. Covering up his faults, you should first instruct him and correct his behavior. So it will be a serious sin if you slander others with lies. People of God do not harm their neighbors when they have power, nor defame their neighbors.

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Instead of such a bad deed, there is a good conduct Christians must do. "Love is patient and kind; ... it is not rude ; ... it is not resentful; ... it does not rejoice at wrong. ... (1 Cor 4-7)" He who loves God does not tell a lie. He does not speak words injurious to the neighbors. He who knows God, and who is clearly seeing God with the eyes of faith hates to lie and to hurt the neighbors. He who loves God and lives in the Holy Spirit can hardly stand even the trace of falsehood in his mind. What a Christian filled with the Holy Spirit hates more than death is to lie deliberately for his own benefit. He who loves God and is filled with the Holy Spirit even has a little repulsive feelings about a white lie, not to mention a malicious lie. He who loves God inevitably loves his neighbors and never does anything harmful to them, because love makes him feel happy when he sees others live successfully, healthily, happily and safely. Sometimes love makes you bless a passing dog.

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3. God's people despise those who despise God, and honor those who fear him. We who are saved thanks to God's grace should take this attitude for God curses him who curses us, and blesses him who blesses us. "I (God) will bless those who bless you (Abraham), and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. (Gen 12:3)" It is natural for a woman loved by her husband to despise those who insult her husband, and to respect those who are friendly to him. But some strange women speak ill of their husband in front of others when they are well-off with the money their husband earned in pain. It is ungratefulness itself. My brethren, do not dearly honor those who belittle Jesus and utter abusive words against God. My brethren, do not behave rashly on those who fear God, especially on God's servants. The clergy are no exception in this regard. I saw a pastor before who grabbed the hair of an elder (a presbyter), the pastor's friend, for fun. The pastor shouldn't have done so! The high lay position also is a divine office that God established. It must be respected. We must despise him who despises God and honor him who fears God if we love God and want to receive the blessing of eternal life from him, and if we know that God is friendly to him who is friendly to us and punishes him who hurts us. This is the right faith.

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Therefore, if we love God, we must refrain from rash and profane words, because man speaking such words does not regard God's dignity. A rash oath belongs to the rash words. "My God, I'll give you ...; I'll do ....; I'll do ... if you grant my wish." Some Christians make such promises one-sidedly to God when God hasn't required them, and they ignore the promises. That's not what the O.T. says about the right faith. The above text says strictly, "He swears to his own hurt and does not change." These days, usually vows to God are made when collective commitment is needed. For example, Christians vow to give money to the church when it plans to build a new chapel. However, some Christians, in a rigid atmosphere, make an oath to offer much money that they can't afford. In this case, both those who create such a coercive atmosphere and those who falsely swear beyond their ability are wrong. Some Christians have their family destroyed after they stood surety for church's debt when the church was constructing a chapel. (Some Christian couples divorce over the matter.) The excessive desire to build a big church building and to expand the church as large as possible must really be abandoned now. Reckless valor, impatience and greed that will bear bad fruits appear where humility and full trust in God disappear. Good fruits are glory of God, but bad fruits are not. But if you have made an oath to God, you must accomplish it even if it causes a loss to you. Nevertheless, I think that God does not want the fulfillment of the promise that would result in the breakdown of the home economy and the downfall of the family. (Of course, sometimes God will punish the defaulter of the vow. But he will forgive his sin after the punishment. Forgiveness means restoration of the relation to God here.) In the case of Jephthah, a judge, he offered his daughter as a burnt offering to God. God didn't stop his deed, because God, by this incident, wanted to warn the future generations that believers should not rashly swear to God. I think the failure of one's word rashly spoken to God could be forgiven by God. God's people should not swear if possible; if they swear, they must keep the promises; if they fails to keep the promises owing to unavoidable circumstances, they should pray God to forgive them.

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Adding some words about oath, the daughter of Jephthah was not obligated to be a burnt offering and to die as her father had sworn to God. The swear Jephthah had made to God recklessly and impertinently that he would offer another's life to God was absolutely ineffective, because his daughter had no obligation to offer herself as a burnt offering to God by an oath made unilaterally by another person. Am I wrong? The good daughter sacrificed herself so that her father might not be severely punished because of his reckless oath, and that the future generations might know the harmful results of the reckless oath. God will not think you to be guiltless if you make a foolish oath like Jephthah. You'll never be punished if you are always humble before God.

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4. God's people make a living by working faithfully. "He does not put out his money at interest, and does not take a bribe against the innocent. (v. 5)" The Old Testament warns us of usury and bribe. This means that we should work faithfully, thank God for the produce of the work, and live within our wealth. This must be the life that God is really pleased with. In God's sight, usury and bribe are as good as theft. These days, the wicked economic activities prevalent in Korea are real estate speculation, stock price manipulation and issuing of fictitious checks. It is deplorable that even Christians take part in that dirty theft. Would it be nice to build churches and to give pay to pastors with the money earned by the theft? How much will the Devil laugh then? If you have bought a piece of land not on speculation, and if the land price soars, it's not your blame. But it is not right to purchase real estate in expectation of the profit by the rise in price. Nowadays the servants of God have neglected to teach the saints to work faithfully and to earn money honestly. God forbade Israelites to receive interest on a loan and to give and take bribe among them, by which he emphasizes the economic ethics of those who are rich. The rich should be considerate of the poor and help them live without difficulty. Today, you can receive a moderate and fair interest, but you should never practice usury.

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The above text is a poem where king David wrote what he felt and thought after he had experienced many people. David could wright such a poem because he was a man of such good personality as was described in the poem. Perhaps David, as a king, couldn't stand cunning and brutal men who liked to harm others. David thought God is the King of all the world. So he could understand God's mind toward humans. He knew that God had delight in those who had the good personality mentioned above, that God made them his people and blessed them.

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I pray that God be greatly honored by your just and honest life, and bless you abundantly.

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Chong Tack Kim

                                     - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -

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