Psalm 50. The title of this psalm is, Judgment Begins at the House of God. That's what this is about. God is going to judge His people, His house. And He's going to expose hypocrisy. He's going to purge His house, His church, of the tares that are among the wheat. And He tells us, and He gives it to us, what true worship is. It's thankfulness. It's praise. That's where it begins. It's not in the offerings. It's not in the doing. It literally starts in the heart. Worship begins before you and I ever move a muscle. Before we ever even make a move in the direction of coming here. Worship had already better be started. Because it's in the heart. It's in the heart. And that's what he's talking about here. Peter said this in 1 Peter 4.17, For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first began at us, if God purges His house, and He calls everyone from one end of this earth to the other to witness this judgment, He says, If that's so, and if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? This is what we have here in this psalm. In verse 1 through 6, we are going to see that God calls to judgment. He says here in verse 1, The mighty God the mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken." He uses three names here. El, Elohim, Jehovah. He's speaking here of the three-in-one God. That's who He's speaking of. And He describes Him here as the mighty God. The One who created heaven and earth. The One who owns everything as we just read. It's all mine, He said, the world and all that's in it is mine. The mighty God, and He has spoken, is written in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 and 2. God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds." The sooner you and I learn that it is all about Jesus Christ, the better off we'll be. The sooner we learn all things are made by Him and for Him. And all judgment, the Scripture says, all judgment has been committed to the Son. God, in the second person of the Trinity, is going to be the judge. Now when God speaks, He says here that the mighty God, even the Lord, has spoken, we ought to listen. We better listen. We better listen. But I thought, how condescending for the mighty God to speak to creatures like me and you, to sinful men like me and you, to call us to be a witness, to call the East and the West to be a witness at this judgment. And as He says here, And He called the earth from the rising of the sun until the going down thereof. He sent out a summons, He commands, He commands them all to show up. The Almighty God summons the whole earth to this tribunal. It's real now. What we're reading is real. And he says here, and he tells us here, that he speaks out of Zion, not Mount Sinai. You remember he spoke from Mount Sinai, the thunder and lightning, but here he's speaking out of Mount Zion. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined." You know, God shines in His creation every day, doesn't He? Did you see it today? Did you see Him today in creation? Did you see in that beautiful sunshine, that sun as it went across the sky, the warmth of it, the beauty of it? It says in Psalm 19, "...the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." But it is in Zion, His church, His church, that He shines in the fullness of His person through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where God shines. And not only does He shine in His church, but He shines out of His church. It is out of this church and all the local churches throughout this world that God shines out to the world. And He's made known. Now whether they believe it or not, That's God's business. But now God shines out of Zion. But you notice here how He speaks of the church. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty. This is not how we see ourselves, is it? But this is how God sees us. God sees us without spot or blemish. He sees us blameless, unreprovable in His sight. God sees us, His church, as the perfection of beauty. And when He comes here now, He says, out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined, and our God shall come and shall not keep silence. Whose God is coming? Whose God is coming? Our God, the only one there is. Our God is coming. Remember in Psalm 48, verse 14, we read this, For this God is our God for ever and ever, and this God is coming. He has come in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. God has come into this world, and He's coming again. And when He comes again, listen how He's going to come, a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous, stormy round about Him. The first time He came, it was barely noticed, not much was said. But now when He comes, He says He will not keep silence. Now I tell you this, Men have mistaken the silence of God as either having His favor or that He's indifferent. And He's neither. In this situation, He's neither one. He's going to come, He's not going to keep silence, and a fire is going to devour before Him, and it's going to be very tempestuous around about Him. Remember this. Our God is a consuming fire. He still is. And He is to be preached as such. In Christ, God is a God of mercy, a God of grace. In Christ, He can show mercy to us. In Christ, He can forgive us. In Christ, He loves us. But outside of Jesus Christ, God is a consuming fire. And this world and hypocrites, false professors, are going to deal with an angry God. With God who is angry. Look at Calvary. God spared not His own Son. Now what's He going to do to those who despise His Son? Those who mock His Son? It says here that He's going to be a fire that devours. And tempestuous, that means stormy, very stormy, round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth, that He may judge His people. God's going to summon the whole earth to hear what He has to say. HE'S GOING TO SUMMON HEAVEN AND EARTH TO WITNESS THIS JUDGEMENT. THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE A SECRET JUDGEMENT. IT'S NOT GOING TO BE A SECRET JUDGEMENT. HE'S GOING TO CALL HEAVEN AND EARTH TO BE WITNESS. AND I TELL YOU THIS, WHEN GOD PASSES JUDGEMENT, WHEN HE FINALLY PASSES JUDGEMENT, WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER, AND HE PASSES JUDGEMENT, EVERYONE IN HEAVEN AND EVERYONE IN HELL, are going to know that He's right. That He's right. Even those in hell will have to confess that He's right. Now He says here in verse 5, "...gather My saints together to Me." Remember He tells us in the Gospels that He's going to send forth His angels to gather His elect from the four corners of the earth? His angels are going to separate the tares and the wheat. He's going to send them to do it. He said, Don't you do it, because you'll mess it up. Because you and I won't be able to tell the difference. But God sees the heart, and the angels know the difference. However they know, they know, they know the difference. And He's going to send them to separate the wheat from the tares. And He says, Gather My saints together to Me. My saints, because they've already been judged. in the Lord Jesus Christ," Calvary is their judgment. "...those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." God's saints are going to be gathered to Him who are partakers of that covenant of grace, that covenant which was ratified by the sacrifice and blood of Jesus Christ. Now, I thought this when I read this. The question came across my mind, how do I make a covenant with God? How do I do that? A sinful man. I'll tell you how. In my representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. He made the covenant. He made the covenant with God by sacrifice. He agreed to be the sacrifice. He agreed to be the surety. And whatever my Lord agreed to do, that is accountable to me. He's my representative. He's our representative. So in Christ, we have made a covenant with God by the sacrifice of His Son. And He says, you gather them to Me. We don't have to fear judgment. Judgment is coming. You know, you can imagine Noah, they said he was a preacher, the scripture says he was a preacher of righteousness, God's righteousness, not man's righteousness. And you know, day by day, every day he hammered that ark, he said, judgment's coming. Every time he put a peg in that ark, every time he worked on that ark, he was saying, judgment's coming. But eight of them, can you imagine that? How many people do you think were alive at that time on the earth? Millions? Millions? Without a doubt, millions? Eight people. Eight people. Went on the earth, plus the animals. You know, the animals that were saved. Judgment's coming, that's what he's saying, but you gather my saints together to me. You gather them to me. They're safe. Safe in the shepherd's fold. We saw that, the shepherd going out and got his sheep and brought them back, carried them back. We're safe. The saints are. Since the fall, God has been gathering His saints together. And he says in verse 6, "...and the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God is judge." Now what he's saying, if God is the judge and God is the judge, you can be sure of this, it will be a righteous judgment. He will pass righteous judgment. He will not exact more on someone than what they deserve. But He's the judge. And angels and just men, the Scripture says they're just men made perfect, those saints of God. Here's what they're going to do. They're going to glorify God in His judgments. Over in Revelation, when He cast the great whore into hell, what do the saints do? They shout hallelujah. They glorify God in His judgments. It says in Revelation 19.2, true and righteous are His judgments. It says the same thing in Revelation 16.7, true and righteous are His judgments. Now, verses 7-15, He's going to talk about true worship. He's going to bring us to this point of true worship. Hear, O my people, and I will speak. O Israel..." Now listen, He is speaking to Israel right at this time. All Israel claimed to be that the Lord was their God, but not all that are of Israel are Israel. "...Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against thee, I am God, even thy God, you even claim that." They say, God is our God. Now God's speaking to His people, Israel, but He's also speaking, listen, to the church throughout all ages. Those who claim to be His people. You can go up and down all these, you know, go up and down the road here, go over into town, all these so-called churches, they all claim to be His people, don't they? If you claim Christianity, if you make that claim, you claim to be His. Does that make you His? No. If you were an Israelite back in this day, did that make you His? No. That's where they missed it. Some are His and some are not. That's what Paul said in Romans 9, 6. Not all Israel are of Israel. Now God says, I'm going to testify against you. I'm going to expose. Here's what He's going to do. I'm going to expose the hypocrites. I'm going to expose, and that's what our Lord did with the Pharisees, wasn't it? He exposed them for their hypocrisy. In that one chapter of Matthew, He said, Whoa, do you scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites? And He went down through this whole list of exposing them. And he says here, "...I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me." God commanded these to be offered. He said, I'm not going to reprove you for doing what I told you to do. They offered those sacrifices morning and evening, every day. They offered them all the time. Your offerings of sacrifices is not the problem. That's not the problem. I go to church every Sunday, I go to church every mid-week service, I never miss a time. That's not the problem. That's what he's saying. That's not the problem. Listen to what our Lord says here in Matthew 23, 3, "...Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, And that's what you're supposed to do. "...and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Yeah, you're giving your tithes. You're doing this. You're giving the offerings. But here's what it's going to come down to. Here's what it's going to come down to. But your heart's not in it. That's what this whole thing is coming down to. Your heart is not in the worship service. You're just there in body. You're doing what I told you to do, but your heart is clean gone. It's nowhere to be found. There's no heart in what you're doing. Boy, I'm telling you this. I've read this. I started not to bring this tonight because I need to read it more and more for my own self. Your heart, your heart. Where is your heart at? He says, I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goes out of thy foe. The sacrifices in and of themselves do not satisfy God. Listen to what our Lord said in Hebrews. Well, turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. I'm just going to read several of these verses and start with verse 1. In Hebrews 10, For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offer year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? If they had made them perfect, they wouldn't be offered any more. because that the worshippers once perished should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins, but they..." See, they missed it. They thought it dead. Their heart was so dead, they just offer up some bulls and goats and go on their way. It made me think of Catholicism. Forgive me, Father, I have sinned." Well, say 50 Hail Marys and doh, doh, doh, and then you're going your way. And that's the attitude they had. They would go offer these offerings and sacrifices, and they'd just go on their way and do what they wanted to do, which was sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he says, sacrifice, when Christ comes into the world, he said, sacrifice an offering, That's not why you sent me. I didn't come into this world to show Israel how to offer sacrifices. They've been doing that. They've been doing that for years, many years. But a body hast thou prepared me to sacrifice, not to offer blood of bulls and goats, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Thou hast had no pleasure." God never had pleasure in those things. God had pleasure in the one they pointed to, but never in the blood of bulls and goats. It was always in the one that they pointed to, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it's written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he says, Sacrifice and offering, and barn offerings, and offerings for sin, thou wouldest not, neither had pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come, to do thy will, O God. He takes away the first, and he may establish the second, because he had no pleasure in the first. He found no satisfaction in the first. In the first one, in the blood of bulls and goats, no sin was ever put away, ever. All sin has been put away by the blood of Jesus Christ. When He died on Calvary's cross, He put away the blood of all His people. Those in the Old Testament and all those in the New Testament and to the end of time. He put it away. And so He says, I don't want no more... I'm not after more bullocks. I'm not after more bulls and goats. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine." What can we give God that's not His already? It's all His. And if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. I wouldn't knock on your door and tell you I'm hungry. For the world is mine, and the fullness thereof." God is not in need. That's why He's saying He has no need. God accrues nothing by us. We add nothing to God. Nothing. People are apt to think that by their observance of external duties that God is obligated to them. That's the way the Pharisees felt. They felt that they were saved because they did these things. And they missed it. He said, Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Is that what you think? Is that your thoughts of me? That's the way the pagans thought of their idols. Do you think that I would eat the flesh of bulls and drink their blood? You think that would satisfy me?" You couldn't have a lower thought of God Almighty than to think that, other than to think that He's like you. That's as low as it gets. But listen here, now you're going to tell us something here about true worship. Offer unto God thanksgiving. I wrote just a short article there in the bulletin that Thanksgiving is probably the most proper holiday we've got. Holiday of Thanksgiving. That's what we ought to do. Give thanks. True worship starts in the heart. Without the heart, worship is vain and empty. And if the heart is engaged in it, it's evident God has given you a new heart, and that new heart is evidenced by thankfulness. Thank you, Lord, for saving my son." We just saw that last Sunday in those ten lepers. Only one turned back and gave him thanks and praise for healing him. The other nine left. Thanksgiving is a spiritual offering. You know, we think of bringing our offerings, we think of bringing money. We think of giving something. Well, if we don't give thanks, if that's not the first offering, the rest of it's an abomination to God. That's what he's saying. It's thankful. I'm thankful, and you're thankful, that we even live in a country that right now allows us to meet like this freely. There are many places in this world that can't do what we're doing tonight. Lord, thank you for this freedom. Preserve it. Preserve it. He's the only one who can. We can't preserve it, I'm telling you. Only God can preserve it. We can pray. We pray for all men, kings and all men in authority. It's God who preserves us. And by God's grace, let's learn to be thankful. to come here. Lord, thank you for the ability to come here. Thank you for the desire, the desire to be here. Thank you for that desire to be here. They were willing to do the ceremonies, they were willing to give the sacrifices, but not give their hearts. Their hearts were totally given over to their self-righteousness, it was given over to their immorality, their sin. They would sit in judgment and say, you're not supposed to steal. And then the Lord said, and you steal. You say, thou shalt not commit adultery, and you commit adultery. But what they would do, they'd commit adultery, but they'd go off with these sacrifices and then go back home. Everything's all right. We'll just offer another bullock next week. Well, that's not the way it works. It doesn't work like that. Listen to Psalm 51, 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Listen to what Micah says in Micah chapter 6, verse 6 through 8. I'll read it. I've got it copied down here. "'Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Now listen. He has showed thee, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of thee? Are you interested? What does a God of heaven and earth require? To do justly and to love mercy. and to walk humbly with thy God." Israel didn't do that. They were proud. Those Pharisees were so proud, they looked down their nose. There in Isaiah, he said, you say, come not near me, I am holier than thou. What does God require? Here it is, to do just, to be just, to be honest, to love mercy, To show mercy to the guilty because God showed it to you. And to walk humbly, always walk humbly with thy God. Listen here, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. Now, that does not mean that you say, Lord, if you heal me, I'll give more. That's not what that's talking about. No. These are spiritual vows. These are spiritual vows. These are vows that are committed to Christ. This is commitment to Jesus Christ. It is a commitment to follow after Him. He is mine. I am His and He is mine. Now listen. These vows, these spiritual vows, are like marriage vows. What do we say in our marriage vows? leaving all others, for better, for worse. Hard trials come. How many disciples left the Lord in the parable of the sower? Remember the one who received it on stony ground when the sun was up, it was hot, it just wilted, and it represents the one who, when trials came, they were offended. They were offended. Trials came, they were offended, and they left. No. Our vow with the Lord is for better or for worse. Our vow is to leave all others, mother, father, sister, brother, whoever, is to leave all others for Christ. That's the pay-thy-vows. unto the Most High God." We are consecrated to Jesus Christ alone. One of Israel's greatest problems was spiritual adultery. They kept mixing with the other nations and they even got into... What was the first thing they did when Moses went up on the mountain? Gone for 40 days. They said, He's gone. He's been gone a long time. They made a golden calf. Spiritual adultery. That's one of the things we ought to be very guarded against, because it's easy to do. Because it's not hard for something to get your attention and get your heart, and take your heart away. The next thing you know, you're missing a service here, you're missing there, you're missing, you're missing. It's got you. It's got you. Whatever has your heart has you. It has you. And this is to be guarded against, because it was so rampant with Israel. And He says here, "...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." You know, most people call upon the Lord in the day of trouble. They're always saying, Lord, save me from this, save me from that, get me out of this, get me out of that. But the verse before that? Committed to Him? Separated to Him? You see, if the verse before that is not happening, verse 15 is not either. Verse 15 ain't happening either. Because this is a promise to those who are committed to Him. This is a promise to those who have left all for Jesus Christ. And he says, Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. And then he exposes the wicked that's in the church. He calls them wicked. He calls the hypocrites here, false professors, wicked. He's not talking to a bunch of drunks. He's talking to a bunch of hypocrites who've made a profession, but there's no heart in it whatsoever. But unto the wicked God says, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Christ said to those Pharisees, This people, draw nigh to me with their lips, well, with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." They'll say, oh, praise the Lord. They'll stand and sing with everybody else. But he says, their heart, their heart is far from me. Seeing thou hatest instruction, you hate the Word of God, you hate what God has to say, and you cast my words behind you. You cast them off. When Christ spoke the truth, they hated Him for it. The Pharisees cast away the Word of God and they taught their own words. Listen to Matthew 15.9, But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Christ told those Pharisees once, He said, You teach the tradition of the elders. You have set aside the commandment of God, and you teach the tradition of the elders. You know why? Because you don't like what God says. David said, Oh, how I love thy law. And he's speaking there of the whole Word of God. Is there any part of God's Word you don't like or I don't like? Is there any part of God's Word I don't like? Well, if there is, I've got a problem. The problem is not with the Word, it's with me. He said, you hate instructions. Just like right now. Listen, every time the Gospels preach, every time the Word of God is opened up, You and I are being instructed. And those who hate it, toss it aside before they ever get out the door. Before you ever get out the door, they toss it aside. When you saw a thief, you consented with him. And you have been partaking with adulterers. Our Lord said this, you devour widows' houses. You rob them of their substance. You make long prayers of this pretense before men that you know God, but you are robbing the widows' houses. You're stealing from them. And you're consenting to it. How much did you get today? How much could you bring in today? They were agreeing to it. Whenever Pilate said, Who do you want me to give to you, Barabbas or Jesus? I find no fault in Jesus. They said, Give us Barabbas. Give us the robber, the murderer. He committed murder. They sided up with Barabbas instead of the Son of God. That's false religion. That's what a false profession will end up doing for you. He said, You give your mouth to evil and your tongue, you frame deceit. You try to say it in a way that's smooth, but your heart is deceitful. They spoke evil of the Lord Jesus Christ and his followers. You give your mouth to evil. Instead of praise, you don't praise God. He said, you give your mouth to evil. And you sit and speak against thy brother, thou slanderous, thine own mother's son. They sit in the seat of the scornful. This is what God is bringing into judgment in the beginning of this psalm. He's going to expose His true people, He's going to make it evident who they are, and He's going to make it evident who the hypocrites are, who the terrors are among the weak. And these are the ones who sit in the seat of the scornful. They condemn others while doing the same things. Thou teachest, he said, thou therefore which teachest another teachest thou not thyself? Thou sayest a man, or thou preachest a man should not steal? Doest thou steal? Lord, you know what he said, you do steal. You do steal. Now listen, let us not make the mistake of mistaking God's silence for approval. God doesn't bring judgment right immediately all the time. Sometimes he lets a man fill up his iniquity. It's like the old adage, you give him enough rope and he'll what? Hang himself. And that's exactly what God does. He'll give a false professor enough rope and let him hang himself. That's what Judas did. He went out and he hanged himself. And he was with them for all that time, ate with them, heard all the preaching that our Lord did, heard him pray, saw him do miracles, and then betrayed him and went out and hanged himself. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence. And the reason he kept silence is to let them expose themselves. I've always wondered this, but I know the answer to it. I've wondered why some of these people that committed a bank robbery, they make a big heist, some of the biggest heists ever made in history. They'll steal millions. And I think, why don't you stop? You just, you just, you know, you stole 10 million dollars. Why don't you stop? You can live like a king the rest of your life. But they can't do it. They can't do it. Because the Lord turns their nature loose on them, and they can't control it. It's an addiction. You know, the Word of God says that mischief to the wicked is the same as sport. It's like a basketball player playing basketball, the thrill he gets out of that, the mischief get a thrill out of robbing houses and creating havoc. It's sport to them. It's sport. He said, these things hast thou done, I kept silence. And because of that, you thought I was altogether such a one, you thought I was like you. You and I could not, no one could have a lower thought of God than to think that God is like myself. That's as low as it gets. You thought I was altogether like yourselves. But God says, I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes. What judgment? Judgment is going to be a day of surprises. I mean surprises. He says, and now consider this, you either forget God, in the services you forget God, you're here, you go through the service, but you forget God. Your mind is not on God at all, your heart's not on God at all, he said. Now, isn't this amazing? Here's room for repentance. Right here is space for repentance. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you out of my hand. There's none who can deliver you. If God doesn't deliver me out of his hands, if God doesn't do it, nobody else can. And here's the promise of salvation, and I quit. The promise of salvation. Now listen, let's get this. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. Praise from the heart. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. To offer unto God all the glory of salvation with all the heart. And to him that orders his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God." Now listen, those who order their lives around the gospel, that's the best way I know how to state that. And to him that orders his conversation, that's his life. He orders his life aright. To order your life aright is to order your life around the gospel. You know, whatever it is we love, We order our life around that, don't we? We design our life so we can do what we love to do. And those who love the Lord and glorify Him order their lives around the Gospel. And God says, I will show Him, I will reveal to Him the salvation of God. He'll reveal to us Jesus Christ. When God reveals His salvation, He reveals Jesus Christ. And in Him, we glorify God. We give Him the glorious doing to His name for time and eternity. All right.