This morning in 1 Peter 4, verse
17. 1 Peter 4, verse 17. Here recorded by divine inspiration
is a rather strange, though very serious statement. Peter says, for the time has
come that judgment must begin at the house of God. Judgment must begin at the house
of God. And if it begin at us, what shall
the end of them be that obey not the gospel of God? Now, without
question, if you read the immediate context, you will see that Peter
is talking about the chastisements afflictions and troubles that
God's elect suffer in this world by the hand of God. Those things
that we suffer as believers because we are believers as the result
of our faith in and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, it is impossible to follow Christ without incurring the
disapproval and the wrath of men who despise Christ. Can't
be done. It can't be done. Those who follow
Christ, who are zealous witnesses for Christ, who seek to honor
Christ, will, by virtue of their faith in Him, their obedience
to Him, and their confession of Him, bring upon themselves
trouble and difficulty as believers. Look at the context, verse 16.
If any man suffer as a Christian, not just if any man suffers,
but if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let
him glorify God on this behalf. That is, don't become ashamed
of Christ because of what you suffered for Christ. Don't let
these things drive you away from Him, but rather let him glorify
God because of this. Verse 17, For the time has come
that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first
begin at us, this is where it starts. What shall be the end
of them where it ends? Of them who obey not the gospel
of God. Verse 18. And if the righteous
scarcely, that is, the righteous with great difficulty, be saved,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore, let
them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping
of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator."
Now, this is what Peter's telling us. All believers in this world,
as the church and house of God, as the people of God in this
world, as his family, must and shall suffer trials, afflictions,
and adversities by the hand of God. These things are appointed
by God. There is a set time, and it has
come when judgment must begin right here. Now, the judgment
spoken of, obviously, is not the judgment of God's justice
in the penal satisfaction of justice. God satisfied his justice
for us when Jesus Christ died at Calvary as our substitute.
So that there is no wrath or judgment of God in that sense
left against the believer for any sin. Jesus Christ fully satisfied
the justice of God against all our sins and did away with the
wrath of God insofar as his elect are concerned. So the judgment
here spoken of is not the judgment of a judge sitting on a bench,
but the judgment of a father in loving care, chastening his
children because he loves them. God in Israel sows the seeds
of affliction, pain, and toil. These spring up and choke the
weeds that would else or spread the soil. Now this briefly is
the meaning of 1 Peter 4, 17. Without question, Peter's statement
also has application to the judgment of God which was about to fall
upon the nation of Israel. Peter's writing was just prior
to the coming of Titus in 70 AD, in which Titus, the Roman
general, burned Jerusalem, destroyed the city, brought utter destruction
to the nation of Israel, and tore this temple so that there
was not one stone left upon another. And Peter certainly is speaking
prophetically here of that time when the temple, the Old Testament
temple, the Old Testament priesthood, the Old Testament sacrifices,
the Old Testament form of worship, would all together be brought
to a public dissolution, God would demonstrate how that Israel
had been left desolate because of their rejection of the gospel
and their despising of his son. And so Peter said, now fellows,
judgment is about to begin with us, right here with the Jewish
nation, with the house of God. And he says, if God has done
this to Jerusalem, if God has done this to the nation, what
shall it be when God comes to judge the world in his wrath?
Now, for our purposes today, I want you to turn back to Psalm
50 and hold your Bibles open there. And I want to show you
how this statement is to be applied also to those who profess to
be the church and house of God. When the Holy Spirit declares
the time has come, when judgment must begin at the house of God,
is telling us that God Almighty will, in his judgment, separate
the vile from the precious, or the precious from the vile. How
that God will come in judgment and divide the chaff from the
wheat. How that he will come and gather
the tares out of his vineyard. How that he will come and separate
the goats from the sheep. Judgment must begin at the house
of God. And those who are first in judgment
are those who profess to be the house of God but never knew our
God. Those who are first in judgment
are those tares sown by Satan in the master's vineyard where
he has sown his wheat. Those first in judgment shall
be those goats who claim to be sheep and are mingled with the
sheep in the kingdom of our God in this world. Now in Psalm chapter
50, we see a clear declaration of these things. This is a prophetic
psalm. It speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ
coming in His mercy and the Lord Jesus coming in His judgment.
This is one of those rare, rare occasions when God Himself assumes
to speak to man. When God Himself calls the nations
of the world, He calls all men to assemble before Him, and He's
about to declare something very serious. We would be wise then
to listen carefully as the Lord God speaks. As we go through
these verses, I want to call your attention to five things,
and I encourage you to just keep your Bibles open on your lap
and follow the psalm with me. First in verses 1 through 6,
God reveals to us his purpose of grace. You read what he says
here beginning in verse 1, and you see this call of grace issued
by God Almighty. He says, the Lord, the mighty
God, even the Lord, hath spoken and called the earth from the
rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. That's just a poetic
way of saying he's called everybody. He's called everybody from the
east to the west. He calls all the nations of the
earth. God sends out his word, and he calls you, and he calls
me. Some have suggested that these three names, the mighty
God and the Lord, that is, El, Elohim, and Jehovah, are suggestive
of the Divine Trinity, and certainly we are. That all three persons
in the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, are engaged in the matter of our redemption and salvation.
We were chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and called
by the Holy Spirit. And all three persons in the
Trinity shall be involved in the matter of judgment. Though
the Lord Jesus Christ is that man by whom God shall judge the
world, yet all three persons concur in the judgment of that
man, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, all three of these names,
the Mighty God, Jehovah, El, Elohim, and Jehovah, refer to
and are applicable of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because in that
man, dwells all the fullness of the triune Godhead bodily. So that Jesus Christ comes into
this world as that one who is the mighty, the mighty God, the
Lord, our Savior and our Ruler. The Lord Jesus Christ, the mighty
God, even the Lord hath spoken. This is what the psalmist opens
with, the Lord hath spoken. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the mighty God, our Savior, spoke for his elect as the surety in
the covenant of grace. He is the one who spoke all things
out of nothing into existence as the divine creator. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is that one who stood and spoke to Moses and
Elijah while the disciples watched and looked on with awe, spoke
to them about the death which he would accomplish at Jerusalem.
Our Lord Jesus speaks by every act of providence. This past
week I've been thinking about the fact that God has spoken
remarkably. I hope you've heard his voice.
And within the last week we have had to recognize the death of
an old man who was a grandfather, been sick a long time, James
Lee's dad, and the death of a man about our age, Rex's cousin,
53 years old, the father looking forward to raising his grandchildren
without the responsibility of raising children, looking forward
to retirement, looking forward to all of those things that me
and I begin to look forward to. And his son, swept out of this
world right now without warning. God speaks. If we just had enough
sense to listen, God speaks over and over again. He is spoken
by his providence. Did you hear his voice? I did.
I've been praying God teach me to number my days that I may
apply my heart to wisdom. Teach me to understand the vanity
of everything here. Teach me to understand that everything
here is very temporary. Life at its best ain't very long. Ain't very long. Let us apply
our hearts then to wisdom. And the Lord God speaks to us
by his word. He speaks by the gospel. He speaks
through his servants. We would be wise as the word
is preached every time we come to the house of God, every time
we open the scriptures to pray like Samuel. Speak, Lord, for
thy servant here in thee. And our Lord Jesus speaks for
us in heaven right now as our advocate and high priest. The
Lord has spoken. The Lord God, our Savior, speaks. And when he speaks, he calls
and commands all men everywhere to hear his voice in the gospel
and to repent of their sins. There is a general call that's
issued whenever a man preaches the gospel. I come to you now
in the name of the Lord. And I call you to repentance
and faith in Jesus Christ. But this is not just the word
of a man. I'm not here just to speak to
you as a man to call you to repentance and faith in Christ. Even in
this general call, the call is God's call. God commands you
to repent. God commands you to believe on
His Son. God commands you this day to
obey the gospel of His grace. It is not an optional thing.
And you will answer to Him at the bar of judgment if you refuse
to do so. And yet this general call is
a call that goes out to all men, and if all you hear is the word
of a man speaking this call, though you're responsible to
obey it, you never will obey it. But there is a special, distinct,
particular, effectual call, which God also issues not just to the
Jews, but to Gentiles and men and women scattered among every
nation, race, kindred, and tongue. And when God calls you by the
power of His Spirit, Oh, then you will heed his call. You will
obey the gospel. You will believe on his son.
And look at the place of mercy in verse 2. Out of Zion the perfection
of beauty hath God shined. Now it may be that the psalmist
is here saying that Christ, who is our God, is the perfection
of beauty. That would be certainly a proper
reading of the psalm. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the perfection of beauty, shines out of Zion. However, it seems
to me that our translators properly gave the text this translation,
telling us that God's Church, or that is, our Lord is telling
us that God's Church, Zion, is the perfection of beauty in His
eyes. Its members are adorned with
the grace of the Spirit, by which we are made glorious within,
Especially we are considered the perfection of beauty in God's
sight being clothed with the righteousness of Christ so that
he says you are humbly through my humbleness which I have put
upon you. The Lord God reveals himself
right here. in the assembly of his saints.
He makes himself known right here where his word is proclaimed.
He shines forth in Zion. He shines forth to the world
in Zion and from Zion so that the Lord Jesus Christ makes himself
known through the instrumentality of Zion in this world. That's
why he left us here, Bobby, to make him known. There's no reason,
no reason whatsoever for us to be here on this earth except
this. God has chosen to use sane sinners
to carry the gospel to save sinners that other sinners may be saved
by his grace. We're already made perfect. We're
already righteous. We're already meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. The only reason we're
here is God places on us this high honor. He shines forth in
Zion unto all the world to make known the riches of his grace.
In Titus chapter 2, listen to how the Apostle Paul speaks in
verse 11. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
to all men. That is, Jesus Christ in the
gospel appears to all men as the word is preached. And as
he appears to all men, he has taught us. and is teaching us.
When he comes to men in saving grace, he affectionately teaches
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And look
for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. that he
might redeem us from all iniquity, and soon purify unto himself
a peculiar people, zealous of good works. But after that, the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy,
according to his mercy, he saved us. That's how the word of the
Lord shines forth out of Zion. Now then, look at verse 3. and
hear this promise of grace. Our God shall come. Our God shall
come. He shall. Our God shall come. This clearly is a prophecy of
our Lord Jesus coming the first time, in his glorious coming
to redeem us, though it was a coming of humiliation, it was the most
glorious of all things. It also speaks of our Lord coming
by His grace to regenerate us. And it speaks of Him coming again
in His glorious second advent to raise us up from the dead.
And this is what it says, Our God shall come. He shall not
keep silence. It appears so much that God just
doesn't speak. It appears so often that God
in heaven set silent. It appears in this generation
that God leaves men and leaves them undisturbed to go on and
does not speak. But God shall go. He shall not
forever keep silent. He will come to chosen sinners
in His mercy, and when He comes, a fire shall devour before Him,
and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He'll bring
you down so that the judgment of God brings your heart down
with sorrow. And when He brings you down to
utter nothingness, condemned and helpless, then He comes in
mercy and grace and speaks peace to your heart. And when the Lord
Jesus Christ comes again in judgment, oh, what fire shall burn before
Him. What tempest shall quake the earth and quake your soul
forever? Look at verse 4 and 5. In these
two verses, we see the purpose of our God. It is a purpose plainly
stated by Him. He shall call to the heavens
from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people.
Gather My saints together unto Me. those that have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice. Now listen carefully. The purpose
of God in everything he does, the purpose of God in all the
affairs of providence is the gathering together of his elect
unto himself from the four corners of the earth. Look in Genesis
chapter 49. Look at a couple of passages.
Hold your hands here in Psalm 50, but look in Genesis 49. Jacob is about to die, and he
leans upon his staff and blesses his sons. He says in verse 10,
the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver
from between his feet. Now this is what it means. God
has established his name in Israel with the sons of Judah, and the
rule of Israel shall not cease, and the law of God shall be established
with Israel until this time. Until Shiloh come, and unto him
shall the gathering of the people be. And that's exactly what came
to pass. When Christ came, the scepter
departed from Judah. The lawgiver departed from beneath
his feet. But now, Shiloh has come, and
the gathering of God's elect from the Gentile world is come
to pass. Look in Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56
and verse 8. The Lord which gathereth the
outcast of Israel, yet will gather others to Him, beside those that
are gathered to Him. Here we are, the outcast of Israel. You and I who have been gathered
to Christ by His free grace. And sometimes we wonder. We see
so little happening that we think ought to happen. We see so little
being done. We see so few brought to repentance
and faith in our Redeemer and we wonder. Is there anybody else
yet to be called? But the word is given here. I
will yet gather others to him beside those that are gathered
unto him. We're still here. That means
God still got some others to gather. Maybe you're one of them. This earth is still here. That
means God still got some people whom he'll gather. Maybe he'll
gather some of you this day. He says in Zechariah 10, you
don't need to turn there, I will hiss for them and gather them
for I have redeemed them. That's who he'll gather. I'll
call them and I'll gather them whom I have redeemed and they
shall increase as they are increased. Now be sure to notice the language
here in Psalm 50 verse 5. He says he's talking about the
gathering of his saints. And I looked at that and looked
at that. The gathering of his saints. who have made a covenant
with me. And I thought, how on this earth
can that fit in the context? Mange told you this morning,
we are called to be saints. We are made saints by God's free
grace. But here, God's elect are called saints even before
they are called. Even before they have been born.
Even before the world began. Considered by him saints. Because
he looks on us wrought in Christ. and declares that we're holy
for Christ's sake. These chosen ones are those who
are described as men and women who have made a covenant with
God. Now, frankly, you can't do that. How are you going to
make a covenant with God? How are you? God can come make
a covenant with you, but how are you going to make a covenant
with God? How are you going to put God under obligation? How
are you going to make a covenant with God by which God is compelled,
of necessity, to do certain things with you? That's not possible. Oh yes it is. Oh yes it is. I
made a covenant with Him before the world was but in the person
of His dear Son. And Jesus Christ made a covenant
by which my salvation was guaranteed and secured, made with Him as
the covenant surety, on the pledge of Christ's obedience as my substitute. This covenant between us and
God is immutable and sure because it is a covenant made by and
made upon the basis of Christ's sin-atoning blood. It's a covenant
made by sacrifice. The Lord Jesus stood as our substitute
and he said, Father, I will go and I will obey for them and
I will redeem them. And the Father said, All right,
I will give them eternal life. And the covenant was made. Now
then, look at verse 6, and God describes the end accomplished.
When all things are finished and time shall be no more, when
God's purpose is fully accomplished and all his elect have been gathered
into his kingdom, then God shall be glorified forever as the just
and righteous, just God and our Savior. And the heavens shall
declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. Now you
stop and think about that. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
and presents his kingdom to the Father, holy, unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight, saying, Lo, I and the children which
God hath given me, not one of them is lost. Then God shall
be all in all, and the heavens shall declare, God is God. Everybody shall reverberate with
the echo, God is just and God is right. God is God. Now then,
look at verses 7 through 15. Hear the Lord our God teaches
us the nature of true worship. Read the passage with me. Hear,
O my people. That is, you who profess and
claim to be my people. You who wear my name. You who
are confident that you're my people. Are you listening? Listening? Hear, O my people. And I will
speak, O Israel, and I will testify against thee. Now it's obvious
that he's talking to mere pretenders, those who merely claim to be
his people, not really his people. For he says, I will testify against
thee. I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy
sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have been continually before
me. Now the context really demands that this verse 8 would better
be translated this way. I will not reprove you for your
lack of sacrifices, for your lack of burnt offerings, which
should have been continually before me. The reason is obvious. God's quarrel with man is not
because of his failure to offer enough sacrifices. That's not
the quarrel. God's quarrel with man is his
failure to rest in, to believe on, to look to Jesus Christ's
one sacrifice for sin. That's God's quarrel with him.
His quarrel's not because you don't do something. His quarrel's
because you won't believe his son. Read on, verse 9. I will
take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy foals.
For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon
a thousand hills. I know the fowls of the mountains,
and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
wouldn't tell you. If I were hungry, I wouldn't
ask you to give me something to eat. I would not tell thee, for the
world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh
of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Or for unto God thanksgiving,
and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon me in the
day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify
me. Now these verses teach us five
distinct truths about the worship of God. I'm not going to spend
much time on them. I'll simply state them, but I
want you to get them. I hope you'll remember them.
They're important. No, they're vital. Number one,
God does not need you or me. God doesn't need you. He doesn't
need me. There's nothing you and I can
give God. Nothing. Nothing that we can
contribute to Him. Nothing by which we can give
God something that would oblige Him toward us. He who is altogether
infinite, immense, independent, and a self-sufficient creator
of all things needs nothing. He owns everything. He owns everything. Those who would come to you and
tell you that if you'll give, then you will oblige God to bless
you. If you'll do this, then you will
earn from God special blessings in heaven. If you'll bring your
money to us, then you will lay a treasure for yourself in heaven.
They're liars and deceivers. God doesn't need you. You're
not going to enrich God by anything. Well, we received your offerings
this morning. I encourage you to give. Give
generously. But give willingly. Don't give because you expect
something from God. Don't give because you hope to drive a two
bargain with God. Don't give because you hope if
you'll pay your tithes, God will give you double of your tithes.
That's utter, that's utter, utter nonsense. God doesn't need us. I ask you to give. We'll be receiving
offering next week for conference. I pray that you will as you have
over the years. Give generously. Give more generously
than ever in the past. Give generously for Christ's
sake, for the gospel's sake, but not because you expect God
to somehow or another reward you for your giving. Now, here
that goes without saying. I hope it goes without saying
with all of you. God cannot be indebted to man by anything he
does. Secondly, no mere form of godliness,
even if it is a form that is biblical and a form that is required
by God, No form of godliness will profit a man's soul. Nothing. Read the first chapter of Isaiah.
I encourage you when you go home, sit down with your family today
at lunch or at night before you go to bed and read Isaiah chapter
1. And understand that no amount of sacrifice, no amount of religious
service, No religious ritual, no ceremony, no act of devotion,
no amount of austere piety, no creed, no confession of faith,
no amount of church attendance, no religious affiliation, apart
from faith in Christ, will benefit your soul. Nothing. Well, doesn't
the Lord command us to be baptized? Yeah. But unless you believe
on Christ, it won't do you any good. Doesn't the Lord command
us to eat the Lord's Supper? To eat the bread and drink the
wine? Yes, sir! But unless you believe on Christ,
it won't do you any good. In fact, Merle, religious exercise
without faith in Christ all tells us is eating and drinking damnation
to your soul. Because men start to trust the
exercise. They start to trust the ceremony.
They start to trust the ritual. That's one thing about the preaching
of the gospel, that to the unbeliever is a savor of death unto death
and hardens and hardens and hardens and hardens and hardens the conscience. Many women become gospel-hardened.
as they over and over and over again hear the word and despise
it, hear the gospel and despise it, see Christ crucified set
before them and despise it, and their hearts are hardened. And
that which should have been to their everlasting salvation shall
be to their everlasting damnation. Thirdly, true worship is spiritual. It arises from and primarily
concerns matters of the heart. True worship is not an act, but
an attitude, an attitude of faith in and consecration to the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is not impressed with robes
and crosses and statues and stained glass windows and cathedrals
and all the nonsense. They're impressed with men. God's
not impressed. I drive by, I can't help to acknowledge
it, I drive by and see these monstrosities. I think, man alive,
that's an impressive looking building. That's an impressive
thing. God's not impressed. God's not
impressed. True worship is not carnal, it's
spiritual. Carnal worship was done away
when Christ died, put an end to the law. Carnal worship was
ended back yonder when God sent judgment to Israel and destroyed
Judaism and destroyed the temple. God did not accidentally pull
that thing down. He did it on purpose. True worship
is spiritual. The hour cometh and now is when
true worshipers shall worship the Father in the Spirit and
in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is spirit. And those that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. We are
the circumcision, Paul says, which worship God in the spirit
and have no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in any fleshly
exercise or any fleshly experience, and rejoice in Christ Jesus.
True worship is spiritual. It's a matter of the heart. Our
God says, My son, give me thine heart. Reckon why? Because if he gets your heart,
he's got you. If he gets your heart, he's got
everything. Now look at what it says here in verses 14 and
15. Offer unto God thanksgiving. That's a sacrifice. We're told in Hebrews 13, that's
a sacrifice, thanksgiving. The psalmist said, I will offer
to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.
You see, you cannot give thanks in everything unless you trust
God in everything and with everything. Give thanks. Give thanks to God
for himself. Give thanks to God for his grace. Give thanks to God for his providence. Give thanks to God for his salvation. Give thanks to God for his son.
Now look at the next slide. I wish I could, matter of fact
I probably am shortly going to put this out in a way so everybody
in the world who wants it can get a hold of it. Pay thy vows
unto the Most High. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter
5 for a moment. Listen as you turn. Ceremonial religious vows are
totally forbidden in Scripture. Isn't it all right for fellows
to take a monastic vow, a vow of celibacy? No, it's not all
right. It's forbidden. Isn't it all right for churches
to require men and women to sign a confession of faith or to sign
a church covenant and vow to do certain things? Oh, no. Father,
I'm not given that privilege or responsibility and you dare
not give it to me. No man has a right to do such
a thing. The Lord warns us we ought never to make a vow. That
is an ecclesiastical religious vow, a legalistic vow by which
we bind our consciences or try to bind the consciences of others.
However, each of us has taken morally spiritual vows before
God, by which we are bound and obligated as men to God. Now, the Lord warns us never
to make such vows lightly. It's better never to make a vow
than to make a vow and break it. Look here in Ecclesiastes
5, verse 4. When thou bowest a vow to God,
when thou bowest a vow to God, now that's serious business.
That's serious business. Defer not to pay, for he hath
no pleasure in fools." That's who you are. If you vow or vow
to God, you don't pay. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest
not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Don't be hasty to speak anything
to God. You might forget it, he won't. He won't. This refers to all
the vows we make. The Apostle Paul tells us how
things should be in the last day and he describes the men
and women of the last day, the religious men and women of the
last day, not the popular good men and women who never show
up at church house. No, no. He's talking about religious
folks. He says they're covenant breakers. Covenant breakers. I don't know how many times I
have written to or spoken to men and women who contacted me trying to get
some kind of approval because they decided they were going
to leave their husband or leave their wife. And this is what
I say to them. A man says, well, they don't
ever say this. Well, they don't love her anymore.
I'll tell you how that translates. I'll tell you how it translates,
Jay, every time. Every time. That means I found somebody else
I want to sleep with. That's how it translates. Every time.
Every time. No exceptions yet that I found.
Not one that I found. I don't love her anymore. And it's better not to live together
in misery. We want to be happy. So we'll
just forget it. I found me somebody else. This is how I respond to it.
I've done it with family and friends. And this is how I'll
respond to you if you come to me talking about it. You stood
before God. And you made a vow. And you said,
I promise to live with this woman till death do us part, for better
or for worse, and to love her. I promise. I promise. Tell you what, you better live
with her till death do you part and love her. Better do it. Well, we're not compatible. I'd
heaps I'd rather live with Shelby not be compatible than be incompatible
with God Almighty. Do you understand that? We live
in a society that disregards everything. Just totally disregards
everything. Well, there's nothing we can
do about that. Yeah, there's something I can
do about it. I stand here and tell you it's not lawful. And
I stand here and speak to God and speak for you in God's name
and tell you God won't tolerate it. But this passage specifically
has reference to spiritual vows. I baptized a good many of you
who as believers come here And make a public vow to God. A public
vow to God. I'm dead with Christ. I'm buried
with Christ. And by the grace of God, this
is my determination. I belong to Christ. I walk with
Him in the nearness of life. Heed number one. Heed number
one. I consecrate myself to Him. To
His cause and to His church. You better pay it. You better
pay it. That's what the folks over Macedonia
did. Paul said they did not as we
hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and to us
by the will of God. I want to be like Jephthah. Remember
Jephthah? He went out in the days of the
judges in Israel, I believe it's Judges chapter 11, and he said,
God, I'm counting on you. Deliver this people to my hand. And if you'll give me victory
this day, if you'll give me victory this day, when I go home, first
thing comes out of my doors, I'll sacrifice it to you. God
gave him victory. Man alive, he went home a happy
man. Until he saw the first thing coming out of his door. It was his darling daughter. Can you imagine how his countenance
must have sunk? Now wait a minute. I didn't understand
what it was going to cost me, Lord. You'll understand that.
That's not how he responded, wasn't murder. Now, I didn't
realize it was going to be this serious. You don't expect me
to keep back. No. He said, honey, I've lifted
my hand to God. I can't go back. I'm out of now. And I'm going to pay what God
requires. Then he says, call on me in the
day of trouble. I've been able to handle this
so well this morning in prayer, not just calling out for God
to help when you're in trouble. No. This is much, much more than
simply crying out for help in times of difficulty. Somebody
gets in trouble, every atheist in the world, while he may not
speak it openly, every professed atheist in the world, every rebel,
every wretch, when he gets in enough trouble, calls and says,
God help me! God help me! That's not what it's talking
about. This is talking about worship.
To call on the name of the Lord is to worship him. To call on
the name of the Lord is to trust him. To call on the name of the
Lord is to bow before him. And this is what he says, you
call on me in the day of trouble. You worship me. You worship me. Like Job of old, he said, naked
came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return to them.
He said the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. I worship Him. Fourthly, true
worship carries with it the promise of salvation. God says I will
deliver thee. Call on me and I'll save you.
Call, worship me and I'll deliver you. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Now that does not mean that we
will be saved in response to our faith or as a result of our
faith, but it does mean wherever faith is found, wherever men
are found calling on the name of the Lord in true worship,
God promises deliverance, and deliverance He'll give. Fifthly,
true faith always glorifies God, particularly in the matter of
salvation. Thou shalt glorify me. Faith
glorifies God because it always ascribes the whole of grace,
the whole of salvation to God alone. Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto thy name give glory and honor and praise for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Salvation is of the Lord. Now, look at verses 16 through
21. And here God exposes the wickedness
of lost religionists. Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare
my statutes? Are that thou shouldst take my
covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and
castest my words behind thee? When thou sawest a thief, then
thou contendest with him, or consentest with him, and thou
hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil,
and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against
thy brother, thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These
things hast thou done." And I kept silent. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such in one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set them in
order before thine eyes." Here our Lord addresses himself
to those multitudes of lost men and women in every generation,
and there are multitudes of them, always have been in the majority,
always will be. Those multitudes of lost men
and women who profess to be his, who profess faith in his name.
Religious people who take his name to their lips and wear his
name proudly, wear his name with great, great pride. I'm a Christian,
I want you to know it. Wear his name and defy you, defy
you to challenge the validity of their claim. And God says,
you don't have any right to wear my name. And then he describes
who doesn't have any right to. Turn back to the book of Ezra.
This is exactly what Zerubbabel and Yeshua said to the enemies
and adversaries of Benjamin and Judah when they were about to
rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem and to rebuild the
temple in Jerusalem. These fellows came to them and
they said, these enemies, these enemies of Israel, these folks
who despised the Israelites, they came to them and said, let
us help you build the wall. Let us help you build the wall.
We'll be with you in this day. After all, we serve God just
like you do. We worship the Lord too. Now
look what they said in verse 2. They came to Zerubbabel, or came
with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, Nehemiah, and Zariah, and Releah, and Mordecai, Bilshen, Mizpah, Bitvai, Raham,
and Benaiah, and the number of the men of the people of Israel,
and the children of Phaarosh, two thousand. And they spoke
to them and said to them that you cannot, you cannot be partakers
with us in this thing. You cannot, you cannot join us
in this. You have no part with Israel.
Let me find that passage. I've written down the wrong passage
here. Chapter 4, I'm sorry. Ezra 4. Verse 4. Verse 3. Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the
rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, You
have nothing to do with us. You don't have any part with
us. You have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our
God. No, you can't help us. We're not part of you. And you're
not part of us. Our Lord spoke to the Pharisees.
in Luke chapter 11. Now listen, this is a remarkable
thing. Our Lord had been invited to
a Pharisee's house. He was at a party, a guest in
the Pharisee's house. And the Pharisees now wanted
to join the bandwagon. They wanted to wear his name. They wanted to be considered
his disciples. And this is what our Lord said.
in the Pharisees' house, to the Pharisees, about the Pharisees,
publicly. Woe unto you, for you have taken
away the key of knowledge. You entered not in yourselves,
and them that were entering in, you hindered. No, no, no, you
don't have any right to wear my name. You see, God knows the
hearts and motives of all men. And here he describes the character
of those religious leaders in the world in every age. They
never change. Their character never changes.
Those religious leaders whose religion is the religion of the
world, whose religion is the religion of the beast, the religion
of man, Arminian free will works religion. And he says you hate
instruction. You despise the teaching of the
gospel. You despise the word of God tested behind your back.
You hear it and you say, well, not interested in that, throw
it away. You're thieves. They rob God of his glory in
the whole work of salvation, in the whole work of providence.
And more than that, they rob widows' houses in the name of
God. They're adulterers. In John chapter 8, we have that
story of the adulterous woman. And it's interesting, one of
them was involved in it, but they didn't say anything about
him. He's all right for them. They were adulterers, literally
and spiritually. They worshiped other gods. They
went a hurry after strange gods. They were partakers of Babylon's
fornications. And they speak evil, speak evil
of doctrines. And they speak evil doctrines,
and the evil doctrines they speak are the doctrines of freewill
works religion. They preach that religion which
claims holiness but promotes ungodliness. And they're slanderers. Slanderers. Don't hesitate to
slander those who preach the gospel of God's grace, those
who stand for it, those who defend it. When they can't repudiate
the doctrine, they love to slander it. You folks have watched enough
trials or seen enough news reports about trials in the last year
to find out the surest way to discredit a man's witness. The
surest way to discredit a man's testimony in a court of law is
to discredit the man. Find some way, dig up some kind
of dirt, and throw it all over him. Throw it all over him. If
you can discredit the man, they presume you can discredit his
testimony. And that's the way of the ungodly in the world.
When they cannot repudiate the doctrine of the gospel, when
they cannot repudiate that which is plainly taught in the word
of God, what they attempt to do is slander the man and make
him appear to be a vile person. At the bottom of all heresy,
at the bottom of all forms of Arminian freewill works religion
is the fact that those men who embrace such heresies have a
very low view of God. and a very high view of man.
Look at verse 21. God says, Thou thoughtest that
I was altogether such in one as thyself. That was the problem
in David's day, that was the problem in our Lord's day, and
that's the problem today. Now, next God warns the wicked
of his certain impending wrath. He says in verse 22, consider
this. He said, I will reprove thee.
I will set your crimes in order before your eyes. That is, I'm
going to make you understand exactly why I'm sending you to
hell. You're going to acknowledge it. I'll tear you in pieces. God's wrath is not something
to be winked at. There shall be none to deliver.
God says, when I've set you for judgment, you're a dead man. When I set you and marked you
for hell, you're as good as in hell. None shall deliver." Now
then, look at verse 23. Here God promises salvation to
all who believe, even to those who have heretofore despised
him and despised the gospel of his free grace. Whoso offereth
praise, whoso looks to me, offering praise, glorifyeth me. And to
him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation
of God." Now in this context, to offer praise simply means
that you cease from all foolish notions of free will, self-righteous
work, salvation, and trust Christ alone. To believe on the Son
of God is to quit trying to get saved. To believe on the Son of God
is to quit trying to do something by which you can get God to save
you. To believe on the Son of God
is to praise Him for all His salvation freely bestowed upon
you. To believe on Him is just to
rest in Him. Just to look to His finished work and praise
Him, glorify Him. And to such as do, God says,
these are men who order their lives aright. You see, this God-given
faith in the finished work of Christ rules and governs and
motivates the life of that man or that woman who possesses it.
It governs. Their lives are well-ordered,
whose lives are ordered by the gospel. They're well-ordered. And to those people, God says,
I will show my salvation. I'll show you the cause of it,
the base of it, the fact of it, the experience of it, the wonder
of it, the mystery of it. And I'll show you the accomplishment
of it. I will show you my salvation. The Lord may bear his holy arm
in the eyes of all the nations, and the ends of the earth shall
see the salvation of our God. May God have his blessings now
through his word, and cause us to see his salvation. I'm getting more and more every
day to speak like Simeon of old. Lord, now let your servant depart
in peace according to your word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Oh may God call you to see his
salvation by his almighty grace. Amen.