Formalism: Are you Guilty?

Psalm 50 paints us a picture of a courtroom. In it we have a plaintiff, defendants, indictments, and a judge. On trial are the defendants, the professing Covenant saints. God Himself has come to them, charging them with forgetting the purpose of His Law and adopting a system of ritualistic formulas in place of essential devotion.

Upon reading this Psalm one can easily recall the many times our Saviour clashed with the Sanhedrin, charing them with hypocrisy and exposing their true motivations on many occasions. Or, we think of all about all the 'other' churches on Sunday noon, as congregations conduct a perfunctory exodus from sermon, to lunch, and then nap. But rarely do we turn that lens on ourselves. Could I be guilty of formalism?

The words in the Bible are timeless and necessary, Psalm 50 was not written for Israel alone. It did not cease to be valid upon our Lord's ascension. The sin of formalism appears in many, many ways, but it is always consistent in one thing. Its victim is blind to the power of sin and fallen man's nature to hate God and love self righteousness.

Please listen to this message with an open mind, heart, and Bible. Psalm 50 is not a warning, it's a promise. God hates sin in his church more than any other and will come to bring justice.