Psalm 14. The title of the message is a psalm
on total depravity. When I was looking at this psalm,
and I have looked at it in the past, and it really just hit
me how this psalm teaches us the doctrine of total Depravity. Total corruption. That's what
depravity is, is total corruption. That describes the human race. The Bible is the only book ever
written that's honest with us. It is completely honest with
us. Now, in reading this, I also
realized It says here, to the chief musician, Esamah David,
but it is our greater David who is telling us what human nature
is. This is our Lord describing to
us, through David, He's speaking under the Spirit of Christ, and
He's describing to us, us. You know, He talks about the
fool, And now, the fool's not just the one that lives across
the street. Because he goes on down to say that the Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men. That's all of us. And he tells us what he saw.
And he tells us in Genesis 6, I believe it is what he saw.
Nothing but corruption. That's all God sees when he looks
upon this earth. Now in this short psalm, We have
the essence of the doctrine of total depravity. None that doeth good know not
one. There's none that doeth good
know not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. None. How many billion people you reckon
have lived upon this earth? Out of Adam's race, Not one good
one. Not one. If we didn't have the
Bible, we wouldn't believe that, would we? If we didn't have the
Word of God, we wouldn't know that. We would think we're pretty
good people. God has given us His Word and
He's taught us by His Spirit. This is who we are by nature.
Now, He gives a description of those who are totally depraved.
The fool has said in his heart, no God, no God. Depravity begins in the heart. The fool takes counsel in his
heart, and this is what he comes up with, no God. The fool looks
at creation, he looks at the universe, and this is what he
comes up with, no God. Could there be a greater fool
than that to look at all of this and say, no God? The Hebrew word for fool in this
psalm is Nabal. Do you know who Nabal was in
the scripture over in 1 Samuel 25-25? Remember when David sent
to get some food for his army and Nabal refused? And then David
was going to come and kill him and then Nabal's wife prevented
him? Well, in this psalm, the word
fool stands for Nabal, that man. What a foolish man. It implies
this, an aggressive perversity is what it implies and it was
seen in Nabal in his conduct toward David. How foolish was
he? David was coming with an army
to kill him. And this man had plenty to help feed the army
and he turned down the king. He turned him down. The fool and his thoughts are
that there is no God or no God for me. No God. He wishes there were no God,
that's for sure. He wishes there were no God to
answer to. He thinks that would make life
easier. How foolish it is to say no God. Where's your neck breath coming
from? Where's your food coming from? How's the sun going to
come up tomorrow? God. That's our God. Whatever God says, the fool says
no to, especially in salvation. When we preach salvation is all
of grace, the fool says no. It's not all of grace. We've
got to do something. We preach that salvation is all
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fool says no. It's me and
Christ. Christ did His part, now we've
got to do our part. That's a fool speaking. Anything that has God as God,
the fool says no to. Whatever gives God all the glory,
the fool says no to. When the gospel is preached,
the fool says no. Here's the fool's nature. They
are corrupt. And that means depraved. And
especially morally depraved is what it also means. Especially
morally depraved. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good. You reckon God ought to know
if any man does good? You reckon He would recognize
it? He says there's none. That doeth good, not among the
sons of Adam. Everything about the fool is
corrupt. He has no good thoughts, therefore
he can have no good works. There's nothing that comes from
a fool that can be good. Salt water can't come from a
clean fountain, and a clean fountain does not send forth salt water.
They don't mix. And a fool and good works don't
mix. They just don't mix. How can a person who denies God
do anything good? The Scripture says concerning
the believer that he has wrought all our works in us. That's why
we have good works. Because the Lord has worked them
in us. There's none that doeth good.
They are incapable of doing good. You have to be good to do good.
You know that. You have to be good in order
to do good. And there's none, the Scripture
says, that doeth good. And here's God's testimony of
the human race. The Lord looked down from heaven.
That's His throne. He's talking about looking down
from His throne. God observing man from His throne. God looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God, that had enough understanding
to seek after God, to want to know God, to worship God. If there were a good person on
this earth, God would have seen him. It is written in John 4.23,
listen, But the hour cometh, and now is. when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship Him." Look in Psalm 33. Man does not go unnoticed. It
doesn't matter whether he believes, he doesn't go unnoticed. Psalm
33.14. Look at verse 13, "...the Lord
looketh from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the
place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the
earth." Listen, at the same time, at the same time, I can see you,
gathered in this room right now. God can see everyone on this
earth right now. Everyone is before Him. Everyone. The thief is breaking into the
house. God sees him. God sees him. He thinks he does
his work in the dark and nobody sees him. God sees him. God knows
exactly who he is and where he is. Man may not look upon God in
heaven, but God looks down on man on earth. God sees all man's
ways that they are evil. This is God's testimony of the
human race. I'm not going to take the testimony
of lost men concerning the human race that all people are basically
good and they do some wrong, they do some evil. No, it's the
other way around. Basically evil. Evil. If God Almighty did not
constrain the human race, we could not live on this earth.
His elect, His elect could not live on this earth if God Almighty
did not constrain the human race. When Adam fell, the result was
total ruin, spiritual death. And this is the way every one
of us come into this world, spiritually dead. And mine, it is at enmity
with God. And we, by nature, are incapable
of knowing God. Have you ever realized that? I know you have, if you believe
the gospel, you've realized this. You and I are incapable of knowing
God by nature. We ask God to reveal Himself
to us. I do it often in prayer, Lord,
make Yourself known to me. Scripture says over in Job, who
by searching can find out God? If He doesn't reveal Himself,
you and I will never know Him. We will never search after Him,
in fact. We won't even look for Him. It says in 1 Corinthians 2.14,
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. And here's why. For they are foolishness unto
him. The very wisdom of God in Christ is absolute foolishness,
nonsense, to the natural man. That's what it calls it here
in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man. He receives not the things of
the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned." Nicodemus proved
that, didn't he, when the Lord spoke to him about the new birth?
What did he say? How can a man be born when he's
old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb? You're
a teacher in Israel and you don't know these things? You read the
Word of God every day and you teach people? You're supposed
to teach people about God, about salvation, and you don't know
these things? No, I tell you why. Because a
natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, neither
can he know them. It's a mystery to them. It's
a mystery. The natural man has no appetite
for the things of God. I find this out as I get older
in Christ, grow older in Christ, and I observe the human race. It just amazes me that man is
interested in knowing everything under the sun, but they don't
know God who made it. And they have no interest in
knowing God who made it. You don't find science trying to
figure out who God is. They're just trying to figure
out, how's that tree growing? You know, what makes this, what
makes that tick? God. God Almighty. That's who. The natural man has no appetite
for the things of God. He has no appetite for the knowledge
of God. He loves darkness rather than light. He thinks he's intelligent. He
really believes he's intelligent. He's a fool. He's a fool. He doesn't realize how much he
does not know. The natural man just knows about
like a grain of sand on the beach. That's about his knowledge of
things. It really is. The mystery that's in creation,
the mystery that makes everything work in harmony, that makes such
variety work in such harmony, It's just amazing. The natural man is motivated
by wrong principles. Scripture says he drinks iniquity
like water. That's what he wants, and his
motivation has nothing to do with God. It has nothing to do
with God's glory. It has nothing to do with the
salvation of his soul. It has to do with Himself. Himself. There are none that understand
who God is. All they got to do is seek Him.
Seek Me with all your heart and you'll what? God promises, you
seek Me with all your heart and you will find Me. I promise you
that you'll find Me. If you want to know the truth,
seek it. You know, I was thinking today,
this morning, about 4.30 in the morning, I was thinking that
that scripture says that I was hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and history revealed them to babes. Well, he's hid
these things, but he's hid these things in Christ. If you look
in the right place, you'll find it. You'll find it if you look
in the right place. We used to play, when I was growing
up, we used to play hide and seek. You didn't find the person
until you looked in the right place where the person was hiding.
God has hid these things in Christ. Look to Christ and you'll find
these things. Christ is the wisdom of God.
Everything I need to know of God, of salvation, of eternity,
I know them in Christ. And no other way. No other way. They don't understand who God
is. They don't understand that God is holy. that God is just. They don't understand that God
is love. They don't understand what love is. They don't understand
it. They don't understand what mercy is. They do not understand who Jesus
Christ really is. And they don't understand who
they really are. The heart is deceitful, Jeremiah
said, above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Who
can search the depth of depravity of the human heart? Only God. Only God. They are all, he says
in verse 3, they are all gone aside. They are all together
become filthy, stinking. That's what God thinks of the
human race, stinking. It smells. He said in one place,
you are a smoke in my nose. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one." Paul quotes this in Romans chapter 3. The result
of God searching the earth is this, they are all gone aside. They've left the way. Or as the word really means,
they have all grown sour. You ever drink sour milk? Ooh, I did one time. I got it
out of the refrigerator. Ooh. Yeah. That's the human race. They've
grown sour, stinky, stagnant. The human race is stagnant. It's
stinking. One of the meanings is that it's
stinking like a dead carcass. Another one is, it's stinking,
it has such a stench about it. That's the human race. Listen,
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's you and that's me. I mean, the very fact that we
have to put cologne on all the time ought to tell us something.
The very fact that we have to bathe like we do to keep from
smelling up the place. Why do you think we smell like
the God? Stinking, he says. All have left the way, all have
gone their own way. That's what it says in Isaiah
53, we've all gone our own way. The motto of the human race is,
I will create my own destiny. Not realizing, here's the fool,
not realizing he's already under condemnation, just waiting on
execution day. They are all together become
filthy. All men and women, left to themselves,
will just putrefy. They will just putrefy. I thought
of Lazarus, who laid in the grave, and the Lord came, and he was
going to raise him from the dead, and his sister said, Lord, he's
been in there for four days, and he stinketh by now. That's
us. That's us. Over in Genesis it says, "...God
looked down from heaven, and all flesh had corrupted itself."
All flesh is depraved, and it hasn't changed. It has not changed. And here's the verdict from heaven,
"...there's none that doeth good, no, not one." Whatever we see that may appear
good in man is still no good. It's still no good. The motive
is wrong. You see, we have a very low standard
of good. God's standard is perfection. It may have some benefits, but
there's no spiritual good in any man's works because it's
done for self and has nothing to do with God. Nothing. Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Are they all stupid? Are all
the workers of iniquity that stupid, that ignorant? Are they
all ignorant of God? Are they? Have they not learned
anything? Isn't it amazing that you go
to school for 12 years, then you come out, and if you go to
college, then you come out, and you still don't know God? In
fact, it's the reverse. You get further away. Listen,
the more worldly wise a man gets, unless God has mercy on him,
unless God does a work of grace in him, the more wise he gets
in the things of the world, the further away from God he gets.
He drifts further and further away from God. Have they not learned anything?
Can they not look at creation and see that God is? Day unto day utter speech, night
unto night showeth knowledge. That knowledge is that God is.
He says their speech has gone throughout all the world. Everybody,
everyone who lives on this earth looks at the same sun every day. There's only one. Well, that's
a message in itself, isn't it? There's many stars. There's many
children. God has many children, but there's
only one Son that lightens all those stars. Those stars wouldn't
have any light at all if the sun went out. And you and I, the Scripture
says, are the light of the world, and that's because of the Son
of God who shines through us. He does. He shines through His
children like the sun shines on the stars. You put that sun
out and there's no light. The Lord Jesus Christ, apart
from Him, we'd all be darkness. But they can't see that. They
can't see that. Here I am standing here telling
you who the sun is, who the light of the world is. Well, when the
scientist talks about the light of the world, they're talking
about that sun goes across the sky, or the earth turning around. When you and I talk about the
sun, we talk about the Creator. We talk about the Son of God.
We talk about the one who is light. He doesn't just give light,
who is light. Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Are they that willfully blind?
Yes. Because creation screams every
day, God is. God is. There is enough light. Now listen. There is enough light
in creation to cause any man or woman to seek after the Creator. Who made this? Who made this
tree? I know that didn't just happen.
Who made this? There's enough light in creation
to cause us to seek after the Creator. And we won't do it. Won't do
it. Not unless God first gives us
life and light will we ever seek after our Creator, our Savior,
our Redeemer, our God. They're willfully blind, they
don't know. Here's another thing I thought
about today. They don't know why we die. Have you ever really
stopped and just look at a man or a woman with the intelligence
that God has given us, the abilities that we have been given, reasoning
skills, the emotions we have? That didn't come from a monkey.
That didn't come from no monkey. That came from God. That came from God. And yet we
have to die. We have to die. You know, the scripture says
it's better to go to the house of mourning than the house of
mirth, because the living will lay it to heart. That doesn't
mean everyone's there that walks in is alive. Of course, you know,
everybody there except the guy in the casket is alive. He's
talking about the living as those who's been made alive in Christ.
They lay this to heart. It's a sobering situation for
them. That person has met God. I think of that every time I
hear somebody dying, I'm thinking, they know who God is now. They met God. And yet they don't
lay it to heart, they go into the funeral, and they weep and
they cry, and some of them just laugh and talk, and whatever
it is, make a reunion out of it, and it's over. Not considering
that God just took that person out, and you're next. Well, that Mr. So-and-so died of cancer. No,
he died of sin. That's what he died of. Cancer is just a part of it caused
by sin. He died because of sin. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, judgment. And do they not know that God
will bring them into judgment? You know, most people, when they
get older, they think they've straightened up and they've gotten
better. No, they haven't. Their hormones just died. Really. If you could inject them with
their hormones again, you'd be surprised what they've become
again. The body's just dying. We're not getting better, we're
just dying. Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread? Are they seriously
that ignorant? Yes. Yes. They enjoy persecuting God's
people like they enjoy having a good meal and thinking nothing
of it. They enjoy persecuting God's
people. Do they not think that God will
defend them? They would defend their own children.
Even the ones that don't believe God would defend their own. They
think He won't defend His. They have no regret for their
conduct towards God's people. They eat them like bread. That
shows what they think of God. No fear of God before their eyes. And they call not upon the Lord.
They never seek Him and call upon Him for mercy. They have
no desire to know the Lord. Now, brethren, how blessed are
you that call upon the name of the Lord? Because there was a
time we didn't. There was a time we didn't. They have no desire to know the
Lord. They never inquire of Him. To never call on God is unthinkable. I tell you this, with that kind
of ingratitude, they ought to go to hell. I understand more
now than ever why God sends men and women to hell. The ingratitude,
the hatred that they have toward God. God who sends them rain
and sunshine, the hatred they have toward God. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated, but listen now, Esau hated God too. Don't forget that. He hated God with a passion.
He sold his birthright. He said, what good is this doing
to me? I don't need it. But, listen here, they say, there's
no God, no God for me, they say no to everything that has to
do with God, they want nothing to do with the truth. Now, they
believe the God of their imagination, the one they whipped up. But
the one that is, the God that is, they say, no, no, no, no,
that's not God, that's not God. But in verse 5 it says, there
were they in great fear. They feared a fear, it says.
They feared a fear they didn't understand. Spurgeon had this
on it, "...a panicked terror seized them. They feared a fear. As the Hebrew puts it, an undefinable,
horrible, mysterious dread crept over them. The most hardened
of men have their periods when conscience casts them into a
cold sweat of alarm, and they don't know why." They have a fear they can't explain. They absolutely have a fear of
what they call the unknown. They have a fear of dying. I
can't remember the atheist's name that I was reading about
today, but he was afraid of the dark. He didn't want the lights
turned off. What are you afraid of? If there's no God, what are you
afraid of? Their conscience. They're conscious. They may intellectually deny
God, but their conscience is screaming at them, God is. Because
the law of God is written on every heart. The law of God is
written there. And the conscience says, God
is. Even though intellectually they're
trying to say, no, he isn't. And they have fears, they're
afraid of their shadow. You and I have peace. You and
I know who's running all of this. You and I know that all things
are working together for our good. You and I know that absolutely
everything is under control. They don't know that because
they don't believe God. And because of that, they have unfounded
fears that they can't explain. Their conscience cries out against
them, God said, Adam, where are you?
He says, I'm hiding. Why are you hiding for, Adam? Because I heard your voice and
I was afraid. And we said, who told you you were naked? Did
you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? I tell you
who told you I was naked, my conscience. My conscience told
me that I did what I was not supposed to do. I disobeyed God. And he says here, for God is in the generation of the righteous. God's with you. God's with you. If God be for us, who can be
against us? We need to live with that. That's
one of those scriptures you need to digest. Digest it. Chew it. Eat it. Swallow it. Digest it. If God
be for us, who can be against us? God is with the generation
of the righteous. God is with them. He is their
righteousness. Therefore, they need not fear.
They need not fear. But you fools, you fools, you
fools, in verse 6, you have shamed the counsel of the poor because
the Lord is his refuge. Because he's made God his refuge,
you've made fun of him. You have ridiculed the poor in
spirit because he believes that God is, and you're calling him
a fool. You make fun of him. I had a
man years ago, and I was talking to him about the gospel, talking
to him about salvation, and he started making fun of me. Oh,
I got saved. He started making fun of that
word saved, you know, like I was weird. No, he said, yeah, he said, you
have shamed, that is, you've made fun of, you've ridiculed
the counsel of the poor. The poor man, the poor in spirit,
he believes there's none good, no, not one. He believes that.
And you say, you fool, I know some good people. He believes that salvation is
truly of the Lord. And they ridicule him for that.
He flees to God for refuge. God is my refuge. Have you ever
seen Him? He believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and he trusts
Him with everything. Have you ever seen Him? No, I've
seen him in his word, by faith. And because you have shamed him,
God's going to, in time, deal with him. In his time, in his
time. And here's where the psalmist,
he cries out, Oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion.
That's exactly what's doing right now through the preaching of
the gospel. Salvation is coming out of Zion, out of the church.
Oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion when the
Lord brings back the captivity of His people. Captivity is used
here in a general sense, speaking of any time God's children are
oppressed or bound by trouble, God will deliver them. God will deliver them. And when
He does, when the Lord delivers His people out of trouble, this
dawned on me when I was reading this before coming down here,
"...Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." Jacob,
that's an individual. He changed his name to Israel,
but now, Jacob, every individual child of God shall rejoice in
the Lord. And Israel, the church of God, the whole church of God. shall rejoice in the Lord together,
and they'll be glad. You'll be glad when, you might
not be feeling too glad right now, but when this is over, or
when your life is over on this earth, you'll be glad and they
will be sad. What's going on here is David
and the Lord, the greater David, is telling us here to anticipate
the full deliverance of God's people in the future when the
Lord comes back to gather all His children to Himself and take
them home. Jacob shall rejoice and Israel
be glad. If all things are working together
for our good, then we need to rejoice now in whatever it is. Now. That's not easy to do. That
takes grace. It takes the work of God. But we are to rejoice the scriptures
and rejoice in the Lord. And it says always. That means
at any given time, in any given situation, rejoicing in the Lord,
because the end result is already done. It's already set. Your deliverance has already
been accomplished. You just got to go through it.
You just got to go through it. You know, when the children of
Israel went through the Red Sea, did God know what He was going
to do? Did He know that He was going
to make it or not? They didn't know that. They had to trust
Him. But all that was already determined of God. He knew that it was going to
go through on dry land. He told Moses, you're going to go through on
dry land. You're all right. You're all right. Since I moved to the South here,
I've heard this term, I don't know how many times, it's all
good. That's all good. I've heard Tommy and Rebecca
the most say that. It's all good. It's all good. It is. It's all good. It really is. All right.