Psalm 15 | Summer of Psalms

elders for proper and right preaching.

Psalm 15 is where we continue now,

God's faithfulness to us,

living in the light of God's faithfulness.

And like I said last week as we started,

I'm looking at our three forms of unity,

which is again, the Belgic Confession,

the Heideberg Canachism, and the Canons of Dort,

of how those confessions

help us understand the words of the Psalms.

The Psalms can sit on their own, absolutely.

And again, all of our confessions are based on

the word of God, the infallible word of God.

And so, though in the Reformed tradition,

we lean on our confessions to help us understand,

it's all based on scripture.

And so, it is a right understanding.

By reading both, that is fantastic.

And so, each point is gonna be tied

to one of our confessions this summer,

or at least I'm going to try and do that in my study.

And so, one of the things that Psalm 15,

in talking about a God who is faithful,

is a God that reveals himself to us.

So, I'm gonna use an example from my life,

just because it's the easiest,

but I'm sure a lot of you can point to that.

For all of those that are married here,

or have been married, or looking forward to get married,

is the idea of communication.

One of the things that I talk about a lot

in premarital counseling is communication.

Because when there isn't communication,

Kyle and Maddie, what happens

when there's no communication in your marriage?

It doesn't go well, i.e. conflict.

All right, that communicating is a big deal.

And we're just gonna keep embarrassing you guys,

I'm just gonna use you as this,

since it's your wedding week.

So, is it a good thing to have your spouse to be,

just read your mind,

and you never communicate your thoughts and feelings?

No, right, that's a softball.

That part of it is communicating,

that if I get to a point with Carrie,

even though we've been together married 16 years,

been together 21,

and though we understand kind of how each other works

in life, we still need to communicate.

I don't care if you've been married longer than that.

Zichtermans, how many years have you been married?

71 years, do you still communicate?

Every day.

That is like gospel truth from the back.

It's when we don't communicate

that things are based on assumption or emotional reaction.

And that's never a good basis for communication.

Guess what?

We didn't come up with that on our own.

God shows us, God communicates His will to us.

And God is faithful in revealing His will for our lives.

And yes, that goes into communicating our deep dark secrets

or the inevitable question,

babe, what do you wanna do for dinner?

I know the answer I'm going to get,

but I still ask it anyway,

because I know ultimately I'll be ending up

making that decision.

But understanding that communicating,

seeking information from each other is a good thing.

Take it to the council room.

The new guys who just got their lot pulled,

they're gonna hopefully ask a lot of questions

because the best question is the one asked.

That when we don't know something,

we need to ask questions.

God operates the same way.

Psalm 15, verses one and two says,

"'O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent,

"'who shall dwell on your holy hill,

"'he who walks blameless and does what is right

"'and speak truth in his heart.'"

So God revealing to us not only His will,

but what His desire is for our lives, we ask Him.

The Psalmist starts by asking these questions.

Who are you bringing in to the fellowship

that is Christ followers or believers in God?

Who may live on that holy mountain?

The one whose walk is blameless,

who does what is righteous,

who speaks the truth from the heart.

So understanding that when we ask questions,

guess what, God answers.

God doesn't dangle carrots.

If you feel that way about your relationship with God,

that's not a God issue, that's a you issue.

That if you think God is just dangling

some kind of blessing or promise on the horizon,

you're not understanding the relationship

and intimacy with the Creator.

We talk about it all the time,

that one day we will see face to face

when we're in heaven.

One day we will see what that relation

with God fulfilled will be.

But on this side of the earth,

or on this side of eternity, we take it on faith.

We have faith that God is good

and will work all things for our good,

yet we don't like that because we want our good

defined by us, we don't get to do that.

That's defined by God himself.

And so we ask questions.

The Belgian Confession talks about this in Article Three.

The written word of God, we confess

that this word of God was not sent nor delivered

by human will, but that men and women

moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God, as Peter says.

Afterward, our God with special care for us

and our salvation commanded his servants,

the prophets, the apostles, you,

to commit this revealed word to writing.

God with his own finger wrote the two tablets of the law,

therefore we call such writings holy and divine scriptures.

So understanding that God's faithfulness

is evident in his revelation of himself and his will.

Go back on Mount Sinai and put yourself in Moses's shoes.

You've just led these people out of Egypt

through some crazy, awesome miracles and wonders.

You were pursued, right?

You had the fiery column come down,

and then to me, one of the greatest acts

in the Old Testament we see is the parting of the Red Sea.

And God is calling these people out for a reason.

And Moses goes up there to receive from the law.

Now put yourself in Moses's positions.

You have these tablets,

and on them are written 10 commandments.

If you're Moses and you're asking

to receive from the law, and you get 10 rules,

think about it, if you're Moses, how are you taking that?

Think about everything Moses had just done,

the self-doubt in the beginning,

Lord, I'm not a good speaker, I don't wanna go,

I'll bring you Aaron so he can help you, all of these things.

God has showed up time and time and time again,

and you ask God to speak to you, and he gives you 10 rules.

How are you thinking, or what are you thinking,

or how are you reacting to that if you're Moses?

It's a difficult question,

but God has showed up in some amazing ways.

I think for me, I'd be looking for something grand, right?

That maybe, I don't know, Mount Sinai would develop a mouth

and would speak or something,

that God would do something crazy,

but he's given 10 rules.

Think about it in your household,

maybe you have kids that can comprehend right and wrong

for the most part,

that isn't part of what you give them every day are rules.

If not, your house is probably chaotic,

or go backwards to what if God didn't give that?

What if God didn't give his people this kind of definition

of how you're supposed to live?

Understand, this was a people enslaved in Egypt.

They didn't know, they knew a little bit of their ancestors,

the verbal genealogy passed down in the history,

but understand, your life was a slave.

You didn't have your own free will.

You were told what to do, when to do it,

and when you didn't do it, you were punished

by the way that the Egyptians would punish you,

sometimes to death.

So doesn't it make sense that God would come in?

He's already defeated the 10 major gods of the Egyptians

with all of the 10 plagues,

and so God is already proving he is everything,

he is the source of everything,

he's revealed that time and time again,

that he's even lured over death, the final plague.

So doesn't it make sense that God gives us his law?

That he reveals who he is, why he is, what he is,

and who he is in those 10 commandments?

And I think what we can draw from that,

and you can bring it down to even an elementary level

for a kid, that God does not want us to hurt one another.

God does not want us to hurt ourselves.

You can't read those 10 commandments

and not have a good understanding of who God is.

Let's just go practically, okay?

Let me find someone to pick on, Speelman's, okay?

So when your kids were younger,

did you teach your kids to look both ways

before they crossed the street?

Good, okay, you've passed.

Why did you do that, Mary?

So they what?

By what?

A car, it's pretty elementary.

Look both ways, because if a car's coming,

don't step in front of it,

because you lose that battle 10 times out of 10, okay?

Let's go to Paul and Lois, right?

Let's just go Lois, you're the cook in the house, right?

And so when you're boiling water,

and young Steven would go up

and just wanna put his hand in it,

we'll just say he was 14,

understand, did you tell him not to do that?

I mean at 14 you might have just let him do it

and say, duh, no, but you would tell them not to do that,

right, why?

You didn't want him to get burned.

Is that not exactly what God did with the 10 commandments?

Hey, your desire, if you're Tom or Emily,

you're gonna wanna cross the street

without any awareness of cars.

So look both ways before you cross the street.

We go, well duh, pastor, what are you getting at?

We'll go to Steven, right?

Don't stick your hand in boiling water,

because it's gonna burn.

But there's an understanding as kids,

as we're developing, we don't know some of that stuff.

Now you may be able to tell me

you were endowed with all knowledge by three,

and I'm gonna call you a liar,

but understand that we have to learn these things

either from commands of our parents,

or by what?

Trial and error.

Now there are some things that as parents,

you allow your kids to learn that by trial and error.

Hopefully it's not crossing the street

or putting hand in boiling water.

Hopefully you got ahead of that, right,

and let them know that that's not the case.

Mom, you did a good job.

I was never hit by a car.

But it's not that I wanted to get hit by a car,

but in my understanding of what was,

I didn't understand at a young age

that a car hitting me would kill me,

or that me putting my hand in boiling water,

I would suffer greatly.

Because part of God's will for our lives

is to let us know who we really are.

And what do the 10 Commandments show us?

That we have active sin in our lives,

and we want to bend or break the rules.

You shall have no other gods.

Why is that?

Because we're gonna be prone to make gods

of everything in our life.

We're gonna be prone to worship and wander things

of the world because they give us instant gratification.

They give us carnal pleasure.

Don't carve for yourself anything.

Don't worship anything.

Why did God give that?

Because he knew we were prone to worship other things.

It's in our DNA to worship.

And he's talking to the Israelites who were in Egypt

who worshiped everything.

Everything had their own God.

And he's saying, no, it is me.

Worship me only.

I am a jealous God.

And some of you go, well, that's a bad quality for God.

Because we put a 2024 understanding of jealousy

on a timeless and everlasting God.

Eh, wrong.

Think about if you're in a relationship

and your significant other starts pining

or desiring somebody else.

If there's any part of you that goes, sure, all right,

you have a problem.

That's the beginning of adultery,

which is also a commandment not to do.

So part of God revealing himself to us

and his faithfulness to us is letting us know,

hey, you're gonna prone to worship other things.

You're gonna be prone to not rest in life

and go, go, go, rat race, rat race, rat race,

to earn the money or the prestige or the whatever.

You're gonna be prone to that, so don't do it.

You're gonna be prone to hate on your neighbor.

You're gonna be prone to murder.

You're gonna be prone to steal.

You're gonna be prone to covet.

You're gonna be prone to lie.

Reading the Ten Commandments, if we're really honest,

isn't a good look for us.

It's not a good look for the Christians.

Because the Ten Commandments was, keep on not doing this.

You're doing a great job, no.

It was, you shall not do this.

Oh, thank you God, right, big brother.

Tell me what to do in life.

The creator and sustainer of all things

has every right to tell us how to live our life.

Why?

Because he is our creator.

We are his creation.

And if any of you have any problem with that,

yes, yet you have given us the right to do this.

If you have given an instruction to a child,

a grandchild, a niece, a nephew, a kid in the nursery,

I don't care, then you've bought into that

and you're a hypocrite if you don't like God

doing that for you.

Because the commandments reveal to us what our nature is.

Wow, but Jim, I'm just exhausted by that.

Why is our nature so bad?

It's because sin is so bad.

Sin doesn't want a relationship with you,

sin just wants you to worship it and let it take over.

And that is revealed to us in the scriptures.

That's revealed to us in why God had us

read and learn the things in the good book.

So how can we apply this truth to our life?

How can we move into a deeper understanding

of what that is?

That we commit a regular time of reading

and meditating on scripture.

Wow, pastor, I tried to do the whole,

let's just read from Genesis to Revelation in a year,

and I make it about two months,

because then I get into Deuteronomy,

I get into Leviticus, and I get bored.

Well then, don't do it that way.

Go on the interwebs, there are many different ways

you can read the Bible that ties certain things

in the days, certain things in the law,

to the certain things in the historical books,

into the certain things in the Psalms.

Watch it all tie together and tell me

your mind doesn't get blown.

But sometimes meditating on scripture,

the word meditation is ingesting,

consuming God's word.

What do I mean?

Memorizing.

Memorizing God's word will add so much to your life,

I guarantee it.

Memorizing, and you don't have to memorize

the whole book of Genesis, right?

But memorize a certain set of scripture

that are go-tos for you when life gets tough.

When the anxiety monster creeps in,

when fear tries to take over,

when that sin, that lullaby goes,

hey, go do this, go do this,

you're not supposed to, but do it.

Have something to fight the spirit with.

We're taught to do that.

So commit regularly to reading

and to meditating on the scriptures.

So once we understand God's faithfulness

in revealing himself to us,

we have to understand God's faithfulness

of what that does to our hearts.

It transforms our heart, verses three and four.

Whose tongue utters no slander with his tongue,

or who does not slander with his tongue,

or does no evil to his neighbor,

nor takes up a reproach against a friend

in whose eyes a vile person is despised,

but who honors those who fear the Lord,

who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

So this is what happens when the word of God comes in

and starts to do a work in someone's heart.

It's one of the greatest aspects of being an elder,

is having either an adult or a child come

and profess their faith.

Whether it's a fifth grader to a 55 year old,

they're coming to faith in different ways.

God is doing a work in their heart.

He's setting up camp as John 1.1 tells us,

and he is changing things.

We call this in Reform lingo,

this is the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.

Right, that the Holy Spirit is now doing a new work

in your heart, giving you new eyes to see,

a new brain to think, a new heart to beat,

and hopefully hands and feet to go out.

The regeneration of the Spirit does a magnificent thing in us.

It makes you a Christian.

Even if you've grown up in the church all your life,

when you make it your own, in this church you become a member,

but you've taken that step of faith.

It's no longer about mom and dad,

though that's important and we stand on that.

You walk out as a believer.

Heideberg Catechism, Lord's Day 12, question answer 32.

Why are you called a Christian then?

Because by faith I am a member of Christ,

and so I share in this anointing,

or this regeneration, or this sanctification.

I am anointed to confess his name,

to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks,

to strive with a free conscience against sin

and the devil in this life,

and afterward to reign with Christ

over all creation and eternity.

Word Christian, little Christ, Heideberg Catechism,

what this teaches us is that because of faith

you are a member of Christ.

Therefore, how you live your life

will be an extension of what you believe.

If you think about someone in your life,

or maybe you're here today, and you have not done that,

the idea of becoming a Christian is

tainted with so much other junk that you're like,

I don't want to be a part of that,

because I see how the church works.

I see what the church has done in history.

I see what the church is doing now.

And I don't want any part of that.

I'm just gonna ask you to pause and understand

that you are following the world's definition

of what the church is.

You need to find that for yourself

as far as who God has called you to be.

Part of that is gifting.

Part of that is leadership.

Part of that is getting involved.

Part of that is being decisive.

Being discipled.

That for new believers, they go,

the reason why they don't get called to leadership

right away is because they don't understand it.

They need to grow deeper in it.

They need to be discipled by older believers

that have walked through things.

That's why new believers will never be on the slate

for elders and deacons.

Why?

Because the Bible tells us not to.

And if we believe that, we need to follow that.

But understanding that these,

what this kind of answer to the question really emphasizes

is that as God is doing a work in our life,

that we should be showing lives of gratitude,

showing our faith through good works.

The book of James.

It's exactly what we learned about

over the last couple months.

That God's faithfulness in our life is evident

by the transformative work of your heart and my heart.

That if you confess Jesus is Lord

and you believe that God raised him from the dead,

you are saved, but you can't say,

I also believe in this world religion.

Can't happen.

You can't serve two masters.

I can't say that I love God,

but I will do whatever I can to make a buck.

Remember, money isn't the root of all evil.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

Why?

Because that means you're putting money

on the throne of your life.

Money has become your God.

Education or intelligence or whatever can become God's.

Let's go back.

Why does God say don't worship anything else but me?

Because at the end of the day,

can money buy you eternity with God?

No.

Can fame or intellect or anything kind of get you there?

No, it can't.

It will oversell and under deliver every time.

God's faithfulness in transforming our hearts

means that we should be thankful.

And I know some of you don't like to be thankful

for anything because you wanna say

it's because of me that I do it.

I stand on my own ground.

I've made my own name.

And friend, I love you and I'm glad

that you're hardworking and tenacious

and all of those things,

but when it comes to eternity and salvation,

this might hurt, your name means nothing.

Christ's name over you means everything.

A life of submission.

Ooh, but we don't like that word.

We don't like that word because we liken it

to our little dumb dog Archie,

who doesn't seem to submit to anybody.

And I thought giving him the name after Archie designed,

this would be a lot easier.

But I think Archie's getting his laugh up in heaven

going you should not have named him that

because I held him on a pedestal

and he is a constant disappointment.

But understand that as dogs, right,

we want our dogs to submit to us.

And right now when I get all excited,

Archie, come on, come here, he runs into traffic.

So not only is he not submitting, he's an idiot

and understanding that we want that for those.

I won't go so far as to say we want that kind of relationship

with our kids, but we want our kids to obey us, right?

I want to be able to say to Teddy,

Teddy, let's go play outside

and not have him dart into traffic.

But what Christ is asking is that we submit our life

to his because he knows what's best.

I know at some point Teddy will grow up

and he will profess his faith and God will be there

and I will need to let go, though I will always be there

for as long as I'm on the earth.

And I know one day that car is gonna win

and Archie's gonna be gone, but understand that

Teddy has a road to play with Jesus.

That he's on a faith journey with Christ.

I have to wash my hands of the dog,

but I can watch this happen in my son's life.

That at some point he will submit his life to Jesus.

And that's exactly how God's faithfulness is shown

to generation to generation to generation.

I take my grandma Judy up in Kalamazoo.

When her and I sit together and talk,

she, the blessing of her life, and I know Pa, her husband,

who passed a couple years ago, they look back and says,

all of my kids are with the Lord as far as in life.

They all profess.

That is the biggest blessing of her life.

Though teaching for however many years

and following after my Pa in Christian education

for many years and being a wonderful member of society

in Kalamazoo, that's all great.

But when she looks back at her life

and the general understanding of her life,

and the generations of faith that follow her,

she rests in that, and that brings her joy.

And I know by me saying that,

there are some of you that just got really uncomfortable.

Because that might not be the definition

of your family right now.

So what are we gonna do to shine the light of Jesus,

brighter and better?

What are we going to do to walk alongside family members

and reveal, hey, this is who I was, this is who I am now?

But that first takes examination of your heart

because people may go, that's who you are as a believer?

I want nothing to do with that.

First we need to examine ourselves.

Create in me a clean heart, oh God,

renew a right spirit within us.

Cast me not away from your transgressions,

but uphold me by your spirit.

Finally, God has revealed to us in his word who he is,

in our hearts why he is, and he preserves his people,

the church, Psalm 15, five.

Who lends money to the poor,

or who does not put out his money at interest,

who does not take a bribe against the innocent,

he who does these things shall never be moved.

I was reading a different translation in my notes.

That the people of God come alongside,

and when you have the church, people growing in the Lord,

that movement, we should be reflecting the will of God.

The faithfulness, and why do we do that?

Article 12 of the Canons of Dort lets us know.

This assurance as an incentive to godliness,

this assurance of perseverance of the faith, however,

so far in making true believers proud

and carnally self-assured is rather the good root

of humanity, of childlike respect, of genuine godliness,

of endurance in every conflict, of fervent prayers,

of steadfastness in cross-bearing,

and confessing the truth, and of the well-founded joy in God.

Reflecting on this benefit provides an incentive

to serious and continual practice of thanksgiving

and good works, as is evident in the testimonies

of the scriptures and the examples of the saints.

Can you go back to the first slide of that, Molly?

So if people are seeing Munster Church,

or they're seeing the Holland owners,

or they're seeing the Smedbergs, or the Holdermans,

or whoever, that if we are saying we're believers,

if we're shining our light all around the neighborhood,

not putting a bowl under it, not telling Satan

to poof it out or blow it out or whatever you say,

then what they should see is believers proud

and carnally self-assured, not cocky and arrogant,

is rather they should see the true root of humanity,

a childlike respect for others, respect for authority,

a respect for the church, of genuine godliness,

of endurance in every conflict, of fervent prayers,

of steadfastness in cross-bearing,

and in confessing the truth,

and of the well-founded joy in God.

Leave that up there.

Leave that up there.

Wow, that's a lot.

I have to live that?

Again, no one's gonna expect you to live it perfectly.

But just like I tell you,

if you're gonna wear the Munster Church,

or you're gonna put the Munster Church magnet

on the back of your car,

then how you drive people will say,

ooh, got some crazy drivers at Munster Church.

We got some road rage at Munster Church.

We have people that think stop signs are stoptional

at Munster Church.

That's just a small, dumb example.

But this is the real example.

That this is what we need to be showing the world?

Real quick, 10 seconds, do a gut check on this.

Two of these absolutely wrecked me this morning.

A childlike respect.

I look out in the world and I don't wanna respect a thing.

This is worthy of my respect?

God reminds me, Jim, they have air in their lungs

and a heart that beats.

I love them, ergo, you need to love them.

But God, they get on my nerves.

They do things that I just look and go, oh,

just face and hands emoji.

Then God turns that and goes, Jim,

how many people look at you and do the same thing?

Man.

So not only is that difficult,

but the bottom part of steadfast and cross bearing,

confessing the truth and a well-founded joy in God.

What does that remind me of?

I know probably half of you.

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy.

Where?

Where?

I've got the, we got a worship committee,

we need to do this song.

We need to do this, and we don't need to do it today,

but put it in the rotation.

Down in my heart to stay.

I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus.

And we better be showing that to a world around us.

We better be showing the fact that we are defined

by the one who defines.

He is the only one that gets to define your life.

And he does that by communicating who he is.

He does that by telling us how he's changing our hearts.

And he does that by the faithfulness he has in the church.

So this week I want you to reflect

on your past experiences where God has kept you steadfast

in your faith and integrity in light of hardship.

Please stand if you are able,

and we're gonna close with prayer together.

Band, you can come on up at this time.

Let us pray this prayer as we close together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your faithfulness

revealed in your word, your transformative power

in our lives, in your preserving grace.

Help us to live lives that honor you

and reflect your faithfulness.

Strengthen our faith and guide us in righteousness.

In Jesus' name we pray.