Now in the first half of Psalm
14, the fool, the one who doesn't
believe God, says no to God. He says no to God. And that thereby
he breaks the command of God to believe on his son. And by
breaking that command to believe on his son, by saying no to God,
he sins against God. Breaks the first table of the
law. The second half of Psalm 14 deals with how the unbeliever
treats the Lord's people. And thereby he breaks the second
table of the law by not believing on Christ. He breaks the second
table of the law. I want to give you our divisions
as I read our text. First, we'll see the ignorance
of the unbeliever. Verse 4, Have all the workers
of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat
bread, and call not upon the Lord? Then secondly, we see the
fear of the unbeliever. There were they in great fear,
for God is in the generation of the righteous. You've shamed
the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. And then
thirdly, we see the faith of the believer. Oh, that the salvation
of Israel will come out of Zion. When the Lord bringeth back the
captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall
be glad. Now here's the ignorance of the
unbeliever. The Lord says, have all the workers
of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they
eat bread and call not upon the Lord?" The Lord says, are you
not even convicted in your natural conscience? Is there not one
worker of iniquity who understands that you're eating up my people? Do you not see you're heaping
ruin upon your own heads? God says in our text that they
eat up my people. They eat up my people. I want
you to look at Micah chapter 3. Micah chapter 3. Now all unbelievers
are guilty of this. All unbelievers are guilty of
this right here. There's no neutrality in this
warfare. The Lord Jesus said, He that's
not with me is against me. And he that gathers not with
me scattereth abroad. Now first of all, unregenerate
religious leaders are guilty of this. That's who we're looking
at in this passage. Universally, among all false
teachers, the heresy is they preach works religion. they preach
work. Whether they're teaching sinners
have a free will, or that justification is by the contribution of the
sinner, or if they deny some aspect of total depravity, of
unconditional election, of limited atonement, of irresistible grace,
or the preservation of the saints, perseverance of the saints, all
works religion in some way are teaching that rewards in heaven,
or loss of rewards in heaven, is in some aspect dependent upon
a sinner's works. That's what they're teaching.
Rather than teaching the truth that salvation is A to Z of the
Lord. Now, the Lord describes here
all false teachers as cannibals. That's what He describes them
as. But I want you, as we read this, I want you to realize this
is true of the rich businessman, this is true of the families
in this earth who don't know the Lord, and of every individual
unbeliever in a family of believers who doesn't bow to the Lord.
This is true of all unbelievers. Listen to this description. Micah
3.1, and I said, here I pray you, O heads of Jacob and you
princes of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know judgment? who hate the good and love the
evil, who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh
from off their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people and
flay their skin from off them, and they break their bones and
chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron. Then shall they cry unto the
Lord, but He will not hear them. He will even hide His face from
them at that time, as they behave themselves ill in their doings. Thus saith the Lord concerning
the prophets that make My people err, that bite with their teeth
and cry, Peace! And He that putteth not into
their mouths, they even prepare war against Him, against God
Himself." Now that's true of all. That's an ugly description
of how False teachers eat up His people. That's true of the
businessmen, the rich men of the world. And out of a greed
for money, they've turned the marketplace into robbery. And
they would force the Lord's people to work on the days that we worship
the Lord and do their work instead of worshiping the Lord. They
make life hard in this world for the Lord's people. It's described
in Amos 8, 4. I won't have you turn there,
but you can read it at your leisure. But he says, you swallow up the
needy. You make the poor of the land
to fail. You say, when's the new moon
going to be gone? When's these days of worship over so we can
get back to buying and selling? So we can falsify the weights.
So we can buy the poor for silver and for a pair of shoes. So we
can sell the refuse of wheat. When's all this going so we can
get back to our robbery? And then it's true of every unbelieving
family, and of every unbeliever within those families too. The
Lord said, it says, Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that
know not thee, and the families that call not on thy name. For
they've eaten up Jacob, and they've devoured him, and consumed him,
and have made his habitation desolate. They eat up the Lord's
people by rejecting our God and our gospel. Now this is true. I want to particularly speak
here to those unbelievers here today who are in the families
with believers. The Lord says, you eat up my
people. You're eating up my people. You
listen, each unbeliever here should know this. The believers
here, right here, right now, and in your house, are eaten
up with sorrow of heart at your lack of concern that you're perishing
in unbelief. You think of how many are born
in darkness and the deadness of their own heart into families
who are just like that. And so they each teach each other
in the family that darkness is light. And they go all their
lives never considering, is there not a lie in my right hand? And
so they live and they die and they never ever consider their
perishing and unbelief. You think of what a valuable
thing it is to have loved ones who love you enough that they
want to teach you the truth and want you to hear the Gospel.
Some of our young people show up and come to the study on Friday
nights. Don't even bring a Bible. At least have some respect enough
to bring a Bible. God says they eat up the Lord's
people as they eat bread. The way a man eats his bread
is how the unregenerate man eats up the Lord's people. How do
you eat bread? without any more conscious thought
toward God or toward the Lord's people than you have of eating
a piece of bread. That's how the Lord says they
eat up my people. Unbelievers, you here today,
you probably never even considered, you never even thought about
it, never gave a conscious thought to the fact that in your unbelief,
you're eating up those believers in your family, or those believers
right here, whether you don't have any in your family or not.
They do it daily, just like a man has a daily appetite to eat bread. This continual appetite to continually
eat up the Lord's people by rejecting the gospel is a continual thing. And they do it with their mouths.
They do it with their mouths, just as an unregenerate man bites
and devours his bread. So they gnash upon the believer
with their teeth. And so they belch out opposition
against our Savior. Psalm 59, 7 says, Behold, they
belch out with their mouth, swords are in their lips. Rejecting
God, rejecting the Savior. And verse 4 says, And they call
not upon the Lord. You think of how beastly it is.
It's like a dog. Unbelieving sinners eat up those
who pray for them, and yet they will not pray for themselves.
Christ tells us why unregenerate men eat up the Lord's people.
In John 15, you want to turn there, John 15. He says, if the world hate you,
You know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not
of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant's not greater than his Lord. If they've persecuted
me, they will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying,
they'll keep yours also. But all these things they'll
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that
sent me. If I had not come, now listen
to this, if I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not
had sin. But now they have no cloak for
their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had
not done among them the works which none other man did, they
had not had sin. But now they have both seen and
hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they
hated me without a cause." Without a cause. So that's the ignorance
of the unbeliever. That's the ignorance of the man
who rejects our God. Secondly, in Psalm 14, we see
the fear of the unbeliever. Psalm 14, 5. There were they in great fear,
for or because God is in the generation of the righteous. Ye have shamed the counsel of
the poor, because the Lord is his refuge. God is in the generation
of the righteous. What does that mean? Generation
here refers to God's spiritual race. That's what it refers to.
To His seed, to His children. In Psalm 22, 30 it says, A seed
shall serve Him. and it shall be accounted to
the Lord for a generation." That seed that served the Lord was
Christ the seed. And by His service, what He did
is accounted for a generation, for His people, for His chosen
people. And Peter said, you're a chosen
generation, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people. And God's children are righteous
because the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us
through faith. He said, their righteousness
is of me, said the Lord. Christ took our flesh for us,
He came to where we are, He lived for us, He died for us, He's
raised again for us, He called us, He quickened us, He made
us righteous in Him, and He keeps us. He said, I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. And therefore our text says God
is in the generation of the righteous. He's in His people. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is in His people. Personally, through the Holy
Spirit, He dwells in each individual believer. He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. I in them,
and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that
the world may know, and the world knows. This is why they are so
fearful. The world knows that that world
may know that thou has sent me and has loved them as thou has
loved me. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. Christ liveth in me and the life
I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Christ dwells personally in each
believer. And then collectively, as His
church, Christ dwells in our midst. He walks among the golden
candlesticks. John looked up in the revelation
of Christ and he saw in the midst of the seven candlesticks one
likened to the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot
and girdled about the palms with a golden girdle. And he was walking
amongst the churches. That's Christ dwelling in our
midst. Both of them are meant when Paul said to the Philippians,
he that has begun a good work in you will perform it to the
day. of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
then again, he said, it's God which worketh in you, both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. That's what he's talking about.
He's in us personally and He's in His church. He's in His people. And because God's in us, we're
not afraid. The believer's not afraid of
the things that this unregenerate, ungodly world is afraid of. We're
not fearful of the things they're fearful of. And by that, it's
evident that God is in His people. And that terrifies the unbeliever. That terrifies the ungodly. Look
at verse 5. There were they in great fear.
And Psalm 53 is almost just exactly like this Psalm. And it says,
There were they in great fear where there was no fear. And
it says, because God is in the generation of the righteous,
because He's in His people. Have you noticed that the closer
this world comes to the day of judgment, the more increasingly
terrified this unregenerate world is becoming? Have you noticed
that? We see it every day. It's like
fear just bubbling up in people every day, more and more and
more. And yet they're fearing things. They fear things. They fear that we're going to
run out of water. They're fearful that the climate's
changing. They're fearful of guns. They're
fearful of things. They're fearful of objects, of
inanimate objects. They're fearful of things. One
of the false doctrines of our day is separatism. It's teaching
that good or evil is in things. And so they're running about
feverishly to try to avoid some things and save other things. Things. So when the unregenerate
beholds that believers are not fearful of the things they're
fearful of, It's a sign to the ungodly that
God is indeed in us, working in us, and that terrifies the
ungodly. That makes them more fearful. Paul said to the Philippians,
he said, in nothing terrified by your adversaries. Speaking
to believers, he said, you be in nothing, in no thing whatsoever
be terrified by your adversaries. And he said, which is to them
an evident token of perdition. Their terror of everything is
an evident token of perdition, of destruction, of their ungodliness. But to you, Not being terrified
is an evident token of salvation. And that of God. That of God. King Saul hated David. He wanted
to kill David. He was chasing him down, wanted
to kill David. And when God made it apparent,
he emboldened David so that Saul saw God was dwelling in David. God was with David. And it terrified
him. It's the Scripture that says
Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was
departed from Saul. It terrified him. Now listen
to this. Listen to this Scripture. I'm
going to put about three Scriptures together for you. Listen to this.
In Isaiah 4-5, the Lord will create upon every dwelling place
of Mount Zion, upon all the churches where His people meet, and upon
each individual believer, Now this won't be visible, you won't
see this, but it's there. Listen to this. Upon her assemblies
a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire
by night, for upon all The glory, the glory of our God shall be
for a defense. For a defense. Now listen to
what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, 9. Listen to this. The Lord
said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. That's what he's talking about.
That's the glory. That's the defense of his people. Listen
to Peter. Peter said in 1 Peter 4.14, If
you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you. For the spirit of glory and of
God rests upon you. On their part, he's evil spoken
of. But upon your part, he's glorified.
He's glorified. And so, the Lord says here in
this text, He says to the rebel, who's saying no to God, He says
to the rebel, though you fear, though you fear because I'm in
my people. He says, yet instead of heeding
their counsel, you shame my people because they trust me. He's saying
what kind of, what kind of Ignorance, and what kind of fish, that's
the reason to be doubly fearful. Here you are fearful, and you
hear the counsel of my people, that they've sought refuge in
the Lord, and you see they're not fearful, but rather than
heed their counsel and take refuge in the Lord, you shame their
counsel, and scoff at the fact that the Lord is their refuge.
Read it in verse 5 and 6 again. There were you in great fear,
because you behold, God is in the generation of the righteous,
and yet you have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord
is his refuge. This was particularly true of
Christ when He walked this earth. God was in Christ. He said there,
God is in the generation of the righteous. God was in Christ.
He says, you've shamed the counsel. His counsel was, believe God. When he walked this earth, he
said, believe God. Believe God. I'm sent to do the
works that no man can do. God has sent me, he said, trust
me and believe on me and you'll be saved. This was his counsel. It says there, but you've shamed
the counsel of the poor. He's the poor. He had not where
to lay his head. There's never been a believer
that walked this earth that was as poor as our Redeemer. He didn't
have anything while he was here. He made everything. He owns everything. But while he was here, he had
nothing. Nothing. And it says here, the Lord is
his refuge. You've shamed him because the
Lord is his refuge. The Lord God, His God, God His
Father, He walked here serving God and He went to the cross
to bear the sin of His people in His body. While He went to
the cross, He believed God. He believed God would justify
Him when He had completed the work that God gave Him to do
and that God would raise Him from the dead for our justification.
He trusted the Father. But while He hung there on the
cross, you know what we did? We were struck with fear. Man
was struck with fear when we beheld God was in Christ. But
rather than heeding His counsel and believing on Christ, you
know what we did? We hung Him on a cross. And then we stood
there while He hung on the cross and said, And He said, All they
that see Me laugh Me to scorn. They shoot out their lip. They
shake their head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would
deliver Him. Let Him deliver Him. See, and He delighted in
it. He said, As with a sword in My bones, My enemies reproach
Me while they say daily unto Me, Where is thy God? You see? And the Lord said, if they persecute
you, remember they did it to Me first. They did it to Me first. And now Christ is our counselor.
Christ is our counselor. And through the Holy Spirit,
He's made us willing in the day of His power to run into Him
for our refuge, to rest in Him for all righteousness, for our
total, complete justification from sin, for all pardon from
sin, to have washed us completely in His blood so that we're completely,
thoroughly purged of all sin, and made the very righteousness
of God. Made holy to be able to enter
into God's presence, into the presence of God. And He's our
refuge. Listen to me right now. Listen
to this. You that don't believe on our God, listen. God is a
refuge for sinners. He's a refuge. Christ is the
refuge. You flee into Christ. The Scripture says He goes before
us. The Scripture says He's our rear
ward. The Scripture says He's beside
us. The Scripture says He's above
us. And underneath are His everlasting arms. We're protected all around
by the Lord our refuge. Senator, don't you want that?
Don't you want to know you've got protection and a refuge that
nobody can ever separate you from God? Don't you want to know
that? Don't you want that? God is in
the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her in that right early. This is so of his church. And
yet, even though you behold that God is in the midst of his people,
even though you behold that God is protecting his people, instead
of believing our counsel, you walk out of here, and when nobody
else is around, just you and other unbelievers, you stand
around and you say, man, I wish they'd just leave us alone about
that mess. I don't know why they believe that junk. They scoff
at us. The day of your calamity is coming. It's coming. And the Lord said,
and then when they cry on me, I won't hear them then. I won't
pay them any attention. I called and none would answer.
So when they call, I won't answer. This is God speaking. Now I want
you to turn over to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Now I want
to appeal to you here. I just want you to see something
now. This is for you who haven't believed on my Lord. Listen,
don't shame my counsel. Don't shame my counsel. My counsel
is what I'm preaching to you right now. My counsel is what
I've received of the Lord. I'm poor. I got nothing to give
you. I can't give you riches. I can't
give you something for you to do. I can't give you anything
other than to tell you, trust Christ who has done everything
for his people. He's done everything. And I'm
telling you now, don't shame that counsel by going on in unbelief,
by going on not trusting the Lord. And don't call my counsel
a liar, my counselor a liar anymore by unbelief either. My counselor
is Christ. He's God. He cannot lie. He cannot lie. Listen to this
now, He's counseled, He's decreed, He's purposed within Himself
before the world was made. He's done this. And then when
He revealed this promise, this covenant to Abraham, when He
revealed it to Abraham, He promised Abraham, now listen to me, whatever
He promised Abraham is so of everybody He's going to save.
Because He's the Father of the faithful. So He shows us, He
holds up Abraham and He says, now listen, what I did with Abraham
is to show you how sure my salvation is. He goes to Abraham and he
promised Abraham that in Christ the seed, he was going to save
him. But he didn't just promise Abraham.
Here he is, God who cannot lie. He promises Abraham, that should
be enough. But he went beyond that. He made
an oath. He confirmed it, making an oath
to Abraham and swearing by himself that what he promised, he was
going to do. Now, in a court of law, in a
court of law, men are sworn in to tell the truth. You go into
a court of law, they make you hold your hand up to God, and
before God, you make an oath that you're going to tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And the Scripture
says, look at Hebrews 6.16, For men verily swear by the greater
We swear we have to be sworn in by God. He's greater. A man
swears by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them
an end of all strife. When we've been sworn in, that's
an end of all strife. We're going to tell the truth
then because we've sworn by God we will tell the truth in a call
of love. God who cannot lie counseled
with Himself to save His people by Himself and when He revealed
that promise to Abraham, He made an oath. But God, who cannot
lie, not only promised, He made an oath. And He can't lie about
that oath either. And He swore by Himself because
He can swear by no greater. He's the greatest and He can't
swear by any greater. Now look at this. So then from
God, God who cannot lie, we have the decree of His counsel. We
have the promise of what He purposed from before the foundation of
the world. And not only that, we got His oath that He swore
by Himself that He would do it. Now look at this, Hebrews 6.17. wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel,
the unchangeableness of His counsel. His counsel. We're talking about,
you shaming my counsel? You shaming my counselor? He
says, my counsel's unchangeable. And to show how unchangeable
my counsel is, He confirmed it by an oath. that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
a strong consolation. Not just by one immutable thing,
but two immutable things in which it's impossible for God to lie.
By His promise and by His oath. We have a strong consolation
who fled for refuge. for refuge to lay hold upon the
hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast." And that hope is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's a forerunner. He's run before
us. He's run the race for us, before
us, and He's entered into the presence of Holy God, into His
presence, into the holiest of holies. as a guarantee for everybody
that trusts Him that after we've run the race that He set before
us, we're going to enter in. And we run this race looking
to the author and finisher. He's the author of how to run
this race, and He's the finisher of it so that everything is accomplished
for us, brethren. And He's done it. And the joy,
He ran it for the joy set before Him, and He's the joy set before
us. And so we have this, you see
what I'm saying to you? This is why I'm saying to you,
don't shame my counsel anymore. And don't shame my counselor.
Believe Him. Believe my counsel. Believe my
counselor. He is sworn by two unchanging
things, two unchangeable things. by His promise and by His oath.
He's going to save every person who casts every bit of their
care upon Him. Everybody who flees into Him
for a refuge, He promises and He swears by Himself, because
He can swear by no greater, that He will be a refuge for you. He will save you. He will save
you. That's what He promises. Now sinner, listen to this. You're
going to either be with us, safe and secure from the enemy in
Christ our refuge, or you're going to be outside and you're
going to be the enemy of Christ our refuge. One or the other. One or the other. The workers
of iniquity shamed Christ on the cross because He made the
Lord God His refuge as He suffered for His people. But our refuge
put them to shame. I want you to listen to this,
Psalm 53, 5. This psalm right here is pointing us, it's showing,
it's speaking of us. Psalm 53, 5 is the very same
psalm but it's speaking of Christ on the cross. And in Psalm 53,
5 it says, God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth
against thee, thou hast put them to shame because God hath despised
them. You see that? You're going to
either be in Christ our refuge and safe and secure, or you're
going to be outside of Christ our refuge and be the enemy,
be the oppressor, and be the one that He's going to destroy.
You shame our counsel, you have this assurance. God will despise
you. God will despise you. That's
serious business now. You're going to be one or the
other. I want to be as honest with you and as straightforward
with you as I can. I want to see you believe the
Lord. Now, believer, this is so. This fear that grips the
world of the wicked, it's of the Lord, and it's for a reason.
Just like it was in Moses' day. Listen to this. In Exodus 15,
16, it says, Fear and dread shall fall upon them. By the greatness
of thine arms shall they be as still as a stone. till thy people
pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purposed."
That's right. Everything is taking place in
this world, good and evil. God is working together for good
to them that love God, to them who are called according to His
purpose. Everything. Even this world is just trembling
in their boots over every little thing. He's doing it so His people
can pass over the people He's purchased. Let me end with this. Here's the faith of the believer,
and I'll be very brief. Oh, that the salvation of Israel
will come out of Zion. When the Lord bringeth back the
captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall
be glad. Salvation is Christ, and Christ is our salvation.
The salvation of Israel, His people. And here's what we do.
Even though you eat us up like bread, even though you shame
our counsel, we still pray. This is the faith of the believer.
We still pray. Lord, come forth and break their
chains. Come forth and break their chains
and bring back their captivity. And when Christ comes forth,
if He does and He breaks your chains and He brings you back
from captivity, you, Jacob, will rejoice. You can look at this
tricking, supplanting, conniving Jacob standing right in front
of you, and I can tell you, if God breaks your chain, you're
going to rejoice in Him. You're going to thank Him forever
for doing it. And all Israel shall be glad. We'll rejoice
with you. All his people will rejoice with
you. And we are all together rejoicing the Lord because he'll
be the one that's done it. And the believer sits here, and
we sit here all together, and we look for that day, and one
of these days, he's coming back. He's coming back, and when he
comes back, he's going to deliver us from our captivity once and
for all. He's going to break every chain,
put off these bodies of death, and he's going to bring us into
his glorious presence, and all his Jacobs, making up all his
Israel, are going to rejoice forever and be glad with him.
That's so. That's so. So here's the sinner,
stop eating up God's people and call on the Lord for mercy. Stop
eating us up and eat the bread from heaven. Stop fearing things
and fear God. You see, we're not fearful of
things. We're not fearful of you or of things because we got
the Lord for our refuge. But stop scoffing at us and shaming
our counsel and get in the refuge. Get in Him. Believe on Him. And
I do pray He come down and break your chains and He'll deliver
you from your captivity and bring you into Him. And believer, you
keep praying for Him. Keep praying for Christ to come
and break the chains. Keep praying for Him. The more
they shame you and the more they throw it back in your teeth,
just keep praying for them all the more. And also do this. You keep believing on the Lord
and you keep watching and you keep waiting because He's coming.
I'm telling you, He's coming. And it won't be very long and
He'll be here. It'll be just like that and He'll
be here. Amen.