Back here in this psalm, this
psalm is about judgment. It's a psalm of judgment. And
judgment begins at the house of God, what God said. And I
know that God in His perfect justice, He's going to condemn
all the wicked, He's going to judge all the earth. But this
psalm speaks of a particular judgment, a particular judgment. This is a judgment that all of
us ought to take a great interest in, because God is speaking here,
this psalm is speaking about judgment upon the house of God,
upon the Lord's people himself. Look what he said down here in
verse 4. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may
judge his people. Judge his people. And who is
he going to judge? Well, it says down there in verse
5, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. You know,
he's speaking of those who are in the covenant. Would God condemn
His people? Yes and no. God will never condemn
those for whom Christ died. Never. But all that are in so-called
the house of God or the church of God or the church or even
in Israel they weren't all covenant people they weren't all covenant
people that's why Paul said in Romans 9 he says they're not
all Israel which are of Israel and God even makes a distinction
in this psalm you see all that are in this so-called covenant
this covenant that he's talking about There was also a mixed
multitude even among them that were elect and that were non-elect
and always has been. And just like there is in the
church today and like there was then, there was true people of
faith and then there were the counterfeit. And that's the way
it's always been. It says there's always wheat
and tares growing together. And when they bring in the net,
they have the good fish and the bad fish. When they sow the seed,
it only falls on four different grounds. So that's the saying
here, that God's going to judge, and He's going to purify His
church. And He's going to see that when we're all brought to
glory, that everything's going to be just exactly right. And
He starts in the house of God. And that's why Peter says this,
for the time has come, the time has come, that judgment must
begin at the house of God. Now who's going to do this judgment?
I'm not. You're not. Who's going to do the judging? And if it begins with us, and
it's through the scriptures, through the gospel, through the
word of God, and through the things that God said, and judgment
begins with us, what shall be the end of them that obey not
the gospel? We hear the gospel, there's people
that obey it, and people that don't. But the judgment begins
at the house of God, and that's what the psalmist is talking
about. And I'll tell y'all a little
story I heard the other day, and it upset me to no end. And
it's talking about judgment, you know, church discipline. A lot of churches are big on
church discipline. This particular preacher, his
wife, had an affair. And it wasn't nothing to him,
but her had to confess before the whole church what she did. And it wasn't nothing to do,
but to another, one of the men in the church, a big guy, he
had to stand up and do the same thing. Somebody asked me what I thought
about it, and I thought about it. I wondered who committed
the worst sin. Those who wanted him to confess, or those who
confessed? What kind of a husband, what
kind of a preacher, when the scriptures tell us to love our
wives even as we love ourselves, would put his wife to such ridicule
and such shame and embarrassment? judgments by the word of God.
Church discipline is through the scriptures. And if the man
will not obey the gospel and believe the gospel, he won't
stay around long. And that bothered me. I just
told you all that. That's why judgment. And they
won't go on about church discipline. But I tell you what, I wouldn't
be in those people's shoes for nothing. Wouldn't be in them
for nothing. But that's why Paul said, I've
written to you not to keep company with any man that's called a
brother. Be a fornicator. Now he called him a brother,
but if he's a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or
a raider, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one,
know not to eat. And then look what he says, for
I have what have I to do to judge them that are without? We don't
have to judge them with without. We know exactly where they're
at. Do not you judge them that are within. But them that are
without God's judgment. And so you see, judgment is something
that we do with the scriptures, something that we do by the word
of God. And this particular psalm also
deals with worship. Worship. And the Lord says this,
you know, he says, For as much as these people draw nigh to
me with their mouth, but their hearts is far from me, with their
lips they honor me. And you hypocrites, well did
Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth unto me with
their mouth, and unto me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. They worship me, teaching for commandments the
doctrines of men. And so you see, beloved God,
what I'm saying is that in any given body, at any given time
in history, wherever the Lord's people were, there was always
a mixed multitude. There was always Israel in Israel.
Everybody that's of Israel is not of Israel. There's a lot
of wheat, few tares. And so that's what he's dealing
with here. The judgment must begin, and he separates. He separates
the wheat from the chaff. He's the one that makes the difference,
not us. And that's why the Lord said,
if you start trying to, you want me to go get those tares and
start pulling up? No, no, if you do that, you'll
pull up some wheat with it. So you just leave that alone.
and the Lord will do that and that's what in this I wanted
to deal with this psalm in four different parts tonight the first one deals
with God declaring he's going to come to judgment look what
he says in verse 1 through 6 he says the mighty God Even the
Lord has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the
sun and the going down thereof. What that means is that God calls
the earth. He created the earth. And He
spoke the earth into existence. And He calls the earth to rise
from the rising of the sun to go down from the east to the
west. God done this. It's His earth and He's the one
who made it. And He calls it His from the
going of the sun and going down of the sun. And oh, and it says
in that of Zion, the perfection of beauty hath God shined. You
see, he announces the one who's coming, the righteous judge,
is the mighty God himself. The mighty God himself. And I
tell you, there's lots of titles that God has. And the mighty
God, even the Lord. Jehovah, Elohim, all of these
names of God that describe some particular character about Him
is mentioned in this blessed verse. And so the mighty God,
He's the one that's coming, the Lord, and look what it said,
He shines forth out of Zion. Now Zion is the church, Zion
is His people. And David was the one who set
up the city of Zion. And that's where they had the
tabernacle. That's where they had the temple. And that's where
they worshiped. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty. That's where God shines. He shines
in His church. He shines among His people. He
comes out and out of the perfection of beauty hath He shined. And
oh, that's the holy city. That's the dwelling place where
God is. In Zion. And He dwells among Zion. And
I loved it when we sang that old song on Zion's Hill. One
of these days we'll go and dwell on Zion's Hill. Well, I tell
you, we fell in Zion right now and God dwells among us. Zion
is the Lord's people. And look what He said here. And
then He says, and our God shall come and shall not keep silence.
When He comes, He's going to have something to say. When God
comes among us, He's got something to say. He won't keep silence.
And when He speaks, we need to listen. That's why He says, you
know, let your words be few. Don't often sacrifice the fools.
God's in heaven. You're on the earth. And so,
when you come into the house of God, walk carefully. Tread
carefully. Be careful with what you say.
Be careful with how you act. And I said, God, our God shall
come and He won't keep silence. He came beside him. And then
look what he says, a fire shall devour before him. It shall be
very tempestuous round about him. Now you know what this is
talking about? This is talking about the same
thing that happened in Exodus. Look quickly at Exodus chapter
19. Oh, when He comes, it's going to be... And people who know
Him, they understand this as figurative language. But look
in Exodus 19, in verse 18. Oh, He says, He'll come and thou
be tempestuous about Him. The fire shall devour before
Him. You should be very tempestuous around about Him. And I tell
you, our God is a consuming fire. That's what Hebrews said. God,
He said, let us serve God reverently and with godly fear and grace. And He said, because our God
is a consuming fire. Now I know that most folks don't
think of him that way, but he is. To fall into the hands of
God is a terrible thing outside of Christ. Look what he said
here in Exodus 19.18, And now Si and I were all together on
a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it. And how did he do it?
In fire. Fire, judgment, to purge, to
burn. And the smoke of a sin as the
smoke of a furnace. And the whole mount quaked grievously. Now, let me show you what Moses
told the saints over in Deuteronomy about this. In Deuteronomy chapter
4. In verse 22. Verse 23. You know, That's what we're talking about.
That's what He says, you know, when our God, when He comes,
He can't keep silent. He'll come with a fire. And that's why, folks, you know,
if they don't... We understand there's something about God that
makes Him holy and high and terrible and to be kept in fear. The judgment
of God, and the judgment of God that we are afraid of, and God
as we fear Him, in one sense of the word, keeps us from doing
things that we wouldn't do. It keeps us back from doing certain
things. Because we are afraid that if
we go that far and do these things, it will give evidence that we
don't know God. We think that God will surely,
surely kill me if I were to do that. And so we don't do things,
a lot of things, because of the fear of God. And that's a good
note. I'm talking about a holy fear.
I'm talking about a fear that you know that God's got all power.
He can do anything He wants to to you. And the worst thing He
can do for you is let you go on and live in sin and not do
anything about it. And oh, look what He said here
in Deuteronomy 4.23. Take heed unto yourselves, Moses
speaking now, take heed unto yourselves, lest you forget the
covenant of the Lord God which He made with you, and make you
a graven image, or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy
God hath forbidden thee. For the Lord thy God is a consuming
fire, even a jealous God. He said, I ain't gonna let you
have nothing before me. Nothing. And so listen, let's
go back over here to our text. So we see that He called and
He's going to come and then look what it says here. In verse 4,
this judgment is directed upon them who call His name. They
call Him His people. He calls them His people. He
shall call to the heavens from above. Call to the heavens and
to the earth. And I believe He does this as
witnesses that He may judge His people. And what it is, is those who
come before Him to worship Him. Those who bow down to worship
Him. Those who come together. And that's why He says, gather
My saints together unto Me. He's talking about His particular
people, His saints. And He says, gather them, gather
them unto Me. Those that have gathered to Me,
come and be accompanied with Me by sacrifice. And oh, and
He comes and He sets this judgment and He says, gather My saints
together. Those who have made a covenant
with me. And then he says, Hear! Hear all my people. And then he says in verse 6,
excuse me, And the heavens shall declare His righteousness. You
know that God visits the people that come to worship the Lord. Those that have made a covenant
with Him by sacrifice. Those are the people that God. And then look what else He's
going to do now. Look how He judges the half-hearted. This
is His people here. The saints of God. Now He's going
to deal with the judgment upon the house of God. That's us.
And then look what He says in verse 7. Oh, the half-hearted
religious. Hear, O my people, and I will
speak O Israel. And I will listen to this. I'll
testify against thee. I am God, even thy God. I'll
testify against you. Huh? Oh listen, he said, I will
not reprove thee for thy sacrifice of burnt offerings have been
continually before me. You see, when God spoke to his
people, he said, he's talking about these saints, those who
worship him in spirit and in truth, those who have sacrificed
and they brought the sacrifice to the Lord Jesus. And this here,
is talking about people that are half-hearted religious. They
involve those who are outwardly religious. And they weren't rebuked
because they were religious and they fell in the religious. Faithful. They were faithful. They said,
He offered sacrifices and burnt offerings to continue before
me. He said, You kept them coming. You kept them coming. And oh, He said, I'll not reprove
them, but do you know what their sin was? They thought that God needed
their sacrifices. That's what it was. That they
thought that God needed their sacrifices. And he says, I'll
take no bullets from you. But God needs nothing. He absolutely
needs nothing from anybody. And here he comes and he says,
they think that they need my sacrifices. God needs them. And
he said, I'm going to testify against you. And anything that
we have, we're just giving it back to Him. It all belongs to
Him. And that's what He says here. You know, God doesn't take
issue with them because they fail in their duty, they attend
the services, they die, they try to live holy lives. The problem
is that it's just religious activity. The heart isn't in it. There's
no passion, no heart in seeing God in His glory and worshiping
God in His glory. And I know this. Anything, anything
that we do that's not out of gratitude and love is not worth
doing before God. It really ain't. That's why he
says there in verse 14, he said, Offer unto God thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Let me show you something over
in Hebrews 13. This is talking about thanksgiving
and worshiping God. Here these people are half-hearted
and And oh, we don't want to be half-hearted. And these folks
were just going through the motions. They attended the services, they
brought the sacrifices, they were faithful. They paid their
tithes and they thought that was enough. They said, God needs
this, God will reward me for this. And I'll tell you that
any religion that makes you think that God is well pleased with
what you're doing, instead of what Christ did. And that makes
you feel like you're doing a good thing by the things that you're
doing. And that's what these people thought. I'm not upset
with you because you're sacrificing. I'm not upset with you because
you're bullies and that. I'm upset with you because you're
just going through the motions. You think that I need your sacrifices. You think that I need your offerings. I don't need nothing from you.
He said in verse 9, I'll take no bullock out of your house,
no he-goats out of your foals. He said, every beast of the earth
is mine. What are you going to bring to
me to impress me? To put me in debt to you? And this is what he goes on to
say, the cattle on a thousand hills belongs to me. And I know all the fowls on the
mountain. I know every bird that flies. The eagle, the owl, the
sparrow. I go around the house all the
time looking for bird nests. Ah, we got bird nests in every
bush, every tree you can imagine. And I'll find them bird nests
and I'll look in there and see how many there are. And in a
little while they'll fly and there'll be another nest come
in there and I've got birds everywhere. And I like to find their nest. Because I know that God, that
God said He knows them. He knows them absolutely. And
look what He says. And the wild beast of the field
of mine. The wild beast. Beasts that scare
you. Beasts that would tear you apart.
And then look what He says. If I were hungry, I certainly
wouldn't tell you about it. For the world is mine and the
fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats? He says, you know what? He said,
this is what you owe me. This is all I want from you.
Offer unto God thanksgiving. That's what I want. I don't want
your sacrifices. I want your gratitude. I want
your thankfulness. I want your heart. And that's
why we now look over in Hebrews 13. Be with me just a minute. And that's why it says in everything,
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you, that in
everything give thanks. Look at Hebrews 13, 5. You know, we can be thankful
for the awfulest things that happen to us. We really truly
can. We can be thankful that it was
me and not somebody else. We can be thankful that whatever
comes, we got a good hope. We can be thankful that God,
that everything that comes, comes from His hand. And we can bless Him no matter
what happens in this world. I believe that with all my heart.
And that's why He says, you know what I want from you? I want
you to be thankful. He said, everything you've got
belongs to Him. He said, everything, everywhere
you look is mine. And so, everything you've got, you're just giving
back to Me what I've already given you. And look what he said here in
verse 15. By Him, by the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the
fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. God said, that's
what I want. I want gratitude. And the main
issue for these people is that there's no love for God. Faith
work is by love. Anything that a man does, if
it's not out of a motive of love, it'll end up being a work. It'll end up being you've done
some merit and you owe God to reward you for the works that
you do. And that was the problem with
the Pharisees. They thought, oh my, God can't
do without us. God came to you without us, but
He did. And I tell you, anything that doesn't have love and gratitude
behind it, will end up being just absolute nothing, but end
up being works. And I tell you, look what He
says in verse 15 now. He goes on to say, Call upon
Me. He condemns them for not having hearts and full of mission
and dependence upon Him. And He says, Call upon Me in
the day of trouble. And I tell you, these folks were
in trouble. And see, we're absolutely dependent
upon God. And I know that nobody, nobody
will approach God without first receiving His mercy. When God
extends His mercy, when God extends His grace, that's when we'll
approach God. We won't know nothing about trouble.
Don't know nothing about trouble of sin, trouble of heart, trouble
with God, in trouble with God, or because of our sinful nature. And I tell you, we as sinners
right now are dependent upon God and His mercy. And the mercy
of God only comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And when you find this kind of
mercy, when you're in trouble, and you find this mercy that
God extends to His people, you'll find out then you don't want
just religious rituals, you despise and it worries you, it troubles
you to go through the motions. And when God extends this mercy
and fills you with this mercy, it saves you in this transplanted,
bonded mercy. Sovereign mercy. And when this
mercy is given to you, it transforms you. Changes you in your heart
and in your soul. And now we worship Him and find
in Him the most glorious person that ever was and before our
minds and hearts. Oh, Bruce Cratchit has talked
about today. Oh my, there's something deep
in our hearts that God put there. I mean, when God genuinely saves
a man, He puts something in that soul that nothing but God Himself
can satisfy. That's why he goes out after
God. That's why he desires God. That's why he loves God. That's
why he cries out to the Lord. That's why he seeks the Lord.
That's why the soul desires the Lord. That's why the soul worries
about his sin, and concerned about his sin, and concerned
about his failure, and concerned about his lack of love, and concerned
about how gracious they are. It's because they know that God
has done something deep in them, and they've got to have Him.
Got to. You know, and we worship in a
person. We're not just coming here just
because we belong to Lantana Grace Church. We're not here
just to take up space on a pew. We're not here just to hear somebody
sing and to pray. We're here because God put it
in our heart to come to worship. We don't want ritual. We don't
want to go, no, sometimes it seems like we just go, and I'm
not speaking for you, just for me. I go through the motion.
And it grieves me to no end when I feel like I've just went through
the motion. But oh, listen. Look what he says now. He's going
to judge the hypocrites. He judged the hard hearted, half-hearted.
Now look what he's going to do. He's going to judge the hypocrites.
Look down here in verse 16. But unto the wicked, And I meant to use this as the
verse I was just talking about. I'll deliver thee and thou shalt
glorify me. When we call on one of them in
that day of trouble, he'll, in verse 15, he'll deliver you and
then you'll turn around and you'll glorify him. Now, anything that
has not God's glory, if our objective is not the glory, if our message,
our lives, our praying, our preaching, Our troubles, our heartaches,
our sorrows, our trials, our temptations. If we don't seek
the glory of God in everything, that's the main reason. Oh God,
be glorified in me. Be glorified in the church. Be
glorified in the gospel. Be glorified in the salvation.
And that's what he says, and you will glorify me. Alright,
but look what he says now. He's going to get the hypocrites
now. He said in verse 16, But unto the wicked God saith, What
hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest
take as my covenant in your mouth? And that's why you know what
he's saying is, What right have you to call yourself by one of
my covenant people? You take my covenant in your
mouth, you take my statutes in your mouth, and who in the world
do you think you are that you can do that? Because he says
under the wicked. What have you got to do to declare
my statutes? Take my covenant in your mouth.
Why in the world makes you think that you're one of mine? What
makes you think that you can just talk about me and declare
my statutes and take my covenant in your mouth? And I tell you
they were unconverted, stiff-necked, hard-hearted. And then what God's
saying here is that they were only God's covenant people by
the words out of their mouth, not by the actions of the heart.
And He brings against them this awful charge of hypocrisy. Look what it says there in verse
17. Oh, you declare my statutes, you take my covenant in your
mouth. But here's what you really like. He says, seeing you hate
instructions and cast my word behind your back. Oh my! And that heinous instruction,
that means correction, chastening. You don't want to be instructed.
You don't want nobody to tell you anything. You don't want
nobody to say, well, don't be preaching to me, preacher. You
take care of your own house, get the moat out of your own
eye, and that kind of thing they'll say. And I'll tell you what,
he says, you cast my words behind your back. He despises the Word
of God. He despises him and he takes
God's word, just throws it behind him, just acts like it just don't
bother him. He has no word, you know, he
wants to come, he wants to be, but he's a hypocrite and the
word does no work on him. And he casts my words behind
him. They come to you and you hear
instruction, you just go away like that, just throw the words
away. He ignores the plain teaching
of the scriptures. And that's the nature of a hypocrite.
It's the nature of him. And you can't help it, it's just
awful to see people like that. And look what he says, and they're
comfortable of being around wicked people. He says, when you saw
a thief, you consented with him. You agreed
with him. He stole something. Instead of
you reproving him, instead of you telling him off, why would
you steal? Thou shalt not steal, for God
said, here you are stealing. And not only that, but you say,
well, that's not too bad. You know, you can't help yourself,
you know, I know your sin, you can't help but steal. And then
look what he goes on here. And not only that, but you partake
with adulterers. You go around and partake with
people that are adulterers, that love adultery, and run from this
woman to that woman, and you run around with them, and that
man and this man, and you run around with them, and you don't
think anything's wrong with it. They'd rather associate with
the wicked than with God's people. And look what it says about it
in verse 19. And then you know what? You take my words and my
covenant and declare my statutes, and then you turn around and
give your mouth to evil. You use your words, you use your
mouth for evil things. Not good things, not to praise
God, not to worship God, not to sing songs of Him, not to
sing songs in the night. When God gives you the song in
the night, and your tongue framed as deceit, Your tongue comes
out with lies. You frame deceit. You use your
tongue to frame lies and deceit. And look what he says, and not
only that, but look what else he does with his tongue. You
sit and you speak against your brother. Your brother. You slander. your own mother's
son. Slander. That slander means that
you make up falsehoods about them. Slander them and belittle
them and say things that's not true to demean their character
and their reputation. And that's why the Lord said,
out of the mouth proceeds evil thoughts and adulteries and fornications
and thefts and all these things. And nor am I And then look what
happens here. The foolishness of the hypocrite
is this. You know what he does? He thinks
because God is silent, that God's approving of him. Because God
don't speak to him. God don't reprove him. God don't
stand up and deal with him. He thinks, look what he says,
and these things hast thou done, and I kept silent. He thinks
God's silence means approval. And then look what else he says,
and you thought I was the one altogether like you. They thought
God was just like them. God's just like me. They didn't realize they were
under God's judgment. Look what he said, I will reprove
thee and set them in order. Oh my, let me show you something
enthusiastic. You know, talking about You know,
they thought, and I kept silent. That's just because, look at
Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is right before
the book of Proverbs. Look at Ecclesiastes 8. Right
before the book of Proverbs. And oh, but I'm going to reprove
you. I'm going to set things in order
right before your very eyes. Do you imagine what a lot of
people are going to feel like? That's what our Lord said, He
says, you know, and He said, they come and at the judgment
they said, Lord, have we not preached in your name? Have we
not done many wonderful works in your name? Have we cast out
devils in your name? They used His name an awful lot.
He said, depart from me, I never knew you. And that's the way
these people are. They just went on living. They're
churchgoers. These folks that attend services.
And that's what he's talking about. He says, you come in here
and you talk about my statutes and my covenant. And he says,
wonder will you do that when look at how you really are. Look
at how you really are. But Ecclesiastes 8.11, look what
it says. And this is really, really the problem with lots and lots
of people. Because sentenced against an
evil work, It's not executed speedily, therefore the hearts
of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. What they
say is, now Lord, if this is not right for me to do, you stop
me, you stop me, send some lightening, send something. And if he don't
send lightening or something, they say, well, it's all right.
Give me a sign, so they go right on with it. And that's what these
fellows thought. They thought, well, God's been
silent. He ain't speaking to my heart. He ain't reproving
me. But God says, you just wait.
You just hold on. I'll reprove you and set the
Immortal before your eyes. Now, let me look at a couple
of things and winding this up. He said in verse 22. This is
a word to the hypocrite. Now consider this. Ye that forget
God. Now consider this, ye that forget
God. How many people have you met
in your lifetime that said, I used to be a Christian, I used to
go to church. I'm going to go back one of these days. I say once, and he says, you
consider this, ye that forget God. Thought I was like you. Lest I tear you in pieces. And
when I do it, there ain't nobody, nowhere under God's heaven can
deliver me, deliver you from me. Ain't that what he says in
verse 23? He says, consider these things
carefully. God sees and He knows exactly
where you are and what you do, and it's a dangerous thing to
play with God. God's a jealous God. And it's
a dangerous, dangerous thing to profess to one of his people
while continuing to be one of his people while continuing with
a wicked heart and living in open rebellion and being something
out of here that you're not. And then look what he says there
in verse 23. Oh, the blessing that God gives to those that
he gives a heart, those that he has delivered. He said, Whoso offers praise,
glorifies me. Oh, I want to praise Him, don't
you? Oh, praise, praise, praise be unto God. And to Him that
ordereth His conversation or His manner of life disposes of
His way. I'm going to show the salvation
of God. Oh, listen. It's because He shows
us salvation that we offer praise. And we order our manner of life
right. I tell you what, I don't want to be a hypocrite, don't
want to be half-hearted. I want to be one of God's saints,
be among them. But let me tell you, I hope you
don't feel as bad as I do sometimes about things. But do you... I was talking to a dear brother
today, Todd and I. I said, Todd, And I'm going to
confess this to you all. I said, Todd, I don't have a
spiritual thought. I don't have a spiritual feeling.
I don't have a spiritual thought. I can't study. I can't read. I can't do anything.
I have an awful lot of time. I said, oh, I just can't get
it. And he says, well, he told me the reason it was. But I tell
you, he said a nice wonderful thing to me. But it is a tough
thing. It's an awful thing to go around
feeling like you have no spirituality.