I shall refer to the whole Psalm but the main text is: "These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you." (Psalm 50:21)

Introduction

King David makes it clear that the 'fool says in his heart there is no God' but an anything be worse than this? At the man who says there is no God acts like it. God is not in his thoughts or actions, he does not read the Bible or pray and he does not belong to a church. At least we know where he stands even though he has a sense of God in his conscience. David points out a worse condition to the man who makes confession with his mouth that has little or no influence on his life.

Called as a witness

When ever something solemn and profound is stated in scripture heaven and earth are called as witnesses. (Psalm 50:1) "The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth…" (v6)…the heavens proclaim his righteousness…" (Isaiah 1:2) "Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken…" (Deuteronomy 32:1) "Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth." When something of vital importance is about to be spoken God calls the heavens and the earth to listen and bear witness. What is heaven and earth called to witness?

#1 - Our idea of God

(v21) "…you thought I was altogether like you." Instead of receiving the revelation of who God is as his Word reveals people substitute their own ideas of who he is. (v21) "…you thought…" People create ideas of who God is in their thinking. People who were raised to believe in God at some point create their own God after their own liking and image. Our language betrays us: 'I believe in God but I don't have to go to church.' 'I believe in God but I will not forgive that person who hurt me.' 'I believe in God but I do not think the Bible is infallible.' 'I believe in God but sex before marriage is OK.' The response of God is (v21) "…you thought I was altogether like you." Our belief in God includes so many Bible absolutes but at the same time excludes other Biblical absolutes. You cannot have a designer faith because it will be rootless.

#2 - Our lip service about God

(Psalm 50:16) "What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips?" Instead of taking a relationship with God literally we theorize and talk about him in terms of morality and ethics. (v17) "You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you." We read the Bible, listen to the Holy Spirit, understand what is being read and said then chose to cast it over the shoulder and throw it away. How do we know this? Look at lack of influence God's Word has over our lives. Jesus said (Mark 7:6) "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Biblegateway offer 50 translations of the Bible online. There is 2500 Christian radio stations multiplied by individual broadcasts per station. There are 90 Christian television stations multiplied by individual broadcasts per station. There are 101 mainstream Christian magazines for men, women, teenagers, children and the whole family. 41% of America goes to church on Sunday. God is presented everywhere in every media but the influence it has is marginal.

#3 - Our view of what God has done

People say that there is a conflict in scripture between the priests and the prophets. That the priests insisted on sacrifice and burnt offering and the prophets did not. But sacrifices and offerings was not the problem. It was how they did it in an external and formal manner. The people said, 'the day for going to church and bringing our offering is here so off we go.' They had no desire to know what it meant and what it represented. After they had gone to church the people said, 'we are ready for another week now because we are saved and forgiven' and yet go on living as before they were saved. It was not just a contradiction of confession and lifestyle but an idea that somehow this benefited God himself. (Psalm 50:9) "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 is saying, 'when you gather together as a church do you think you are benefiting me?' It's a subtle way of patronizing God. When we gather as a church have we become formal attributing the freedom of gathering together to the stars and stripes or have we forgotten the stripes on his back? Are we coming together in a mechanical manner because it is simply the ting to do? Is the character of our worship in the words of a song with a likeable tune? We attend church and go through formalities feeling it is somehow meritorious and when it is finished we go home unchanged to the same life we had. (v12) "If I were hungry I would not tell you…"

Conclusion

We have to be persuaded to come to church. We have to be persuaded to worship. We have to be persuaded to give generously and when we are persuaded we feel God is somehow benefiting from our contribution. There is something worse than saying 'there is no God' and that is confessing God but living unchanged lives untouched by the Holy Spirit.

#4 - Our idea about ourselves

The preaching of the gospel exposes who we are. The individual will respond and say, 'when I think about myself I do not feel like a sinner.' But no one has ever made themselves feel like a sinner because sin has a built in defense mechanism that will justify any sinful act and defend you against the saving grace of God in the gospel. There is only one way to know we have sinned and need God and that is to allow God to reveal himself to us through the foolishness of preaching the gospel. (Isaiah 6:5) "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." The problem people have with God is that when he is revealed we are also revealed. People have a difficulty with the whole idea of personal atonement. God is love but he is also perfect in justice and immutable - or in other words - God is not changing his position so someone has to pay. That someone was his own son Jesus Christ. We sit around and speak about God as though we have somehow been involved in the process of salvation. Remember when Moses saw the burning bush? (Exodus 3:3) "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up." He was curious about this strange sight. (Exodus 3:5) "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." If we realized the very nature of God that he 'an all consuming fire' we would stop talking about God. If you want to know anything about God the first thing to do is stop speaking about him and stop thinking what you want about him. But wait, stand still shut up and listen to what heaven and earth are called to witness. Christ came into the world. Why? To bring us to God. Christ taught uncompromisingly. Why? To bring us to God. Christ suffered and died on the cross. Why? To bring us to God. It was not primarily to prosper you, bless you or heal you (although it includes this) but to bring you to God.

#5 - Our idea about God's Word

(Psalm 50:17) "You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you." Why did God give us his Word? Was it simply to provide us with resource for discussion and debate? Was it to create a platform to bring out our opinion and ideas? The Word of God is meant to be kept. It is not even meant to be applauded but applied. When God tells us in his Word, 'do not steal, covet, give false testimony or kill, build for yourself an idol, commit adultery, misuse his name, remember the Sabbath and honor your father and mother it was not a suggestion or a constitution that needs modern interpretation but a commandment that is meant to be kept. (James 1:22-24) "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does."

#6 - Our idea of how things work

(Psalm 50:21) "These things you have done and I kept silent…" We live according to our own idea of God. At some point we are convicted that this is wrong at least in a theoretical way. We wonder what will happen because of our error - but nothing happens. Unlike Ananias and Sapphira who suffered the immediate consequence of their own ideas nothing happens to us. God appears to have kept silent. If God did not respond to our error straight away them he will not respond at all. Have you said to your child, 'if you do this I will have to discipline you' and then the child does it. Something took our attention away or we forgot to follow through and the child seems to have gotten away with it. We begin to think that God is like this. (v21)"…you thought I was altogether like you…" Perhaps God did not see it or that he saw it and was preoccupied with something else in the world to deal with us? (Hebrews 4:13) "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight." King David put it this way, 'I cannot escape God in the heavens or depths, on the wings of the dawn, or the far side of the sea.'

What is God revealing about you?

" (Luke 10:11-12) "God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get."

" (Luke 10:13) "He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

" (Luke 10:14) "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God."

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