Okay, Psalm 50. Psalm 50. An interesting psalm. An interesting
psalm. Begins where everything begins. It begins where everything begins. The mighty God. The mighty God. Everything begins and has its
end and is sustained by your Creator. Your God. God who says, beside me there
is no other God. He said, I am God. Beside me
there is no other. All things begin with God. All
things end with God. In the beginning, in the beginning
when God created all things. Did God have his beginning then
when he created all things? Oh no. He is the eternal God. It says in, I think it's Psalm
90, from everlasting to everlasting, I am God. He is the everlasting
God. So we begin where God begins. All things have their beginning
in Him. And He is, as He's described
here, He's not the weak God. He's not the impotent God. He is the Almighty God. Now if God is God, and He is,
then He has to be the absolute God of all things. He is Lord
in heaven and in earth. That is, beside Him, He has no
rival. He has no one who persuades Him
this way or that way. Everything He does, He does on
purpose. Everything He does in heaven and earth, He does according
to His own pleasure. This is the mighty God. This
is the God in whom we have to do." Now, you have to do with
this God. Not the God of your imagination.
Not the God that you hear preached to other places. We're talking
here about the mighty God. Talking here about the God as
He's revealed in Scripture. Not as we think He is, but as
He is. How is God revealed in Scripture?
Well, He's almighty. That means He's sovereign. That
means he works all things after the counsel of his own will.
He is the almighty sovereign God. He is the holy one of God. The holy one of God. He is the
only one that is holy. Turn over here to Psalm 99 and
take a look at this. Psalm 99 verse 9. 99-9. You can
remember this, can't you? 99 9 describes something about his
character Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill
for the Lord our God is holy He's holy, but we're fine Exalt
the Lord our God psalm 99 verse 5 and worship at his footstool
for he is He's holy This is a God with whom we have to do. This
is a God of Holy Scripture. The mighty God. The mighty God. Now look what it says next in
Psalm 50 verse 1. This God who is God over all
things. I like what O. Arthur Pink said
in his book on the sovereignty of God. Simply means that God
is God. that God is God. And all that
that means, and all that that comprehending statement, God
is God in creation, God is God in providence, and God is God
in salvation. He will have mercy on whom He
will. God is God. He's a mighty God. He is the
Lord. Now that means He's got our Savior.
You know he's called in scripture a just God and Savior? This one who is the mighty God,
you know that he is almighty to save? Matter of fact, he's
the only one who can. Because our case is so desperate
and so vile, because we're so dead and rotten and guilty, if
he's not the mighty God who is able to save, this sinner has
no hope of salvation. But aren't you glad he's able
to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him? This
is the one whom we worship. This is the one in whom we came
to declare his name. And this is the one in whom we
delight to worship. The only place where a sinner
will really bow before the throne of God is before the throne of
an almighty God. The mighty God, even the Lord. Now watch this, He's spoken.
Now this one who is the almighty God, who speaks with all authority
and power, do you know what that tells us? That tells us we ought
to sit up and listen. That means we ought to unstop
our ears and clean out our ears and sit up and pay attention
to what God says. now often in the scriptures our
Lord said to his disciples blessed are your ears for you hear you
hear blessed are your eyes for they see oh to be blessed of
God to hear him speak well how does he speak? how does God speak? how does God speak to his people?
you have it right here through his word through his word We
don't tell folks, well, you know, go out and ask God to give you
a vision. Or go and, you know, trust your... I've heard folks say, well, you
know, I had a vision last night in a dream and God spoke to me.
I'd be afraid of that. I'd be afraid of that. It may
be another spirit. It may be an evil spirit that
has spoken to you. God has spoken to us in this
day through His Word. God has given all Scripture is
God-preserved, God-inspired, and God-given. Well, if God has
spoken through His Word and by His servants, well, I tell you,
we'll have to listen to God Almighty. You know, everything we need
to know, everything we need to know, about sin, about salvation,
about truth, about our fall, about how God saves sinners is
found in this written Word of God. All Scripture is God-given. The Lord has spoken. Oh, I tell
you, we ought to be eager. You know what it says in the
book of James, doesn't it? In the book of James, doesn't it
say to be, let every man be swift to hear? Hear what? I know we're
often swift to hear the philosophies of men. We're often swift to
hear the clever, cunning sayings of men. We're often swift to
hear what men say, but let's be swift to hear what God says.
Let's be eager and ready and willing to hear, thus says the
Lord. He speaks, not as the scribes
and Pharisees, as we read in Matthew 7. He speaks with all
authority. His Word has power. Power. You know, when we speak the Word
of God, we don't make it powerful. We just simply speak what God's
already said. That's what preaching is. When
you sum all the bottom line in preaching, and all I try to do
is repeat what God's already said. You see, His Word is the
power of God unto salvation. His Word is quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword. So I just read what God says.
And He'll bless that to the hearts of His people. The mighty God,
the Lord, has spoken. Now if I spend this much time
on the rest of these, of the remaining 22 verses, we're going
to be here a long time. So I've got to move on. I've
got to move on, but we start where God, where the Bible starts. Where does the Bible start? In
the beginning, God. In the beginning, God. Or really,
it's this way. In beginning. In beginning, God. That's what really reads in the
original. In beginning, God. The mighty God. Even the Lord,
Jehovah, our Savior, He has spoken. God has spoken and God has called
the earth from the rising of the sun. Who causes the sun to
come up? Well, you know, it just happens,
does it? You know, the sun, pretty soon the sun is going to set.
How does that happen? Well, you know, it just happens. No, it
doesn't. God causes it to happen. The earth as it rotates. How
does it? Do you ever notice how exact
time is, the seasons, how they just change on exactly the same
schedule every year? How does that happen? Well it
says in Colossians chapter 1 that by Him are all things created
and by Him all things consist. And that word if you look it
up it means all things are held together by Him. He causes the
sun to come up and to go down From the rising of the sun and
to the going down of the same, He is God Almighty. Would you hear Him? Would you
worship Him? Would you bow to Him? Now watch
this. Verse 2. Verse 2. God has spoken. What does He
speak? Absolute truth. He said, Heaven
and Earth, I passed away. But my word will never pass away. Never pass away. I've got to
get down to verse 2. There's my note, verse 2. Out
of Zion. Out of Zion. Now this is God's
gospel Zion. Jerusalem, that old city years
ago, was known as a place of Zion. That's a place where God
was worshipped, where the sacrifice, the Day of Atonement, all those
priestly endeavors went about. It's a place where God met with
sinners and where sinners met with God upon that mercy seat
there in the Holy of Holies. But out of Zion, this is God's
gospel Zion, this is God's church. The perfection of beauty. Zion
is the perfection of God's beauty. Zion, God's people, God's church,
is the perfection of His beauty. For He has made us, in Christ
Jesus, gloriously righteous in His sight, out of Zion. Zion,
God's church. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. He washed it and made it clean,
every wit in his blood. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty. And the perfection of beauty
is Christ. He is altogether lovely. And he has made his church a
perfection of beauty. God has shined. God has shined. You know, God commands the light
to shine out of darkness. And He has shined in our hearts
to give us the light of the glory of God. He has caused the light
of God to shine in our heart that we might see the glory of
God, the glory of His mercy, the glory of His salvation. Where
is it revealed? In the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, in the face of Christ. Adam Zion. Zion's a perfection
of beauty, His beauty. God has shined out of his Zion. God has shined. Oh, how he shines. He shines. For he is what he's
called. He is the light of the world. And in him, John said, is no
darkness at all. God has shined. Oh, Lord, shine
in my heart. Shine in my darkened heart. You
see, by nature, we love darkness, not light. My prayer is, Lord,
shine in my heart. Shine in your heart. He is the
perfection of beauty. Don't you want Him to shine in
your heart? Shine in me, O Lord. Now, watch this. In verse 1,
it says, God has spoken. Well, let's be ready to hear.
In verse 2, it says, God has shined. Let us pray, Lord, shine
in my heart. In verse 3, God shall come. He
shall come. He shall come. I shall not keep
silent. God shall come, a fire shall
devour before him, and it shall be a very tempestuous, it shall
be a consuming fire round about him. Our God shall come. Now this is speaking in prophetic,
prophetically speaking to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the whole Old Testament says this, someone's coming, someone's
coming. Someone's coming. The seed of
the woman, he will come. The promised seed, he will come.
Someone's coming. And this is speaking the same
thing. Our God shall come. Now this is talking about the
coming, the first advent, the first coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? He's our God. In the
fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. Our
God shall come. For He did, didn't He? He did. Our God did come, and He did
accomplish for us what we could not accomplish for ourselves.
He accomplished salvation for His covenant people. Our God
shall come, and He did, and He did not keep silence. He did. And He did put away our
sin, and He did for us, His covenant people, He did consume the fire
of God's wrath for us, and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's
no condemnation to those who are in Him. Our God shall come. And you know what? He did. And He accomplished salvation.
And you know what? He's coming. He's coming again.
He's coming back. He's coming back. You know what? He's on his way. Says that in
Revelation chapter 1, "...and he shall come." He's on his way. The Lord is coming back soon. Soon, very soon. Preacher, are
you trying to alarm us? Well, I hope you get alarmed. It's appointed that a man wants
to die, and after that judgment, we're going to see that in the
next verse. Our God shall come. He came the first time to put
away sin, the second time He will come to gather His people
unto Himself, and those who are not found in Him shall stand
before Him and give an answer unto God for all that they have
done against Him. So our God shall come. Now look
at verse 4. He shall call to the heavens
from above, and to the earth, and heaven and earth, that he
may judge his people." Now, no one's going to escape this judgment.
God is either going to judge us in our substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and judge us in Him for our sin, or He's going
to judge us eternally in ourselves for our sin, one or the other.
He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that
he may judge his people I'm thinking of the scripture over here in
Philippians Chapter 2 in Philippians chapter 2 when he talks about
God's going to Gather it mentions there. It mentions there in the
text heaven and earth God will call from above and to the earth,
that he may judge his people. Look what it says over here in
Philippians chapter 2. He says in verse 9, Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things in earth, and things
under the earth. No one is going to escape this
day of judgment. And that every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Do you confess Him now as Lord? Well, I trust that you do. But I tell you, in that day,
you will. You'll confess that He is Lord
to the glory of God the Father. Now back to Psalm 50. He shall
call to the heavens above, from above. and to the earth that
he may judge his people." Now, who is this judge? Look down
at verse 6 for a moment. "...and the heavens shall declare
his righteousness, for God is judge himself." Who's going to
be the judge? God himself is our judge. Now, I'm not going to judge you,
and I trust that you won't pass judgment upon me. My judgment wouldn't be just
or right, nor would yours. His judgment always is. God has
appointed a day. Let me show you that scripture,
if we can find it together. I think it's found in Acts 17.
Acts chapter 17. Acts 17, look at verse 31. Well,
verse 30 says it, Acts 17, verse 30, In the time of this ignorance,
God winked at, that is, the times of darkness and idolatry, but
now commands all men everywhere to repent because, verse 31,
He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man." Now, God's got a standard of judgment. And it's
not my standard. I'm not the standard. You're
not the standard of God's judgment. God's standard of judgment is
absolute perfection. Absolute righteousness. He will
judge the world in righteousness by that man. Not this man. That man. Who's he talking about? The God-Man Mediator, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He'll judge the world in righteousness
by that standard. All judgment is relative to Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you one with Him? Or are
you alienated from Him? Whereof He has given assurance
unto all men that He raised Him from the dead. He did die for
our sin, but He didn't remain dead. When He by Himself purged
our sin, where did He sit down? He sat down on the throne of
glory. And to those who are not in Christ
Jesus is the throne of judgment. God himself is the righteous
judge. So God has spoken. God hath shined. God shall come. God shall call. And then in verse 5, God shall
judge his people, verse 4 and verse 6. And then it says in
verse 5, God will gather his people together. Look what he says in verse 5,
gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice. He shall gather his saints together,
those sanctified in the covenant of grace, set aside by his elected
choice, and made whole by the sacrifice of Christ, he shall
gather them because he chose them, because he bought them,
and he shall have them with, he shall have those for whom
he bought. Gather my saints." Who are these
saints anyway? You know, I'm looking at some
saints here tonight. Every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ is a saint. Every believer is sanctified
in Christ Jesus. God's going to gather out His
saints. God's going to call out His elect out of darkness. God
has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It
says in Colossians chapter 1, He's translated us out of the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. And
He's going to separate those saints and gather those saints
unto Him those that have made this covenant with me by sacrifice."
Now, how did we make a covenant with Him by sacrifice? How did
we do that? In Christ. He represents me,
see? He's my surety. He's my representative
of the covenant. We've made a covenant by sacrifice. He's the surety of the covenant,
and you know what? He's the sacrifice of the covenant.
Remember what David said in his dying words, God has made, ordered
all things, and is sure God has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and is sure this is all my hope and
all my salvation. God's going to gather us. God's
going to speak. God's going to shine. God's going
to come. God's going to call. God's going
to judge. God's going to gather us. And
the heavens shall declare his righteousness. You see that in
verse 6? The heavens shall declare his
righteousness. Now, notice it's his righteousness. The heavens declare his righteousness. This book declares his righteousness. Not mine. Not yours. His righteousness. Turn over here to Psalm 71. This
psalm here speaks all about the righteousness that God has provided
for us in our substitute Jesus Christ. Psalm 71 verse 15, My
mouth shall show forth thy righteousness. Now when I speak of righteousness,
I'm talking about Jehovah Sid Canoe. that is the Lord our righteousness
my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness thy salvation all
the day for I know not the numbers thereof I will go in the strength
of the Lord I'll make mention of thy righteousness even of
thine only O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto
have I declared thy wondrous works now also when I'm old and
gray-headed boy that's me now isn't it O God, forsake me not,
until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy
power to come, and thy power to everyone that is to come.
Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high. Who hath done great
things? O God, who is life unto thee?
So we declare His righteousness. Look at verse 24 of Psalm 71.
My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day
long. for they are confounded, for
they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt." Now, whose righteousness
here is he talking about? He's talking about the righteousness
of God that is revealed in the gospel. Remember what Paul said
in Romans chapter 1, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe
it. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed in Christ Jesus. And this is the righteousness
we have in Christ that we're blessed with, and it's a righteousness
that's freely given. It's a righteousness that's imputed
unto us. I know that word imputed. It
sounds like a big word, doesn't it? Imputed. What is imputed
righteousness? What does the word impute mean?
All of us understand the concept of a credit card. All of you
probably have a credit card, don't you? Or a debit card. You
don't have a credit card. Well, that's good. That's a good
thing. Well, all of us who do have a credit card, when you
take that credit card and you scan it, that charge is imputed
to your account you're responsible for. Well, what we enjoy in the
gospel is a righteousness that's imputed to us freely without
our works. It's freely given to us of God.
Don't wonder The Apostle said, blessed is that man to whom God
would impute this righteousness of God in Christ without works. That's good news, isn't it? Two
things that this sinner has to have to stand before God. I have
to have a justifying righteousness that's given to me that is provided
by God in Christ who is the Lord my righteousness. What else do
I need? I need my sin put away. I need a Redeemer to put away
my sin. Well, in the Lord Jesus Christ
we have righteousness provided. that He's provided, and only
that which He provides will He accept. And we have redemption,
we have our sin put away by our kinsman Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And only that Redeemer that's
appointed of God and sent of God is the Redeemer that He will
accept. We are accepted in the Beloved,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, back to Psalm 50. Here and the heavens shall declare
his righteousness. This book has a message of righteousness. Righteousness provided in Christ
Jesus. Now, he says in verse 7, hear,
O my people, hear, O my people, I will speak. And God said, I've
got a word against you. I've got some instruction for
you. I'm going to testify against you, against you. You better
hear, God's getting ready to speak, O Israel. I will testify
against you. I am God. He said, I'm your God. I'm your God, whether you like
it or not. God is your God. Now look what he says here, I'll not reprove thee for thy
sacrifices, or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before
me. God's saying this, He's saying,
I'm not going to criticize you because of all your ceremonies
and all your righteousness and all your religious doings, all
your traditions. He said, you have enough. I mean,
you have plenty of those things. That's what he's saying here.
You have all the ceremonies, you have all these things. He
said, you have enough religion, but you don't have Christ. You
don't have Christ. I'll not reprove thee for thy
sacrifice of thy burnt offerings. They've been continually before
me. And Israel of old, they were most religious, but they were
lost, weren't they? He said, I will not take a bullock
out of your house, or I don't need the goats of your fold.
For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon
a thousand hills is mine. I know all the fowls of the mountains,
the wild beasts of the field, they're all mine. If I were hungry,
I wouldn't tell you For the world is mine, and the fullness thereof."
Here's what he's saying. God is saying, I don't need you.
Jehovah means he's the eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient
God. He doesn't need us. He doesn't
need our offerings, our ceremony, our doing, our works. We contribute
nothing to salvation, is what he's saying. He said, I'm full
up to here with all your religious work. Away with it! He said,
it's abomination in my sight. You remember what the Lord said
to those Pharisees? He said, you are those who justify yourselves
before God. But he said, that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination. Away with it. He said, it's just
filthy rags. I don't need you. If I were hungry,
God said, I wouldn't tell you. Well, I eat the flesh of bulls
and drink the blood of goats. God doesn't need us. Will the
blood of bulls and goats take away sin? Well, we know that.
Won't happen, will it? It takes not the blood of an
animal, but the blood of God Himself to make atonement for
our sin. So what are we to do? Look at
verse 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving.
Offer unto God thanksgiving. Verse 14. Offer unto God, or
come unto God, come unto the Lord with a thankful heart. Offer
unto God worship, true heart worship. You see, men look on
the outward countenance, don't they? Religious men, they go
through all these strict religious ceremonies, all these religious
doings. They appear outwardly righteous
before men. But God said this, I know your
heart. Your heart's full of dead men's
bones. He says, offer unto God thanksgiving. Come with a thankful heart. Come
with a grateful heart. Come thanking God for all things
in salvation. And then it says here, pay thy
vows. Pay what you owe unto God. Pay
thy vows unto the Most High God. What is he saying here? Offer
unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High God. You know what we owe God? Everything. Give Him thanks in everything,
knowing that all that we have, all that we are, all that we
know, all that we ever will be someday, is by His grace. Can't we say with the Apostle
Paul, I am what I am by the grace of God? And His grace which was
bestowed upon me was not in vain. It's not in vain grace, but it's
glorifying grace. Offer unto God thanksgiving and confess unto Him that everything
you've been blessed with is a gift of His grace unto thee. Pay what
you owe unto God. What are you owing? Everything.
Be thankful. Look unto Him to provide all
things for you. And then again it says in verse
15, Call upon Me. Call upon Me. In a day of trouble, I'll deliver thee. Call upon
Me. Now, it says over in Romans chapter
10, Whosoever. Now that's a pretty big word,
isn't it? I mean, it's a wide word. Whosoever. Whosoever. You know I'm a whosoever? You know, you are a whosoever.
It doesn't say, Tom should call upon the name of the Lord. That's
my name, Tom. Tom Tom. Some folks call me Tom Tom. Yeah,
okay. It doesn't say, Tom should call
upon the name of the Lord. But it says, whosoever. shall call upon the name of the
Lord, shall be saved." I'm a whosoever. Are you? I don't know. Have you
called upon the Lord for salvation? I'm a whosoever. It said, call
upon me in the day of trouble. In the day of trouble. Have you
ever been heartbroken? Heartbroken. I was talking to
a friend of mine one time. He was a new friend that I had
made. And he came over to our building
and welded those big steel pipes in underneath the I-beams in
our building. His name is John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He won't mind me telling this.
He probably won't listen to this, but his name is JFK. I thought,
wow, he's got a real name. John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I told
him, I said, I bet your dad was a Democrat. He said, yeah, he
probably was. But I was talking to him about
trouble, trouble. I said, do you know anything
about trouble? Do you know anything about being broken hearted? And he
just came to a separation with his wife. And he said, oh, he
said, Oh, I tell you, he said, I know something about trouble. Oh, he said, my heart was so
broken. He said, my wife, she left me
and she doesn't love me. My heart's just broken. I said,
well, that's a good thing. I said, well, the scriptures
teach those who are broke, God's denying to them of a broken heart.
I said, you're broken hearted because your sweetheart left
you. But those who are broken hearted
over the fact that they've sinned against God and know that they
are deserving of God's judgment, have you ever been heartbroken
over sin? I said, that's a good thing to
be heartbroken over sin. Ever been troubled about sin?
Ever been troubled about the fact that you're a sinner? That you're guilty? That God
says you're guilty? Boy, I have. I am. I'm still
troubled. Still troubled. I'm still calling
upon Him because I have a sin issue. I have a sin problem.
Now I rejoice in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ put away
my sin, but you know what? I'm still a sinner. I still sin
every day. I still sin, I think, every moment
of my life. Because sin in reality is not
what I do, it's what I am. And what I do is just a fruit
of what this old nature is before God. I wish I could go a minute
or two and just have Just have glorious thoughts, holy thoughts. But I do for just a moment or
two and then I'm right back in the gutter. I'm right up on the
mountain and right back in the gutter. One day I'll be done
with this old flesh. One day I'll drop this old body
of flesh and I'll rise to be with Him and then I'll sin no
more. Sin no more. Won't that be a
glorious day? Call upon me in a day of trouble.
I'll deliver thee. I tell you, those who are delivered
by His power, you see, you know the Lord Jesus Christ is, He's
called our Deliverer. He shall save all Israel from
their sin. He is our Deliverer. You know
the word redemption has the meaning of being delivered. He says in
Ephesians 1 verse 7, in whom we have redemption. We have redemption. We have deliverance
from our sin through the riches of His grace. We have redemption. Call upon Me in the day of trouble,
and I will, I will, I will deliver thee. I will deliver thee. And those who are delivered by
His grace, delivered from condemnation and from sin, they do glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ. We say with the Apostle Paul,
God forbid, God forbid, I should glory save in the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, there is a further word
here to those unbelieving wicked, but under the wicked God saith,
verse 16, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that
thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth? Seeing that,
look what it says, seeing that you hate instructions, and you
cast my words behind your back? You cast my words away? You refuse to hear what God would
say? Seeing that you hate instructions
and you cast my words behind you? When thou saw'st a thief,
you took up with him. The thief here is those who would
rob God of His glory, who would take some glory to themselves,
and that's what the flesh would do. You've been a partaker with
his evil deeds, we're warned in Scripture not to partake of
the evil deeds of those who come preaching another gospel, another
Christ. Thou hast given thy mouth to
evil thoughts, that thou hast given thy mouth to evil in thy
tongue, Framing deceit thou citizen speakest against thy brother
you slander your own mother's son Look at verse 21 these things
Have you done? Have you done? And I kept silence
And here's, this is most insightful, the Lord says to the wicked man,
the unbeliever, the ungodly, the agnostic, the ones who are
atheists, I don't believe there is a true atheist, because even
in his statement, really the sense of the word is atheist
is one who is anti-God, he's anti-theistic. Even in his statement
that he's against God is a statement that he's against the one who
is God. He's not saying there is no God,
he's just saying there is God, but I'm against him. I'm against
him. You thought of us all together
such as one as yourself. You see, fallen men like to bring
God down to his level, where we can deal with him. He's not
going to come down to our level. You thought I was altogether
such as one of yourself, but I reproved thee, and so I set
them in order before your eye. Now consider this, verse 22,
you that forget God, you that say goodbye God, I don't need
him. You ever notice when folks are
really in trouble, really in trouble? Have you ever come upon
a a car wreck or come upon someone who was all of a sudden in great
agony and pain, what do they usually cry out? Oh God, oh God,
oh God. Now consider this, you that forget
God, lest I, and this is most interesting here, let me get
to this last part here. Now consider this, you that would
forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver
you?" You see the Lord who is called The Lord here, who is
called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, what does a lion do? You ever watch those wild kingdom
shows where they have those lions known as the king of the jungle? How they would stalk their prey
and then when they finally pounce on their prey, what do they do?
They just rip it apart. They just tear it up, don't they?
They tear it up. Now, consider this, you that
forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to
deliver. The Lord Jesus Christ is described
as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the King. As a matter of
fact, Revelation 19 calls him King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The line of the tribe of Judah
will tear you in pieces, those who go about to establish their
own righteousness, and no one will be able to help you. He'll
tear up your empty profession of religion. He'll tear up your
agreement with death and hell. He'll tear up your refuge of
life. He'll tear up your filthy self-righteousness and your human
goodness. He'll tear it up. He'll tear
up that house that's built on the sandy foundation. When the
storms came and the wind blew, that house fell. What happened? God tore it up. God tore it down. And great was the fall of it.
Whoso offereth, last verse, Psalm 50, Whoso offereth praise glorifies
me. And to him that would cast away
his old works and righteousness, God said, those that would say
with the Apostle Paul, I count all things but loss for Christ's
sake, I count all things but loss that I may win Christ and
be found in him, I'll show him the salvation of God. Lord, show
me your salvation. Isn't that what Simeon said in
that day in the temple? When he took up the Lord Jesus,
the baby, only eight days old, came in, his parents came in
on that day of circumcision, the eighth day, and Simeon, I
just can imagine, as Mary's holding the baby, just eight days old,
and he said, can I hold him? Can I hold him? She said, well,
sure. Sure, and picked him up in his arms and said, you remember
he prayed, he said, Lord don't let me die until I've seen your
salvation. Picked up that little, the God-man
mediator, God who inhabits eternity, inhabited a body, a baby. He's
looking at God right in the face. God the Savior. He said, Lord,
Let me die. I'm ready to die. I've seen my
salvation. Oh may God be pleased to show
us His salvation in Christ Jesus. God be pleased to show us God
our Savior.