Sermon #1285 Miscellaneous
Sermons
Title: “JUDGMENT MUST
BEGIN AT THE
HOUSE OF GOD!”
Text: Psalm 50:1-23
Reading: Luke 11:37-54 or Isaiah
14:14-22
Subject: Carnal and Spiritual Religion
Date: Sunday Morning - June 22, 1997
Tape # T-83
Introduction:
You will find the title of my message
today in the first part of 1 Peter 4:17. Look at that verse with me for a
minute.
1 Peter 4:17 "For the time is come that JUDGMENT MUST BEGIN AT THE HOUSE OF GOD: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be
of them that obey not the gospel of God?"
Without question, in the immediate
context Peter is talking about the chastisements and afflictions God’s elect
suffer in this world as believers because of our faith in and obedience o the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is obvious when we read the verses surrounding this
text.
1 Peter 4:16-19 "Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him
not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. (17) For the time is come that
judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us,
what shall the end be of them that
obey not the gospel of God? (18) And
if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner
appear? (19) Wherefore let them that
suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful
Creator."
1.
All believers in this world, as the Church and House of God,
as his people and his family, must and shall suffer trials, afflictions, and
adversities.
John Gill said, with regard to these afflictions, “As God has his set
time to favour his Zion, so likewise to chastise her.”
The judgment here spoken of, as
relating to believers, is not the penal judgment of God upon us for the
satisfaction of justice. Christ has fully satisfied the justice of God for us,
by his sin-atoning sacrifice as our Substitute. His blood forever satisfied the
justice of God for our sins. God will never punish his family for their sins,
since he punished our Elder Bother for them.
The judgment spoken of in 1 Peter
4:17, as far as t relates to us is the loving judgment, or chastisement of our
heavenly Father, to correct and nurture his children.
“God in Israel sows the seeds
Of affliction, pain, and toil.
These spring up and choke the weeds
That would else o’erspread the soil.”
Notice
what Peter tells us in these verses.
·
When we suffer
persecution, slander, opposition, and ill-treatment for Christ’s sake, there is
no reason for us to be ashamed; and we certainly must not allow these things to
make us ashamed of Christ and his gospel. Instead, we ought to glorify God that
we have been counted worthy to suffer for his sake (v. 16)
·
These
judgments, these providential chastisements, all come upon us according to the
will and purpose of our God, at his set time and for the set time, “according to the will f God” (vv. 17,
19).
·
If these
things come on God’s elect, if thus the righteous are saved with great
difficulty, through many trials and troubles, the everlasting judgment of God
upon the ungodly, the sinner, and all those who obey not the gospel, is a
matter both of certainty and of indescribable horror!
·
In the midst
of all our trials, let us commit the keeping of our souls to the hands of God,
our heavenly Father, “as unto a faithful
Creator.”
That
is, briefly, the meaning of Peter’s words in the context. However, this
statement, “Judgment must begin at the
house of God,” has other, equally obvious applications.
2.
Without a doubt, Peter’s statement had application to the
judgment of God which was about to fall upon city Jerusalem, the nation of
Israel, and the temple, all of which were referred to as the house of God.
Taken in that sense, Peter was saying,
to his countrymen, that the time has come when God will destroy Judah as a
nation of people, burn up Jerusalem, and tear down the temple, bringing to a
climatic end every particle of the carnal ordinances and ceremonies of the
legal dispensation. That is exactly what happened in 70 AD. The entire system
of carnal, legal worship ended when Christ fulfilled every type and prophecy of
the law by his life, death, and resurrection, by which he accomplished and
obtained eternal redemption for us. In 70 AD the Lord God demonstrated the
utter spiritual desolation of Jerusalem by destroying every material particle
of it.
3.
Today, I want to make application of this statement to the
professed Church and House of God.
When the Holy Spirit declares, “The time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God,”
he is telling us that God will separate the precious from the vile. Christ will
thoroughly purge his floor. He will, in his own way, at his own set time,
separate the chaff from the wheat and the sheep from the goats. Turn with me
now to Psalm 50, and you will see that this is a proper application of Peter’s
words. Judgment must begin at the house of God.”
Proposition: In this prophetic
psalm the Lord God himself speaks, assuring us of his purpose of grace toward
his elect, teaching us the nature of true worship, and warning all who profess
faith in his name but refuse to obey his Word of eternal wrath.
This psalm is a prophecy of the coming
of Christ to redeem and save his people. As we read the psalm, we will see that
the things dealt with in these twenty-three verses relate primarily to this
gospel age. The Person speaking here is the Lord God himself. He speaks of the
calling of his elect from among the Gentiles, the total abrogation of the
carnal ordinances of legal worship, and the Lord’s controversy with all who
profess to be his people while retaining those carnal elements of the legal
dispensation.
Divisions: We
will go through this verse by verse. It is a very instructive passage of
Scripture. May God the Holy Spirit, who inspired these words, now effectual
instruct us from them. As we go through the psalm, I want to show you five
things in it.
1.
God reveals
his purpose of grace (vv. 1-6).
2.
God teaches us
the nature of true worship (vv. 7-15).
3.
God exposes
the wickedness of lost religionists (vv. 16-21).
4.
God warns all
who forget him of impending wrath (v. 22).
5.
God promises
salvation to every believer (v. 23).
I. GOD
REVEALS HIS PURPOSE OF GRACE (vv. 1-6).
Here is one of those rare occasions
when the Lord God issues a summons to gather the whole world before him (See Isaiah 45:20-25). When he does, you
can be sure, what he says is of immense importance. If we were wise, we would
take off our shoes and tread softly. When the Triune God speaks, we ought to be
like Samuel of old, and say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth thee.”
Let us hear what the Lord our God has to say.
A. The
Call Of Grace (v.1)
Psalms 50:1 "The mighty
God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and
called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof."
Some have suggested that these three
names, “The Mighty” (El), “The Mighty God” (Elohim),“The LORD” (Jehovah), used
with the singular verb “called,” is a display of the Divine Trinity. It is
certain that all three Persons in the glorious, triune Godhead are involved in
and committed o the salvation of chosen sinners (Eph. 1:3-14). We who believe
have been chosen by God the Father, redeemed by God the Son, and regenerated by
God the Holy Spirit.
However, all three of these Divine
names belong to Christ, our Savior, in whom resides all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). He who is “The Mighty God” and the Son of God is
“The LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” He it is of whom the psalm speaks, when it says, “The mighty God, even the LORD hath spoken.”
1.
The Lord Jesus Christ, “The
Mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken!”
·
He spoke for
his elect, as their Surety and Savior, in the covenant of grace before the
world began.
·
He spoke all
things out of nothing as the sovereign Creator of all things.
·
He spoke to
Moses and Elijah about the death he had come to accomplish at Jerusalem.
·
He speaks by
his every act of providence. (Three men were taken into eternity this week: An
85 year old great-grandfather, a 53 year old father, and a 22 year old son. Did
you hear God speak? I did!)
·
He speaks for
us in heaven.
·
He speaks to
men everywhere through his Word, through the preaching of the Gospel.
2.
The Lord God, our Savior calls and commands all men
everywhere to hear his voice n the Gospel nd repent.
He calls sinners around the world, “from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.”
·
The General
Call
·
The Effectual
Call
·
Both are his
calls!
B. The Place Of Mercy (v. 2)
Psalms 50:2 "Out of Zion,
the perfection of beauty, God hath shined."
It may be that the psalmists is here
saying that Christ, our God, is the perfection of beauty, and as the perfection
of beauty he shines out of Zion. That certainly is true! However, the text
seems to say that…
1.
God’s Church,
Zion, is the perfection of beauty.
“Its members are adorned with the
graces of the Spirit, by which they are all glorious within; and especially as
they are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and so are perfectly comely
through the comeliness he hath put upon them and here it is that Christ, who is
the great God, and (it is here that) our Saviour, shines forth upon his people,
grants his gracious presence, and manifests himself in his ordinances, to their
great joy and pleasure.”
John Gill
2.
The Lord God
reveals himself in the assembly of his saints and makes himself known to chosen
sinners through the instrumentality of his Church by the preaching of the
Gospel.
Titus 2:11-14 "For the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (12) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we
should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (13) Looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (14) Who gave himself for us, that he
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works."
Titus 3:4-7 "But after that
the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, (5) Not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (6) Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our
Saviour; (7) That being justified by
his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
C. The
Promise Of Grace (v.3)
Psalms 50:3 "Our God shall
come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall
be very tempestuous round about him."
This is a threefold promise of grace.
It is the promise of Christ’s threefold coming to save his people. It speaks of
the Lord’s coming…
·
To Redeem Us
By His Blood.
·
To Regenerate
Us By His Grace.
·
To Raise Us Up
To Glory.
D. The
Purpose Stated (vv. 4-5)
Psalms 50:4-5 "He shall call
to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. (5) Gather my saints together unto me;
those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
The purpose of God in all things, in
creation and in providence, is the salvation of his elect, the gathering of his
chosen from the four corners of the earth.
Genesis 49:10 "The sceptre
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come; and unto him shall the
gathering of the people be."
Isaiah 56:8 "The Lord GOD
which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are
gathered unto him."
Zechariah 10:8 "I will hiss
for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as
they have increased."
Be
sure to notice the language of verse five.
1.
God’s elect
are here called saints even before they are called, because they were, from
eternity, sanctified in Christ.
2.
These chosen
ones are those who have made a covenant with God, not personally, but
representatively, when Christ stood as our Surety in the covenant of grace.
3.
The covenant
between us and God is immutable and sure because it was a covenant made by and
upn the basis of Christ’s sin-atoning, blood sacrifice.
E. The
End Accomplished (v.6)
When all things are finished and time
shall be no more, when all God’s purpose is accomplished and all his elect have
been gathered into his kingdom, then God shall be gloified forever as the just
and righteous, just God and Savior.
Psalms 50:6 "And the
heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah."
When our Savior at last presents the
kingdom of his saints to the Father, holy, unblamable, and unreproveable in his
sight, saying, Lo, I and the children
which thou hast given me,” the Triune God shall be all in all.
II. IN
VERSES 7-15, THE LORD OUR GOD TEACHES US THE NATURE OF TRUE WORSHIP.
Psalms 50:7-15 "Hear, O my
people, (You who profess and claim to be
my people. You who wear my name. You who are confident that you are my people!)
and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. (8) I will
not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. (The context really demands that verse 8
would be better translated - I will not
reprove you for your lack of sacrifices or your lack of burnt offerings, which
should have been continually before me. The reason should be obvious. God’s
quarrel with men is not their failure to offer enough sacrifices, but their
failure to trust Christ of whom the sacrifices spoke! Read on.) (9) I will take no bullock out of thy
house, nor he goats out of thy folds. (10) For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. (11) I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of
the field are mine. (12) If I were hungry, I would not tell
thee: for the world is mine, and the
fulness thereof. (13) Will I eat the
flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
(14) Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: (15) And call upon me in the day of
trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."
These verses each us five distinct,
vital truths about the worship of God. I will not spend much time expounding
these things; but I hope you will hear them, mark them down, and remember them.
A. God
does not need us or anything we can give him or do for him.
He who is altogether infinite, immense, independent, and
self-sufficient needs nothing. He who created all things and owns all things
needs nothing. I cannot give him anything! I cannot do anything for him by
which to obligate him to me! Neither can you! No man will ever worship God
until he understands this fact.
B. No
mere form of godliness, even if the form is biblical and required of God, will
profit a man’s soul.
Read the first chapter of Isaiah
again. No amount of sacrifice, no religious ritual, no ceremony, no act of
devotion, no amount of austere piety, no creed, no confession of faith, no
amount of church attendance, no religious affiliation apart from faith in
Christ will do a man any good in the sight of God. In fact, without faith in
Christ, these things are eating and drinking damnation to yourself!
Those who have only a form of
godliness, while denying the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in
Christ, which is the power of godliness, do not know God, no matter how sincere
they may be.
C. True
worship is spiritual.
True worship arises from and primarily concerns matters of
the heart. True worship is not an act, but an attitude, an attitude of faith in
and consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 4:23-24 "But the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. (24) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
Philippians 3:3 "For we are the
circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh."
God says, “My son, Give me thine heart.” If he gets your heart, he gets you.
If he gets your heart, he gets everything. Look at verses 14-15.
·
“Offer unto
God thanksgiving.”
Thanksgiving is a sacrifice that
arises from a heart of faith. You cannot give thanks in everything unless you
trust God in and with everything!
Psalms 116:17 "I will offer
to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the
LORD."
Hebrews 13:15 "By him (By faith in Christ!) therefore let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his
name."
1.
Thank God for
his grace!
2.
Thank God for
his providence!
3.
Thank God for
his Son!
· “Pay thy vows unto the most High!”
Ritualistic, legalistic, ceremonial,
religious vows are totally forbidden. No man, no preacher, no church has a
right to require anyone to bind themselves and their consciences by a religious
vow. However, we have, each of us taken moral, spiritual vows before God, by
which we have bound and obligated ourselves. The Lord warns us that we ought
never to make such vows hastily. It is better never to make a vow than make a
vow and break it.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 "When thou
vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. (5) Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and
not pay."
Be
not hasty to speak anything to God. You may forget it. He won’t!
1.
This refers to
all the vows we make. (Marriage - Debts - Contrats, etc.)
2.
This
specifically has reference to spiritual vows.
At our baptism, as believers,
we made a public vow to God, a vow of devotion and consecration. We pledged
ourselves to Christ, devoted ourselves publicly to him as our Lord and Savior,
to his worship and service, to live by his grace for the glory of his name, to
give up ourselves to him and his church, to walk with him in the newness of
life, seeking in all things to obey his Word, keep his ordinances, serve his
interests, and honor him.
Isaiah 4:5 "And the LORD
will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a
cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon
all the glory shall be a
defence."
"And
this they did, not as we hoped, but
first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God."
Illustration: JEPHTHAH - “I have
lifted my hand to the LORD.”
·
“Call upon me
in the day of trouble.”
This suggests much more than simply
crying out to God for help in tough times. Everyone does that. To call upon the
name of the Lord is to worship and trust him. To call upon him in the day of
trouble is to worship him and trust him, like old brother Job, in the day of
trouble.
D. True
worship carries with it the promise of salvation.
God says, “I will
deliver thee.” “Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt b saved.” “Whosoever shall call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved.” That does not mean that you will be saved because
you call upon the name of the Lord, but as surely as you call upon the name of
the Lord.
E. True
faith always glorifies God, particularly in the matter of salvation.
“Thou shalt
glorify me.” Faith glorifies God
because it always ascribes the whole of salvation to him, saying, “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.” “Salvation is of the LORD!”
1 Corinthians 1:30-31 "But of him are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption: (31) That,
according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
III. Now look at verses 16-21. HERE GOD EXPOSES THE WICKEDNESS OF LOST RELIGIONISTS.
Psalms 50:16-21 "But unto the
wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in
thy mouth? (17) Seeing thou hatest
instruction, and castest my words behind thee. (18) When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and
hast been partaker with adulterers. (19) Thou
givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. (20) Thou sittest and speakest
against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. (21) These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I
was altogether such an one as
thyself: but I will reprove thee, and
set them in order before thine
eyes."
Here the Lord addresses himself to
those multitudes of lost religionists in every generation who wear his name,
take refuge in religion, claim to be his people, and convince themselves that
they are his people. He says to them, You
have no right to wear my name, speak my Word, or lay claim to my covenant, my
salvation. This is exactly what Zerubbabel and Jeshua said to the
adveraries of Benjamin and Judah, and exactly what our Lord said to the
religious leaders of Israel in his day.
Ezra 2:1-3 "Now these are the children of the province that
went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came
again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city; (2) Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah,
Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the
men of the people of Israel: (3) The
children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred seventy and two."
"Woe
unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not
in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."
Note: Our Lord spoke these words to the Pharisees when he was
guest at a party in a Pharisee’s house and the Pharisees decided to they wanted
to join his group! They wanted his name and his fame, but not his dominion nor
his doctrine. Things have not changed!
A. God,
who knows the hearts and motives of all men, describes the character of those
religious leaders of the world in every age.
These men never change. Their character never changes.
1.
They hate the
instruction, the doctrines, of the Gospel (v.17).
2.
They despise
the Word of God (v.17).
3.
They are
thieves (v. 18). They rob God of his glory and rob widows houses in the name of
God.
4.
They are
adulterers (v.18) - Literally (John 8:1-11) and Spiritually (Rev. 18:4).
5.
They speak
evil doctrines (v. 19), the evil doctrines of free-will, works, self-righteous
religion, which promote moral evils among men.
6.
They are
slanderers (v. 20).
B. At
the bottom of all heresies, all forms of Arminian, free-will, works religion is
the fact that those men who embrace uch heresies have very low views of God and
very high views of themselves (v.
21).
God says, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself!” That
as the problem in David’s day. That as the problem in our Lord’s day. And that
is the problem now. The religions of the world have very low views of God and
very high views of man. That will not always be the case. Look at verses 21 and
22 together.
IV. HERE
GOD WARNS THE WICKED OF HIS CERTAIN, IMPENDING WRATH.
Psalms 50:21-22 "These things hast thou done, and I kept
silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I
will reprove thee, and set them in
order before thine eyes. (22) Now
consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none
to deliver."
For now, it appears that God lets men
get by with their wickedness. But that is not the case. He will not forever be
silent. He says, “Consider this…
A. “I will
reprove thee.”
B. “I will set your crimes in order
before thine eyes.”
C. “I will tear
you in pieces!”
D. “There shall
be none to deliver!”
V. Now, look at verse 23. HERE
GOD PROMISES SALVATION TO ALL WHO BELIEVE, EVEN TO THOSE WHO HAVE, HERETOFOR,
DESPISED HIM AND THE GOSPEL OF HIS GRACE!
Psalms 50:23 "Whoso offereth
praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will
I show the salvation of God."
To offer praise, in this context, is
to cease from all the foolish notions of free-will, self-righteous, works
salvation, and trust Christ alone. To believe on the Son of God is to quit
trying to get saved by something you have done and praise him for salvation
accomplished, finished, and based upon what he has done! This God given faith
glorifies God for his salvation and orders (rules, governs, and motivates) the
life of the one who possesses it. To all who thus trust the Son of God, God
promises to show his salvation.
·
The Cause of
It!
·
The Basis of
It!
·
The Fact of
It!
·
The Mystery of
It!
·
The Wonder of
It!
·
The Security
of It!
·
The
Consummation of It!
Isaiah 52:10 "The LORD hath
made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the
earth shall see the salvation of our God."
Luke 2:25-30 "And, behold,
there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was
Simeon; and the same man was just
and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon
him. (26) And it was revealed unto
him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the
Lord's Christ. (27) And he came by
the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to
do for him after the custom of the law,
(28) Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, (29)
Lord, now lettest thou
thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: (30) For mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation."
Amen.