Good morning, everyone. Glad you're with us. I guess if you had a plan to be at the beach this weekend, you're here instead, huh? Well, we're glad you're with us for whatever reason. And those of you who are visiting a special welcome to you and we're glad you're here as well. If you have a Bible, you'll want to turn to Psalm 50, Psalm 50 for the Scripture reading. And while you are turning to that passage, let me just say to those of you who have not been here and those that need to be reminded, we are in a series of sermons on the mission of the church. And among the various things that the church has been called to do, that followers of Jesus have been called to do, at the very top of the list is that we've been called to be people who worship God. That is, we get together in times like these. And gather before the God of heaven and earth and give him honor and give him our worship and our adoration. And as we have been looking at worship in the church, we've looked for a number of weeks at how many times we'll take worship and turn it on its head like this, taking the things that are important about worship and making them less important and the things that are not so important, the most important. Upside down worship we called it. Today we're beginning another phase of our look at worship and rather than thinking of worship as upside down, we're now going to begin to think of it as inside out. Looking at how the worship of God, that to which we have been called by God, the Father, as His people, is something that must come from deep within and spill over into life. Psalm 50. Here now the word of our God. The mighty one, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth, from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, from Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes and will not be silent, a fire devours before Him and around Him a tempest rages. He summons the heavens above and the earth, that He may judge His people, gather to be my consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice, and the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is judge. Here, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you, I am God, your God, I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains and every creature on the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thanks offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the most high, and call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me. Let's pray together. Our Lord Jesus, these are words that the Psalmist spoke and wrote so long ago that speak of things that sound strange to our ears, sacrifices of animals, God coming with fire and fury. They are strange to us, but we come to you now as one who loved the Psalms, as one who prayed the Psalms, sang them, recited them, we come to you, asking you as our teacher to teach us what these words mean for us today. Would you please grant that mercy to us? And as you do, we pledge to you all of our worship and all of our adoration. Amen. The famous Greek philosopher Socrates once said, the unexamined life is not worth living. The unexamined life is not worth living. Think about that for a minute. I think that makes sense to most of us. Unfortunately, most people in this world don't examine their lives. They don't look deeply into their lives. Instead, they sort of just run along doing whatever happens to be handed to them for that day, bouncing from one wall to another to another down the road of life. That's the way most people live their lives. But Socrates was right when he said that if you don't stop and examine your life, your life is likely to be one that's not even worth living. Well, we just read a song that talks about much the same idea, but instead of just talking about life, I think what this Psalm tells us is this, the unexamined heart is not worth bringing to God in worship. The inner person, your motivations, what's deep down inside of you, you know, the things that nobody else in this world knows, only you know. Looking at those things at your heart, examining them is the key for approaching God in a way that is worthwhile. And this Psalm speaks of the need to examine your heart, my heart, our hearts, as we enter into the presence of God in worship. And I want us to ask these questions of this Psalm. Why is that so important? Why can't I just come to worship? Why do I have to look at my heart and examine what's deep inside of me? And the answer of this Psalm is first this, God is our judge. Do you remember how the Psalm puts it? Again at the first verse, the mighty one, God, the Lord speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, from Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth. The Lord of the universe, the one who created the world, calls from one end of the world to the other for people to do their due honor to him, to come into his presence, to honor and adore him, to do what we call worshiping him. But in this particular Psalm, he's not calling them simply to be nice to them and to do sweet things toward them, to hold them gently and tenderly as he often does, but rather he's coming to them in the mode of their judge. Do you remember again in verse 5, gather to me my consecrated ones who made a covenant with me by sacrifice and the heavens proclaim his righteousness for God himself is judge. This word is going out to the people of Israel, that is to the people in the Old Testament who were joined to God by covenant, joined to him by sacrifice, the sacrifice of animals. And yet heavens declare, which means basically the angels of heaven are declaring as God does this, that he is righteous, that he is the judge even of his own people. You and I are those people today because we have been consecrated unto God. If you're a follower of Christ, you have made covenant with God. If you are a follower of Christ, you have joined with God in covenant by means of the sacrifice of Jesus' death upon the cross. And the angels whom we join in worship because we enter into the heavenly places are shouting in our ears the God with whom we meet is just God is the judge. Now that's not very popular today. It's not a nice way to talk about things like these. And if you came here this morning with the normal mode on, it's probably not what you expected to hear. Oh, let's have something positive to say today, can't we? Well, we'll get there, don't worry. But it has to start with where this passage starts. And that is that God, the king of the universe, acts as the judge of the universe. Now skeptics out there in the world, and there may be skeptics here even today. Hear words like these and say to themselves, you know, I don't think God has any right to judge me. Look at what he's doing. He allows disease to destroy people. He allows war to ravage the earth. He sends hurricanes and destroys lives and millions and perhaps billions of dollars. Waste, waste, waste. A God who would do that is so immoral. He has no right to judge me. But the angels of heaven are saying he's righteous. And the reality is that even though you and I as human beings can't understand sometimes how God does certain things and allows certain things to happen in this world, the declaration is that God is righteous because God Himself sets the standard of what is righteous for Himself and for you and me. He is the standard. There's no standard above Him. And it's amazing isn't it how even skeptics will draw from Christianity to the point that they say, you know, it wouldn't be good to destroy a lot of people and war is not a good thing and hurricanes aren't good things. So borrow that much from us. I don't know where they get those ideas. Maybe hurricanes are the best thing that ever happened. Maybe war is perfectly fine. If you're not a believer in Christ, what grounds do you have for saying such things are not good? If you're not a follower of Jesus, if you're a skeptic. But if you're going to borrow that human beings are valuable. If you're going to borrow from Jesus, that life is significant. If you're going to borrow and take from Jesus this truth too, the God of heaven and earth is righteous and holy and perfect and His judgments are true. But I have found that it's not just skeptics who wonder if we should think about God as our judge. I've found that even followers of Jesus find this a difficult thing to conceive of. After all, we know that Jesus came to this earth and suffered and died a horrific death on the cross to pay the price of our sins, to satisfy the justice of God against us, to give us forgiveness and everlasting life. So surely, if we are in Jesus, we don't need to think about God as our judge, but here the word of God is clear. Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, that God is the judge, not just of the world, but He's the judge of His people. And to come into His presence, as we do in worship, is to come before His judgment seat. Sometimes I think that the God of heaven and earth is a lot like a nuclear reactor. Maybe you get some of the power in your home from nuclear reactors. Many people do in this world. And you know, we're grateful for that. It warms our homes, it lights up our homes, it runs the air conditioner, it cooks our food. I mean, we're glad for that. Those are good things that we can see that are obvious. But just because we receive so many kindnesses from a nuclear reactor, doesn't mean that you're going to casually walk into the middle of the reactor's core, because you know that while it is good, it is not safe. While it is good, there is power there that is unimaginable. And in many respects, that's what the Psalm is saying. God is good to His people. He's even good to His enemies. But He is also not trivial, not small, not something to take lightly. And coming into His presence in worship is like going to the core of the nuclear reactor. And that's where you are right now. I don't consider myself a preacher. In fact, I don't like to preach. I like to teach. I love doing that. I can do that all day long, five, six days a week, no problem whatsoever. But preaching, I don't like it. People say, why don't you like to preach? And I say, because I can't preach in a worship service without getting right with God first. I can teach all day long in a school. I can teach all day long and I retreat or something like that and just go on with my life as ordinary. But not when I come to this moment. In fact, I've had some people ask me, why is it that during the time of confession you don't read with us? Why is it that you're bowing your head all through that time? And why is it that you look so down and things like that? And I say, because I'm getting ready to do something that's not a simple and ordinary thing to do. I am actually going to be speaking on the behalf of the God of heaven and earth in His holy presence. And He is my judge. And this is not something I can do casually. And it is not something you should do casually. Now please don't misunderstand me, because Presbyterian types, I'm telling you. As soon as they hear something, they always go to extremes. So let me just say this. Don't go to this extreme. This psalm and the breast of the Bible is not telling us that day after day, moment after moment, we need to be crying out to God, may a culpa, may a culpa, maxima, may a culpa, my guilt, my guilt, my great guilt. And act as if that's somehow pious. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying that every moment of your life you should be frightened at the thought that you're before the throne of God, with God judging all the secret sins that you have. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying this, at least once a week, you ought to face God as your judge. That's what this service is for. To bring back to mind that your faith is not a simple trivial matter. And that the creator of the universe is looking at you and is your righteous judge.
So why then? Is it necessary for us not to come with unexamined hearts in the first place? It's because God is our judge. But this psalm goes on to explain what significance that has. And it's basically this, external worship, going through the rights of worship, doing the things that we do here, external worship alone is not acceptable. Do you remember how the psalmist puts it beginning at verse 7? Here, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God, the people of God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. At this time, in the history of Israel, they had plenty of sacrifices. This means animal sacrifices. At the temple, the services were going well. The musicians were seeing when they were supposed to sing. The people would stand up when they were supposed to stand up. They would bow down when they were supposed to bow down. They had the services. Everything's running smoothly. It goes on and on and on. It's nice to be at the temple, isn't it great? God says, I don't have any complaint about how many sacrifices you give me. My complaint is something much deeper than that. It's where your heart is. Because while the system was working very nicely, while anyone looking at it from the outside would have said, well, wow, they're having great worship time because everyone's cooperating and everybody's filling the coffers of the temple. The reality was they were not having acceptable worship, and this is why God was coming to them as their judge, because they were merely giving sacrifices, external rights. So God says to them, beginning in verse 8, 9, I have no need of a bull from your stall or goats from your pens for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. God looks at them and says, wait a minute. Do you think that what I want from you is external, ritual? You act as if I need this. In fact, it goes on to say, you act as if I'm hungry and that I need to eat, and that's why you're giving me all these animal sacrifices. And as strange as it sounds, in the days of the Old Testament, nations around Israel believed just that. They believed that the reason you sacrificed animals was because the God's stomachs began to growl, and that made them, you know, grouchy, and they wouldn't bless you unless you fed them, so you offer sacrifices and they get fed, and then they treat you more nicely. And God has said to them, do you think that's my situation? He says, of course not. If I were hungry, I have plenty to eat. I don't have to come to you asking for something. I own everything. If I want to eat a goat, I can eat a goat. And of course, he doesn't need anything at all. That wasn't the point of the sacrifices. That wasn't the point of the worship. And when it becomes the situation like they had here where worship is reduced to the mere external, then the worship becomes utterly unacceptable to him. Now today, in the Christian church, I'm happy to say we don't sacrifice animals. I don't know what I'd do if we got some decree from the General Assembly that we were supposed to start sacrificing animals again. I guess I'd leave. Happily, we don't do that. And you know the reason, don't you? It's because all those animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were very temporary, and they really didn't solve the problem of sin. All they could do was create a state of execution, a state of judgment, a sort of delay of the judgment until the day came when a perfect sacrifice was made. So perfect, so wondrous, so acceptable to God that his judgment against his people was utterly and eternally wiped away. And as Christians, we believe this is why Jesus came. And it is why we no longer have to sacrifice. All we have to do is appeal to the sacrifice of Jesus and trust in Jesus to bring us into the grace of God. But even though that's true, even though we're not multiplying animal sacrifices in this room and thinking that's all we need to do in worship, isn't it true that very often we reduce worship to going through the motions? And we think that if we just go through the motions, if we just do the external rights, well then God likes that. Everything's good. I mean, know how it is. You think to yourself, you know, if I get up every Sunday morning I'm in town and go to church, that's good. God will be pleased. If I get up and dress nicely to go to church, God will be even more pleased. If I go to church and I pay attention when we sing songs and sort of join in a little bit, he'll like that too. If I stand up when I'm told to, I sit down when I'm told to, if I can just memorize that apostle's creed, now I'll get it. And you know, if I can just keep from going to sleep during the sermon, then God will really be pleased. And of course, at the top of the list, or maybe at the bottom of your list, if I give a lot of money in the offering plate, now that will really make God pleased. But you know what? It is not true. Just as God said to the Israelites, I'm not hungry. I don't need any animals. Let me ask you this question. Do you think God needs you to get up and come to church on Sunday morning? Do you think he's missing people, worshiping him? The world is filled with millions upon millions upon millions of people who are worshiping the true God of heaven and earth. On this very day, and they're doing it sincerely and honorably, he will not miss you if you are not here. He does not need for you to be here. Do you think he needs for you to dress up and come to church? When he owns every beautiful thing in this world, when he can look at the mountains, and he can look at the sea, and he can look at the stars, and the cosmos, and see its beauty, he thinks you think he's impressed with the beauty of your clothes? Do you think he needs more people praying to him? There are so many people praying to him. You could not count them. Do you think he needs for you to listen to the sermon? Oh no, there are plenty of people listening to the sermons today. Do you think he needs your money? He mocks Israel for reducing their worship to this kind of externality, and he looks at us, and he giggles at us too. How could you possibly think that's what I want? How could you possibly think that somehow I need this? What does God want? He doesn't need a thing. But what he's telling these Israelites is this, what's acceptable to me is when you give me your heart. And what kind of inner person, what kind of attitude, what kind of emotion, what kind of deep-seated feelings are acceptable to God? Psalm 51 tells us in verse 17, it tells us that God will not reject a broken and contrite heart, a broken and contrite heart. What does that mean? That means that when you begin to look at yourself in the context of worship and you realize I'm not worthy to do this. I'm a broken piece of machinery here. I am helpless in myself. I have no strength in myself. I can do nothing good in myself. I'm broken. And to have contrition in your heart means that you are sincerely regretting the things that you have done. A broken and a contrite spirit, not sacrifices, that's what I want. I won't reject that. That's what I'm warning for my people. It's broken and contrite hearts. I'm not talking about you coming to church and figuring out all your problems and snapping your fingers and saying, OK, no more problems. I'm broken and contrite. Now, everything's going to be fixed and I'll never send again on the contrary. This is the reason for your brokenness. This is the reason for the sense of weakness and contrition. It's because you and I all, we all know that we will come in here and confess our sins and say, Lord, I'll try to do better. And then you'll turn right around and go right back to many of those same sins. That's the brokenness. That's the contrition. It's bowing your head before God and saying, I have no hope in this life or in the next life, except you. He does not want your external worship. He wants your heart. And that's why we must examine our hearts when we come to a time like this. I hate to tell you this, but the 30 seconds we spend reading our public confession of sin, that's not the examination of your heart. That should be the capstone. That should be as it were, the top, the end point of you having already examined yourself and looked deeply into yourself and admitted who you are and who you have been. And so that when we come to that time in the worship service and you say those words, you can say, Amen to that. Amen to that because that is who I am. And then when you hear the blessed words of assurance that these sins have been forgiven in Christ, then you are ready to receive with joy. The fact that God has forgiven you in Christ because you already have dealt with who you are. And you've already come to him, empty handed. And you've already come to him, pleading for his mercy because he is your judge. But if you come to this place, at this hour, not having examined your heart, you will barely be able to do anything except the externals. So what will be the benefit? What will be the payoff? If you can begin to realize that is an examined heart that we need in a time of worship, look at the end of this passage in verse 14. There he tells them after challenging them to reflect on their motivations and on their wills and their heart condition. He says, Sacrifice, think offerings to God. Do you know the reality here? While God does not need for you to get up and come to church, you need to get up and come to church. While God does not need you to take this time seriously, you and I need to take this time seriously. While God does not need for you to pray together with others, you and I need to pray together with others. While God does not need for you to listen to the sermon, you need to be listening to the sermon. While God does not need you to honor him with praise of song, you need to honor him with praise of song. And while God does not need one scent from you, you need to give your money to God for your sake because this is the way you demonstrate an examined heart before God and bring to him the offerings that are acceptable. And what is the good of all of this? When the day of trouble comes, if you come to God with sincerity of heart and you call upon him through his son Jesus, he will deliver you and you will honor him. If you're here today and you don't know Jesus, if you've never put your trust in him. The reality is that the day of trouble is coming for you. You may see little bits and pieces of it even in your own lifetime, but a big day is coming one day. When you are going to face the God of heaven and earth, when you pass away from this life, you will give an account for your life before your creator. It's a big day of trouble. And in that condition, knowing that that's true, if you're an unbeliever, I want to encourage you that there is a way out of this. There's a way out. It's simply to call on the name of Jesus, to give your life to Jesus, to call on him from your heart, and he will deliver you from that great day of trouble to come. It sounds simple, it is simple, but for those of you who are followers of Christ, we all know that in different ways and at different times, we all experience times of great need and great trouble. And we want to be able to come to God and seek His help and find His help in those days of trial, if we will come with examined hearts, and give our worship to Him from deep within. We can call upon Him and He has promised to deliver us what more could you want from worship. Socrates was right. The unexamined life is not worth living. And Psalm 50 is right also. The unexamined heart is not worth bringing to worship. Let's pray together. Our Lord Jesus, we adore you. We confess to you that many times we have fallen into this trap of being satisfied with giving you the externals of worship. But now we come and say this, write these words in our hearts that we may ever be examining ourselves as we approach your holy throne. And may we be people who worship you from deep within so that you may be honored and we may cry out to you in hope.