Let's jump right into the Bible
study this morning found in Psalm 53. I'll be asking the Lord to help us see the importance of this psalm. Gene will still bring the message
at the 11 o'clock hour. This psalm, chapter 53 and psalm
14 are basically word for word the same psalm. We've looked
at this psalm in chapter 14, but I look back on the notes
and this is a different message. The Lord does that very often
out of the same passage of Scripture. He teaches several different
lessons and several different perspectives of where we see
Christ. So this psalm appears twice in scripture, so to me
that makes it very important. When things in the gospel narratives
are repeated in all four gospels, that tells us something of the
significance and the importance of that particular passage. And
it's the same in the Old Testament, very uncommon for the same psalm
to repeat, but here's the case. And Paul quotes Psalm 14 and
Psalm chapter 53 in both Romans chapter 3 and in Romans chapter
7. So we've got to give attention
to all the Word of God, but if the Holy Spirit repeats or records
twice a particular passage of Scripture, we need to give those
words some undivided attention. These are important words, not
a printing mistake. It's not that David had forgot
another time what he had said. It's important. The Holy Spirit
records it on the page of Scriptures again for a reason. Verse 1, the fool hath said in
his heart, there is, that'd be italicized, added, there is no
God. Now the fool didn't say in his
heart there is no God is to deny God's existence. The fool, that
word means the senseless. the wicked, the vile, hath said
from his mouth, no, in his heart." He said in his heart. This is
an inward issue. This is a heart issue. He said
in his heart. What did the fool say? He said
from his heart, no, God. Now they're not only saying no
God for me, though he is saying that, They're saying, no, God. No to God. And this is what's
so foolish. Can you say no to God? Well,
you can, but not with any success. Who can resist His will? Really, there's no saying no
to God. Because in the end, you and I
will always do what God wills. And this is speaking of the attitude
of the heart. This is speaking, addressing
the depravity of man's heart. His will's always done, every
day, all the time. And man by nature says, no, no,
God. I will, I won't have it. I've got a will too. I've got
to do something to help myself. And the Word of God says salvation's
of the Lord. God has mercy on whom He will,
and whom He will, He hardeneth. So plain, so direct, so true. Salvation's all about God's will.
It don't have anything to do with man's will. Salvation is
not if I can, God will. Salvation is God does because
I can't. What can any dead sinner do?
Can they let go and let God have His way? That's why I just almost
chuckle anymore when I hear such nonsense. Can they give their
heart to Jesus? Can they get saved? Can anyone
get saved? It's said that there's no such
thing as a free lunch. Most people know that. In this
world, I get emails all the time offering me things, and I'm like,
that's just too good to be true. Guess what? It is. It's too good
to be true. I've got some bad purchases to
prove it. I'll put it that way. Oh, me, fool. Fool. What can
any dead sinner do? But anyway, most people know
that there's no such thing as a free lunch and that if you
work, that you should get paid. We've got labor laws in our country
that say that if I work, I get paid. Men and women know if we
don't work, we don't get paid. And if we don't get paid, we
don't eat. So that's why men and women work.
But that's never ever been the case in the matter of salvation.
Never has it been. Salvation is God's gift to chosen
sinners. Not anything that we earn, work
for, marry, deserve. It's a gift of grace. God in grace gave some sinners
life. And to those that He gave life,
God gave them a heart that could and would believe. God gave them
the faith to know and believe that it was God who gave them
the life and the grace and the faith to believe it. And now
it just goes in a constant circle. Which came first, the chicken
or the egg? It doesn't matter. They both came. And it was according
to God's will. We're saved by grace. That came
first. Not to play that off as unimportant. Life had to be given before man
ever could bow even, do anything. We had to be given life because
we were dead in trespasses and sin. So grace comes first, and
then faith. But it's all so together that it can't be separated. You were dead. God gave you life.
That's salvation. You didn't do anything. You received
it, so you can't glory in it. You can't glory in something
that you were given. And you can't glory in it because
you didn't do it. And you get glory because someone
else did it. Only the one who did it has a
reason to glory. And that's why he gets all the
glory. It's speaking of Christ and Him
alone. You get no glory for the work of another. There's no merit
in receiving a free gift. The statement that David makes
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is much more than just
an argument here against atheism by saying the fool says in his
heart there he is or no God. No, it's saying no to God. It's
saying I'm going to exert my will over God's will and do what
I want to and that really makes me my own God. And it's the same with self-professed
atheists who pray and confess and claim that there is no God,
and then they pray and hope that that God that they deny doesn't
kill them. This is speaking of a much darker
evil. This is saying no to God. This
is attempting to deny God His right to be God. Can you say no to God? Well,
it all depends on who your God is. Is He a God who wants and tries
to do something or is He a God who purposes and does? Is God one who needs man's help
and man's will to accomplish His own will to help man? Or does God speak and
it comes to pass? Does God purpose it then do it
just as He purposed one or the other? That's why all things
work together for the good of them that love the Lord, who
are the called according to His purpose, because God directs
all things. And that's what makes our redemption
as God's children so sure. It's by God's choosing and God's
calling and God's saving and God bringing us to Himself in
Christ that we're saved. But man's nature is to say no
to God. Man's nature in his heart is
not to have God to rule over him. And this is why, verse one
again, corrupt are they. That's our problem. Sin, who's
corrupt? Those that say no to God. No
God, I refuse to bow to you as God. No God, I refuse to bow
to your sovereign rule. No God, I refuse your divine
appointment. I refuse to accept your omnipotent
providence. No, God, I refuse to believe
that I have no will and no work in the matter of salvation. God,
I say no to your sovereignty. I say no to your holiness. I
say no to your will and purpose. I say no to your providence.
I don't like the way that you're doing things, so I say no to
all of it. I refuse to bow to who you say
you are. I know that I can and must do
something to be saved. You're not going to talk me out
of that, God. To say no to God means to believe that there's
no law and no order. To say there is no God means
that God has no restraint to lust and has no limit to passion. And who but a fool would believe
that? He has the right to do what he
will with his own. God is a God of law and order. He will by no means clear the
guilty. The soul that sins, it shall
die. God's never been tempted to do bad. He is the epitome
of holiness and goodness. He cannot fail. God cannot fall. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Yes, every single time. He cannot
not do but that which is right. Why don't people like the way
God does things? It's always right. God always
does what's right. I heard someone say not long
ago, God wouldn't do that. Well, if it happened, then He
did. It may be carried out by the
wicked hands and hearts of men, but ultimately, it was the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God that brought it to pass. God works all things, all things,
all things by the counsel of his own will, Ephesians 111. How could any of us say no to
God? Because we're corrupt, we're rotten. Rotten. bad to the bone and beyond. Verse 1 says that all of us have
done abominable iniquities. Loathsome, detestable, revolting,
disgusting sin. Iniquity. Abominable iniquity
is our work. All we do is sin. You know, Solomon
said, the plowing of the wicked is sin. If a man, a natural man,
Any man born of woman goes out and plows a field to raise food
for the poor and give to the poor, their plowing is in God's
eyes still wicked and sinful. The plowing of the wicked is
sin. My plowing is wicked and sinful. All that I do is sin. All that
you do is sin. That's what that's saying. Even
when we do, quote, profitable things, or quote, good things. We do corrupt things because
we're corrupt. What we do doesn't make us corrupt. We're corrupt and we do what
we do. Abominable iniquity is ours because we ourselves are
abominable. Verse 1 says there's none that
doeth good, and none means none. Men and women by nature are ignorant,
wicked, vowed, wicked, vile, disobedient, and unwilling servants,
and they say no to God. No to any help from God, no to
any deliverance from God, no to everything from God, and He's
the one thing needful. How could we be so ignorant?
Because we're corrupt and we do abominable iniquity. And I'll add this, we're without
excuse. without excuse. We are without
excuse because of creation. Seeing creation in and of itself
is enough reason to believe that God exists and that God created
this world without excuse because of divine providence. There's
no way you can't believe a God is not in control of everything
and things happen as they do, not only everyday providence,
but by God's omnipotent Almighty work of the sun, the moon, the
planets and stars all doing His bidding. You can't look at that
and believe that it just happened from a big bang. The rain, the
wind storms all heed His direction. Peace be still, He says to the
storms and they are still. No excuse not to believe there
is a God. And in verse 2, it's the same
God that looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand." Was there any that did see God? Who's looking down? It's God
that's looking down. Where's God looking down from?
He's looking down from heaven. This is the true God from heaven.
He's sitting on His throne looking down. The Supreme One who created
all things looks down from heaven. The God who looks down from heaven
is the one true and living God and He does what He wills in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay His hand. This is God. Our God's in the
heavens. He's done whatsoever He's pleased. That's what God says about Himself. I mean, I love the fact that
God's sovereign, but I really love the fact that God's sovereign
when it comes to saving me, because I need a sovereign God to save
me. I need a God who's not thwarted
by my will. I need a God that interrupts
and divinely intervenes in my life and says no to me and causes
me to say yes to Him. That's what I need. That's what
I must have. And that's what we have in the
God of the Bible. There's none in heaven and the
earth under the earth that can stay his hand or question his
purpose in whatever he does. He looked down from heaven. is
only the true God can. What was he looking for? He looked
upon the children of men, me and you. Why? To see if there
were any who did understand and seek after God. And again, you
can see here that the word any is italicized, meaning it was
added, but it should have been added because God didn't find
anyone or anything who did understand. There were not any who understood
God. There were not any who sought
after God. What did these folks not understand?
Well, they didn't have any understanding, first of all, of their sin. And
then secondly, they had no understanding of God's righteousness. And most
importantly, they didn't have any understanding of how that
sinner and that holy and righteous God can be reconciled back together. That's the issue. You tell a
man, a woman, a sinner that, you've told them the gospel.
How Christ came in the world to save sinners. By dying in
their room instead, by substitution. My, my, they had no understanding
of how the sinner becomes righteous, how God could be both just and
justify the ungodly. They had no understanding as
to why they would say no to God. What did God find when He looked
down to find if there were any that sought after Him? He didn't
find the one that was seeking after Him. Not a one. Verse three, every one of them
has gone back. All have left God and their sin
is the reason. They all departed God. Every
one of them apostatized and went away. None of them sought God.
And here we have the exposing of man's will. I don't know how
a man can read these verses and believe that he has a free will. I can sum up man's will with
two words. Man won't. Two words. No God. No God. No God. God, I'm not
doing it, not believing it. My wife, they're all together
become filthy. They didn't become filthy after
they were born. They were not born good and became
bad. They became filthy after Adam
sinned and they were born filthy. Filthy when they were born. And
again, we're told that there's none that doeth good. No, not
one. Men and women have made God what they've imagined Him
to be. We've talked about that so many times. That's so true.
God said, you thought, you imagined. That's when we get in trouble.
When we think and imagine that we know God apart from His divine
revelation in this book. God doesn't think like us. We
don't understand the character of God. He doesn't think like
us. He's altogether other than what
we are. We've all gone back and this
is such evil because men by nature find God repulsive. He should
be the one that finds us repulsive. And he does. But men find God
repulsive. Men think God's unfair. Who are we to set a judgment
of God? God doesn't think like us. Oh
my, a man told me one time that my God was his devil. He thought
God was too loving and too good to send people to hell. Folks
argued that God wouldn't do that. Most people believe one of four
things about human nature. Evolution, mankind is evolving,
In other words, they believe mankind's getting better. We
didn't get it right this time, but we're evolving. We're getting
better all the time. The second is they believe that
everyone's born mutual. There's no difference in any
of us, that we ourselves make the difference. Between us and
the other one is what we make it. Mankind needs educating.
Mankind needs grooving. A successful man is a self-made
man. In other words, mankind makes
themselves to differ. Or thirdly, they believe that
man is fallen and sinful, but that man is not depraved. In other words, man's basically
good and he can be trained to make themselves to differ. Why,
just with a little teaching and a little sprucing up The right
upbringing, teaching, grooming, educating men and women to make
a difference in their personal lives and make themselves worthy
to be saved. You can't do it. God requires
perfection. You can't provide the perfection.
And then lastly, there's the scriptural view. Mankind is dead
in sin. Mankind's evil, corrupt, filthy. Mankind can do nothing to save
themselves. They can't, no ability. They
will not, no willingness. Does that describe you personally?
That's how God describes all of us, and that's why this is
so important. If you don't see yourself as
God does, then you haven't yet seen the Lord. Because anyone
who has seen the Lord sees themselves that way. Only when God is as
He is, will make us see ourselves as we really are. Only when we
see Him as He is, will we see ourselves as we are. A rich young ruler, he addressed
the Lord as good master. And the Lord told that young
man, he said, there's nothing good with God. That young man didn't come because
knew or believed that Jesus Christ was God. He just knew, he thought
it was all about being good. He said, good master, what good
thing must I do to be saved? You're good, I'm good, we're
all good. So I just want to make sure I'm doing the right good
thing. So what good thing must I do to be saved? And the Lord
said, why callst thou me good? There's none good begot. He immediately
shows us the difference between what God calls good and what
man calls good. What God calls good is perfect,
holy, righteous. What we call good is just a little
better than I am, and I'm a mess. It's all relative. Sin's what
we are. We sin because we're sinners.
We do what comes 100% natural to us. We sin. There's no excuse. Our sin is unexcusable. It's
against God and Him only. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. Aren't you glad? Yes, sir. These sinners were
condemned already. They were born condemned. Why? Because they did not believe
in and on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4. Have the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? who eat up my people as they
eat bread. They've not called upon the Lord."
That's a good question. Do workers of iniquity have knowledge
of God? No. They drink iniquity like
water on a hot day. Cold water on a hot day. They
hate you because they hated the Lord. They don't have any knowledge
of God. They don't understand God's being. No understanding of the nature
of sin. No understanding of how holy God deals with sin. No understanding
of being accountable to God. And they'll eat you alive if
God allows them. He told Peter, Satan has desired
to sift you as wheat. And I prayed, I prayed that your
faith fail you not. He's going to sift you. But you're
going to continue to believe. My Lord, help us intervene. In the times of Christ, God's
people were just ate up and devoured. They were reproached and persecuted. They did injury to them. They
put them to death. They devoured their substance. Just like the Pharisees, it was
said that they devoured widowed houses. You know what that means?
They just moved in, sold them, and stuck the money in their
pockets and ate off the fat of someone else. Just as natural
as men eat bread. They don't call upon the name
of the Lord to thank Him. They don't call upon the name
of the Lord to praise Him for what He's provided. They feel
entitled to all that they have. I mean, after all, we deserved
it. Verse 5, they were they in great fear where no fear was.
They didn't know God. Listen, you can't and you won't
fear a God that you don't know. They knew nothing of His holiness.
They knew nothing of His judgment against sin. They didn't know
anything of His justice. And it's the same today. No fear
of God before their eyes. People don't know who God is.
He loves everybody. He wants the best for everybody.
Everything's alright. God got a good thing going. Don't know God. Don't know anything
of His holiness, His righteousness, His justice, His wrath. He's angry with the wicked every
day. Not God! No God! You're not angry with
the wicked every day. I remind you again in this book,
especially the Old Testament, it speaks and points sinners
to the only substitute, the only sacrifice for sin, the Lord Jesus
Christ. In every type, in every picture,
in every shadow, in every sacrifice, point to Christ, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And God made Jesus, this same
Jesus who you took with your wicked hands and crucified and
slain, He's made Him The only means of saving His elect sheep
and bringing them into the fold. None of them shall perish, they
shall all come to repentance. There's no possibility for failure
when God the Son is your substitute and your sacrifice. And all the
Old Testament scriptures pointed to Him. Thou shalt call His name
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. And it
says, for God scattered the bones of him that encampeth against
thee. That's talking about Christ. Thou, Christ, has put them to
shame. We didn't put anybody to shame.
It was Christ that put them to shame. Because God hath despised
them. That's pretty simple and direct
language from God to those who say, well, God loves everybody.
Jesus loves everybody. It says right there, because
God hath despised them. God has scattered the bones of
those who hate Christ. Jesus Christ is being the sinner's
only acceptance with God. There's no coming to Him any
other way, but by Him. The bones are the strength of
the body, showing that none of us, by nature, in our strongest
and most fit state, we can all be easily destroyed and scattered
by the Lord Omnipotent. A man's in very good health for
his age. exercises, he does all that he
can, and boom, he starts forgetting things and all of a sudden finds
out that he has a brain tumor, a cancer, that it's inoperable. See what I'm saying? God is in control of this. He
can send a little germ and kill us all if he so desired. And He hates all workers of iniquity. And He's holy and we're sinners
and He has a right to despise us. And our only hope is that
He'd have mercy on us and be gracious to us. Because anything apart from divine
justice is God's sovereign mercy and grace to us. And then verse
6, Oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion,
When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice,
and Israel shall be glad. Now I wonder, well no I don't,
I know which captivity David's talking about. He wrote this
psalm some two or three hundred years before Israel went into
Babylonian captivity. So this is talking about a different
captivity. This is talking about the captivity
of sin. You see, in Romans 7, verse 14, Paul said, for we know
that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin. Now, if you're sold under sin,
you're in bondage to sin. It's your master. It's your master,
and you're its servant. And Paul didn't say here, I used
to be carnal. Paul was a slave to sin, just
like you and I are. He didn't know that he was carnal
and sold under sin until the Lord saved him and gave him life. And you can't reveal or teach
dead men and women anything, not until you give them life.
They have to be made alive. And this is the language and
the speech of a saved man and woman in sin. This is speaking
of the captivity of the law of sin. The captivity of sin within
my members. And Paul said, I know that in
me, that is in my flesh, is no good thing. In Christ, we're
saved from the power of sin. And one day very soon, we're
going to be saved from the presence of sin. Because this corrupt
is going to put on incorruptible, and this mortal is going to put
on immortality, and we're going to see Christ as He is, and we're
going to be just like Him. You know, I wonder if you had
a terminal disease and there was only one doctor in all the
world that could cure you, wouldn't you make it your purpose in life
to find favor with that great physician? Or would you do all
you could to offend him? Do all you could to alienate
him, make him to where he wouldn't want to help you? No, you'd do
everything you could to find grace and favor that he would
help you. You wouldn't doubt his ability. You wouldn't say
in front of him, like, well, I hear you're a good doctor,
but I kind of doubt it. And you wouldn't ignore his word.
If he told you to prepare for surgery or to take a particular
medicine or prescription, you would do it. You'd closely follow
his direction. You wouldn't criticize his intention
to what's best for you. You wouldn't say, well, I know
you're a doctor and everything, and you took an oath, but I don't
really feel like you care or you're out to help me. And I
have felt that way a time or two at a doctor. But the attitude
of a safe center is there's only one that can help you. He's the
great physician. You don't have anybody else to
go to. And yes, we love Him because He first loved us, but that's
not the amazing thing. The amazing thing is not that
God and Christ loved us first. The amazing thing is that He
loved us, period. It's amazing that He loved me
at all. There's nobody more surprised about my wife loving me than
me. She lives with me. And God delivers us from our
captivity and we shall be glad. We're glad right now. I'm glad
right now. Aren't you? Aren't you glad the
Lord saved you? You ought to be glad. Can you imagine how happy, how
glad you're going to be when you actually see with perfect
sight your heavenly freedom and your glorious Savior? You're going to be without sin
when you see Christ as He is. You're going to be just like
Him and you're going to see that. By my union with Him, I'm just
like Him. I see that. No sin clouding my vision. Every
son and daughter of Jacob is going to rejoice. All the people
of Israel, true Israel, are going to be glad. God's done for us
what we couldn't do for ourselves. We ought to be glad.