Have You Been Rescued? (AM Sermon Notes)
VBS FAMILY DAY 2018
GIST: You need rescued, and then you need to live like you’re rescued.
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 15
Today is an exciting day for me; it’s our VBS Family Day. For the past three days, we’ve had kiddos out here learning about Jesus and His plan to rescue us. Today, we’re celebrating all they have learned together during the service, and will continue to do so in our block-party immediately following.
Given that context, I’m once again blown away by the passage we’re coming to again this morning. For those of you who are visiting, we have been doing a summer study in the book of Psalms. I didn’t plan for the passage to fall on this particular date. We just started at chapter one and have been moving forward. Nonetheless, not only does this passage directly connect to the VBS theme for this year, but it is also mercifully short ☺️!
"1 O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 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; 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."
I don’t want to muddy the waters here by over explaining. This psalm addresses the qualifications for being saved, for entering God’s presence. And when you read them, it should be clear that...you don’t meet the requirements. And that’s the gist for today: You need rescued, and then you need to live like you’re rescued. Let’s dive straight in.
I. YOU NEED RESCUED
The psalm opens with→ The Central Question Of Life."1 O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” This is another example of emphasizing parallelism where both questions are really the same: “Who can come into Your presence, God?” We should be asking this question because we were made for this purpose.
The answer follows immediately, but it really seems like→ An Impossible Standard. And this standard covers the major aspects of life: conduct, speech, relationships, values, commitments, and finances. Truthly, we could spend an entire message camping out on each of these. However, I promised this would be brief, so let’s take the big picture.
Conduct. “2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right” This addresses how we...act, what we do. The standard is purity. Both clauses mean the same thing. If you walk free of blame it can only be because you’re doing...what is right.
Speech. “and speaks truth in his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue” There are two things here. 1) The words that come out of our mouths are uplifting. We don’t slander. Which means gossip--which is a vile and contagious disease--doesn’t drip from our lips. We don’t waste our words with complaints and bitter criticism. Instead, we use our words to build others up and point them to Christ!
I love this because not only does it talk about having wholesome speech, but it addresses the key to wholesome speech which is a wholesome heart. That’s the second thing I want to point out. 2) Not only does this person say good and uplifting things, but they mean them. These uplifting words come from the heart.
Relationships. “and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;” I feel like this one is connected to the speech criteria, as well. It deals with our interactions with people. The word used here for “reproach” implies a very serious kind of shaming. This is stripping someone of reputation. So, this person, doesn’t do things that will deliberately hurt the people around them, be that physically or emotionally, and they look to build others up instead of tearing them down...or believing the worst about a person.
Values. “4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD;” This alludes to what or who we look up to, the characteristics we value. What is it about a person that gains our admiration? Is it their popularity, or their walk with God? Regardless of what kind of influence a person may or may not have, we should honor those who love God, not those who live trapped in sin. If you want a real-world application here, think about the kinds of lives many of our “celebrities” live.
Commitments. “who swears to his own hurt and does not change;” This one is a strong statement too. It means this person keeps his or her promises...even when it’s inconvenient...even when it hurts. If you’ve made a promise, but something “better” comes along, or you realize keeping this commitment will put you out, or eat up time you’d rather use doing something else, you still keep the promise.
Then, the last set of clauses deals with→
Finances. “5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent.” In the Old Testament these both were references to not taking advantage of people. This isn’t an anti-banking statement. Loans at this time were only given as a means of helping someone out, so taking interest against them was contrary to that purpose. So the implication here is that this person doesn’t just look out for themselves with their financial endeavors, but seeks to use their money to serve the Lord and help others.
So, that’s the standard. How do you measure up? How honoring to God are your conduct, speech, relationships, values, commitments, and finances? We don’t meet this standard. So, what is this saying? Can no one ever enter into God’s presence? →
Enter: The Rescuer! That is why Jesus came, right? We are sinful people in need of a Savior, and Jesus is just that! This week, we talked about this with the kids. One night, we took a walk down the “Romans Road”. At one of the stops, we read Romans 5:8, which is one of my favorite verses, “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We deserve Hell, but Jesus came, God in the flesh, and lived a perfect, sinless life. He met this standard. Still, He died in our place, and took our punish, enduring Hell for us, so that anyone who calls on His name and gives Him control will be saved! His purity then covers us!
II. AND THEN YOU NEED TO LIVE LIKE YOU’RE RESCUED
So, we see that we need to be rescued, but that’s not the only thing we see here. Just saying that this standard is high and leaving it at that would do this passage a disservice. It would also do all of us a disservice because it would leave us with the mentality, which is sadly very common, that sin is just something we’re stuck with, so as long as we’ve said we’ve given Jesus control and then maybe go to church fairly often, we’re good. But that’s not where this passage leaves us.
This might seem like an impossible standard, but it’s also→ A High Expectation. “He who does these things shall never be moved." (emphasis added). We’re expected to do these things. This might seem like an impossible mission, but look at what Jesus told His disciples when they came to the same conclusion: “26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, "Then who can be saved?" 27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”(Mark 10:26-27) God does the saving. He stands in our place, and He changes our hearts. Though we will never perfectly meet this standard this side of Heaven, there will be a change! I think this is so important to point out because there are many people who say a prayer or have some kind of emotional experience and then live the rest of their lives exactly like they did before. They aren’t more like Jesus. They aren’t producing any kind of fruit, but they think they’re fine. They’ve got that base cover, that box checked. But if there is no change, there is no salvation. Remember what James said in James 3? “17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” It’s not real faith if it does not result in a heart transformation! There should be a difference made in your conduct, speech, relationships, values, commitments, and finances.
The verse says doing these things will result in→ Not Being Moved. Why? Because you have entered the holy hill! You’ve been rescued and are protected by Him!
TAKEAWAYS
1. You cannot be “good enough” to be saved. You need to be rescued. And→
2. Jesus died and rose again to save you! He died to rescue you.
3. When you give Him control of your life, there should be a change. If you’re rescued, you should live like it!
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