Offering a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving | Psalm 50

I plan to

fill in that'll

still a good opportunity to spend some

time

talking about

what he what he expects of us, what our

duty is as men and women as God's

people. All right.

So anyways, um I wanted to start with a

question for anybody that's under 12.

This a question for for kids. Um It's a

question that is the first question of

many of the catechisms.

And so if you know the answer, uh, what

is man's chief purpose? What is man's

chief's purpose? And it did flash up

there on the slide. So if you're under

12 and can read and saw that, you can

answer. But does anybody

does anybody get catechized in that way?

No. No.

Mike knows he's got a he's trying to

identify as 12.

>> Anyway, um go ahead and go to the go to

the next slide.

So, as as many of you have heard, um if

we look at and we ask the question, what

ultimately does God expect

as his creation? Man's chief is to

glorify God.

It ends with and enjoy them forever.

Man's purpose or ultimate goal in life

is to glorify God by enjoying them

forever.

We're going to go through Psalm 15

today. And what we'll see in this psalm

is that it actually is this theme, this

idea is connected multiple times

throughout, but there's this connection

between

glorifying God and how we do that,

right? It's it's glorifying God and

enjoying him forever is our deep purpose

as created as as unique created created

in God's image. Of all the the billions

and trillions of things that God

created, only mankind is created in God.

And he gives us a purpose and that

purpose is to glorify God. And so, how

important is it? How necessary is it as

creative people to know how do we do

that? How do we fulfill this great

purpose that God's given us? How do we

fulfill this deep end of our life? You

know, so so much of of our life, we

might ask God, what do you want me to

do? What do you want me to do? What's my

purpose? Why am I here? The world is

full of people trying to tell you what

your purpose is or trying to tell you

that you have no purpose. tell you that

there's just some some created or not

even created but just evolved from mush

or from goo or or from whatever that man

is focused let's eat drink and be

married for tomorrow we die that is not

the repeating theme of scripture the

repeating theme of scripture is that we

as the unique image bearers of we do

have a purpose we are created with a

purpose and the purpose is to glorify

God so how hungry should we be how

thirsty should we be know how to do

that. How can we fulfill this purpose

that we've been created? How can we do

this thing that that God delights in?

And we're going to learn a little bit

about that today in this psalm. And what

it does is it makes an offering or a

sacrifice of thanksgiving

with glorifying God. So man is to

glorify this is the main point of my

sermon is to glorify God. And we do this

by serving and worshiping God with

thanksgiving. So if you all would want

to stand on up with me as we honor the

reading of God's word, I will read

through Psalm and then

it's up there to follow along. Psalm 50,

it says, "The mighty one God the Lord

speaks and summons the earth. From the

rising of the sun to it setting out of

Zion of perfection of beauty, God shines

forth. Our God comes and he does not

keep silence. Before him is a devouring

fire around him a mighty temple. He

calls to the heavens above and to the

earth that he may judge his people.

Gather to me my faithful ones to my

covenant with me by sacrifice. The

heavens declare his righteousness. For

God himself is judge. Hear, oh my

people, and I will speak. Oh Israel, I

will testify against you. I am God your

God.

sacrifices do I rebuke you. Your burnt

offerings are continually before me. I

will not accept a bull from your house

or goats from your fold. For every beast

of the forest is mine, the cattle on a

thousand hills. I know all the birds of

the hills and all that moves in the

field is mine. If I were hungry, I would

not tell you, for the world and its

fullness are mourning. Do I eat the

flesh of bulls or drink the blood of

goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of

thanksgiving and perform your vows to

the most high and call upon me in the

day of trouble and I will deliver you

and you shall glorify me.

But to the wicked says, "What right have

you to recite my statutes or take my

covenant on your lips? For you hate

discipline and you cast my words behind

you. If you see a thief, you are pleased

with him and you keep company with

adulterers. You give your mouth free

rain for evil and your tongue praying

for peace. You sit and speak against

your brother. You slander your own

mother's son. These things you have done

and I have been planning. You thought

that I was one like yourself. But now I

rebuke you and lay the charges before

you. Mark this you who forget God, lest

I tear you apart and there to deliver.

The one who offers sac The one who

offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice

glorifies

me. To the one who orders his way right,

I will show the salvation of God. Let's

pray this morning. Oh God, thank you

Lord that you have created us with a

purpose. You created us with a teaching

which is to give you all the glory. For

you alone are worthy of all the glory.

And thank you Lord that we come to your

word. You give us the detail. You give

up the how of how to do that. And we see

Lord repeated over and over. You are

concerned with the outward appearance,

but you are concerned with the heart.

You are concerned with the sacrificial

offering that we bring with this

thanksgiving and faithfulness to God for

what he's done for us. And we do give

you thanks and we give you praise. And

God, we do pray that we as we are

instructed from your word today, you

would be glorified. You would grow

thankfulness in our hearts

in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Go ahead and

be seated.

All right.

Psalm 15, we see in here

um three section within the psalm. Okay,

we see the first section opening with I

say God declaring to us why he has a

right to make these declarations. Why he

has the right to make these judgments?

You know, how often do you hear in our

society phrase don't judge me? What

right have you to judge? What right have

Christians to judge? They're hypocrites.

They they say one thing and do another

or you know whatever it might be. Let me

do what I want to do. What I want to do

is

Well, there's many things that could be

said under that whole category of

judgment that I really don't have time

to get into, but what is undeniably true

as we see here is that God absolutely

has a right. God is perfect in all of

his ways. God is the one who delivered

to us the moral law which is a a

representation of of who he is of his

very character. Jesus Christ that says

never s and all that he gave me never s

the mighty one has the right to judge

and we'll spend a few moments talking

about that's the first section of the

psalm here for us hey I have a right to

make these I have a right to make

judgments and you better listen and

that's a good truth for all of us to

remember when we come to God's word he

has a right to tell us often times what

we don't want to hear and we

Okay.

And then we see him addressing two

groups of people. We see him first

addressing his covenant people or his

chosen people. Those whom he's called

out of darkness and into light. And even

as God's people, we still at times need

God to approve us. Many times we still

need God to in one sense judge us and to

look at our lives where we can do

through his word and say, "Wow, God,

there's things that are in my life.

There's things that I believe. There's

things that I enjoy. There's things that

I do. There's things that I say. There's

things that I think that aren't what God

wants me to be doing or saying." And so,

we can give thanks. We can give praise

that. And we'll read this here that God

doesn't

God doesn't mean it ambiguous what his

word is. God's word is clear and his

laws liberty and so we should delight

when we come to his word and it reproves

us because God wants to sanctify his he

wants to he wants to make us more

ultimately what we will forever be. God

is in the process now of changing us

into what we will forever be with our

creat we're created in his image now but

holy and perfect. Um and then we see him

addressing a second group of people the

the wicked ones the ones who don't the

ones who are are hardened against his

are against his law or hardened against

his way and yet God judges them as well.

For those who aren't in the church, for

those who don't believe God, you don't

get a free pass when you die. It's not

like, oh, I don't believe that

Christianity stuff. I don't believe that

Jesus, so I get to I get to decide my

future. No, that's not the case.

Word tells us that one day,

every tongue will confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord on heaven and on earth

and under the earth. We see in a story

between the rich man and Lazarus in the

New Testament was the rich man who who

lived this good life and who didn't

believe and he get where he went at the

end at the end of his life. No, it says

he went to a place to

drop just one little drop of water so

there didn't even get up and so yes

over the wicked as well. And if you

aren't a believer, that's something that

you need to really really think hard

about and really ask the Lord and come

to him and and um ask him to forgive you

because God will be quick to forgive.

God always is quick to forgive. There's

always forgiveness, always salvation for

those who call upon the name of the

Lord. But God does stand in judgment

over you and has some things to say,

yes, specifically for the wicked, but

there's a lot as Christians because we

are still sinful people, we do still

wrestle with the old man at war within

our, you know, our new our new heart,

our sinful self is at war with the new

life that God's given us. So, there's a

lot we can learn from the reprints that

God has for the wicked as well. So,

let's go ahead and jump in here. Um,

let's begin kind of going verse by verse

through the the different sections. So

we'll start from here with beginning

kind of with that first category which

is uh describing to us some different

character attributes of God. So um first

few verses here again it says the mighty

one God the Lord speaks and summons the

earth from the rising of the sun to its

setting out in the perfection of beauty.

God sends forth our God. He does not

keep silence. Before him is a devouring

fire and around him is a mighty

presence. So when God is a mighty mighty

God, a mighty God, you know, we just

read through the the Christmas story.

What did what did Caesar call for at the

time of the birth of Christ? He

essentially summoned all of Rome to come

back to be to be counted. And what did

Mary and Joseph had to you know travel

on a donkey and the whole world

basically had to go through all this

work to travel to be counted. Well, when

God wants to summon his people, all he

has to do is he is powerful enough and

he knows all of his people

his his chosen bride and those who have

refused to validate him. He knows them

all. He's mighty enough and he knows the

things that you have before him. You

know, when Adam and Eve sinned, they

tried to hide from God. I don't know if

they were foolish enough to think that

they actually could. Probably in that

moment

that we can hide from God, he'll never

know that he did this thing. God knew

exactly where they were. Exactly what

they had done. And God spoke and said,

"Adam, what have you done? Eve, what

have you done?" And this is what we see

God doing here. He speaks and he summons

and the whole earth from the rising of

the sun till comes before him. This is a

picture of the judgment day that will

come that all of us will will have to

face where God will with the word I

think I believe I'm remembering

revelation say by the word of his mouth

he will he will basically put Satan to

rest. He he'll put Satan to end and he

will summon and there'll be a great

judgment and before him will be all the

earth and he will separate them as the

as the shepherd separate the sheep and

the goats and so God will one day speak

his coming and all of us will stand

before him and you have to face that

judgment where we will say where he will

ask us yes what did you do in your life

but whether you get into heaven or not

will not be the result of your work

it'll be the result of

We will stand before Christ and I hope I

hope in scriptures you realize our only

hope is we will stand before the

judgment of Christ and say Lord don't

look at my work look at the works of

Christ he is the righteous one he is the

perfect one my faith isn't alone but

this is our God is mighty and he only

needs to speak and can summon the whole

earth he is a beautiful God I'll get

into that a little bit later I think

some great application there but he is

the perfection of beauty

Out of Zion, his temple, the perfection

of duty, God shines forth. And he does

not keep silence. Before him is the

devouring fire around him, a mighty

temple. He is a speaking. And so in this

he is mighty. He is the Lord. He speaks.

Before him is a devouring fire where he

will devour his enemies. And he does not

silence. He is a God that is not just

ambivalent and ambiguous and we don't

know what he wants. know he speaks when

we help.

Proverbs 15 reiterates this a little bit

as well. It says, "The eyes of the Lord

are in every place keeping watch on the

evil and the good." God knows God knows

the state of your heart. God knows

whether you believe in him or not. And

um and so remember that. Remember that.

That's who our God is. Okay. So now we

get to the the next section where God

first progresses what he calls in this

passage the covenant keepers covenant

keepers

gather to me my faithful ones who made a

covenant with me by sacrifice the

heavens declare his righteousness for

God himself is judge

and then verse seven here oh my people

Israel here oh my people and I will

speak oh Israel I will testify against

you for I am your God I am God your

We already mentioned this a little bit

in the intro, but it really is great

that makes him want to come and even

reprove at times of his people. And

that's what he's doing. He's coming to

his people. He sees that there's error

in the way that they're living. And

because he is a loving God, he is a

loving father who loves to discipline

his people, not them down, not to abuse

them, not to be aggressive. You know,

some of you maybe had fathers growing up

that that were overly aggressive, that

were younger.

It's just nice to be a God that just let

us do whatever we want. Some of you

might have had parents like that. Some

of you might have had parents where they

just let you do whatever you want and

they let you get into all kinds of

following and foolishness and you as a

Christian now would like to say, "Wow, I

really wish my parents would have just I

really wish they would have instructed

me in the way that

saved me from a lot of the stupid things

that I did as a as a child or as a young

man or as a young adult or whatever have

you." And so, praise God. Praise God

that he is that loving father that is

when we need it, but when we need it, to

draw down and comfort us, to draw

help, remind us when we're in an area

that we needed, they staff protect us

from from evil, when we need protected.

And so, God comes with people and I

think it's very interesting here. Um, I

think it's very obviously it's very

intentional. Every word of God is very

intentional. There's not a single word

didn't put exactly where he wanted it

for a reason. And so God addresses his

covenant keepers first. Why did he come

to Israel first to address them? Why why

is this why is this first rep or first

judgement on the house of God on on his

teachers? says, "Here, oh my people, I

will speak. So Israel, I will testify

against you. I am God your God." Well,

we see elsewhere in scripture very often

that judgement starts at

judgment starts with God. God's eyes

particularly and uniquely on his people

on his people. This is a very very

important lesson that the church needs

to remember. And I think The church in

our culture notes that church is for the

church. Shepherds are for

God's specialty.

God is in the business of purifying and

refining and sanctifying his

right in Romans tells us what has done

about the wicked that he's

not abandon them in the sense that

there's not hope for their salvation

over and over and over is very clear all

those who call upon the name of the

world will be saved but if you harden

your heart against God and harden your

heart against God and harden your heart

against God just says that he turns you

over to your sins

He no longer pursues you or seeks you

out. He turns you over to your summary.

So our role as Christians is to go after

and to evangelize and preach the gospel

out. But judgement starts in God

specifically wants to find his people

and purify his people. you know, it

would be

this idea might come out um somewhat new

to you. Maybe this is a new a new thing

to think through, wrestle through, but I

think this idea or this this analogy

makes it easy for us to realize or

understand

special love for my children.

I love all people.

Yes, he loves people. Yes, he created

all special.

So God wants first to call to his people

to help them be sanctified. I like the

way Okay, so this is from Isaiah 43.

Says, "Because you are precious in my

eyes and honored and I love you, I take

many in return for you people and excuse

me for your life." Okay, God special

people and this actually comes from a

confessional statement that I like about

this confession. It says, "As the

providence of God does in general reach

to all creatures,

concern

as the providence of God does in general

reach to all creatures. So after in more

manner it takes care of his church and

disposes of all things to the good

applies to all things and all creatures

and all people

for the church. So God is willing to

come and judge us. Praise God that he's

willing to do that. Okay.

Right.

So, how does he come and judge his

people? How does he come and judge his

people? We know that he does he's

willing to come and judge because he

cares for us. He wants to usal

from us. So, he does want to come

because he loves us. He does want to

come. So, how does he reprove us? Well,

we'll read about that here.

First, he says, not what I'm looking

for. He says it's not for your

sacrifices.

Your burnt offerings are continually

you guys are doing what I tell you to

do. You know the time

system

to the Christ the Messiah the perfect

sacrifice that he was

expecting

these sacrifices and so they were doing

that like look it's not for your

sacrifices that I refuse you because

your brother's offerings are continually

to really

say I will not accept from your hungry

for every mine

and know all the hills and all that is

mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell

you. For the world, it are mine. The

forest is mine. The are the hills are

mine. The birds are so

worship. We are the chosen people of God

and God us

and I'm not a religious studies but if

you really every time you hear about a

new idea or new religion whatever You

can really boil every religion down into

either Christianity or everything else.

It's either Christianity or everything

else. And I think this right here is

every other religion is all about

you.

You got to bring him sacrifices. You got

to offer him and whatever it might be.

And even then, you're not really sure

with all

this

ultimately to get angry and murdered

to bring his own work to God.

God already

to bring

sacrifice

other

call upon me in the day of trouble. I

will

There's that phrase

purpose glorifying

how we do that. It's not about

very very much

law.

It's not about the actual

happy

fine without creating

yet

people

enjoy

sacrifice.

There were other times where they

weren't for

them.

But what is concerned about concerned

about the

church?

Yes.

We come to

Why do we do when we

reiterate this

It says

angels

if I give away all I have to

be

of no

And so clear people

on the outward appearance

thankful heartfulness

in our heart for what we've done here.

all the

so again offer to God sacrifice of

thanksgiving perform your vows to the

most high all upon me in the day of

trouble and I will deliver you and you

shall glorify you glorify if you want to

know how to glorify

all right

so now we get to the next

group Actually,

let me read this real quick because I

think it's very

good.

So,

he's encouraging them again.

It's not letting us do whatever we want.

It's not

both. So, Jesus says this to his people.

In the church of Ephesus says the words

of him who holds the seven stars in his

right hand who walks among the seven

golden ls

your patient endurance but you cannot

bear with those who are evil but those

who call themselves apostles and are not

fault I know you are patiently not for

my name's not weary

all theiment

He's not saying it doesn't

have abandoned love.

You have abandoned the love.

They were they were doing the way.

We have an amazing church.

I love

that we have here. I want to keep

building up that culture. I love the

strong sense of family that we have in

this church.

Lord, I never want to lose the

as the adults lose them. The next

generation

will feel the importance

of their

articles. You hear stories a lot of

schoolies did everything right

away.

It's like what

appearances they were doing everything

they were doing worship they were in

church every Sunday

and

I don't know of these situations only

not

because

it's not because we do some great thing

for God

to be what drives us, motivates us,

encourages us, it emboldens us, it

empowers us to do even for the Lord. And

that's the beauty of it. As you grow in

that love for God, it actually emboldens

you to want to serve him even more.

So never abandon that.

Never abandon

government.

All right.

But to the wicked says,

"What right have you to recite my

statutes versus my covenants on your for

you hate discipline and you cast my

words behind you? For you hate

discipline and you cast my words." So

region.

It was the law of God. It was the law of

God and God made us realize there is no

hope for me. There is no hope for me

without Christ. And so God does also

come and recruit the wicked

and here's how we recruit them

again.

Even though I don't want to contrib

they hear God's law and instead of

humbling themselves of God, they harden

their head and they

come up with all number of reasons why

people

They come up with all

and down the list. The reality of what

is

not the reality is they know that they

have a confidence.

convicting them instead of

instead of

their heart. coming to them and

recruiting them.

This is where we

still wrestle with

our heart.

There's many verses in the churches that

it talks about

that hardening in your heart.

discipline.

So proverbs

say for the commandment is a teaching

author

of life.

So

this is talking about the benefit of

humbling ourselves when we come to God's

word when we're receiving

the fruits of discipline are the way of

lifever's

no

Proverbs 12, whoever loves discipline

knowledge. For everybody,

you love

here where God is very

for

you for

my little my little

word.

like

regardless.

Who is it?

The ear that listens to life is all the

life. The ear that listens to life

again.

And then one more here

really.

A lot of people think

that love

that's not lovebenation

that

My son, do not regard the discipline of

the Lord for he

disciplines the love and chastises every

several more verses that are very good.

talks about illegitimate sons

aren't willing to discipline or correct

or teach your children

legitimate children

in Hebrews 121 for the moment painful

rather than pleasant

discipline

painful

painful to give as a father painful to

Um but

it

wants

you

to be more holy as you want to be more

person.

down the

painful moment but later

the way it was the way it We have sinful

people that have a lot of a long way to

go. I'd love to

see the moment

right

first they hate

That's my worst thing. Next one. If you

see a thief, you are pleased with him

and you keep with the

actually I mentioned this earlier. What

we can actually see in a lot of these

accusations

are tie back to heart.

You can either harden your heart and

beard

or you can say

thank you for your

foolish

thank you so

to

Okay.

They're not thankful for what God has in

his perfect

chosen.

So the wicked are pleased with

so many political things that our

society are

from one to redistribute to the other.

There's such gladness with in our nation

to us. Uh we should call it out. We do

and you need to continue to call it out.

God wants us to be grateful for what we

have. If you don't have what someone

else has, what someone else has, you

either need to think, okay, that is the

thing that God wants me to have. And so

go work for it. Don't just say, "Oh,

wellveed.

You wealthy person over there, you don't

deserve all that money. I'm gonna go a

politician

on and on and on and on, right?" But no,

God wants us to be grateful.

And then the next one,

I guarantee you most

Every person's fallen into adultery,

part of what was going on in their heart

was unfulver

you may look back and realize that I was

not living for the Lord when I made that

decision to marry that person. But guess

what? Once you're married, that's who

God wants you to be.

Godful

from the Lord from the Lord. So

um

and I'll tell you this as well.

If you want basically

your marriage, start keeping company

with

start keeping company with other people

that have received on their

who are talking about their spouse who

are obviously ungrateful for their

spouse because

everything's

good. So be thankful for your your

husband, be thankful for your wife, be

thankful um even in the hard times, even

in the conflict, you know, even in the

arguments because God's using that

marriage to you, to purify you, to

sanctify you. You know, marriage is a

picture of Christ in the church. I know

Christ is thankful for his church and I

know his church is thankful for Christ

and

to the earth to the world. But this idea

really really need to be on really

take care.

I really do believe

this idea of keeping company is who are

you

know who are youending

who are the

ultimately

the need

wasn't

takes a lot of effort.

A lot of value.

Okay, next question.

The next verse here it says you give

your mouth free rain for evil and your

tongue deceivements

that could be preached on the importance

of guarding your tongue.

I am by no means qualified to prestige

enough

to those who hear one another tender

forgiving one another as God in Christ

forgave you. So use your

hard

um he holds nothing back here.

And the tongue is a fire in world of

unrighteousness. The tongue is set among

our members, staining the whole body,

setting on fire the entire course of

life and set on fire. For every kind of

beast and reptile and sea creature can

be

mankind

is a restless evil poison. With it we

bless our Lord and father and with it we

curse people who are made in the

likeness of God from the same blessing

and cursing my brothers

and it's really

a lot of good

bless

And here are the wicked in their home.

for evil and your friends.

May we as God's people learn how to

ultimately grow in grateful

and then kind of related here's

also a lot about slander Um,

so

I'm just reading

someone's reputation by making a calling

statement offense to a third party. So

it's very similar to

somebody in a way that's not encouraging

them and you're talking to somebody who

isn't really involved in a situation.

You're not you're not

you're not using the way.

So

there's a there's a whole thing

accusations that want to get into

my life.

It's bad in our country that there's no

false accusations anymore. There really

should be a lot of great stuff about

we should be very careful.

about others. If we're not uh

if we're not speaking something that's

helping the situation, we probably keep

our

certain about whether somebody has even

done something wrong or even a certain

way that if we are convinced that

someone

or you need to go to that person and

talk to so very clear about how we

should handle conflict with one another.

I know Matt touched on that I feel like

fairly recently and so don't don't you

know we need to guard ourselves against

it.

against our brother's

need.

You read the book of Corinthians

and so Let that let that guide us

always. Faithfulness in our hearts for

church, thankfulness in our hearts for

our friends, for our family members. Um,

you know, Paul Paul had a lot of

thankfulness in his heart for the

church. So, Romans 18, first I thank my

God for Jesus Christ for all of you.

Philippians 1:15. For this reason,

Philippians 1:15

because I heard of your faith in the

Lord's and your love toward all the

things not to give thanks for you.

Philippians 1, I thank my God in all my

remembrance of you always in every

prayer of mine.

Colossians, we always thank God, the

father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray

for you. And there was like four or five

other verses. I went through the New

Testament trying to find all the

sections that Paul was talking about for

the church. There was like four or five

other verses as well. But it's every

And so this is kind of the final final

reiteration here from the psalm

we live

like yourself.

So here you go

to deliver the one who offers sacrifice

to the one who works his way.

So how do we better fulfill our purpose?

How do we grow at this point?

Meditate on

the word of lords

and we praise God.

We praise God that he's willing to

praise God that he is a loving father.

He is not aggressive

father.

He's a father that comes with with

encouragement

but also with

it. Great job for that. Um and we grow

in thankfulness for one another. We

remember that

God bought us with a price that we could

never

that God us

willing to come and offer his only body.

for us. Praise God for them. Praise God.

A lot of these things

probably even more than some of you. Um

but the

overemphasized

reality of scripture emphasizes over

over and over and over again

for

what he says to those who order their

way

in the new

order

to Christ for no matter how many times

we and so quick and willing to

grow.

So quick

103

favorite

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and for all

his

forgives all your heals all your

diseases. Who your life

and mercy

for our heal our disease

healed

No matter how we

did that, I would be

also

us.

He satisfies us.

We thank you Lord.

Truly Lord

God

remember all of the amazing

you are you are

we all

I do

as we glorify you.

We will come to you.

very

excellent.