Psalm 50- Consuming Fire

Psalm 50

Consuming Fire

Sermon Notes

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10/8/2017

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

         We are to bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. What is that? Thanksgiving. Can you thank Him today? Are you characterized by thankfulness?

Our God is a Consuming Fire and you must be consumed. Have you been?

A sacrifice was an animal slaughtered and offered to the Lord. We don’t have to do that anymore. Jesus was the once sacrifice to God to satisfy divine justice. We now simply come into His presence with thanksgiving.

But our modern idea of a sacrifice fits here. A sacrifice is something you offer
a :destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else 

b :something given up or lost  

the sacrifices made by parents

       Miriam Webster Definition.

         We offer the ‘sacrifice’ of thanksgiving.

We give up our thanksgiving for the sake of God. We actually give up our complaints and grumblings and in their place offer thanksgiving. In that sense, it is a sacrifice.

      Parents sacrifice for their children. They give up the expensive car so that mom can stay home and raise the kids. They give up the job in New York City so they can raise the kids in a better community. The thing sacrificed is slain and the thing offered is acceptable.

      Think of the sacrifice of praise that way. We could bring all of our complaints and grumblings to God. Instead, we choose to glorify Him with thanksgiving. We’ve sacrificed the complaints, killed them, and all that is left to offer to God is thanksgiving.

EXEGESIS

The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. ² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

God has spoken. He is the creator and sustainer of the universe. From the rising of the sun to the setting, He governs all. This is a way of saying that God sees all the land and you in it.

Where does God shine? Among His people, out of Zion, the Holy City of God, the place of the sanctuary, where God is to be exalted, gloried with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the perfection of beauty.

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.

God is a consuming fire, a devouring fire. He is very tempestuous. He comes with might and fury. The tendency would be to run, to flee, to hide. But will God consume you?

A tornado of fire. This is the glory cloud that followed them in the wilderness. This is the shekinah over the glory seat. This is the tongues of fire.

⁴ 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. ⁶ And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.

God will call to the heavens and to the earth to judge His people. What does this mean? It means that He will call heaven and earth as witnesses as God judges. I have mentioned this before but we need reminded, that God as Judge of His people is a good thing. When God judges His people, He is saving them. He brings the judgement that these people are mine and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

God gathers His saints. Who does He consider His saints? Those who have made covenant with Him by sacrifice. Covenant members in the Old Testament were those who were circumcised. Only the circumcised could come close to God and offer sacrifice and have the covenantal meal with God.

For us in the New Testament, the once sacrifice has occurred. Our covenant with God is through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ. Having made covenant with God through Jesus, we can enter into His courts with the praise of Thanksgiving. We then get to sit down with God and His gathered people for the covenantal meal, the Lord’s Supper.

At this meal, the heavens declare the righteousness of God. God has done that which is right concerning His people. This includes the forgiveness of sins and the declaration that they are righteous in Jesus Christ. Since God, Himself, is Judge, there is no higher court of appeal. What God has declared is the end of the matter.

Psa. 50:7   Hear, O 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. 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?

God shows in these verses that the sacrificial system was not for His benefit but rather for the benefit of His people. They were alienated from Him through sin and He sought to bring them near through the forgiveness of sin. This, of course, all pointed Jesus and the means by which we come to God.

God will speak against His people when they fail to be obedient to Him. When He does so, what testimony is damaging to them? Did they not offer enough animal sacrifices? Is our God an insatiable God that must have multitudes of sacrifices to satisfy Him?

God declares that this is not so. He is the omnipotent God. He is the creator of heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is. He looks upon the Earth and all is His. He does not need His people to feed Him animal sacrifices. If He were hungry, He could kill any animal He wanted and devour it in a second. His point is that the point of the sacrifices was not to satisfy God’s hunger.

What was the point? It was to point to Jesus. God’s wrath against the sin of man had to be poured out upon a representative of mankind. In Jesus, the perfect Godman, the sacrifice was perfectly offered. Thus, it enabled God’s people to draw near to Him. God provided, prepared and received this sacrifice. Our only response to this is thanksgiving.

God reveals that the Old Testament saints should also have understood this. The sacrifices were offered so that God’s people could be drawn to God without the fear of God’s wrath upon them. An animal was killed instead of the worshipper. This was grace from God. The worshipper’s response then must be gratitude.

Furthermore, once you get over the fear of judgment upon sin, you begin to see God’s work in every area of your life. What has God done? Count His many blessings, name then one by one, Count His many blessings, see what God has done.

Mere outward observances of religion without a thankful heart and an obedient will are an abomination to the Lord.

Is. 1:13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

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.

Some of you have very troubled lives. Things have not worked out as you thought. You are dealing with serious illnesses. Perhaps your children are a challenge. Perhaps your adult children are brining you grey hairs and sorrow. What must your response to God be?

Offer unto God thanksgiving. What? Do you thank Him for all these troubles and difficulties? Well, maybe someday you will. But what can you do right now? Right now, you can thank Him IN these troubles and difficulties.

The problem is that when you undergo trials, when life does not work out as you thought, when you are in the day of trouble, the trouble becomes the thing. You focus on the trouble and forget what God has done. You may forget that God is sovereign over the cattle on a thousand hills. You have may have forget that God works all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

So, what do you do? You remember. We need to really work on our memories. If God seems distant from your troubles now, then remember how He delivered you then. What has God done for you in calling you out of darkness and into light? What has He done in forgiving your many sins? What has He done in provision for you in work? What has He done in preserving you from evil?

There really is a long, long list to thank Him for. If you are downcast, then start by thanking God for His grace, His mercies, His provisions. You might want to start a list and see how many things you can write down to thank God for. Look at it often, add to the list.

What does this thanksgiving list do? It gives you confidence that God, who is ever the same, who is Your Father in Heaven, will deliver you now and in the future as He has done in the past.

Then all upon Him in the day of trouble. He will deliver you. And when He does so, you can give Him the glory.

The Wicked Among God’s People

Psa. 50:16   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?

These wicked are not pagans altogether outside of God’s covenant. They declare His statues. They take His covenant in their mouths.

What does this mean? It means that they have been circumcised. They are among God’s people. The claim to be Bible believers. They have made a profession of faith in God with their mouths. They likely attend worship and may even offer animal sacrifices. In a technical sense, they are covenant members. But God is here making a distinction between them and those whom God protects and delivers.

In our day, we can relate to this. There are many people gathered into Christian Churches. They all profess some belief in God. Most of them claim to believe the Bible. Most of them have been baptized and attend to the Lord’s Supper. If they have all of these marks of a Christian, then how or why does God make a distinction, even calling them wicked?

Marks of the Wicked

1.   Hates Instruction- ¹⁷ Seeing thou hatest instruction, - Do you chaff at instruction from the Word of God? Would you rather pick and choose what parts of the Bible you will obey? Do you have a lazy attitude about learning God’s Word? If you are disobedient, do you use the excuse that you didn’t know better. A pagan who has never had a Bible might make that excuse but you who have had the Bible your entire life? What excuse do you have for not knowing God’s will?

2.   Does not obey the Bible- and castest my words behind thee. Even worse, when you do know the Bible, do you not heed it? It is one thing to be guilty of not knowing the Word of God. That is bad enough. But it is worse when you know what God has said and flatly refuse to submit to it.

Children-Both of these sins can be seen in your lives in the way you obey your parents, or not, and will be a snare for you as you grow up and transfer your allegiance to Jesus Christ. Do you chaff or resist when your parents give you instructions? Do you insist you already know how to do it? Do you not pay attention when they talk to you about important things?

Secondly, when you know what they want you to do, do you do it? Or, do you say, I know what mom wants me to do, but she will never know if I do different. They are gone for a few hours and no one is here to bust me. I can get away with it. If you think that way now with your parents, you will think this way as a young adult in rebellion against God. Repent, confess, seek forgiveness, be obedient.

3.   ¹⁸ When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, - God’s people should not join in thievery. This is also a way to think that God is not sovereign. I can get away with it, so I shall. One way we can think about this is in the area of envy. Do you envy others enough to be willing to plunder from them? Walmart won’t miss it, so I’ll just take it. Or may parents, or my brother. Or, maybe you have followed the envy driven culture who is always showing us the lifestyles of the rich and famous. We act as if we do not approve of their lifestyles until we get a chance to tax them or penalize them in some way to get some of their stuff. We may not steal their car but if the government does so, we are glad for it to happen. Why? Because we secretly admire the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Even though the rich and famous are so obviously miserable. Do you have a thieving conniving heart? Repent.

4.   and hast been partaker with adulterers. This one hits a lot closer to home. We may not be a thief, but adultery lurks around every corner. Jesus makes it clear that lust in the heart is spiritual adultery. Our culture is rife with this sin. Adultery used to not only be a sin in this country but also a crime. But now, the laws protect adulterers because the laws protect the clamor for sexual lust. It has broken out into our laws in many ways. The abortion laws protect lustful desires. The homosexual marriage laws protect inordinate desires. The promotion and protection of legalized porn protects nearly every form of concupiscence known to man.

I know that many of you, hopefully all of you are opposed to this outbreak of adultery. But have you partaken of it? What do you watch? Do you stand against and resist temptation? Or, do you gladly regularly fall into it? Are you against adultery in public but for it in private? Look out, your secret sins will find you out. God sees. Repent.

5.   ¹⁹ Thou givest thy mouth to evil, How do you speak? God hears? I use this as two items because too many Christians think it doesn’t matter how they speak. But God says it does. Do you plan evil? Do you talk about other people, people that are better than you, in a derogatory way? Do you curse when you should bless? Do you have a foul mouth and participate in foul, course, provocative, sensual speech? Again, is your public speech acceptable and your private speech, say with like-minded friends, given to evil? Nowadays we don’t have to wonder to much about this. People, so-called Christians, assume an internet handle and spew out their vileness on Christian blogs. Do you do that? Repent.

6.   and thy tongue frameth deceit. At the heart of foul speech is deceit. Do you intend to deceive? You can do so by telling an outright lie. You can speak ill of someone whether to a friend you want to influence or nowadays on the internet and no one will probably ever fact check you. Do you embellish the truth? That is lie. Do you not tell the whole truth? That is a lie. Do you tell a story in such a way as to make yourself look good and the other look bad? That is framing deceit. Don’t frame the picture. Don’t edit the truth. Repent

7.   ²⁰ Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. He seems to be building up to this great sin. Do you slander your own brothers and sisters? Dophi- to push over (a stumbling block)-

Slander- the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation. Internet definition.

     Slander is making false statements about someone. The Bible strictly condemns such behavior. Do not lie about your family relations or your Christian brothers. You can lie by on purpose telling a lie. You can also lie by making presumptuous statements about someone. You can think you know their motives and then state their motives. But unless you really do know their motives then you are slandering your brother. The Bible condemns this. Repent.

We tend to justify ourselves when we make true derogatory statements about someone. We tell the story in such a way that we come out a saint and they come out a sinner. I am convicted by this. I have spoken about my own brothers this way. I repent and intend to not do so. If I have a beef with their behavior, the Bible requires me to confront them, not complain to my wife, my children, to another sibling, or anyone else. You may talk to your spouse about advice on how to confront a brother who is in sin. That is fine. But if you are unwilling to confront them, then you must let love cover their sins. What does that mean? It means you don’t get to go around telling the story as if you are the saint and they are the sinner. Stop talking about them in a negative way behind their backs. Besides, when you tell the story in the way you do, you are not really telling the truth. You are embellishing again. You forgot the part where you sinned. Stop doing that. Repent.

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.

Have you been guilty of these sins? Have you got away with them up to now? Did you think in some of them you were doing right because you thought you were doing them as a Christian? That is to say, you thought God approved of them? Hear what God says. He was only silent because He was giving you time to realize your wrong and repent. He had not forgotten. He was watching and waiting. Children, do you think you are getting away with your sins? Your parents probably already know but are waiting for you to confess to them so they can help you turn around.

If you do not repent on your own, there will be a day of reckoning. The Lord will call you up short. Children, when your parents catch you, or call you to account, it will be worse than if you confessed on your own. Do not wait until you get caught. Go confess to them today!

²² Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

If you are a Christian and you forget God, He will tear you in pieces. If God is the deliverer, who can deliver when He attacks? Don’t put yourself in the place of being an enemy of God. Rebellious Covenant members are God’s worse enemies. Become a friend. Repent

EXHORTATION

²³ Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

Sacrifice of Praise- Thanksgiving. Todah- Thanksgiving. This praise is literally thanksgiving. God’s people are to be primarily characterized by praise, by thanksgiving. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus.

This praise, this thanksgiving glorifies God. Glory-Kavad- heavy.When you praise God, this makes God heavy, if you will. This is the weighty matter. Can you offer praise? Thanksgiving? For God, the Father, for Jesus, for His Holy Spirit? For the work He has done in your life. For this church, for your spouse, for your children, for your parents? Can you praise the Lord? If so, then God becomes weighty in your life.

If not, then repent. Stop grumbling and complaining. That is the way of the wicked. Turn to the Lord in the sacrifice of praise, of thanksgiving. Count your many blessings, name them one by one.

When this happens, you are not among the wicked but among the righteous.  If you order your life aright with thanksgiving, then God will show you and has shown you His Salvation. If your life is not characterized by gratitude, by thanksgiving, then you should beware. But if your life is characterized by thanksgiving to God, then you have been saved already. Rejoice and give thanks. Amen.