Amen. He died as our substitute. In my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior. A couple of announcements before we go to the text tonight. I want you to remember that this coming Saturday is our Christmas parade and so when Pastor Jason gets over here after a while from the Thunderbird service, I'm going to have him announce how that's all going to go. We will certainly need much help in the preparation of that and then in the handing out of the tracts. This is an entire church event, this is an entire church outreach, and so we greatly admonish you to come and to help us. Also, the deadline for the Shady Rest Nursing Home Outreach is gonna be this coming Sunday, that is this Sunday, so bring your gifts and put them in Ann's classroom in a sturdy bag with the angel affixed to it, and that is, again, the deadline is Sunday. Also, the True Church Conference is coming up in February, don't forget that. There's no church, we've already missed, got that out of the way. There's going to be apparently a Teen Fellowship Night, that's going to be coming up Friday, December 13th from 5 in the evening until 11. formally announced that it was going to be an all-night thing. It's not going to be an all-night thing. It's going to be an evening event. It's going to be supervised by godly people. But we do need a head count. So there's a sign-up in the foyer and a sign-up upstairs in the teen classroom. So be sure and get that done. And also I'll be coming down to do a devotion with the kids that night. So make sure your kid's here for that. And or maybe preparing and to sow the seed of the Word of God in their lives. And there's going to be a craft class for the teenage girls on the 8th of December after the morning worship. And we encourage the moms to come to be with their daughters and to work in that. It will be a good time for them. A sign up also for that is in the foyer. And then our Christmas program is going to be for the children is going to be the 22nd of December. So parents, please have all of your kids here for practice so they will know what to do. And then one thing I didn't put in here that I needed to put in here is that next Wednesday, we're going to meet over across the alley in the fellowship hall, and we're asking everybody to bring a little finger food or snack. And so I'll be preaching the Word of God from over there. And so the kids are going to be using the sanctuary for practicing for the Christmas program. So that's next Wednesday, a week from tonight, bring finger foods and some drinks, cokes or whatever, and then we'll have desserts and finger foods and that's next week. Also, Ms. Ann sent this to us earlier today that the 2025 cleaning schedule is being prepared. We need three additional teams that will only serve four times in the entire year. The duties would be just clean the glass doors in the back of the sanctuary, in the building, and then to clean the restrooms between Wednesday and Sunday. She says one person can do that in about two hours and two people can do it in one hour. But again, we need three additional teams. See Anne, let her know that you can help. And again, all of us doing something makes a big, a big help in a big scheme of things. And so I think that's it. And I'll have Pastor Jason come up and announce that if you will remind me. And then our offering buckets will be put up, we can put plates on the back table if we can get one of our men to set those up there for our Wednesday night offering. Psalm 81, if you'll take your copy of God's Word. We looked last time in the first portion of this glorious text about true and false worship. We've been made by God to be worshipers. And by the way, every person worships. The lost worship. the redeemed worship, there is no man that has ever been made that was not a worshiper because God has hardwired us for worship. Those that are outside of Christ worship things other than the glorious Christ. They worship themselves, they worship their hobbies, they worship some idol, they worship some sports team, they worship something. We have been made to worship sin. Obviously, as we all know, we entered into the garden and that our harps were unstrung and we began to worship false and pagan things. But here God is dealing with Israel and He gives them the call of worship in the first five verses and we see that this is applicable to us in the church. The call to worship first and foremost we see in verse 1 is God-centered. The psalmist is saying, sing for joy to the God of our strength, make a loud shout to the God of Jacob, that worship is all about Him. Last time I dealt with this and just bearing down, spent a little bit of time working this out, that oftentimes in the life of the church, that people will say, well, I go to this church because I really like the music, or I really like the singer, or I really like the drum beat. I really like that it's really hip and cool, and they have a neat light show, or whatever it might be. but not realizing that you then become the object of worship, that worship is according to what suits me. Worship is according to what my desires deem it best for me, instead of it being radically God-centered, radically God-glorifying. Tonight, the songs that Brother Josh led us in, and Sister Raquel, were radically cross-centered, radically God-centered, and that our hearts ought to have been stirred afresh and passionately singing because of Jesus and what he's done for us. It's all about him. It's lifting up songs and proclaiming the glories of the excellence of His atonement and what was accomplished at the cross. And by the way, the message Sunday morning with Dr. White was incredible on the atoning work of Jesus Christ. That is the centerpiece of the gospel, is the atonement of Jesus Christ. Secondly, we saw that true worship is joyful and expressive, and I made mention last time, and I'm just kind of bouncing like a rock on the top of the water, hitting the highlights of this, and then we're going to dig on deeper. that even in the Reformed Church, and especially in the Reformed Church, it's just almost like that we're stagnant, and like we're afraid to really lift our voices, or we're afraid to lift our hands. True biblical worship is expressive. And over and over we see in the Psalms, sing a loud song to the Lord, lift up holy hands unto the Lord. And again, this flows from the heart. This is not mere externalism, but there should be an elevation of inward inward zeal for the Lord as we're worshiping, as we're contemplating and thinking about who He is and what He has done for us, and that there should be a sense of joy and lifting up and expression to the Lord. And I know that people do that differently, and I'm not saying that If you lift your hands, you're right or you're wrong. I'm just saying that there should be joy in our singing, joy in expressing our gratitude. It's a delight in worshiping God. And by the way, worship is not simply restricted to the music. You're worshiping the Lord right now as you're sitting underneath the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. That hearing of the glories of Christ proclaimed in the Word of the Lord as it's being proclaimed by a God-called and God-sent man, is an act of worship. What we're doing tonight as we pray, it's an act of worship. As we give, it's an act of worship. As we go to our homes tonight in the context of the family, it's an act of worship. On the job tomorrow, that the whole sphere of life is to be viewed as worship for the Christian. And then we see that worship not only is joyful and expressive, it's also commanded. In verse 5, we see that it's a statute for Israel, which is a blue pattern of the church, a judgment of God for Jacob. God established it as a testimony in Joseph when he went forth over the land of Egypt and he heard a language he did not know. We look at the content of worship in verses six and seven. Just quickly, let me just mention this. We thank God in worship for the deliverance with which we've experienced, that God's called us out of darkness. We ought to be thankful that we're no longer in darkness, that we ought to be thankful that we're no longer slaves to sin. We ought to be thankful that we're no longer pre-enrolled in hell. that we're the children of God and that we've been brought into the kingdom, that we've been graciously grafted in, that we've been graciously called out, graciously given new appetites and new desires. And so in salvation as we've done tonight, or in worship as we've done tonight, that we're giving thanks to God for the glorious deliverance that He's given us. We also thank God for answered prayer. We see that in verse 7a, you called in distress and I rescued you, I answered you in the hiding place of thunder. Obviously, there's some heavy overtones there of Israel whenever they were in the wilderness and God was speaking to them from Sinai. that God delivered them from the burden of captivity and the Exodus deliverance. And so they cried out to God and that God heard them. And so here they're thanking God, they're worshiping God, they're giving praise to God for hearing their cries and answering them. And then we saw, as we ended last week, that we give thanks to God just for His faithfulness. We saw in verse 7b that God had tested them at the waters of Meribah and Salah, and we remember that they murmured and they complained because they had no water, that God supernaturally provided water for them. He was faithful even though they were grumbling. There's a sense by which that Yahweh, our God, takes care of us even whenever we are unthankful, that He cares for His people. Now, we want to look tonight at, starting in verse 8, the critique of their worship. And let's look at it, and we'll read through the end of the chapter in Psalm 81. In order to see the critique, we see the Lord critiquing Israel's worship. Starting in verse 8, "'Hear, O my people,' and I will testify against you, Selah, "'O Israel, if you would listen to me, Let there be no strange God among you, and you shall not worship a foreign God. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people did not listen to my voice, and Israel was not willing to obey me. So I released them over to the stubbornness of their own heart, that they would walk in their own devices. And then he closes here in the last four verses. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways. I would quickly subdue their enemies, that I would turn my hand against their adversaries. Those who hate Yahweh would cower before him, and the time of their punishment would be forever. But I would feed you, the obedient ones, with the finest of wheat, and with the honey from the rock, I would satisfy you. Listen, what he's arguing here when he gives a critique of the worship is that worship is a farce, it's false, it is untrue whenever we live in a disobedient way before God. that worship is more about our life being lived upward to the glory of God, and that when we are living our life in a way that displeases God, our worship means nothing. As Jesus said in Matthew 23, 27, it is a whitewashed worship. It looks clean. on the outward, but inwardly, it's corrupted. Inwardly, it's full of dead men's bones. And in John 4, Jesus taught the woman of Samaria that worship must be in spirit and in accord with divine truth. So a corrupted life will produce a corrupted worship. A holy life will yield holy worship. Romans 12, 1, I'll read it again in a moment, what we give ourselves to is our reasonable service of worship. Let me repeat that, what we give ourselves to is our reasonable service of worship. The psalmist would write in Psalm 24, verses 3 and 4, who may ascend into the mountain of Yahweh, who may rise in his holy place, he who has innocent hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted his soul to worthlessness and has not sworn deceitfully." We remember in ancient Israel, the Old Testament sacrificial system showcased all this splendid imagery and that worship was only received after certain prescribed cleansing rites had been obeyed and followed to the T. We see that in Hebrews 9, also it's in the book of Leviticus. that the high priest would go in and that he had to atone for his, there had to be atonement for his own sins first and then for the sins of the people. He had to worship and deal with sin in his own life first. Jesus said in Matthew 23, 26 that there needs to be a cleansing of the inside of the cup, right? And what had happened is, and I mentioned this last time, that Israel's worship had become external and mechanical, ritualistic-like. The purity of worship had been tainted by their own sinful disobedience. Let's note a few features here. Their worship was corrupted, number one, verses 8 and 11 tell us, because they wouldn't listen to the revealed truth of God. Look at it with me, verse 8. Here on my people, and I will testify against you. You don't want the Lord preaching against you. Oh Israel, if you would listen to me. Verse 11, but my people did not listen to my voice. And Israel was not willing to obey me. First and foremost, church, and I want you to think about this. You might jot this down in your notes. Worship is an expression of love. Jesus rebuked Ephesus in the book of Revelation, the second chapter, because they'd left their first love. Worship is an expression of love. Adoration is an expression of love. And so what had happened here is that Israel's walk and Israel's talk were not unified. And because they were not unified, their hearts were not being lifted to the Lord in obedience, their worship was amiss. Their hands were stained, as it were, by the act of disobedience. God had revealed His holy requirements and His law, the direction of God to His people had been narrated to Israel, His chosen people through the prophets. Those were the divine spokesmen of God. But as the text tells us clearly, they hardened their hearts and they did not obey God. They rebelled against Him. You take a short journey through any of the prophets and what you're going to find is that God would rebuke them, that they would be worshiping but their hearts would be amiss. They would be disobedient to God. They would be living idolatrous lives and they'd be lifting up hands that were stained. They did not obey the Lord. And so we see that the prophets would warn and that they need to come to repentance, that they're worshiping, and God was not going to receive their worship because it was all a farce. It was a show. It was external, and their hearts were far from God. These people, they praised me with their lips, but their hearts are amiss. Their hearts are not right with me. So we see that in the feasts, and this is particularly dealing with tabernacles, that they became cold and mechanical, that the outward was there, but the inward adoration, the inward true worship was not there. Their passions were not there. Their passions were elsewhere. I think that this coincides with so many in the church today, and I'm speaking beyond the walls of Grace Life Church to evangelicalism, that we might show up, but we really don't show up when we show up. that our bodies are in worship, where even our voices are being expressed in worship, but our hearts are cold in love towards God." And we see that Israel here were going through the motions, that they were traveling from afar, they were dealing with the, you know, there was a certain sense by which it was hard press for them to leave and travel. They didn't have planes, trains, and automobiles in those days. They traveled by foot, they traveled by they traveled by donkey, and it was a command of God that they were to honor these three feasts, and they were to come to Jerusalem, and they were to worship God. And many of them came, and that they were involved in the external activities of worship, but there was something not right in their heart, that they were living disobediently, and it was robbing God of glory, and that God will not receive the worship when people are living wicked lives. It corrupts our worship. God spoke this directly, this very thing to the prophet Amos to give to Israel in Amos 5, 21 to 3. He says, "'I hate and I reject your feasts, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings, Remove from me the tumult of your songs, I will not even listen to the melody of your harps." Your harps, you're singing, you're plucking the strings and the instrumentals. And so, it's not the song that God examines and receives, it's the life, it's the heart that produces the songs. Listen, God wants our song to be a song of obedience to His written and revealed Word, and that our worship is to be driven not only by truth given to us on God's part, but by our obedience to that truth, and that our life and our obedience underwrite the sincerity of our worship. Let me say that again, our life and our obedience underwrite the sincerity of our worship. Are we worshiping God that way? Are we living one way out here and then coming in and lifting up these holy songs while our hands are stained with blood? Paul said to the believers at the church in the city of Rome in Romans 12, 1, Therefore, I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, listen to this, to present your soma, your bodies, the entirety of your physical person, that you present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, that our life is to be and is an act of worship. And here in the text, Israel's song was tainted by a lifestyle that was disobedient to the revealed truth of God and their worship because of that is corrupt. That worship is more than my singing. Worship has to do with the aim and the trajectory of my living. present your entire you to God as a holy, living sacrifice. This, because of God's work through Christ in you, is your reasonable or your spiritual service of worship that is pleasing to God, a holy life. living in a way that honors God, living in our day-to-day life, in our conversations with our little children, in the way that we treat our wives, in the way that wives treat their husbands, in the way that we interact in the workforce, in the way that we do or do not join in in unbiblical, unholy practices with guys at work. It's a reasonable act of worship. Secondly, their worship was corrupted in verses 8, I'm sorry, 9 and 10 because they would not separate themselves. They would not separate themselves. They had corrupted worship because they blended, because they had syncretistic ideas. Look at verse nine, you'll see it very clearly. In verse 10, let there be no strange God among you, and you shall not worship a foreign God. I am Yahweh, your God, and brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. We know that in the Exodus and in the Ten Commandments that God set prohibitions against idolatry. They were to bow to no other gods. i.e. God demands exclusive worship. But we know all through the narrative of the Old Testament that Israel was prone to go chasing after other gods, that God would give the standard, that God would exhort them to worship only Him and then they would worship other foreign gods. God would command them to not intermarry with other tribes. Why? Because they would begin to syncretize and to have more than one object of worship. They would begin to have two masters. But what Israel did, they gave their hearts to false gods while they were giving their songs to Yahweh. Their hearts were given to idols their songs were given to Yahweh. And their worship was a fraud, right? You know, we see this in our Christian culture, don't we? That we go to church and we sing the songs of Zion, and oftentimes the church is dancing to the world's tunes. We disdain the idols of wood and gold, but we embrace idols that are more culturally palatable. We love money, which is the root of all evil, we pursue that. We love and elevate sports and hobbies, not that those things are evil in themselves, but whenever they're exalted to where our affections are controlled by them, to where we now, in the corporate worship, that we would leave that to go and to pursue a sporting event. Now I've seen this over and over with Christian parents that if the child is involved in a sporting activity on Lord's Day that they cut church and they go to the sporting event not realizing that they are making a theological statement to their little children that what we're doing is more important than worshiping God. And we implement this kind of idolatry in the church. That our passions are secular while our theological convictions are orthodox. That my heart loves the song the world's singing, but my theological convictions are still orthodox. It's a great danger. It's one of the greatest dangers in the church. It's altogether possible to be orthodox theologically but heterodox practically. Orthodox in what we say that we believe and heterodox in what we prove that we believe because we prove what we believe by our affections. Idolatry is a heart matter, isn't it? It's not necessarily bowing down to a golden calf. It can be bowing down to a bank account. It could be bowing down to a 401K. It could be bowing down to an athletic team or a sports figure. It could be bowing down to your own image, to your own self. Obviously, there's so many different ways that you can become and be an idolater, but the problem is that Israel was singing the rights They were doing the right things externally. They were traveling and sacrificing, going a long way, but it was all a sham. Their hearts weren't in it. They're going through the motions mechanically. They're going through all the motions theologically, but there's something not right inwardly because they don't have a heart and affection for the glory of God. So you can possess the knowledge of the truth while the love of the truth is nowhere to be found. We see in 2 Thessalonians 2.10, this is just a footnote, talks about the deception in the last day, talks about how the Antichrist is going to draw many, many way in the last day. You know, the hearts, even if the days weren't shortened, it says that even the elect, if it were possible, would be deceived. And why is there a falling away? Well, 2 Thessalonians 2 10 says, because they received not the love of the truth. Their affections were out there. Their affections were displaced. Their affections were upon other things. That's kind of an issue. We're talking about idolatry in life. It doesn't remove the church from practice, it removes the church and what's done there and what's valued there from passions. Not practice, from passions. Are you listening? Talking about having an idolatrous life. You can look theologically orthodox and be an idolater. So it doesn't remove going to church or the activity of church life, or coming to church, or coming to the small group. All those things are instrumental and those things are critically important. But what happens is there's no delight in it, there's no passion for it. That we're just simply going through the motions. It tolerates the truth, but what it treasures are the temporary pleasures that sin brings. It endures the church, but it enjoys the world. It endures the church, it enjoys the world. Christian worship is driven by an affection for God and His revealed truth. Heart love. First love. This truth reveals the glorious God and Savior Jesus Christ and what He's done for us, and it causes delight in the soul of a redeemed person. Well, we all know the figures in the Bible, and we've all known them in life. You have your Demases that travel with Paul for spans of years, and then his idolatrous heart goes back to the world because it finds something there that it loves more. Demas having forsaken me, loving this present world. Judas Iscariot. was with Jesus for three years. He was unknown to the apostolic band as a trader. No one was suspecting him to be stealing money all along, but ultimately his secretive and idolatrous heart was exposed. And by the way, think about this. Judas saw Lazarus, he smelled his rotten body, and he saw him come out of the tomb. Judas saw Jesus walk on water. Judas saw Jesus turn a few fish and a few loaves into a meal that fed 5,000 men and then some, and he saw it twice. He saw Jesus raise a child from the dead. He heard the Sermon on the Mount, and he still was a traitor. For three years, he sang the same songs as Peter and John, He heard the same sermons as Peter and John, and at the end of the day, what was in him came out, and money and the love of money choked out everything else, and he sold out our Lord for 30 pieces of silver, and his bowels gushed out when he hanged himself." So the point is this, that an idolatrous heart is wide and varied in its passions. It's not irreligious. It's blended. An idolater in the church is a two-headed monster, a person that holds two masters, a syncretism. But Jesus says in Luke 16, 13 that only one of them would truly be loved. A man cannot serve two masters. And let me just say this as I go on to my fourth point, true worship ends where the love of the exclusivity of Christ ends. True worship ends where the love, the agape love of the exclusivity, the uniqueness of Christ ends. Dual loyalties. Dual loyalties is the death blow to spiritual worship. Serving two masters. And this is so secretive in so many lives because we're going through the motions. We're going to church on Sunday, we're going to church on Wednesday, and we're doing stuff. But our affections are somewhere else. And so it becomes syncretistic. And ultimately what it is, it's idolatry. And all the while singing orthodox songs, hearing orthodox sermons, and even holding to reform soteriology. I want you to note the consequences of their worship in verse 12 and 13, and then we'll scan on down to verse 15 because there are grave consequences to polluted worship. We have throughout Scripture repeated warnings and pictures to drive the point onward home. We remember the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who offered up strange fire to the Lord on the altar of Yahweh. We know that in Leviticus 10, verses 1 and 2, it reveals to us that God struck them dead. And is it that serious to God? Read Leviticus 10 and you'll find out. They hear the sons of the high priest are worshiping in a way that God had not prescribed and the wrath of God breaks out against them and they are destroyed. So is it serious? Yes, it's that serious. First of all, I want you to note a couple of features in verse 11 and 12, continued disobedience leads to being given over in judgment to your sins. Look at verse 11, but my people did not listen to my voice and Israel was not willing to obey me, so I released them to the stubbornness of their own heart that they would walk in their own desires. This is one of the greatest of all divine judgments, this side of hell. that the people continued to circumvent the truth of God, they continued to do what they felt best, they swerved from the statutes of God, they pursued their own desires, and God, in judgment, let them go. That God gave them up, that God withdrew His restraining hand, and that God allowed them to have the sins that they coveted in their own hearts. And by the way, their hands are still on Orthodox worship. They're still singing the right songs, they're still hearing the right thing, and God takes his hand off of them and their hearts run headlong into idolatry, into paganism, into sin. That God gave them the desires of their hearts. God sent judgment and he left them to their own folly and their own ignorance and their own foolishness. And by the way, this is something that happens more often than we realize. We all have known that brother who has been deeply involved in the Lord's church. It looked like he was all in over the course of time, but then he became hit and miss, and then he became more miss than hit. The truth had been preached over and over and over, but it was exchanged, and as Luke 8, 7 says, other things crept in and choked out the Word. And in time, as we all know and experience, that person is completely removed, completely given over into their new pursuits, and we have to ask the question, what happened? And this judgment and that God gave them over to their own base desires is what happened. Brothers and sisters, I cannot strongly enough urge and warn of the importance of obeying God and holding the truth even when it hurts, even when it's costly. Proverbs 23, 23, buy the truth and never sell the truth. It's that important. God will not allow His people to remain with divided interest, to be unloyal to him. He will lovingly warn, he will lovingly confront, but when God is not heeded, he will let those desire, have those ill desires, and continuing those desires, he will allow them to run headlong into them and he will not intervene. It's judgment. Paul warned the Christians at Rome in Romans 1. We're all so familiar with this. Listen to what it says in verse 21 to 5 of Romans 1, for even though they knew God, They did not glorify Him as God. That means the factions weren't there. They were not upward to God, a life of obedience, a life of love and loyalty and sacrifice and commitment. And they did not give Him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts. Their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image. In the likeness of corruptible men, or birds, and forfeited animals, and crawling creatures, or base lower things." Listen to what it says, "'Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who was blessed forever. Amen.'" What is it saying there? That they began to chase after other things, that they lived a life of syncretism, that they had external worship, but their affections, what drove them, their desires, that inward divine temperature that was not hot, it was lukewarm, and God had warned them and God had pled them all day long of our stretched out my hand to you. and they kept secretly, seductively, continually chasing after these sinful desires, and the warning stopped. The pleading stopped. The restraints were removed, and God gave them what they wanted as an act of judgment. And that's exactly what we see in our text. Continued disobedience brings divine chastening or divine judgment to give people over to their sins. Secondly, continued disobedience leads to being given over to the enemy. Enemies, look at verse 13. Oh, that my people would listen. Does this sound familiar? Where did Jesus get his sermon material? The Old Testament, right? When he's standing over Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, I would desire to gather together as a hen would gather her chicks underneath her wings, but you would not. Where did he get that idea? Where did he get that statement? He got it from the Bible. He was an exegete, a preacher of truth. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways. I would quickly subdue their enemies. I would turn my hand against their adversaries. Those who hate Yahweh would cower before Him, and the time of their punishment would be forever." I mean, if you take this, that's spoken in the positive, but you read clearly in between the lines the statement that's being made to disobedient, idolatrous Israel that the enemies that I have protected you from will no longer have that wall, no longer have that chasm, no longer have that restraint, I'm pulling it down. And that those enemies that have been fenced from you will now have access to you as an act of judgment because of their disobedience. And by the way, the implication here as you read that is that Israel's history has proven to be disastrous at the hands of the enemies. Why? Because they've not obeyed God. Israel has always been and remains to this very day to be surrounded by violent nations. Whenever she obeyed the revealed truth of God, God provided protection for them. The nations surrounding them feared Israel. But whenever she erred and sinned against God, the protection dropped and the enemies would then advance. We see this again and again, especially during the exilic years that God even summoned Babylon. God summoned Assyria to invade and to plunder His own people under as an act of divine judgment. I've dropped the wall down. These people have hardened their hearts. And now as we go back and think about Romans chapter 1, those who persist in disobedience, what does God do? He gives them over. They're given over to their sinful desires. They're given over, as Paul would say, to a reprobate, a worthless, vain, empty, non-thinking mind. Sounds like the leadership in our country, that God simply takes down the hedge of grace, He allows sin to run its course without intervening. Those who continue to pursue sin will be given over to it. What a judgment this is. I have a few minutes left, let me end with a cry for worship. This is from the Lord in verses 13 and 14. And this Psalm 81 is just absolutely powerful and speaks so much into our own culture, into our own evangelical world, into our own hearts. The cry for their worship in this is the pleading of the Lord in these verses. It reminds me of the tearful Christ as He overlooks Jerusalem, passionate to gather them together. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him, it says in John 1, 11. I want you to just for a second, let me just throw in a truth that you need to think about. God's commands are not given to us to make us miserable. God's commands are given to us to make us fruitful. and to make us like His Son. God solicits my obedience and yours for His glory and for our good, and those two cannot be separated. For His glory and for our good. The first thing we see if Israel would turn, God would subdue their enemies. Look at verse 13, "'Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways, I would quickly subdue their enemies, I would turn My hand against their enemies.'" And listen, maybe you're here tonight and you're unconverted and you just don't know if serving God's gonna be worth it. There's a cost, is there not? In fact, even Jesus said, count the cost. The world is set against you. All the powers of hell are set against you. Is it worth it? But here, we see this glorious language. The Lord is saying, yes, it's worth it. that we have the riches of being children of God, the riches of an inheritance and weight, the riches of the provision and the protection of God, that God would keep our adversaries at bay. He would preserve us in the day of temptation, preserve us in the day of trouble. Count the cost, but count it accurately. Serving God is glorious. Serving sin is serious. We know that God had chosen Israel to be a trophy of His grace, that His salvation might go to the ends of the earth. It says in Jeremiah 31, verse 3, that He loves Israel, His people, with an everlasting love, and He sets His affection upon Israel for this purpose, to illumine how great He is. He sets before Israel life and death, He says before Israel, cursings and blessings, this is in Deuteronomy 30 verse 15. And the reality is that Israel would be undefeatable if she would heed God and give God His due honor. Israel would be undefeatable. That's the story that's being told. If Israel would be the light that would shine, And God would receive the glory, do Him because of His union together with Israel, that there would be a subduing of the enemy. And that's the promise, by the way, for us as Christians, to obey God, to love Him, to let our love drive our obedience, to live a life with the glory of God, that God will fence us, that the gates of hell will not prevail. Fence us. And I think there's some confusion on the part of some Reformed Christians to think that you can live disobediently and you have the bounty the same as those who are living obediently. It's just not true. A life of continued disobedience only proves one point, that you do not belong to God. You're not a covenant child. God's people are set apart to bring honor and glory to Him. And here we see a cry for worship. You know, sin makes hollow, empty promises. Sin's always vying for our allegiance. But it's only those who honor and obey God that are truly happy, blessed, Only those who are in Christ have this life. And I want you to make a mental note here. A life that's submitted to Christ will be honored by God. A life that is submitted to Christ will be honored by God. Even a life outside of Christ is a life of lies, a life of seduction where the enemy twists and taints, it's like a mirage. Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the children of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He recognized that sin's promises are a mirage, there could be no satisfaction. But finally, we see that if Israel would turn and repent, that God would satisfy their hearts, that He would satisfy them. In verse 16, look at it with me as I end, but I would feed you with the finest of wheat and with honey from the rock, I would satisfy you. What do we think will satisfy us? God created us for His own glory. He fashioned us. We've been made for holy worship. Nothing else will satisfy the human soul other than God. other than God. In the third century, Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo said, Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. We've been created for holy worship. A Christian will be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from the table of his master. a Christian. And those that are outside of Christ may gain the whole world, but they're still bankrupt. They're still hollow and empty. Matthew chapter 13, Jesus clearly tells us that He is the treasure. He is the pearl of great price. He is the only one that can satisfy the soul. And here in this text, we can read that there is a pleading, isn't there? There's a pleading. And in this text, there's a pleading with us by way of extension. that the arms of Christ are open for you. And maybe you've come here tonight in this windy, 60 degree, December night, wondering if you can be saved. Listen, my friend, only Jesus will satisfy you. There's never been a person that has come to Jesus, the true Christ of God, that has been apprehended by His mighty power and grace that has went away dissatisfied. There have been those that have come into the proximity of the church, those that have come into proximity of religion, come into the sound of even gospel preaching, but they've never been apprehended by Christ because He satisfies. This reminds me that I would feed you the finest of wheat, and with honey from the rock, I would satisfy you. It's a pleading here. It reminds me of Jesus in Matthew 11, 28, 29, when he says, come to me, all who are weary, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. It's a pleading here. And my friend, I would say Christ is pleading to us through this text tonight. The Holy Spirit is using the words He has inspired to plead that you might come to see that He is the pearl of great price. He is the treasure that's discovered in the field. That the person that discovers this treasure goes in joy and sells all of his possessions that he might possess the field so that he would have the treasure. that Christ is worth more than a thousand, a million, a trillion galaxies, infinitely more, gloriously more. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole cosmos and yet loses or forfeits his soul? On that last dying breath, it doesn't matter what you got, it matters who you got. Are you Christ's? And here in this text, he's pleading to come to him. Those of you that sin is crushing you, those that don't feel that you're good enough, or maybe that you're so prideful that you think that God must take you because you're better than the rest. You've been deceived. You're a sinner and you need Christ and he's come to save even the most vile, the most outlandish of sinners. And listen, you're not promised tomorrow. What if it never comes? The angels don't know the day of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, much less me. Are we gambling with eternity? He gave himself up that we might be reconciled. I love how he's pleading here with sinners. Let me close by asking, is he your treasure? Because he'll never receive worship from you if he's not. Worship is the expression of a heart that honors Christ and only Christ. Unmixed, only Christ. It's passionate, it's joyful, it's satisfying. Satisfying. No Christian has ever died on their deathbed disappointed. He who believes in me, he says this, shall never be disappointed. Lord, I pray, Lord, I know that there may be some here tonight, Lord, that are stuck in sin. Lord, I pray, Lord, that tonight they will call out upon your great name. Lord, I pray for all of us, Lord, that our worship might be devoted to Christ and only to Christ, that the temperature of our hearts might be elevated through the preaching of the Word and the working of the Holy Spirit of God, that we might love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and worship you as you so deserve. Lord, may we not fall into the snare that Israel fell into. May we avoid that example. These things have been preserved and written for us, upon whom the ends of the world have fallen, that we would not trip up as they tripped up. But Lord, I pray for each of us tonight, Lord, that we will see that we have been created for this, to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, and that we might seek you while you might be found, that we might see you as Isaiah did, exalted and extolled, and that we might worship you as the seraphs were worshiping you. And Lord, that we might worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, it's your desire to be worshiped. And Lord, it's our desire to worship you as you so deserve. And Lord, we ask all this in Christ's name. Amen. Did Pastor Jason come in? There he is. Hey, would you come up here right quick and announce what's going to go on Saturday at the parade? I'll hold you a microphone. I think everybody was a little