Notes of an Address
This week we have been occupied with God’s covenant with Abraham and David and the house of Israel, and we have seen something of the greatness and sovereignty of God in His unconditional blessing to them on the basis of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary and His glorious resurrection from among the dead and the place that He now occupies at God’s right hand, and we have seen a little of God’s tremendous love, power and authority. I trust we have been impressed with the One who can plan and order and, with the utmost assurance, bring it to pass. The greatness of our God is seen in His unconditional blessing. But every conditional blessing breaks down because the flesh is incapable of responding positively to God in any way whatsoever. The flesh cannot please God, and no matter what conditional blessing God has indicated for man it has always broken down because of man’s evil nature and his desire to do his own will, but God in His greatness has indicated that there will be blessing, blessing to Abraham and his seed, blessing to David and his seed, and blessing to the house of Israel. We were not speaking particularly about the blessing that belongs to the church, but we can add this unconditional blessing that belongs to the church in Christ Jesus also. Tonight, I thought it might be profitable to consider for a little while the practical matters that are consistent with the blessing that we have received. It is always good to have a balance, not only to live in the good of objective truth, but also to live consistently with it, in other words, not only to enjoy the unconditional blessing but to make sure in practice, day by day, we live in such a way as to indicate that we appreciate and value it and also to respond to God in faithfulness. This is very, very important. Let us turn to Psalm 15.
“A Psalm of David. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” (v. 1)
Let us write across this verse, ‘the holy presence of God’, and let us ask the question that the psalmist asked, ‘Who shall abide in that holy presence?’ If it were possible for each of us tonight to be taken into the holy presence of God, how would we feel? Is not that a good question? If each of us had the opportunity, the privilege, the honour of being placed in the immediate presence of the holy God how would we feel? Would we be concerned about our outward appearance, remembering that everything is open to the eye of God? Would we be concerned about God’s omniscience, His knowing everything, His looking into our hearts and minds, and taking account of our motives? He knows us through and through. Dear friends, how would we feel? If we think of the blessing that we have and our position in Christ, that we are perfect and sheltered in the Beloved, then we will have no worries, but if we take account of ourselves practically, we might feel different. I have felt for a long, long time, dear friends, that perhaps this is one of the most important things that each of us has to consider, our standing before God in practice and faithfulness. Our standing before God in Christ can never be altered, broken or destroyed, we stand “in Christ” because of God’s love for us, but the New Testament presents many Scriptures instructing us as to our walk and faithfulness. This is very, very challenging. Let us go down this psalm and challenge our hearts as to how we are walking before God.
“He that walketh uprightly …” (v. 2a)
Verse 2 challenges us as to our walk, our work and our words. Firstly, I want to speak about our walk. To do this it is vital to first contemplate the walk of Christ, for there we see a Man in this world walking in perfection. There was not a single thing wrong with what He said or did or thought. He said “I do always the things that please the Father” (John 8:29). John tells us to “walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6), and this is the standard of the Christian’s walk. Surely, we have every encouragement to do this. We have “the Spirit of the Lord” (Acts 5:9), “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7, J.N.D.), “the Spirit of his Son” (Gal. 4:6), “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19) and the “Spirit of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:11) and these indicate to me that the Holy Spirit is able to produce in us features that were first seen in Him. Indeed, He is the only One who can do this, and we are indwelt by Him. As I take account of this company I can see features of Christ, thank God for them, but I am sure every one of us would admit and desire that we would have them developed deeper and fuller, that the feelings that we have towards Christ, and the features that are somewhat like Christ in us, should be enlarged.
Firstly, the kind of person who can be in the presence of a holy God is a person who walks uprightly. Every book in the New Testament, with its blessings, demands a corresponding walk. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, after cataloguing the sins and departure from God in the first three chapters, said later on, that we should “walk in newness of life” (6:4) because our offences and sins are gone, and we are now blessed in Christ. We should not live the kind of life we lived before we were converted, which would be absolutely wrong and a denial of the truth of salvation, rather we are to walk in newness of life. Thank God we have the power to do it.
When we come to the Epistle to the Galatians we are told in chapter 5:16 to “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh”. Peter’s actions that are mentioned in Galatians show that he was not walking uprightly. If this happened today people would say, ‘Paul, what a fuss you are making about Peter eating a meal with the Gentiles or sometimes with the Jews to the exclusion of the Gentiles’, but Paul said, ‘He is not walking according to the truth of the gospel’. Very often it is the little things in our lives that indicate where our desires lie, whether we have a desire to do what is right or to please ourselves. When it comes to daily living we are all confronted with the flesh, it is an evil, powerful force and we all have it, and there is only one power that is able to overcome it, the power of the Holy Spirit. What a delightful thing it is to know that that power is operating in us through our subjection to the word of God and our willingness to be led by the Holy Spirit just as the Lord Himself was when He was here in this world. In the Spirit’s power we can overcome the features of the flesh.
In the Epistle to the Ephesians Paul unfolds the tremendous scope of blessing presented to us sovereignly by God through Christ and in the Spirit’s power, and so, says Paul, “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (4:1). As members of the body of Christ, belonging to the habitation of God in the Spirit, adopted into this wonderful place of nearness and dignity, accepted in the Beloved (and we could go on and on and on through a tremendous list of blessings), we ought to walk worthy of that vocation wherewith we are called. Is not that far more testing than any standard we can make for ourselves. We can feel quite proud if we have attained to our standard, but it is more demanding to think of the height of the blessings that God has brought us into and to realise that we cannot attain to them except as we have a power outside of ourselves, that being the power of the Holy Spirit. Strictly speaking I should not say ‘outside of ourselves’ because He is in us to help us day by day. I am sure we have often seen pictures of the queen or some dignitary inspecting some troops and they are all standing to attention and everything about their appearance is perfect, why? because the sovereign is there, things have to meet the eye of the sovereign. It does not matter if each individual is happy about what he does, what matters is what the sovereign thinks and that is what it means to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called”, it is God who has called us, it is God who has blessed us and we are to walk consistently with that.
In the Epistle to the Colossians Paul, in order to combat the evil that was coming in there, presented the greatness of Christ. The philosophers were saying, ‘It is all right for you to be Christians but why not add a little of man’s intellect, man’s philosophy; it is very good, very cultured and intellectual, and so it will improve your Christianity’. ‘No’ said Paul, “Ye are complete in Him”. And if that is so, then obviously we need nothing from anybody else. Everything we have is in Christ and so Paul said we are to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” (1:10). That again is the standard, the greatness of Christ, it is not my standard, your standard, any traditional standard or anything else that man might suggest. Although this might be good in one sense, the standard we have is much higher than these, the standard is the Lord, and God does not lower His standard for anyone, He does not bend standards to suit conditions, He always maintains His standard. The Lord Jesus never lowered the standard of conduct in His life, He always maintained what was the height of God’s desire and will, His great desire in coming into the world was to do the will of God, and how well He did it, He never deviated but was obedient and faithful in spite of all that was against Him, and so we are to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing”.
When Paul and his companions were at Thessalonica he preached unto them that there was another King coming (Acts 17:7). Obviously, he had spoken to them about the coming Kingdom and that brought him and his companions into conflict with the authorities, they though he was saying ‘There is a king coming who will be in conflict with Caesar’, but no, he was saying, ‘There is a coming Kingdom when Christ will take control of the whole world’. Paul indicated this in many parts of his preaching. When the Thessalonians believed this they enjoyed this thought that they were going to be part of that Kingdom and Paul enlarged upon this when he wrote to them to encourage them in the suffering they were passing through, and he said, “would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:12). Dear friends, the height of the Christian’s walk is not any man-made standard, it is a God-made standard, it is the Lord Himself, and people who walk in this way without a shadow of a doubt would be quite happy in the presence of a Holy God, there would be nothing incongruous in their life that would make them afraid, they would be quite happy, conscious that what they were doing was pleasing to God. Just as the heavens were opened on the Son of God when He was here in humble Manhood, so in some little measure His pleasure is expressed when He sees men and women, boys and girls, under the influence of the power of the blessings that they have walking here for God’s glory and praise. How pleasing to heaven to see features of Christ produced in us, walking uprightly.
We have not time, but I make this suggestion to you just to go through the book of Proverbs and see the features that attach to those who are upright, features that are well pleasing to God.
“… and worketh righteousness …” (v. 2b)
The Lord Jesus Christ “loved righteousness, and hated iniquity” (Heb. 1:9). In Proverbs 10 we find many, many features that attach to a righteous man and this too is a good study. Those who work righteousness can also enter into the presence of a holy God without any fear of being repelled. A great deal of stress is placed upon working in the New Testament, not to obtain salvation, but working as a result of salvation. The Epistle to Titus especially is an epistle of good works, from beginning to end there is an emphasis upon them, and at the end Paul says be “zealous of good works” (2:14). We should be really concerned about producing something good that is pleasing to God. The man who is mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:1 who “desires the work (not the office) of a bishop”, caring in righteousness for the saints, being unbiased and impartial, only concerned about what pleases God and what is according to truth, able to present the truth of God with bearing upon any situation either individually or collectively because he has a deep concern for the flock, is not governed by any other motive. A Christian should be governed by the truth, not popularity, and those who exercise any form of shepherding amongst the people of God have to be marked by this, the working of righteousness, bringing the truth of God to bear upon any particular matter. So this matter of working in righteousness to please the heart of God and to bring benefit to those concerned is a tremendously important matter.
“… and speaketh the truth in his heart.” (v. 2c)
What a need there is to speak the truth and not to be double tongued, to exaggerate, to tell lies or to misrepresent people. We are to speak the truth as it is known without any shadow of doubt, we are not to give any one side of any particular problem but rather to present the whole truth. In the book of Deuteronomy it says specifically that an investigation must be given to a certain matter to discover what the truth is before any judgment is passed (13:13). Whether individually or collectively this is most essential in the Christian testimony. To enter the holy presence of God with a clear conscience I must first ask myself ‘Have I lied about anyone, have I misrepresented anyone, have I exaggerated in any particular matter to make glory for myself? have I in any way been double-tongued, have I in any way spoken a ‘half-truth’ so that the people might believe the part that is not true?’ If I have I would not feel happy in the presence of a holy God, but if I speak the truth in my heart then I can stand in the presence of a holy God without any fear of feeling out of place. Again, I want to draw your attention to Proverbs 10, “The mouth of a righteous man is a fountain of life” (v. 11). That is a beautiful expression! Someone speaking from their heart like that brings refreshment and life. Then further in verse 20, “The tongue of the righteous man is as choice silver”, that is, something valuable, something that enriches, something to engage the soul with the great blessing of redemption in all its fullness.
Silver is also the well-known emblem of redemption. It is good to have ‘a silver tongue’, not a suave tongue that speaks in such a way as to create glory for oneself, but a silvery tongue that presents the greatness of Christ in redemption and all that He has secured for us. Then in verse 21 it says “The lips of a righteous man feed many”. Good, solid, spiritual food comes from the utterances of a righteous man, a man who speaks the truth from his heart without any bias, and is able to feed many. Thank God we have known such men and women who, in a few sentences, have been able to give us some spiritual food that has encouraged us in the way pleasing to the Lord. Lastly it says, in verse 31, “The mouth of a righteous man putteth forth wisdom”. One of the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 is the gift of wisdom, and that gift is especially concerned with the local company. This does not speak of a tremendous mass of knowledge that brings some glory to the person concerned, but rather the gift of being able to say the wise thing, to meet whatever is necessary—that is very, very valuable. Paul was a wise man, Timothy was a wise man, their tongues fed the saints with good, strong spiritual food that was able to help and encourage them. Then lastly in verse 32 “The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable”. Lies, exaggerations and misrepresentations are quite unacceptable to God, but the tongue of the righteous man he speaks what is acceptable to God and certainly acceptable to the saints.
So in this second verse we have walking, and working and ‘wording’, and they certainly are very valuable features in this matter of standing in the presence of a holy God. This is the whole object in writing this psalm. With God being omniscient and knowing us through and through it is a wonder He goes on with us. He knows our wills, our desires and what we do even when we are in private when no human eyes see us. At such times we might feel we have a certain amount of leniency, but we have not, not so far as the eye of God is concerned. In Psalm 139 the psalmist says, “Whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Not one of us can, we are always under the eye of God.
“He that backbiteth [or ‘slandereth’] not with his tongue …” (v. 3a)
Whereas there are three positive things in verse 2, there are three negative things in verse 3. I am not going to speak about these things in any detail, but yet they are very, very important, and again in the book of Proverbs there are important references to slander and the kind of thing it creates amongst the people of God. Paul said “by evil report and good report” (2 Cor. 6:8). Obviously, the apostle knew what it was to be slandered. The Lord Jesus knew what it was to be slandered and many saints of God down through the ages have been slandered. What an awful thing when anyone uses their tongue to deliberately and wilfully misrepresent anyone and yet, unfortunately, it is done. So we are warned here that that kind of thing is of no use whatsoever for the presence of a holy God. When Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses Scripture says “And the Lord heard” (Num. 12:2). What a challenge! Every word that we speak the Lord knows about. That should be a guard that we might use our tongue in the right way, not in a wrong way as this word says. The person who is in the presence of God does not do it.
“… nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.” (v. 3b)
How should we act towards our neighbours, the ones who are near to us, maybe unconverted, maybe awkward too? The parable of the good Samaritan gives the answer. I know we spiritualise the parable in many ways and we have a perfect right to do so, but let us remember that when the Lord Jesus spoke that parable He was indicating to the disciples what it was to show mercy to their neighbours, “Go and do thou likewise”. That is the real point of the parable, however much we spiritualise it. Oh, dear friends, what a tremendous thing then to have in our hearts a desire for the blessing of our neighbours, whether it be in praying for them, or making sure that we do not do or say anything that is beneath the walk of the Christian, or showing compassion towards them, being ready to help on any occasion. That is the kind if person who does not do evil to his neighbour, that is the kind of person who can stand in the presence of a holy God. The nation of Israel was warned, ‘Do not ever be hard against those who are servants or bondslaves, remember that you also were bondslaves in Egypt’. God reminded them of what they once were and what God had been to them and what they ought to be towards others. Surely if we have obtained mercy we ought to be concerned about our neighbours obtaining mercy and so we are to make sure that nothing in our lives hinders the flow of that.
“In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord.” (v. 4a)
Here we have good judgment. The kind of person who is standing in the presence of God is fearless in his condemnation of evil no matter where it may be found, and, on the other hand, ready to give honour where honour is due. Further, when he puts his hand to something and suddenly he finds that that is going to involve him in a great deal of difficulty and something that is not very pleasing to him, he does not change his mind. This man puts his heart to it in a very definite way as before the Lord. He does not change his mind. This requires a good impartial spiritual judgment.
We have an excellent example of this in John the Baptist. It is natural to the human heart that when we are in the presence of great people we might feel we want to flatter them in some way or other, but John the Baptist was not like that, he found evil in high places and in an uncompromising way he condemned it, and lost his life for it, he was not prepared to say that a great man was good when he was not good, he was prepared to say what was right and true. That is always a great difficulty, especially when other features are considered, such as business associates, social standing, special friends or natural relatives, all sorts of things come in to hinder a proper judgment about evil. A man who is prepared to condemn evil in himself first, unsparingly, and then wherever he finds it can stand in the presence of God. Sin cannot stand in the presence of God and so here is one who is upright and true and faithful and he condemns it.
On the other hand, it is equally difficult to give honour to whom honour is due. The apostle Paul is one of the most delightful characters in doing this. In Romans 16 he mentions a whole list of people, some very important ones like Timothy, Aquila and Priscilla and he gives them the honour that is due to them because of their faithfulness, but then he mentions many others who we would otherwise never have known. He speaks about men and women “in the Lord”, those who pleased the Lord, who worked for the Lord, very much like the commendation that we find in the book of Nehemiah concerning those who built the wall, there were those who built a piece, there were those who built two pieces, but there were also the nobles who did not put their shoulder to the work. But, oh, Paul was so ready to show his appreciation of those who were serving the Lord as he was. Of Phoebe he says, “she also has been a helper of many, and of myself” (v. 2), of Priscilla and Aquila, Paul says they were his “helpers in Christ Jesus: who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles”, and the assembly gathered at their house (vv. 3-5). Paul was always ready to give honour where honour was due. There was no envy, no competition, the Christian circle is one and if all are working for the glory of God and the glory of Christ then these people were worthy of honour in Paul’s mind. Is that true of us? Are we marked by any spirit of envy or competition? Let us honour those who are serving the Lord and wanting to glorify God and glorify Christ. That is a very, very good principle, “He honoureth them that fear the Lord”.
This matter of giving honour is much wider than even the Christian circle, Paul was a very considerate man when he was dealing with people in high places, he speaks of “King Agrippa” (Acts 25:13) and “Most noble Festus” (Acts 26:25). Luke also writing says “Most excellent Theophilus” (Luke 1:3). This is the courtesy that belongs to a Christian in dealing with people who are in position of office, in places of importance. It is right that we should give those courtesies, those honours that belong to a position, except one. I would not be free to refer to titles that those in high places in Christendom bear that Scripture does not give them, such as “most reverend”, “the Pope” or “moderator” or any title of that kind that does not belong to the Christian circle in the divine revelation, these are honours given by men in the Christian circle that have no place in the divine revelation. But in the world of men we should as Christians give those courtesies.
“… He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not” (v. 4b)
If I vow or swear before the Lord that I am going to do a certain thing, and then discover that by making this oath, by swearing in this way, I am going to be involved in a great deal of trouble, or if it would involve a great deal of expense, if I thought it would never happen, or if it might result in a great deal of unpopularity, and I might think to change my mind persuading myself that I did not really swear before the Lord in truth, then that is not right judgment, that kind of person is double-minded and selfish and the psalmist indicates here that a person who does that is not fit to stand in the presence of a holy God. So we have to be very careful when we make a decision before God that we do not change it simply to suit our own ends, that would be very wrong indeed, such a person would not be qualified to stand in the presence of a holy God.
“He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent …” (v. 5a)
In verse 5 we find another three things. In each of these verses there are three things mentioned, and here are the final three. Without going into any detailed explanation of this verse one can write over it very simply, ‘Uprightness or honesty in connection with financial matters’. It is very striking that in the Acts of the Apostles again and again we come across this matter of money. Ananias and Sapphira, husband and wife, were in collusion over money (5:1-10), a man thought that he would get some money from Peter (3:6), and there are many others. These examples put money in a very bad light in the way people deal with it, and this is what the psalmist says, ‘Such a person with a desire to obtain money is not fit to stand in the presence of a holy God’. We must be honest and upright before men and before God. This is very important in connection with Christian living.
“He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” (v. 5b)
A well-known protest song says, “We shall not be moved”, but when we find this expression in Scripture it has a different connotation altogether, it means that we will not be moved away from what is pleasing to God, that we are established in things that are pleasing to God, and that give Him glory, we are established in this desire to follow the pathway of Christ that is pleasing to our God and our Father.
Well, dear brethren, these are very, very simple things, but I do not need to tell you how challenging they are and how necessary they are in your life and in mine, day by day, if (and remember this is the governing statement in the psalm) we are going to stand in the presence of a holy God. That is the standard, not yours, not mine. Praise God we will shortly be in the presence of a holy God for all eternity, not because we have been faithful, but because the Lord Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20). God views us in Him now, at the present moment and so let us now in our responsible lives be true to this and stand in the presence of a holy God. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24-25). May we be encouraged for His name’s sake.