Psalm 14. It says in Psalm 14,
there's six, seven verses. It says, the fool has said in
his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone
aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they
eat bread, and call not upon the Lord? There were they in
great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous.
You have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is
his refuge. 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,
this psalm is recognizable because it's quoted in the New Testament.
And I want to turn to Romans chapter three and read that with
you, where it's quoted by the apostle Paul. And I hope you're
familiar enough with the Book of Romans that you recognize
the pattern of the revelation given by the Holy Spirit through
the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans. And let me just address
that as we enter into these words. The first part of Romans is intended
to convince us that we are sinners. Not only are we guilty before
God, but we're absolutely without any strength to take away our
sin or to do what is right in God's eyes. We're unable to do
those things. And this is true of every man.
And so the argument begins in Romans chapter 1 verse 18 that
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and all unrighteousness of men. And he says there that men naturally
hold the truth in unrighteousness. We suppress it. We know God has
shown us it's innate knowledge He's given to us and we don't
want it. We don't like to retain God in
our knowledge and so God has turned over the world to its
own corrupt lusts. And that's led to all kinds of
evil. And then in Romans chapter two,
God addresses the religious, the Jews, and he shows that they
are no better than those who have no law, that they themselves,
by what they do, show that they're hypocrites. They have the law,
they don't practice it. They use it to judge those who
are just like themselves, and they prove themselves more guilty
than the Gentiles. So that in Romans chapter three
in verse nine, it picks it up here. The Apostle Paul says,
what then? Are we better than they? And
this is a very important question. It helps us understand why God
has written Psalm 14. We're going to get to that in
a minute. But I just want to read through this. He says, what
then? Are we, we Jews, or we Gentiles, better than they? And I think he's referring to,
in this case, when it says, we, he's talking about those who
are Gentiles and looking at the Jews because he had just condemned
the Jews. So he says, what then, are we
better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved both
Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. So that concluding
statement there shows us that the purpose of writing the first
two or two and a half chapters of Romans was to do just that,
to prove that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, and that's
what Psalm 14 does. Let's read where it quotes in
verse 10. It says, as it is written, this
is where it was written from in Psalm 14, There is none righteous,
no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. Now, here's the conclusion. We
know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. And then in verse 20, not
only verse 19 concludes that we are all guilty before God,
But he says in verse 20, therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. He proves that not only are we
guilty, but we're absolutely helpless to do one thing about
our condition. But notice the next words, but
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God by faith or which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all
and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And you
can read on the glorious news of the gospel. So look at the
pattern. God convinces us of sin. He has
proved in a way that is airtight that both Gentiles and Jews are
guilty before God, and that no one, not any man in history or
across the whole face of the earth, can be justified before
God by his own personal obedience. That's the message, that's the
context out of which the good news of the gospel comes. So
by looking at that first here, we understand the interpretation
of Psalm 14 has a main purpose. And what is that purpose? It's
to close our mouths. is to shut us up to try to keep
us from trying to justify ourselves or to claim that God should or
could accept us for what we do or for what we are. And this
is the hardest thing for us to understand. It's not natural
for us to to think of ourselves as having no value and no worth
or no approval before God by what we are or by what we do.
And Psalm 14, Psalm 53 and Romans and all of scripture really is
there to prove this. Now, this is often called the
doctrine of total depravity, and it is. It is a true doctrine.
We don't see the words total depravity in scripture, but we
see something much simpler. There's none righteous. There's
none good. None that seek God. None that
understand. And so we see this. So let me
ask this question now. Why does God condescend and take
time to reveal to us His view? which is the truth of things
about what we are and about our way and about us ourselves. Why? I think it's reasonable
to ask that question because obviously Psalm 14 is telling
us what we are from God's view, which is the right view. Why
indeed? Why does God do this? Doesn't that fact that God would
tell us what he sees, his view of things, doesn't that speak
volumes of his grace, that he would in fact tell us the truth
about the way things are with us and with him? Have you ever
been with somebody who, and I tend to do this, I tend not to bring
other people's problems to light. I just as well let it go. And maybe that's appropriate,
maybe it's not. But God doesn't do that. In His
mercy and grace, He tells us flat out what He thinks of us. And here it is. The fool has
said in his heart, there is no God, and so on. Here's the second
question, or the next statement here. We know that whatever God
says is the truth. Isn't that right? Whatever he
says is true and it is the truth. In Psalm 31.5, in prophecy, Jesus
prayed, Lord God of truth. In Psalm 119 and verse 89, he
says, forever, O Lord, thy word is established in heaven. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
established. So the Lord's word is true. In Psalm 119, verse
160, he says, thy word is true from the beginning, and every
one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. And of course,
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So whatever
God says, whatever God thinks, is the truth about the way things
are. And so, here he has told us the
truth. It is true, and it is the truth,
because God said it. God cannot lie. Remember Titus
1-2? God cannot lie. He's not a man
that he should lie. And Numbers 23-19, the prophet
Balaam said that. He was a wicked prophet. But
anyway, that's what is true about God. He cannot lie. He always
tells the truth. He tells us it is true after
he has already conducted a complete and thorough search. Notice he
says here in verse 2, Psalm 14 verse 2, the Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. So God has conducted the
search. I want to ask this question next.
Is such knowledge that God has given us here, His perspective
on things, does He tell us this only to condemn us, only to find
us guilty, and then leave us helpless and hopeless in our
lost and ruined and corrupt and self-deceived condition? as God
opposing wickedness? Did he just tell us this in order
to point out the obvious, which should be obvious to us, but
we've deceived ourselves to say that it can't be true. That certainly
would be appropriate, wouldn't you think, for God to do what
we deserve? We would deserve to be exposed
as false and hypocritical and full of pride and lust and every
other sin. We certainly deserve that. But
does God only give men what their sins deserve? Think about what
God's word has told us throughout the word of God. Does God only
give men what their sins deserve? Isn't it true that in scripture,
God has said he's not only gracious, but merciful? Merciful. And in fact, in Psalm 33, 18
and 19, it says that his mercy is, his sovereign mercy is his
glory. So God's mercy is, it's the revelation
of his character that shows his glory. And we understand from
the gospel that God's mercy, the revelation of that, has to
be his glory, because God has to be consistent in his character. None of his attributes are compromised
one for the other, so mercy and justice have to meet together
in God, and righteousness and peace have to kiss each other.
And how is that possible? Well, that's the glory of God
revealed. In Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 28, Proverbs 20,
28, it says this, mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne
is upholden by mercy. Now that's something we find
most welcoming, don't we? Most endearing to find out that
God is not only a God of justice, a God of wrath, but He's also
a God of mercy, and His throne is not only established in justice,
justice and truth are the habitation of His throne, Psalm 89, 14,
but also here in Proverbs 20, 28, His mercy, God's mercy upholds
His throne. So does God tell us how bad we
are in our heart and in our mind and then leave us wallowing in
our own filth and bondage to sin until the day of judgment?
Is that his way? No. He's a God of mercy and grace. And so the fact that God is even
saying these things to us in Psalm 14 and throughout his word
is that it understand that by the light of the gospel, this
is a revelation of God's condescending mercy, that he would first tell
us the truth about ourselves and then tell us the truth about
Himself and about His Son, His mercy and His grace. So these are the questions that
come to our mind. Is not His purpose gracious in
this psalm? Surely He is gracious in Himself.
We wouldn't even know mercy or grace, would we, unless God Himself
first was merciful and gracious? We're made in the image of God,
and we wouldn't know mercy unless He made Himself gracious. known
as a God of grace and mercy. Psalm 130 and verse 7 says this,
let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy
and with him is plenteous redemption. Now there's the revelation of
how God can be merciful and yet deal with sinners in a way of
mercy. How can he do that? Because there is plenteous redemption
with the Lord, and we know that redemption is in the blood of
his Son. And then again in 2 Samuel 24
verse 14, David said this when he was faced with those three
choices of suffering pestilence, or at the hand of the Lord, or
at the hand of his enemies or being chased by his enemies,
he said, David said this, let us fall now into the hand of
the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into
the hand of man. And the implication is because
man is not merciful. So when we read these things,
they're condemning in the sense that God's telling us the truth,
but look beyond that revelation of what we are to what God is
in his mercy and grace for the salvation that we need, the salvation
we must have, which only he can do. So here we see in the psalm
that the Lord first convinces us of our sin And then he convinces
us of what? His righteousness. His righteousness. Isn't that the flow of Romans?
First I'm going, the Lord is convincing us that we are sinners
and then he convinces us of his righteousness. And that is such
a startling thing. In the absolute darkness and
void, just like in creation, in the darkness and void and
the emptiness of all of that initial creation, what does God
say? into that darkness of what we
are breaks in his righteousness. And what does Romans chapter
3 say the righteousness of God is? Well, what is the righteousness
of God anyway? Wouldn't the righteousness of
God be God's character revealed in his works? It would. A child is known by his doing.
How would we know God is righteous? But by what he does. And so Romans
3 and verse 22 goes on to say, but now the righteousness of
God, without the laws manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, again, what God does
out of his character, that righteousness is manifested by the faith of
Jesus Christ. The faith of Jesus Christ has
made known God's own righteousness. And how did Jesus Christ do that?
by what he did. His faith led him to put all
of his confidence and trust in God's Word, Scripture, and he
depended upon his God, and by the Spirit of God, he lived a
life of pure faith, perfect faith. And in that, He worked in the
work of faith and the love that springs out of that to His God
and Father. It was in His heart to do that.
And that made known, what? The righteousness of God, because
He fulfilled the law and went beyond that to the salvation
of His people. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
And He completed that work in His own death on the cross. So
now, when we're looking at Psalm 14, drag the New Testament into
it. Bring the revelation of God from
Romans into it so that you can see that God is convincing us
first of our sin in order that He might set up and make known
the display of His righteousness, which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ in His obedience unto death, even the death of the
cross. And we can talk along about that, but I want to get
through the psalm here. So here we see the purpose of the psalm.
What is it? To convince us of sin, to convince us of God's
righteousness, but he speaks here not only of our great sin
in this way, but it shows us what we are in a way that is,
it leaves our mouth stopped. We can't defend ourselves. We
have to agree that this is the way God sees things, so this
is the way things are. And we should accept the assessment
that God has made of us, and own it, and own it, and come
to the light. Not like Adam who hid, but come
to the light, because since God has made this known, it gives
us hope that he will also make known the remedy for the the poison bite that we have
that's without remedy. Remember the children of Israel
bitten by the serpents in the wilderness? God told Moses, lift
the serpent up on the pole. That was Christ and him crucified.
And so in the revelation of our sin comes the revelation of God's
righteousness in the death, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So he shows us these things in order to drive us how? Well,
how does this make us feel? Well, it makes us feel completely
shameful and filthy and guilty and wondering if there's hope
and weak and impotent because we can't do anything, we can
become utterly dependent. And so God's revelation of our
sin does what? It makes us know our need. it
makes us know we're utterly dependent upon Him to do something for
us. In fact, that something He does
for us is what He did in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the revelation
of what we are is made to set up the revelation of God in the
light of Jesus Christ, the face of Jesus Christ in the gospel.
That's when the light shines into the darkness, and that's
when the good news becomes good news to us. Take a look at this
verse in Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52, the very last part
of that chapter. I want to read this to you because
I thought about this a few weeks ago and it stuck with me. The
Lord says in verse 13 of Isaiah 52, Behold, my servant shall
deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. That servant, of course, is the
Lord Jesus Christ, who for his obedience by the faith that he
had in his God, the trust he had even under judgment, he did
no sin. When he was reviled, he did not
revile again. He took it all as from the Lord,
according to his will, to fulfill that will. He was a servant,
but he was exalted and extolled and made very high because he
did that. Because of his obedience unto death, Philippians 2 and
verse 6-8, he was given a name which is above every name. In
verse 14 he says, as many as were astonished at thee, his
visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more than
the sons of men. This is the way he served. This
is what he did. This is why he was exalted and
extolled and made very high. Look at verse 15. Something happens. What God did in His Son is made
known, and it has an effect. Look at it, verse 15. So shall
He, Christ, sprinkle many nations. And notice the reaction. The
kings shall shut their mouths at Him, for that which had not
been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard
shall they consider." Now, and then Isaiah 53 is the next chapter,
which you know, you're very familiar with that. What is God saying
here? That when the gospel comes to us in the light of what we
are, and how God established, or set forth His righteousness
as our justifying righteousness before Him, it absolutely, to
us, it's a complete surprise. But it's a surprise that's most
welcome, so that we're not only surprised by it, but we embrace
it with gladness of heart. And so that's what Psalm 14 does.
Shows us our need, shows us God's righteousness, which is the Lord
Jesus Christ, what he did, and it shows us that in that righteousness,
he also judged our enemies. And the Psalms that preceded
this were all about our enemies, weren't they? God judging our
enemies. And so you see this in the New
Testament. The pattern is set out here, but it is made clear
in the New Testament. I'll just read this to you in
John chapter 16, the Gospel of John chapter 16. It says, Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, Jesus said to his disciples, it is expedient
for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. But if I depart, I will send
him to you. And when he has come, notice,
he will reprove or convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment, of sin, because they believe not on me. And we're
going to see that in the next verse in Psalm 14. Of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more. The work
is done. God's righteousness has been made known. Christ has
lived the life. He ran the race of faith and
fulfilled it. And what was that? What was the
reason that he ran his race with joy set before him? Well, it
was to have his people. But what was that race? What
did it involve? Well, it says he endured the
cross. So that's what he's talking about here. In his enduring the
cross, out of the faith he had in his father, it was the ultimate
answer to God in justice and in righteousness and in love
for his people and his father. It fulfilled the law. It justified
his people. It did everything. Everything
was accomplished in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why he cried, it is finished. So his righteousness is revealed.
And secondly, and thirdly, he says, and of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judged." There, our enemies, the kingdom
of Satan, Satan himself, his head was crushed, our enemies
are silenced, no one can charge us, God has justified us, no
one can condemn us, Christ has died, he's risen, he's enthroned,
and he's interceding for his people, and he is successful.
And so we see that, and this is repeated in the New Testament
and many other places. But let's go back to Psalm chapter
14. So here we see that God is giving us these gracious words.
It doesn't feel gracious, but it's gracious to us because He's
setting forth His view of us, and then we can trust Him that
He will also set forth His view of our salvation. If someone
will not tell you the truth about yourself, how can you believe
that they're going to tell you the truth about themselves? Or
maybe the reverse would be true for people. But God has to tell
us the truth in everything. And so we can trust him because
he doesn't hide the good, I mean, the ugly about us. He tells us
the ugly so that we will know our need, see Christ, and we
will trust him. And we will not be proud. We
will be brought low. Are we better than they? No,
and no wise. Our mouth will be shut, we have
no righteousness, but there Christ emerges into the history of humankind,
according to God's promises, and He fulfills all the will
of God, and He ascends, goes back to glory, and He reigns
now to bring His people to Himself. Psalm chapter 14, let's look
at this, verse 1. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. Now, in the King James, they
italicize the words that are not in the original, which means
that if you take them out, you would read it this way. The fool
has said in his heart, no God. So either way it could be read,
and either way I think you can understand what's being said
here. What does it mean when it says, the fool has said in
his heart, no, God? Is he saying, no, God, like a
child would say no to his mommy or daddy? No, no, I don't want
to do that. Well, it's included, but it's more than that. What
it really is doing is it's summarizing the natural heart of wicked men,
the natural heart of the natural man. It's no. Whatever God is,
no. Whatever God says, no. Truth
that God reveals, no, no. In other words, by nature, we
are opposed to God and His revelation to us of Himself. It says it
this way in Romans 1, verse 28. Since they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, men did not like to retain God in their
knowledge. That's our problem. And so we say, no, I don't like
your truth, I don't like your person, I don't like your work.
Think about the cross. What did men do there? They murdered
the Son of God, didn't they? And what provoked them to do
something so heinous as murdering the Lord Jesus Christ? It was
His goodness. It was a revelation of God's
goodness in His Son. so provoked the envy and pride
of man that Jesus Christ would claim he's the only one good,
the only way of salvation, that his father sent him into the
world to do his will, and he did it, and that for any to have
life, they must come to him, and he would sovereignly give
them that life that provoked men to anger. that people were
flocking to him. Those who wanted people to flock
to them hated him. They envied him. And like Cain,
they rose up and killed the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice the
exceeding wickedness of man's sin is revealed in the fact that
he did the grossest crime in light of the greatest light of
goodness, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's shocking, isn't it?
So we see something about what it means here. The fool has said
in his heart, no God. Is there anything more foolish
than that the creature would say to his creator? No, I don't
agree with you. Wait a minute, I just made you. It says in Romans chapter nine,
Would the pot say to the potter, why have you made me thus? Think
about that. It's just the height of arrogance
and ignorance, and this perfectly describes the word fool, doesn't
it? The fool has said in his heart,
no, God. Whatever God says, they say no. Whatever God is, no, I won't
have him to rule over that. God's thoughts are not their
thoughts. Doesn't that say that in Isaiah 55? My thoughts are
not your thoughts. And so whatever the natural man
is, it's opposed to God. It says in 1 Corinthians 2 that
the natural man cannot know. He says, the natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are, what? Foolishness
to him. It doesn't make any sense. And
if God can't make sense to me, then he can't be God. Isn't that
the way a fool acts? God has to fit in my puny brain.
And if I can't explain it, if I can't understand it, then he
can't be God. I have to be able to prove him, or he can't be
right. If I don't think he's fair, then he's not fair. If
he's not just according to my standard, he can't be just. And
so people go on, and you'll hear people say things like this.
I cannot believe a God who created men just to damn them. Have you
ever heard that? Or maybe you've heard something
like that? Well, you can see the conniving and subtle wickedness
in that kind of a statement. First of all, how's that statement
go? How long has it been since you've
been beating your wife? It's kind of one of those things
that begs, accuses you in the question. So when men say, God
created man just to damn him, first of all, is that true? No,
it's not. God did not create man to damn
them. It says in Ecclesiastes 7, 29, God has made man upright,
but he has sought out every invention. So it's not God who damns men
because he created them wrong. It's because God damns men because
he's just, and men have opposed God. They have said to God, no,
no. And they've risen up on their
hind legs like a little grasshopper against the Lord who created
them and made them. And they just say, no, this is
the essence of foolishness. And when God reveals the truth,
what do men do? That doesn't make any sense to
me. And if it doesn't make sense
to me, I don't like it. I cannot tolerate it. First Corinthians
chapter one says this. We preach Christ and Him crucified,
to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. What is the foolishness of God? Well, in the eyes of
men, it's the preaching of the cross. What is the weakness of
God? In the eyes of men, it was the
weakness of our Savior. Remember how they put the reed,
that reed in his hand, the Lord Jesus Christ? It was a flimsy
reed, wasn't it? It was not the scepter of righteousness. They put it into the hands of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did he do? He took it.
Why? Because that reed represented
a weak rule, a weak kingdom. And at that time, the Lord Jesus
Christ had so humbled himself that he came in humility and
then he endured humiliation and he willingly took it because
that was part of his obedience. That is power. It is great power for a man to
so stoop in order to save his enemies. That's power we know
nothing about until we see it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that power is the power of God unto salvation, what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. But the fool says, no. No, I
can't take that. God has to be able to explain
himself to me, or I gotta be able to figure him out, or he
can't be God, and if I don't think there is a God, then I
declare there is no God. No God. And then he goes on here. He says in verse one, he says,
they are corrupt. They have done abominable works.
There is none that doeth good. No, not one. I can hear people
say, well, I know somebody who's good. You probably do. There's probably a lot of people
better than you that you know about. But does that make them
good in God's sight? The issue is not what men think
about here. This is what God thinks. We can
see that people are good insofar as man's measure is concerned,
a lot better than me. Most Mormons, as far as I can
see, are much more upright, more controlled than me. I've had
them in my house and I've gotten angry at them. They don't seem
like they're, you know, pushed out of shape at all. And here
I am, flaming all over the place, trying to get them to admit that
they're wrong. And they're just like, well,
I realize you're an idiot. So then they walk out all calm.
So, but in that sense, it seems like these people are more controlled
than I am. And they are. But that's not
what God is talking about here. He's not talking about man's
estimation of man, or man's comparison to man. He's talking about man,
in God's view, and compared to God's righteousness. And compared
to God's law, there is none good, no not one. And this conclusion
here, they are corrupt, they have done abominable works. This
is the result of saying no to whatever God says. When we reject
God, we are abominable. We're turned over to our own
lusts. Okay, you want to imagine things
the way they are? Go ahead. It's like someone jumping
off of the dam onto the outlet of the dam below, a cement
spillway. I don't believe there's any gravity.
I'm going to jump off. Someone's going to keep me from
dying." Yeah, go ahead. That's a very dumb thing to do,
isn't it? Well, that's what we do when we take the laws of God
that are founded in His own nature, the revelation of God's Word
about the way things are, and we say, no, no, I don't think
that's true. That's the height of foolishness,
isn't it? And what's the result? We do abominably. We're corrupt,
absolutely corrupt. From the head, the sole of our
foot, to the top of our head, there's no soundness in it. We're
full of corruption, it says in scripture. Full of abominable
corruption. Now look at this. Isaiah chapter
64. I want to show you this also
in Isaiah 64. He says this, and this is the
prophet Isaiah. This is often found to be true in scripture.
The prophet will say something describing the nature of man
in general or the people of Israel, and then he himself takes the
place of those he's describing. Look at Isaiah 64, verse 6. We, notice it's a personal, it's
not the personal, but it's the plural pronoun, we, we are all
as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. The Apostle Paul uses the word
dung to refer to that. He says, I count them a dung. And I don't want my own righteousness,
but Christ, he goes on, he goes, all of our righteousness are
as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away and there is none that calleth
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee,
for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because
of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our
Father, we are the clay, thou art the potter, we are all the
work of thy hand." Notice the transition there. He admits our
best works are revolting and nauseating in the eyes of God,
and they have become so to us. And then he says it's our iniquities,
and that the Lord is the potter, we're the clay, he has to do
something for us. Isn't that the message of Psalm
14? All right, so let's go on. So the point of Psalm 14, what
is the point here? You need Christ. I need Christ. We're great sinners and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is our only hope, and therefore call
upon the Lord. Get to the second verse here.
He says, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek
God. They're all gonna side. They're all together become filthy.
There's none that do with good. No, not one. When I remember, I was thinking
about this verse several years ago and it occurred to me, the
Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. That means he looked
at me. God did a thorough search of
every heart of every man ever born into this world and he concluded,
and God's word does not lie, he says, There is none that understand. To see if there were any that
did understand and see God, no. They're all gone aside. They
are together become filthy. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. Job said it this way. When he
saw the Lord, I am vile. Isaiah said, I am undone, a man
of unclean lips. Peter said, depart from me, Lord,
I am a sinful man. The Apostle Paul, remember what
he said? Oh, wretched man that I am, and
I am the chief of sinners. So, what God has said becomes the
view of those the Lord saves, doesn't it? When the Lord saves
us, we might think, well, I don't know, I seek God, I understand. You know, God says, there's none
that seeketh after the Lord, there's none that understands.
We might think, well, I seek the Lord, I understand some things.
Well, here's the thing, as I was thinking about this today. If
we actually have been taught what Psalm 14 is teaching us
here about the Lord's way, what he sees, what is the thing that
we're going to understand? We're gonna understand that we
do not understand, don't we? And when he says we don't seek
God, what are we going to understand about ourselves? Yeah, I did
not seek God because I did not know God. Jesus told Nicodemus,
unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of God,
you can't enter the kingdom of God. Whoever is born of flesh
is just flesh. This is something you cannot
do. And so, when we do understand,
we don't take credit. for understanding what we take
credit for is a lack of it, and a lack of seeking God. That's
when we come to agree with the Lord. That's when we confess
what we are. We see ourselves for what we
are, in measure at least, in the light of what God has said,
because like Job, and Isaiah, and Peter, and Paul, and these
other men, David in Psalm 51, and so many others in scripture,
they confess their sins. Daniel himself, no sin, there's
no record of Daniel doing anything wrong, but read Daniel chapter
9 and you'll see Daniel confessing his sins right along with the
rest of Israel. And so he says here, the Lord
looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there were any that did understand and seek God. Remember in the
beginning, in Genesis 6, when God was about to destroy the
world of the flood, it says, every imagination of the thoughts
of men's heart was only evil continually. God looked. God
looked, and then after the flood, God promised, I'm not going to
destroy the earth anymore because man's thoughts are evil from
his youth. Even after the flood. He didn't
wipe out wickedness by destroying the world. He just wiped out
a bunch of sinners. And then he gave the same judgment
after that. So, here's the question. Why
don't men seek God? Why don't we? Well, I mean, think
about it. Why don't you seek many things?
We should seek God, right? The first principle of faith
is what? He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that
he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Here, Psalm
14 is describing our sinful character and our works and our attitude
toward God. It's reprehensible, it's rebellious,
it's arrogant, and it's ignorant, and it's a refusal, it's a rejection
of God, and it's grabbing hold of the imaginations of our own
idolatrous mind and holding them, it's taking our Like Cain, our
offering and claiming it, it is equal or better than Christ.
Our works, our sweat, our labor in the cursed earth, and trying
to bring that to God, all those things are filthy rags, abominable,
corrupt, as he says here. And the Lord says, he looked
down to see if there were any, none did. Why don't men seek
God? I think the reason men don't
seek God is because they don't want God, and they don't need
God. They don't want him because they
don't see their need of him and they don't need him because they're
satisfied with their own understanding. I've got things figured out.
I'm good enough. There's many reasons, but mainly
it's because of the stupidity, a spiritual stupidity. And I
use the word stupidity because I want to describe it as a sinful
thing. That's the way we are by nature. We're spiritually,
sinfully stupid. It's an evil thing. Why we don't
seek God. We're not bad. Our understanding
is pretty good. Our opinions matter. God's don't. That's the reason we don't seek
him. We don't want him. That's why it says in the first verse.
No God. No. I don't care. It's in our
pride, in our self-righteousness. It's because we don't like God.
We have no desire, no affection, no love for God. That's what
we are. That's why he says, there's none that seeketh after God.
There's none that understandeth. Now, if you put those two words
together, this understanding and seeking God, you can say
it this way. No one believes God by nature. All men are under unbelief, and
that's why Jesus says in John 16, verse 8, when the Spirit
of God comes, he's going to convince the world of what? Sin. Why?
Because they don't believe me. The Word of God came into the
world according to the promise of God from before the worlds
were made, and all the thousands of years leading up to that,
and the King has come. And men said, I don't believe
it. I don't believe it. Amazing.
The natural heart of man is so dark, so hard, and so void of
any righteousness, that unless God does something, we will go
on happily in our self-delusion and deception. And we won't even
know it. And God has to interpose himself
into our downward spiral to hell. And so, If we do seek God, if
we do understand these things, if we're persuaded of them in
our heart, the first thing we say is, yeah, I didn't, but God
did, and he showed it. He showed me in the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right, let's go on. In verse three, he says, they're
all gone aside, they're all together become filthy, there is none
that doeth good, no, not one. Put everyone together, add them
all up, and what are we going to find? In God's estimation,
and His is right, His is the opinion that matters, the only
one that matters, man is not good. Jesus told the rich young
ruler, there's none good but God. And he was blown away by
that. I was coming here because I have
actually been good and I only needed to do a little bit more
to get eternal life. And I was waiting for you to
tell me what that little bit more was. Because I couldn't imagine
what it was since I've done everything right since my youth up. And
Jesus said, well, I'll tell you what it is. You are a greedy,
covetous, idolatrous, money-grubbing, you know, Because if you want
to enter heaven, do this. Go sell everything you have and
give it to the poor and come follow me. I can't do that. Why? Because he's describing the natural
heart of man. He couldn't break free. We're
like the leopard. We can't change our spots. We
cannot do good. We're accustomed to doing evil.
And so we see this here. None that do us good. We become
filthy. Filthy. He says in verse four,
have the workers of iniquity, all the workers of iniquity,
no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread? Out of this
universal guilt and corruption and helplessness that God describes
here all men to be under, our helplessness to remove our guilt,
our helplessness to free ourselves from the enslavement to our own
sin, or a desire, even, to free ourselves from the enslavement
of our own sin. Until the Lord Himself gives us a sight of Christ
in a new nature, you know what? We don't want to be free from
our sin. Sin isn't a problem. It's no
hard master. We welcome it. Yeah. What does
it say? Men drink iniquity like water.
They drink it down, guzzle it down. Yeah, I need it. I got
to have it. I'm thirsty for it. And they seek after it. And so
out of this universal guilt and corruption and all of our helplessness
to change ourselves, to remove our guilt, or to do one thing
right, Here, the workers of iniquity, the surprising announcement comes
here. He says, the workers of iniquity
who have no knowledge, they eat up, notice, my people, as they
eat bread. And they call not upon the Lord.
My people. Now here's a light that's shining
in all this darkness of our own corruptions and guilt and helplessness
and wickedness, opposition against God. There are people who are
called my people. The Lord says there's my people.
But wait. I thought this was universal.
It is. Then how could there be some who are called my people?
Grace. God made the difference. And
so the psalm is not only teaching us our own utter sinfulness,
our great need of Christ, and humbling us to say, look, there's
no difference between you and anyone else, but he's also showing
us here that the difference that has to be made is the difference
God makes. My people. God made the difference.
And he says, the workers of iniquity do not call upon the Lord, what
do my people then do? They call, you see. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so,
how do we call? Well, since the natural mind,
the natural man that we are by nature does not know, doesn't
understand what has to happen. God has to give us the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has to give us a new nature.
He has to birth us. He has to create us in Christ
Jesus and give us the mind of Christ so that we see ourselves
and God in Christ in the light of His Word as God sees it. And
that's called faith. He has to give us faith. He has
to give us a radical 180-degree change of mind about things. And how does He do that? There
is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. God starts
with what? He says to the woman taken in
adultery, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more." You
see? First, God declares to us our
sin, then His righteousness and justification by what He did,
and then He says, go sin no more. So now, my people call upon the
Lord. They see what they are. They
have a great need of Christ. They know their guilt and helplessness.
God has to do something. He made the difference. They're
no better than others. And so we see this, the Lord
gives them his mind, he gives them his spirit in order to see
Christ and him crucified and to trust him as all other standing
before God. Look at verse five. There were
they in great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous.
Now these people were the workers of iniquity God is referring
to. Those people, those workers of iniquity who eat up my people
as they eat bread, he says, and don't call upon the Lord, there
were they in great fear, for God is in the generation of the
righteous. So the Lord has a people, and
the Lord is in that generation. And when the scriptures speak
about God being in, what do we think of? When God is in, when
He dwells within a place, what is it? It's His temple, isn't
it? He's in the generation of the righteous. The Lord Jesus
Christ is in His people. And because he is in them, they
are the building. You are the building of God.
You're God's building. You're his temple. Your bodies
are members of Christ's body. His spirit is in you. And because
he has given you his spirit, you see and you know Christ.
God is in the generation of the righteous. They're righteous
because what? Because God has credited to them
the very faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
have his righteousness. They have God's own righteousness
as it's God's work. So he sees it. He justifies them
for his own work. Not that they did it. It wasn't
their obedience that they worked out. It was what Christ did.
And so he credits them with that, and they are given his spirit
to see it and to believe him. Now God dwells in them, and they
obviously dwell in Christ. And yet the wicked, who understand
this to some extent, there they are in great fear. What happens?
When the Lord Jesus Christ sent his gospel, what did he say? That, I will build my church,
and what? The gates of hell will not prevail
against it. And so he's showing us that nothing
can prevent him from gathering his sheep, from saving his people,
from bringing them to himself, from redeeming them out of the
hand of the enemy, Satan and this world and their sin. Nothing
can prevent him from doing that. And because of that, what happens
to the kingdom of Satan? What happens to the world when
they see the Lord Jesus Christ in power with his people, and
they can't resist the truth? They can't resist the reign of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What happens? Great fear. They
begin to see that the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they say, no, God,
to, is the one who sits on heaven's throne. And so they say, That's
terrifying. It's a fear of unbelief, a fear
of mistrust. You know what a fear of mistrust
is? You think someone's going to do you... It's like a fear
you would have of a criminal, right? The criminal is going
to sneak up and he's going to do something malicious to me.
And so you're afraid. You're afraid of that person.
Maybe they're bigger and stronger and they're certainly more vicious
and cruel and merciless. So you're afraid of them. It's
right to be afraid of them in that sense. But, of course, when
the Lord is our shepherd, whom shall we fear? The Lord watches
over us, so we trust Him. But this fear of mistrust means
we hold them suspect. And so these people are holding
God suspect. First they reject Him, and then
they hold Him suspect. What's He going to do to us?
Well, guess what? When you crucify the Son of God
and you trample underfoot the blood of the Son of God, what's
God gonna do? The Lord Jesus Christ is gonna
hold you to judgment, isn't he? So no wonder they're fearing.
They know he's an austere man. He reaps what he didn't sow,
picks up what he didn't lay down. And so they hide their talent
in the earth. They can't see any good in Christ,
any mercy in Christ. It's like Joseph's brothers.
They come to him after their dad died, their dad Jacob died,
and say, ah, dad said that you need to, you know, and they try
to soften him up as if he hadn't forgiven them already. And he
wept. How could you believe that I was so, such a deceitful person
that I said I forgave you and didn't forgive you or that I
would hold this against you? after preserving your lives and
the lives of your children. How could you be so unbelieving? And so the wicked are in fear
because of Christ and his people and his mercy to them and knowing
they face this judgment. In verse 6, you have shamed the
counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. What is the
counsel of the poor? The counsel of the poor is the
wisdom of God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
what God has said concerning his son and our salvation. It's
the gospel. The counsel of the poor is what
we hold fast to. We believe it. We've staked our
lives and our eternity on the counsel of the poor. And they've
shamed the counsel of the poor. They've called the work of Christ
foolish and weak and shameful. That's what they did, wasn't
it? The Jews called it a shameful thing. The cross was a scandal.
It was a shame. And Paul says in Galatians 6,
14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of my
Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and
I unto the world. He did not consider the cross
a shameful thing. He considered it his glory. The world considers it a shameful
thing. The thief on the cross said, this is my glory. I boast in him, the Lord of glory,
the king of kings, the Lord of lords, hanging on the cross next
to me. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. And then in verse seven, the
last verse of Psalm 14. Oh, that the salvation of Israel
were come out of Zion. When the Lord brings back the
captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall
be glad." Captivity? What is that? Well, when we were
the slaves of sin, we had no power over our sin, we were under
the delusion of our own self-deception, we said no to God, we were captives. Jesus said, whoever commits sin
is a servant of sin. And then in Romans 6, 17, he
says, but God be thanked. God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin, but what? You have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you. You believe the
gospel. God gave you eyes of faith to
see not only your own sin and unbelief, but Christ in all of
his righteousness and his judgment over your enemy. And what did
you do? You were the kings. Your mouth was stopped! This
is incredible! And you were so surprised by
the truth you had never considered, it had never entered into your
mind, and God made it known to you that He could be gracious
to a sinner on the basis of the blood of His Son, and He would
obligate Himself to save us from our sins that we sinned against
Him. Amazing grace. And so he says,
oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion when the
Lord brings back the captivity of his people. We were held captive
by our sin, by Satan, by this world. We were in the castle
of the strong man and Jesus Christ, stronger than he came and exposed
him for what he was. He shone, he shined the light
of the gospel on us. We suddenly see, saw that we
were set free by the redeeming blood of Christ to a perfect
liberty. And this is what Israel realized. Their captivity was broken, their
captor was taken captive, he was shamed, he was spoiled, and
they were set free. Let me read this to you in Colossians
chapter two. Colossians chapter two, and I
will close with this. He says this in verse 13. Colossians 2, 13, he says, you being dead in your sins and
the uncircumcision of your flesh. Doesn't that agree with Psalm
14 about our condition? You were dead in sins and the
uncircumcision of your flesh. Hath he, God, the Holy Spirit,
quickened together with him, with Christ, having forgiven
you all your trespasses? Why was the Holy Spirit given
to us to quicken us? Because Christ had forgiven us
all our trespasses by his redeeming blood. Verse 14. blotting out,
this is what he did with his shed blood, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us. What was that
handwriting of ordinances? God's law, he wrote with his
own finger on the tables of the law, and he says, which was contrary
to us because it condemned us and required the curse of God
upon us, and he took it out of the way, Jesus Christ did, nailing
it to his cross. And having done that, having
answered God in justice, what did he do? He spoiled, he took
away from principalities and powers, he made a show of them,
he shamed them openly, triumphing over them in his cross. You see? Oh, that the salvation of Israel
would come out of Zion when the Lord, how does it say it, let
me get that verse right, when the Lord delivered us, from our
captor, shamed our captor and set us free. He says, when the
Lord brings back the captivity of his people, he released them
from their captor and their captivity, Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall
be glad. Amazing, amazing grace. God shows us what we are. It's
a horrible picture. And then he speaks of his people.
And then he speaks of Christ coming and setting us free. And
this is the gospel. He sets it up so that we would
see our need. And this is the constant experience
of our life. We see our great need, our great
need of Christ. And we are humbled by what we
are. We have no boast because we're no better than any others.
And we see that the Lord himself had to make the difference in
our salvation. What a marvelous grace this is.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you would
save such a wretched people as we are, such a sinner as I am,
that you would show me what you've done. I have nothing to contribute
here. I can only stand in unspoken
awe. I can't even describe the things
that overflow our minds and our thoughts and our emotions. But
suddenly we find ourselves understanding something about your view of
things. We've seen the truth, the life,
and the way. It's the Lord Jesus, our Savior,
who gave himself for our sins, that he might wash us from our
sins in his own blood and deliver us from this present evil world
and bring us to glory. He, the just, dying for the unjust. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.