Gifts of the Wicked

Psalm 51. We are going to begin this message Oh, let's see here. Reading verses sixteen and seventeen This is David's Psalm of repentance and confession before God most likely over his sin with Bathsheba. He doesn't mince words. Pours out his heart before God.

We won't have time to read the whole Psalm this morning but if you haven't read the whole Psalm before, I think it would be very good. Very worthwhile your time. Of course, to read any scripture but particularly this one. Psalm 51 verses sixteen and seventeen, David says, for thou desirest not sacrifice. Else would I give it?

Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart. It is a repentant heart. Oh God, thou will not despise.

David says, you will not turn away from. God receives many souls so to speak gifts at Christmas what God really wants broken spirit that is willing to receive by faith what he has to give today. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. We thank you for your word. We pray Lord as we look into it today that you would guide my words, that you would open our hearts, and Lord by your holy spirit, you would do a work in us that only you can do.

In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. In some ways, this was a little bit difficult of a message to write today. We we go into Christmas time and everybody wants to hear very positive messages. It's Christmas, you know, and it's it's a joyful time.

It's time of rejoicing and it is. But I I just felt led of the Lord to to go at just a little different direction today. It is in a way about Christmas but it comes from these verses and a couple others we'll look at in just a moment. The sacrifices of the wicked. Christmas has become a time for giving gifts while we celebrate the birth of Christ and his coming to save men from sin.

Most of us do also give gifts, put up trees, and stockings, watch movies, and sing songs about Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Rudolph was on TV last night. We hadn't seen it about ten years. So, we thought we'd watch it. It's some actually pretty music.

If you take the time to watch and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. And it's fun to sing Jingle Bells. One of the songs I play on guitar is Jingle Bells. We'll sing it at the Christmas banquet come Wednesday. I know you all just can't wait to sing carols with my guitar but come and and anyway, you'll you'll find out come Wednesday but you know, all that all that stuff is good and giving of gifts I think is is good but and I see no no harm in giving gifts to others during Christmas.

I I like to think of it as a reminder to think of others. An opportunity to express our love and appreciate appreciation for them and particularly the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe we'll get to spend some time with family that we don't get to spend other other times a year. Maybe we put aside some distractions that normally keep us from from really enjoying one another. Christmas time is a good time.

However, I think for many religious people, Christmas marks the time of the year when they try to bribe God into forgetting what little they thought of him throughout the year. Churches often swell with people come Christmas Eve people come out of the woodwork to some churches and particularly Catholic churches are just overrun with with people for Christmas, Christmas Eve mass. Or religious people. The only time they may enter the doors of a church, any church. Is at Christmas.

They request that God accept their their token worship and sacrifice going to a service or a mass or putting up a manger scene or singing some Christmas carols to appease his anger. For their selfish, sinful ways. Throughout the year. How is it that we get in our head or the world does that by showing up once a year to church at Christmas or by putting some money in the offering plate or by going out and seeing Christmas carols to our neighbors which you know, coming to service and giving to the Lord and seeing Christmas carols are good things. But how is that we think that that we're going to appease God somehow by by doing our duty once or twice or three times a year or that that somehow is going to erase how we lived our life throughout the year.

I don't understand. I think it's a it's a it's a lie of Satan. He wants people to to be involved in religion. He wants people to think that they're going to be okay in the end if they just show up every now and then. Give a little every now and then.

And not deal with him every day. Not deal with their own heart condition, sin. The sacrifices of the wicked do abound at Christmas as annual Christmas pilgrims give his give their their due to God for another year and hope that if he really does exist that he will be happy with it. But he isn't. And and God tells us that.

He tells us that here, for thou desires not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou desires not burnt offering. But a broken spirit. In Proverbs fifteen eight See here. There it is.

Says, the sacrifice for the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight. The sacrifices of the wicked, the gifts of the wicked, is an abomination, Lord. That word abomination is a stronger word in Hebrew than the word hate. So, if you think if you really don't like something, you say, I hate that. The word abomination goes a step further.

It's worse than hate. The sacrifice of the wicked are abomination of the Lord. But the prayer of the upright is his delight. The prayer of the upright. The prayer of the righteous.

The one who comes to him with a humble heart in faith is the delight of who? Is the delight of the Lord. Proverbs twenty one twenty seven, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination is abomination. How much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind. God is not pleased with the sacrifices of the faithless who have faithless who have no interest in departing from their wicked ways or in obeying his voice.

This was the case in the Old Testament with Israel. Number one, God did not accept the sacrifices of the Jews who were merely going through the motions. Going through the motions. That's the important phrase there. God instituted the sacrificial system.

In the Old Testament, for Israel, as a means of approaching him and worship, as a means of reminding them of their need of a savior and of their sinful condition, their sins that needed to be forgiven. As as a means to picture the one day death of Jesus Christ on the cross. As he would shed his blood for the sins of the world. Not just the nation of Israel. God instituted the sacrificial system as a means of expressing faith.

Contrition before a holy God But Israel started doing it. As a matter of appeasing God without faith and repentance. They started going through the emotions and so God had to say, these things, Isaiah one hundred ten and eleven, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law of your God, you people of Gomorrah. Now, he's not talking to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities have long been destroyed.

He is likening the children of Israel to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah who were the most wicked of sinners. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Why do you keep bringing sacrifices? Saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he goats.

Israel had turned idolatry. Israel had brought in that idolatry into the worship of God. They had turned to all kinds of immorality and and violence and covetous ways. They had no heart for God but yet they kept bringing the sacrifices and so God says, why do you bother? Why do you bother?

Bringing them. If you have no love and no faith Amos five twenty one and twenty two. God says, I hate, I despise your feast days, I will not smell in your solemn assemblies, though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beast. God says, you just keep on bringing, you keep on coming but it is not going to do you any good. God says, I reject them.

The problem is with your what? Problems with your heart. You see. The problem with the world today is the same as it was a thousand years ago. It's the same as it was in the days of Israel.

In the Old Testament, it's the same as it was before the days of Noah. The problem is man's wickedness of heart. And refusal to humble themselves. In repentance. Before God.

We keep going to church or at least some people do. Again, sometimes it's once a year. Keep going through the motions but it's doing them no good. God is not pleased. Instead, God seems to be what?

God seems to be angered by their action. God was not impressed but angered by the sacrifices and offerings and gifts of the peoples whose hearts were far from him. While they assuage their guilt by bringing sacrifices to God, they did not assuage his wrath. Why do a lot of people flood churches this time of year? To make themselves feel what?

To make them feel good. And I hope we come to worship the Lord as his children. It does make us feel good. It should. But we call this worship.

Who are we worshiping? Why are we here? I hope you're here for other reasons and just to feel good. This message isn't developed this morning to make you feel good. But to tell you the truth.

And I need to be reminded of the truth. And so do you and unfortunately the world outside these walls needs to hear the truth and it isn't easy to get them in We do rub shoulders with them throughout the week. Maybe God will give us an opportunity to tell them about Jesus. And their need of a heart change. It was a worthless practice for Israel which God did not accept from a proud and arrogant and unrepentant people.

Micah six six through eight says, wherewithal shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or 10 thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? By the way, Micah knew when he wrote that, God did not accept human sacrifice.

He made that clear in scripture but the hidden around him did do that thinking that somehow they were pleasing their gods by doing so. Now, he, those are all rhetorical questions. The answer to all of those questions is no. That's not what God wants. God makes it clear what he wants at the end of the passage.

He hath showed thee, oh man, what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk what? Humbly with thy God. What does God require of us? That we live justly with those around us. We deal with them justly as our God deals justly with us.

That we love mercy, that we love, and we embrace mercy, not vengeance and hate, in anger, but mercy is the God of mercy has shown his mercy towards us through his son, Jesus Christ. And to walk what? Humbly with our God. Oh, what does it mean? Why?

To walk humbly with our God. I've been teaching children's group on Wednesday night and we were talking about Enoch. The Bible says that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years and he was not for God took him. Where did God take him? God took him to heaven and why did God take him to heaven?

Because he walked with God for three hundred years. They say, how is that possible? People don't live that long. Yeah, they did before the flood. A lot of things changed after the flood.

Three hundred years Enoch walked with God and God took him straight to heaven. He didn't see death. Like the rest of us will if Christ doesn't return before our life is up. What does it mean to walk with God? Well, it means you have to have faith.

It says in Hebrews chapter 11 of Enoch that he had faith and without faith, it is impossible to please him. You have to believe in the Lord. You have to believe in his offer of salvation. You have to believe that in his love. You have to believe in his word.

What he tells you. So, Enoch believed in the Lord and he obeyed. He walked with the Lord. Now, I don't think Enoch was perfect in the way we define the word perfect. I don't think he was sinless but I think by day by day, he grew closer to the Lord as by with God's help, he walked with God in faith and obedience every day.

And God finally said to Enoch, come home. Come home. What I have here is better than what you have there. So, come home. God took him home.

What does God want? He wants us to walk humbly with our God by faith and in obedience. Not just at Christmas. But every day. It is like telling your your friend or your spouse that you're sorry for cursing at them and then continuing to do so.

You know, God I love you. Imma come worship you on Christmas or Imma do this for you. Imma do that for you. But don't don't tell me what to do. Don't tell me do what to do with this part of my life.

Don't don't tell me what to do with that part of my life. Lord, I I love you and and I want your blessings. So, I'm going to show up and I'm going to do this or I'm to give to that. I'm not going to change my life. How many times have we said sorry in our life to somebody and we didn't mean it?

I I don't know how many times I've said I was sorry for leaving my socks in the living room. And I still do it So, I guess my sorry wasn't all that sincere. It's sad that we're guilty of doing that with our friends and our spouses. It's even worse that we do that with who? With our God.

If we were really sorry, we would at least attempt to change the behavior that hurt the one we love. That Israel wasn't tearing down their idols. They weren't turning from their immorality or violence or covetous ways. They simply gave the sacrifice without a thought. Went right back to it.

All along thinking that God who sees the heart would simply somehow overlook theirs. He won't. He sees your heart and he sees mine and he knows where we really are with him. Second thing this morning is this, once he, God not only did not accept the sacrifices of Israel given apart from a repentant heart. God also did not expect accept the miserable excuse of King Saul.

Take your Bibles if you would turn to first Samuel chapter 15. First Samuel chapter 15. King Saul was the first king of Israel He started out. It seemed as a humble person but as time went along, this humility was replaced with pride and God told him, he said, Saul, I want you to go destroy the Amalekites. They were this group of people that had attacked Israel.

When Israel was just a group of slaves coming out of Egypt. They thought they take advantage of this ragtag group of people and they attack them from the rear. They attack the weakest of them first And Israel had to turn and fight and the Lord delivered them from the Amalekites that day but God made a promise that one day, he was going to see that the Amalekites were no more and he sent Saul, the king of Israel, to deal with the Amalekites and he told him to utterly destroy them, to leave nothing, not even their cattle and their sheep. God, several places particularly Old Testament made an example of groups and people that rebelled against him. This is one of those.

To remind us that it is a dangerous thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. Did Saul do what he was told to do? Let's read. Verse 19 of first Samuel 15. Wherefore, this is Samuel talking to Saul.

Wherefore, then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord. Now, there we have it. He didn't obey the voice of the Lord but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord. In other words, he didn't destroy it all. He kept some of it.

Verse 20, Saul said unto Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. In other words, he brought the king. Why did he bring the king back? Why did they do that? I don't have one up here but you ever seen a trophy?

That's what Agag was to King Saul. He was a trophy and he brought his trophy back with him. Wasn't what God told him to do. Verse 21, but the people took of the spoil. This is Saul speaking.

He said, but the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice on the Lord thy God in Gilgal. Saul the king, the king, the one in charge said to Samuel, well, yeah, I brought the king back but the people, the people brought back the spoil. The people brought back the sheep and furthermore not only did I not bring back the sheep, they did. They brought it back for a good reason. They were going to sacrifice it in Gilgal.

Now first of all I doubt the honesty in that statement. For two accounts. First he was in charge. He could have said what? He could have said, no, you cannot bring them back but he didn't.

Second of all, I doubt that they really brought them all back to sacrifice to the Lord. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn't. It's an excuse. However, verse 22, Samuel said to Saul, hath the Lord is great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices and is in obeying the voice of the Lord.

Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. So, God said via his messenger, Samuel He said to him, does God delight in sacrifices or does he delight in obedience? Which does he prefer?

You tell me. Which does he prefer? He prefers obedience. Why did Israel have to bring sacrifices? Because they were what?

They were sinners and when they sinned, they had to bring a sacrifice to cover for their sin. Praise God today. We don't have to bring a sacrifice because Jesus is our sacrifice. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from what? All sin.

But back to our point God prefers obedience in the first place rather than sin and sacrifice Saul's excuse did not hold water with who? Did not hold water with God. And God said, I will remove you and I will replace you with another. Chapter 16, he sends Samuel to anoint David to be the next king. Chapter 17, you have the story of David and Goliath.

The end of Samuel, Saul dies in battle and David eventually takes his place, rightful place as king. We can't simply choose to believe and follow the commandments of God we find convenient That's what Paul did. I mean, Saul Saul did and ignor the commandments that we do not God knows when he hears an excuse from a rebel who isn't submitted to him. You may fool others with your excuses. You may fool others with your convenient Christianity but you cannot fool God and he will judge according as he sees fit.

And here's the scary thing. He knows your heart and he knows mine. We may fool others around us but we will never fool him. King Saul did. We can't either.

Number three, God is not impressed but infuriated by sinful men who while rejecting his way of salvation attempt to please him. By their ways. Isaiah sixty four six. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. That's Isaiah's description, God's description of the people of Israel.

We're all an unclean thing. Our righteousness are as filthy rags. Without Jesus Christ and apart from faith and God's saving grace, all the good things we do amount to what? They amount to nothing. For a filthy rag to become useful.

It first has to be one. It has to be cleansed and the only one who can cleanse this filthy rag of sin is Jesus Christ. That he did when I came to him in faith at the age of nine. He's reserved a home in heaven for me not because I'm any better than anybody else. I am just a filthy rag.

But I have a sinless savior and a merciful God who has cleansed me, justified, redeemed me by his death, and resurrection. And has made me his own. Our works won't cut it. Only the work of Christ pleases our father in heaven. Matthew nine thirteen says, but go you and learn what that meaneth.

I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I am not come to call the righteous but what? Sinners to repentance. Jesus was talking to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious crowd.

They were the ones that went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. They were the ones that fasted. They were the ones that prayed in public. They were the ones that dropped money in the plate so everybody could see. God knew their heart The only thing they were concerned with was the praise of who?

Men. And not the praise of God. They wouldn't humble themselves. They wouldn't recognize they needed a savior and so they rejected the Messiah when he came. They plotted.

They had him arrested. And hung on a cross. That was the religious crowd of Jesus' day and he says to them here, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come to call the righteous. Those who think they don't need God.

But what? But sinners, those who recognize they do need God and they need his forgiveness and they need his salvation and they need Jesus and are willing to repent and trust him. He said, I've called to come, come to call sinners to repentance. Were the Pharisees sinners? Yes.

Did they know it? No. They didn't. How many people feel churches today that don't know they're sinners? Sad to say the preachers in the pulpit often times don't even bother to tell em.

It's not a popular thing. People don't like to hear that. But you need to know that or else you'll never come to him for salvation That's what Jesus had to say I don't want sacrifice I want repentance The Jews of Jesus' day were an arrogant bunch of self righteous hypocrites who had no stomach for the truth that they were sinners in need of a savior. They came to John the Baptist in Matthew three to be baptized. This is what John had to say to them.

Then, went out to John, to him, Jerusalem, and all Judea and all the region around about Jordan, just the Jordan River and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins. John the Baptist baptism served a similar function to the sacrifices the Old Testament. They were a sign and expression of repentance of heart and faith in God. And that's why they came to him. To express their repentance of heart over their sin.

So, they came to him to get baptized, confessing their sins. Verse seven, but when he that is John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, oh generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore, bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. John the Baptist said to them, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? They didn't recognize there was a wrath to flee because they thought they were.

Okay. They just wanted to make a show and he knew it. God knew it. God isn't interested in the show. God's interested in you.

God's interested in your heart. God's interested as to whether you have received his son by faith and the salvation from sin that only Jesus has to offer. He's not interested in your gifts. He's interested in giving you a gift. Most of all, have you received that gift?

Until then, Nothing else you do will mean anything to God If you've never come face to face with your sinful self and your rightful place in hell and repented by humbly crying out to Christ in faith to be your Lord and savior and save you from your sinful self and your just punishment. If you've never done that, if you've never repented and put your faith in Christ, then I can offer you no peace this Christmas. Unless you reconsider. Christ came and as he came, the angels saying, peace on earth, goodwill to men. God desires peace but the only way you can have peace with God is through whom?

It's through faith in Jesus Christ. He said to Nicodemus, marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again. It's not enough to show up to church. It's not enough to put money in offering plate. It's not enough to go around your neighborhood singing Christmas carols.

All those are good things but they're not enough without who? Without Jesus. In Luke thirteen three, Jesus said, I tell you nay but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. God is interested in something. He's interested in your heart He wants you if you will embrace him as your savior this Christmas.

Jesus is the only way. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the father but by me. He says in his word in John three eighteen, he that believeth on him that is Jesus is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already.

Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Point number four, closing. God is not pleased with Christians who while harboring sin in their lives, claim the blessings of God by their sacrifice and service for him. Lot of times I think as Christians who have been born again and have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. That we too are scoring points.

When we're dropping money in the offering plate or when we're faithfully coming to services or or when we do this or we do that for the Lord. When our daily walk with God is missing. And there's sin in our life that we won't deal with. Do not deceive yourselves. God wants to bless his children He wants to give you peace and assurance and joy.

He wants to answer your prayers. But he also says this, if I regard iniquity of my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Now, that's that's David talking. That's the man after God's own heart. He says, if I hide sin in my heart, I don't deal with it, guess what?

God's not hearing my prayer. Says in first John one nine, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You want God's blessing and and and guidance? And peace then, we who know him need to quit playing games with him like we do sometimes. We need to be honest with him and deal with the things he deals with us about.

I am afraid that we who do know the grace and mercy of God through found salvation often forget what God has done for us and how we owe him our lives and eternity. We owe him everything For without him, we have nothing Instead, we treat him more like a genie who sits in heaven waiting to grant our three wishes. God says, ask and it shall be given unto you. He wants to answer your prayers but he's not a genie. He's your father.

The genie doesn't care how you live Of course, genie isn't real. Don't misquote me, okay? God is real and God does care We forget he's our father I remember when I was a kid that often I would disobey my parents and Sometimes, my kids do the same thing. The apple doesn't fall fall far from the tree. Ever heard that?

But you'd imagine your child, you told them to would you please take out the trash or would you please, maybe you don't, you don't even have to say please. I mean, you're the authority but maybe you just stay nice and would you please do this for me and please do that. Do this. And they look at you and go, no. Or maybe they don't look at you and go, no, they just walk away and don't do it.

And then they turn around and they go, oh by the way, I want a new video game machine. I need a new phone. You know, can I need you to do this for me and all the while, they are rebelling against that which you ask them to do? What kind of attitude are you in about them? Are you saying, oh yes, I'll do all this for you.

Great. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're going I asked you to take out the trash and you won't take out the trash and yet you expect me to go to the store and do this for you? That's the same way we treat God all the time.

God, give me this. God, give me that. God, do this for me. God, do that for me. At the very same time, we, his children, know there's something in our life that we're holding back.

And yet we expect God to do all this for us when we are not willing to give up one little thing. That he is asking us to. How selfish we are Says in the book of James, you have not because you ask not and then he says, you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your own lust. That's that 1965 red Corvette I want. That would be consumed upon my own lust.

God loves you but he loves you as a father. He he will hear your prayers. He will answer them as a father. But how do you think it makes him feel when we're rebelling? He has given us so much I have a sermon entitled, it isn't God who owes us.

It's we Who owe him? What does God want from you this Christmas? He wants your faith in him and his son. For without faith, it is impossible to please him. What does he want from you this Christmas?

He wants a humble and repentant spirit that recognizes your sinful condition and cries out to him for help. Back to Psalm fifty one seventeen, the sacrifices of God were broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, thou will not despise. God will not despise us if we'll come to him with a broken heart today. And repent and trust him.

He won't turn away from his children. We come to him and say, father, I've I've messed up. Forgive me. He has promised. He has already done so.

But he needs to hear you say it. He needs you to confess it. That he can cleanse you of it. He wants us to be like the publican in Luke. That God said went home justified.

That is guiltless before God because he simply cried out in faith and repentance to God, be merciful to me a sinner. That's all he asks. That we humble ourselves cry out to him. Be merciful to me a sinner. And Christian, what he wants from you is a sincere desire to serve him, to turn away from the ways of the flesh that are contrary to the ways of righteousness that he's made available to you.

To be one who chooses to love him truly. This Christmas who first love you. And to serve him with a whole heart. Holding nothing back. Romans twelve one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.

That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word. Thank you Lord for the gift of Jesus Christ, salvation that you offer to everyone who comes into this world. Lord, I pray that you would help If there's one here this morning that's never trusted you as Lord and savior who's who's never come to grips with their sinful condition and cried out to Jesus who died on the cross for them, oh be merciful to me a sinner.

I pray this morning that they would do that. I pray they'd come as we give this hymn of invitation. I pray that they would be willing to swallow their pride today and to come to you in faith and I pray Lord for us who know Christ as savior who take our father so for granted. Lord, that we would thank you for the gift that you have given us. We too would be willing to confess our sins and our failures.

We would look to you to cleanse us and guide us and lead us. Be willing to trust you. With all that we are and all that we do this year. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.