The 50th Psalm. Psalm 50. The mighty God, even the Lord,
hath spoken. and called the earth from the
rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come and shall
not keep silence. A fire shall devour before him. and it shall be very tempestuous
round about 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, and the
heavens shall declare his righteousness. For God has judged himself Here, O my people, and I will
speak. O Israel, and 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. I will take no bullock out of thine house, nor he goats
out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest
is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of
the mountain and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were
hungry, I'd 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? Offer unto God thanksgiving.
and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon me in the
day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify
me. But unto the wicked God saith,
what hast thou to do to declare my statutes? Or that thou shouldst
take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction,
and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, thou
consentest with him, and 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 against thine
own mother's son. These things hast thou done,
and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such in one as thyself. But I will reprove thee and set
them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget
God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver.
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. and to him that ordereth
his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might have your presence that you would be pleased to
speak from your word to our hearts and enable us to hear, receive,
and believe thy son and thy gospel. Lord, forgive us of our sins
for Christ's sake, and may we be enabled to see him anew and
afresh. Be with our friends that aren't
here. Lord, we would especially remember Jessica, that your healing
hand would be upon her. Bless all your people for Christ's
sake, wherever they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Read verse 21 with me once again. These things hast thou done and
I kept silence, Now look at this line, this is so important. You
thought, thou thoughtest, that I was altogether
such in one as thyself. Now here is where men's problems
arise in their thoughts of God. They think, God's like me. Here's the way I would think,
this is the way God would think. Here's what I would do, this
is what God would do. Wrong. Wrong all together. Now let's begin in verse 1. The mighty God, even the Lord,
hath spoken. Aren't you thankful for that?
God has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the
sun into the going down thereof. His speech is continual. Out
of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shine. Now Zion's the
church and look what God calls the church. The perfection of
beauty. Now, how can that be? You know
yourself. Would you call yourself the perfection
of beauty? Well, Hebrews 10, 14 says, by one offering, he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And this describes
every believer, the perfection of beauty. You don't feel that
way. I don't feel that way, but that's
the way it is. This is God's description of
every child of God, the perfection of beauty. And notice he says,
out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined. Now,
what this is talking about is the church being the pillar and
the ground of the truth. This church, who in and of itself
is so weak, is still the pillar and ground of the truth through
whom God shines his gospel. Now he says in verse three, our
God shall come and shall not keep silence. A fire shall devour
before him. And it shall be very tempestuous
round about him. Now, fire always represents judgment.
God's judgment. This is what this is a reference
to, his judgment. He shall call to the heavens
from above, verse four, and to the earth that he may judge his
people. Now, the judgment of his people
took place on the cross. This is not talking about God
coming through to punish us or burn us up. His judgment has
taken place on the cross. The fire of his wrath came down
upon Christ and every one of his people were judged all their
sin condemned, all their sin put away, and they were then
justified. God is judge, and God declares
every believer the perfection of beauty to be justified. Now, someone that doesn't understand
the gospel, they'll just read a verse like that and it'll scare
them. God's gonna come and burn me up. But this is talking about
God's judgment of his people in the gospel. He shall call
to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge
his people. Gather my saints together unto
me." Now, these are the people he's talking about, his saints.
Now, don't you love that God calls every one of his people
saints? I read this week... a Catholic
church had found another saint and declared him to be a saint.
That is so ridiculous. Every one of God's people are
his saints. Saint Todd. I like the way that
sounds. Saint Todd. Saint means a sanctified
one. God sanctified his people in
eternal election. He set them apart to be his. Christ sanctified his people
on the cross. They were declared to be holy
by virtue of what he did. Every believer is sanctified
when God the Holy Spirit gives them a new nature, a new heart,
saints. He says, gather my saints together
unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
Now, understand this, God made the covenant with me. I didn't
make the covenant with him. David said, although my house
be not so with God, yet have he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things insure. Now, God made this covenant
with me, but notice the language, those that have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice. Now, here's my only hope, the
sacrifice of Christ. That's what that's a reference
to, that sacrifice of Christ provided in the covenant. I'm
looking nowhere else. When I die, may I die looking
to Christ only. May I live looking to Christ
only. This covenant by sacrifice. And the heavens, verse six, the
heaven should declare his righteousness For God himself is judge. Now,
God is going to declare every believer righteous altogether. It's what the Bible calls justification. He took my sin. I was condemned
for my sin. He takes his righteousness, gives
it to me. I stand before God justified. And I have to say this, every
time I talk about justification, I hope I talk about justification
every time I preach. And I hope you want to hear justification
every time you hear. But justification is not just
as if I never sinned, because if it's just as if I never sinned,
that means I sinned. Justification is I never sinned. Now, that is the hope of every
believer. the justifying work of Christ
on the cross on behalf of his people that makes that poor publican
who beat on his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The Lord says, I say to you,
that man went down to his house. How? Forgiven? Well, he was. Shown mercy? He was, but that's not what Christ
said. He went down to his house justified. Now, he says in verse seven,
here are my people and I will speak. He's speaking to his people
right now. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Here are my people and I will
speak. Oh, Israel, I will testify against thee. I think of where
the Lord said to the churches, I have someone against thee.
He said that to five of them. And here he says to his people,
here, O my people, I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify
against thee. I am God, even thy God. Now he identifies himself,
I shall be to them a God. He's my God. Now he says, I will
not reprove thee for the sacrifice of thy burnt offerings to have
been continually before me. Told in the law to bring these
daily sacrifices. He says, I'm not gonna reprove
you because of that. I will take no bullock out of
thine house, nor he goats out of thy folds. I don't need anything
from you. For every beast of the forest is mine. You think I need anything from
you? And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of
the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were
hungry, I wouldn't tell you, for the world is mine and the
fullness thereof. Now God is utterly independent. He says, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
be asking you for anything. He is utterly and completely
independent. He has no needs. He has no reason to look outside
of himself for anything. You know, when people present
God as needing anything, no, He doesn't. He doesn't need you.
Do you understand that? God does not need you. I've heard people say God has
no hands but your hands and no feet but your feet. Christ had
hands, has hands, Christ has feet. And to present God as needing
anything in order for him to do anything is utterly blasphemous. And the Lord says that. He says,
if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. If the world's mine,
I'm the foolest thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats? Do I get any satisfaction from
these animal sacrifices? It's what they point to, not
the sacrifices themselves. Now here's what he says to do
in verse 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving. You know, we try to offer things
to God. We sin, it's on our conscience, we feel bad about it, and we
try to make up for it. We offer things to God. We offer
our sorrow, we offer our tears, we offer our intentions to never
commit that sin again. How many times have you done
that? Bringing offerings to God. Scripture says in Hebrews 10,
18, where the remission of these is through the blood of Christ,
where the remission of these is, there is no more offering
for sin. And I want you to think of how
many times you've tried to offer up something in your mind. Even
now, still, I do it. You do it. We still have the
old nature. We still have the Pharisee in
us that would make us try something like that, but God says, just
offer up to me Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for who Christ is
and what he accomplished and your acceptance in him offering
them Thanksgiving. Now there's an offering you can
bring. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for
making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich, so free. Now here's something
you can offer up to God right now in your heart by his grace.
Only accepted through Christ is Thanksgiving. and pay thy vows unto the Most
High God. My vow is a vow that I know I
won't keep unless he enables me to keep, and my vow is to
look nowhere but Christ. That's my vow. I don't have anywhere
else to look. Verse 15, look at this promise to his people.
And call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me. Now here's his direction to his
people. Call on me. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, what is it to
call? Lord, help me. Lord, save me. Lord, hear me. Bend your
ear toward me. Do something for me. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call upon
me, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. You
know, when you call upon the Lord, you know what you do? You
glorify him. If by his grace right now I call
upon the Lord, you know what I'm doing? I'm glorifying him. I'm giving him all the glory,
aren't I, when I do that. Instruction to the unbeliever.
Verse 16. Now remember, this is God speaking. He's speaking to all the earth.
This is what he's always saying. Verse 16, but unto the wicked.
Now remember this, there are only two kinds of people in this
world, the righteous and the wicked. Those who are righteous,
God calls them righteous because Christ's righteousness is their
righteousness. And then there's everybody else.
Now he's speaking to the wicked at this time. Unto the wicked
God saith, what hast thou to do to declare my statutes? Or that thou shouldst take my
covenant in thy mouth. What are you doing using my words?
Why say, Lord, Lord, and do not the same, do not the things that
I say. Why do you speak of my covenant?
Why do you speak of my grace? Why do you speak of my mercy?
Why do you speak of my blood when you change the meaning and
you just cast the words behind you? Look what he says. Seeing
you hate instruction, you don't love what I say and you cast
my words behind you. When you saw a thief, you consented
with him. And you've been a partaker with
adulterers. Now, what is the most grotesque robbery and thievery
there is? Seeking to rob God of glory.
You believe that? So, and he says, you consented
with that person. You gave your agreement to that
person who is seeking to rob me of my glory. He said, my glory. And his glory
is who he is. Remember, it's only right that
God gets all the glory because that's who he is. It's only right
that God gets all the glory. And it's a very safe thing for
the believer because if he gets all the glory and I get none,
that means he does everything in salvation. And that's what
I'm relying on, that he did it all. Now, he says, when you saw
a thief, you consented with him and you've been a partaker with
adulterers. Now, obviously, Sexual sin in any form is wrong. Adultery is wrong. But he's talking
about spiritual adultery. And what do you do when you enter
into marriage? You make a covenant with that
person. You're going to be with them.
Now, spiritual adultery is looking for something outside of the
covenant God made with his son. That's what spiritual adultery
is. If you look for peace, comfort, assurance, in anything other
than Christ alone. You've left the covenant, and
that is spiritual adultery. And that's what he's warning
against. He says in verse 19, thou givest thy mouth the evil,
and thy tongue frameth the deceit. You know, everything an unbeliever
says with regard to God is deceitful and wrong, everything. Everything. And that's what he says with
regard to, you take my word, you take my covenant in your
mouth, but you don't know what it means. You change the meaning of it.
You cast my words behind your back and everything you say is
evil and deceit. And then he says in verse 20,
thou citizen speakest against thy brother. Thou slanderest
thine own mother's son. Now this is the religion of personal
comparison. I might be bad, but I'm better
than this person. That's everybody's religion. We compare ourselves
to others. I might not reach this person's
height of spirituality, but I'm better than this person. And
I'm gonna slander him. And what we do in doing that
is we try to make other people's shine darker so we look better
ourselves. That's all that is about, any
kind of slandering, any kind of negative speaking about anybody. All we're doing is trying to
promote ourself and make ourselves look better than somebody else.
He said, you sit and speak against your brother, you slander your
own mother's son. These things hast thou done.
And I kept silence. I didn't say anything yet. And
here is what every natural man's problem is. You thought I was
just like you. We think about how we think of
things and we think they're right and we think God must be that
way. No, he's not. Every thought that we have of
God naturally is wrong. He's just not like us. See, God
is other. That's what holy means. It means
other. He's altogether other. He's not like you. He's not like
me. He's all too. There's no one
like him. There's no one who can be compared
to him. If you make any comparison, it's
wrong. It's idolatry. It's making a
false god. Well, God's like this. God's
like that. No, he's not. God's other. God
is who he is. I am that I am. And he says, you thought I was
like you. It's kind of like what Martin
Luther said to Erasmus. There was this big debate going
on between them over free will. And I love this statement that
Martin Luther said to Erasmus, your God is too human. Good statement, isn't it? Your
God, the man made God, the God of religion. The God of American
Christianity is way too human. He's a false God. He bears no
resemblance to the God of the Bible. Now, he says, I will reprove thee and set them
in order before your eyes. You're going to see who I am
in judgment. I'm going to reprove you for
this. You're going to see it all. Now he says in verse 22, now
consider this, ye that forget God. Now, how many times have you gone
maybe a whole day without even thinking about God? You're busy,
you've got things to do. We ought to always be conscious
of his presence, I know that. There ought not ever be a time
when we're not thinking of the Lord, but I remember particularly,
this is one of the good things. Now, all I got to do is study
all day, and I get to open the Bible, and I'm reading the Bible,
and everybody else is out working. But I remember what it is to
be working and put my head on the pillow and actually think,
I've not thought about the Lord all day. Y'all ever done that? Don't tell me. He's not talking about forgetting
in that sense. We ought not. It just shows how
fleshly we can be when we can just forget the Lord. He's talking about forgetting
the Lord in the sense of thinking he's not everything at all times. In providence, controlling everything,
everything in salvation. Everything in creation. He's
everything and you forget that you think that's you don't that's
who he's talking about That person who forgets God as being everything
as being all in salvation as being all in everything now consider
this you that forget God lest I tear you to pieces and There
be none to deliver verse 23 Whoso offereth praise To God be the glory, great things
he hath done. You praise him for what he's
done. Whoso offers praise glorifies me. And to him that ordereth
his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.
Now, my marginal reading says he that disposeth his way. And
that word conversation is the word that is generally translated
the way. Now, who is that person who orders
his conversation aright? The person who stays in the way.
I am the way. Not I am a way among others,
I am the way. No man comes to the father but
by me. Now this is so important. That
doesn't mean you come to the father pleading his name, beside
him, behind him, You come only in Him. You wouldn't dare approach
God any other way. Now that is to order your conversation
aright. That's to be disposed to the
way. There's one way to the Father. Do you understand that? There's
only one way to the Father. It's through the sun. It's not
through your works. It's not through your efforts.
It's not through your understanding. It's not through your knowledge.
It's not through your intentions. You don't have anything to do
with it. You come only in the sun. You come only in the sun. You've ordered your conversation
aright, and God promises, I will show you the salvation of God,
who is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the salvation of God. Amen.