Good morning. It's always my
joy to be with you, and I don't want to say anything before I
say I'm sorry for not bringing my wife, daughter, and new baby. I wish they could be here. Even
the babies, they don't know it, but they would love to be here.
If you will turn with me to Psalm 14 for our text. Brother Gabe and your brethren
in Kingsport, send their love and greetings. I think Obie was
just here a week or two ago. Psalm 14, here are our texts. In verse 1, it says, the fool
hath said in his heart, there is no God. There are some in this world
who actually claim to believe that. We know better, don't we? Genesis 1 verse 1 says, In the
beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Everything that
was made, He made it. Consider yourself, where did
we come from? Says the Lord, God formed man
of the dust of the ground. He breathed into our nostrils
the breath of life. That's how we became a living
soul. Everything I believe, and this whole word hinges on the
fact that in the beginning God made everything. He's the doer
of all things. By Him all things consist. Men
and women may try to suppress the fact, and it is a fact, that
God is But it's evident. I like what Paul told us in Romans
1. He said the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without excuse. For a person to believe such
a thing, deny the very existence of God Almighty our creator,
they're without excuse. Only a fool would claim to believe
such a thing. Now, you probably already know this, but in verse
1 there, those two words are in italics, which we know means
the translator's added them for smoother reading. In this instance,
I believe they serve more of a hindrance than as a help. Let's read it without those two
words. It says, the fool hath said in his heart, no, God. No God for me. Someone might
say no God. No problem. You know, that's
that's the cry. That's the obvious cry of atheism. But this song is not about atheism. It's not about a kid. I'm fully
convinced of this, that this song is about submission to authority. We know there's just one authority,
right? God alone is the sovereign. We mentioned sovereign grace.
We preach the sovereign, almighty God of heaven and earth. Now,
naturally, we do not submit to Him. We don't. None of us do. So I mentioned an atheist. God
clearly says, is a fool. But since none of us will or
are able to submit to the God who made us, that makes us all
the fool. I want this song to hit me and
you both. I pray it lays us low where we
ought to be. You and I, from the moment we
came forth from our mother's womb, our cry against God was
this. I will not have this man to reign over me. In John 1,
we read that our Lord, who made the world, came into the world
and that world wanted nothing to do with him, came into his
own, they received him or not. He was the prophet, and he wasn't
accepted in his own country. This flesh, yours and mine, has
zero desire for God. None at all. Let me ask you this. I just mentioned I have little
kids, and my oldest is two years old. Every now and then, she'll
bring a toy and hand it to me to dangle in front of Isaac's
face. And it lasts about two or three
seconds, and then she says that, that, once again. I see myself in that. I see a
good spiritual picture in that, that I am concerned about me,
myself, and mine. Mine, mine, mine. That's what
we are, brethren. We're concerned with ourselves.
We don't have any concern for God. Not by nature, we don't. We live our lives. We take every
breath for granted. We take God and His goodness
for granted. We don't acknowledge Him. Don't
desire to. Don't feel a need to. We don't
praise Him. We don't worship Him. And so, God says, fools,
fools. I see it so clearly right now
just looking at the affairs of our country in this world. What
God says to be right, this whole world says, well, no, that's
not right. That's wrong. This is acceptable
now. God doesn't change. If God said
it wasn't acceptable, then it ain't acceptable now and it never
will be. We change, don't we? We become more and more sinful,
don't we? Even as believers. How often
do we murmur and complain about something that happens, knowing
who's in control and who brings it to happen? You know what we're
saying when we do that? And I say we because I'm telling
you this is me daily, murmuring and complaining. I may say it
out loud, I may not. But it doesn't change the fact
that my heart is wondering, why, Lord? And in doing so, I'm saying,
no, God. I think this would have been
better. I think this would have been right. I remember Brother
Don said once, he said, If it could have been done better,
it would have. The way it happened is the best it could have happened,
or else it wouldn't have happened. God only does right. He does
all things well. He's perfect. You know, there's many devices
in a man's heart, but you know what's going to stand? The counsel
of the Lord. Nothing else. That shall stand.
Look here, verse 1 again. It says, The fool has said in
his heart, No, God, they are corrupt. The word means ruined.
We know that God created man in His image, and man ruined
it. Adam ruined it. How did he ruin
it? He ate a piece of fruit. That doesn't seem so terrible,
does it? Ate a piece of fruit. You know
what was so bad about that? God commanded him not to. He
disobeyed God. You say, well, that was a small
act of disobedience. Oh, God begs to differ. Plunged
the whole human race into hell and damnation. Adam, by his actions,
said, no, God. That's exactly what he did. And
as a result of that one act, you and I are born into this
world with a corrupt, that's what it says, we're corrupt,
sin nature. That's what we're born with.
That's why we all naturally cry, no God. That's why we all naturally
have no desire and no thoughts towards Him, only concerned with
ourselves. We're corrupt, totally corrupt. Verse one again, it says, the
fool has said in his heart, no God. They are corrupt, they have
done abominable works. Sin is what we are, and it's
all we do. Someone might say, well, not
me. We're going to look at some scriptures
today. Turn with me to a familiar verse in Genesis chapter 6. We need to see that this captures
all of us. There are no exceptions. Genesis
chapter 6, verse 5. We're going to see what God saw
in Noah's day and what he saw then is the same thing he sees
now. Genesis 6, verse 5. It says, And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Look at verse 11. The earth also
was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For
all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. Now, if we dare
deny that, you see, I said it, but I said it because that's
what God has recorded, what God said. If we dare deny what God
said, we're deceiving ourselves, we make Him a liar, He who is
the truth, and His truth is not in us. We need to believe what
God has to say about us. God forbid we approach Him in
that day, the great day of judgment, trusting in, relying in, hoping
in something, anything that we've done. we've done abominable works. All our works are loathsome.
It's not a word we use very often, is it? You ever loathe something?
I feel like we often say that about somebody, don't we? Are
we really any different? Honestly, any better? Not in
God's sight, we're not. All our works are abominable,
loathsome, shameful. You know, we mention Mephibosheth,
shameful thing, and yet David, picturing Christ, sat him at
that table, he covered him, covered his lameness. Beautiful picture.
All our works, Isaiah tells us, are nothing but filthy rags.
You know, I know you can do things to impress me. The religion in
this world is so impressive to people. It just blows people
away. Here's what our Lord said. Our
Lord said this. He said, that which is highly esteemed in the
eyes of men is abomination. And what that word means is detestable
idolatry. All these things that are so
impressive to us, God calls it detestable idolatry. I don't believe I've ever used
that phrase before until I've studied this. And yet, that's
what God says our works are before Him. Now, are we going to approach
Him in that day trusting in those very works? I hope not. No matter
how impressive anything we do might be to one another, let's
remember what it is in His sight. He who judges righteously, okay?
Look at verse 1 of our text again, Psalm 14, verse 1. The fool has said in his heart,
no God. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good. None. None. In my flesh, sometimes I think
there are good people in this world. I meet people who I'm
truly impressed with, seriously. You ever had a co-worker and
you just were convinced, man, they've got to be a believer. Just look at them. God said there's
none good. None good. You remember what
he told that rich young ruler? He came running to him and he
said, Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? He called him good, Master. He
called him good. But then he said, what good thing
can I do? See that? He called them both good. He thought him
to be good and he also thought, himself to be good. But the Lord
told him, he said, why callest thou me good? There's none good
but one, and that's God. We have to learn this. There's
one good, and that's God. That's where the word good comes
from. God means good. He is good. He
alone is good. Look right here at verse 2. It
says, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men
to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
Ask the average person. Who seeks God? Who understands the things of
God? Who understands spiritual matters? And they'll probably
say themself, and they can name a whole bunch of people. What
does God see? Look at verse 3. They are all
gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. That's what
he who sees all things sees. None. And if that wasn't good
enough, he tells us again, no, not one. You see, God doesn't
see things like us. Everything we see through sinful
eyes. We see God, we see Christ by
faith if he's pleased to give it to us. But in this world,
our vision is so marred. It's because we're corrupt. It's
marred by the sin that we are, the corrupt nature that we possess.
But I'm here to tell us this. God sees right through the facade
of man's religion. It's vain. You know, the scriptures
say that we're nothing, less than nothing, vanity. God knows
this. The heart, you know, I hear people
say, oh, well, they just have such a good heart. And I know
what they're saying. I understand. I have the same sinful nature
they do. I relate to that. I see that.
I probably said that. God said the heart, the heart
of man. He saw that that heart was wicked
continually. He said it's desperately wicked,
deceitful above all things. Who can know it? What he's saying
is we can't know it. We can't even begin to know just
how deceitful and desperately wicked our heart is. But he said
he knows it. He said, I searched the heart.
God searched it. He knows it. He searched it.
He tries the reins. He knows every bit of it. Look right here
in verse four. It goes on to say, have all the
workers of iniquity No knowledge. I want to show us three things
from this verse here. First thing is this. Every single one of
us, every single son or daughter of Adam, is a worker of iniquity. That means someone who sins. Someone who commits sin. They
transgress against God's holy law. Again, I'm sure somebody
would dispute that. But let me show you a couple
verses. Turn back just a page or two to Psalm 5. We just saw that we're wicked.
Look at verse 4, Psalm 5, verse 4. Do we see that? I hope we've already all been
convicted that sin is what we are, and it's what we do, and
we can't present anything we've done before a holy, almighty
God, okay? And now we see right here, the foolish, which is us,
aren't gonna stand in God's sight. I can't stand on my own. I can't stand in my wicked flesh,
hoping in myself before a holy God. And then he said, he hates
all workers of iniquity. Everybody who sins, God hates.
That's hard to fathom, isn't it? That's a hard pill to swallow.
Turn over to Matthew chapter 7. Here's another difficult passage
of the process. Matthew chapter 7. But we need
to see these things, brethren. We need to see these things.
Look at Matthew chapter 7, verse 21. Matthew 7, 21. This might be the most difficult
text in all the scriptures, honestly. Look at this with me, Matthew
7, 21. It's the Lord speaking. He said, Not every one that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? In thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name, notice they keep saying, in your name, have
we not done many wonderful works? Now look at this, verse 23. And
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Is he talking to the atheist
right there? Is that what that looks like to you? Or is he talking
to the self-righteous religious? People who are prophesying. People
who are supposedly casting out devils. People who are, in their
mind, doing many wonderful works in the name of God. They use
the name Jesus. They may say Christ. They might
even say Lord. Well, they did Lord. On the outside,
they look awful good, and yet they clearly have no idea what
they are within. Corruption, dead men's bones,
that's it. Because God called them workers of iniquity. They
said many wonderful works. He said, you work nothing but
iniquity. They had no idea. That's why I'm saying I pray
God would teach us this. I pray he would cause us to know
that's me. That's me, I'm foolish, I'm the fool. I'm a worker of
iniquity, that's it. I read this and I think of, The
Apostle Paul, that man, he was so religious. He was raised,
he was taught at the feet of Gamaliel. He was filled with
religious knowledge. Back in our text it mentioned,
had they not any knowledge, those workers of iniquity. Paul had
all the knowledge he thought he could possibly gain. He was
convinced he was working the works of God. When in reality, He had no spiritual
knowledge. He was not working the works
of God. Not only was he persecuting God's people, the Lord told him,
you're persecuting me. I am Jesus, and thou persecutest.
Oh, how lost we are, brethren, until God comes to us. How lost
we are until he reveals his truth to us and in us. We're left in
our text, Psalm 14, verse 14. Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they
eat bread and call not upon the Lord? The second thing I want
to show us from this verse is that these workers of iniquity,
they call not upon the Lord. And that's important because
what we read in Romans chapter 10 is that whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God says we haven't
called upon him. Paul, I just mentioned him. Until
God came to him, he didn't call upon him. And here's a couple
facts we must acknowledge. He wouldn't, didn't want to,
and he couldn't. Wasn't in his corrupt nature
to do such a thing. And it's not in your mind either. God must call us first. We're going to call upon Him.
It's going to be because He called us. He called upon us to call
upon Him. What did Paul tell Timothy? He
said, He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given Him in Christ Jesus before the world began. He calls
us. Now, we must call on Him. If
we don't call upon Him, we shall not be saved. And the third thing right here,
look at verse 4 again, it says, It's so easy to read that verse
and glance over a glorious declaration there. God has a people. When I read that, one of the
first things I thought was, again, I thought of Paul eating up God's
people like he eats bread. It was his meat and his drink.
It was his life's business. But God has a people. Oh, I'm
so glad to know that. In infinite goodness and grace,
God Almighty chose to save a people out of Adam's fallen race. Does that not make you rejoice?
Just considering what God says we are, seeing ourselves to be
nothing but sin, death, and damnation, and then to read that God has
a people whom he calls my people? Brother, just read about it.
I'll be their God, they shall be my people. Praise His name,
honestly. Oh, may God cause us to rejoice
in that. I'm going to show you a couple
more verses here in the Psalms. Look at Psalm 130. Psalm 130, verse 3. Psalm
130, verse 3. It says, if thou, Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Did you know God
does mark iniquities? Every single one of them. Every
single sin must be dealt with. Every single sin must be punished.
We must give them account. Believe verse four. But there
is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be forgiven. Is that
good news to you? God must mark an iniquity. Who's
going to stand? Well, praise God, there's forgiveness
with you, Lord. Praise God, I don't have to make
up for my sin. I can't. I never could. But there's
forgiveness with you. Father, forgive them. They don't
know what they do. Oh, praise His holy name. Then verse 7 says,
let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy,
and with Him is plenteous redemption. I pray God will reveal that to
us. Our need of it, may God cause us to call upon Him and beg Him
for that. Beg Him for mercy, beg Him for
redemption, forgiveness. Back in our text, verse 5. Psalm
14, 5. Says, there were they in great
fear. My margin says they feared a fear. They feared a fear. Psalm
53 is the parallel psalm. They're almost identical. It
says they feared a fear where no fear was. By nature, you and
I are fools, total fools, with no fear of God before our eyes. And the word fear, it doesn't
mean afraid. It has to do with reverence,
reverential fear. First time I looked at this,
I thought, well, we fear everything. No, we're just afraid of everything.
This is worse. We will worship anything. That's
what I taught you, is worship anything but God. We will worship
anything. Do we not naturally worship our
family, our job? People at a job directly, where
do they go? Isn't that amazing? That blows
my mind. Because to me, that almost comes
last, honestly. I need to be where I worship
God, that's what matters. We worship everything. I need
these things. We worship everything, but not
God, who alone is to be worshiped. And we do fear everything, and
we shouldn't. There's one we need to fear,
and that's God. We need to fear him. We need to reverence him,
believe on him, honor his name, worship him, and praise him and
him alone. We just read there's forgiveness
with Him, that He may be feared. If He ever reveals our need of
forgiveness and that He has forgiven us through the blood of Christ,
then we will fear Him. We will bow to Him. We will worship
Him. Verse 5 again, it says, There
were they in great fear, for God is in the generation of the
righteous. Again, by nature, people don't
know this, none of us do, but God is righteous. It means He's
right. And we're not. He alone is righteous. There are so many men and women
that have walked God's earth, and yet only one righteous man
has ever walked God's earth, and that's God Himself, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. We must fear Him. I tell you,
I pray God would cause us to. Seriously, I pray God would cause
me to fear Him. Whatever that means, truly fear
Him. Worship Him. Call upon Him. I pray God would put these things
in us. Enable us to, cause us to. Lord,
save us. Look right here, verse 6. It
says, "...Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because
the Lord is his refuge." Naturally, we do, don't we? We look down
on people. Oh, God, forgive us. We're worse. Anybody we look
down on, may God remind us we're worse. Not only are we, well,
maybe we're not so bad, we're worse. Worse. Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners.
He said that after I said it. He wouldn't have said it before.
Oh, he wouldn't have. But then he said, by the grace
of God, I am what I am. Who made me the different from another?
What do I have that I haven't received? It all came from Him.
He alone is the difference. He makes the difference. Shame
the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. Are you
poor? Am I poor? Do we need a refuge? That means
a hiding place. Somewhere to take shelter. We
just looked at how we're nothing but sin against God who is holy
and must punish sin. Do you need a refuge? Says the Lord is his refuge.
Can you imagine a better refuge? Oh my, I pray the Lord be our
refuge. I love this verse Psalm 138 verse 6. It says, Though
the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the
proud he knoweth afar off. You hear this all the time, and
I'm going to tell us again. Salvation is for sinners. In
the context here it says, Lord, thank for the rich. You know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes, You poor needy sinners. He became poor, made
himself poor. Why? That you, through his poverty,
his being made lower than angels, might be rich. Are we rich or
poor? Are we self-righteous or are
we sinners? Christ said, I came not to call the righteous, those
who are already righteous. He said, I came to call sinners
to repentance. Are we godly or ungodly? I hear
people use those terms, use them falsely. Well, they're a godly
person. Well, they must be on the right
path. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. God commendeth his love for us,
and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died
for sinners. Salvation is for sinners. That's the only person who has
a refuge. See, the person who's rich, the
person who's already righteous on their own, the person who
has everything, they're godly, they're good. They're their own
refuge. You see that? Do you need a refuge? There is one. Oh, there's a refuge. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look right here, verse 7, last verse. It says, oh, that the
salvation of Israel will come out of Zion. What is this salvation
of Israel? Oh, I feel like it's been a gloomy
message so far, and I'm almost done. What is this salvation? that has come out of Israel. Turn with me to Romans chapter
11. Romans chapter 11. Salvation come out of Zion. What
is it? Romans 11 verse 25. For I would not, brethren, that
ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise
in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel,
until the fullness of the Gentiles be coming, and so all Israel
shall be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take
away their sins. God made a covenant with himself.
He made a promise with himself to save a people. Blessed covenant
of grace. Christ came out of Zion. And we sing marching to Zion,
beautiful, beautiful Zion. Christ came out of Zion to deliver
us, to deliver his people, sinners, from their sins. Call his name
Jesus, he shall save his people from their sins. I love how this
refers to him in verse 26, the Deliverer. There's only one,
capital D, Christ. He alone is the Deliverer. He
alone must deliver us if we're going to be delivered from our
sin. I love, too, how it says in verse
26, he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Why? Because he loved
Jacob. Jacob have I loved. He saw have
I hated. He came to deliver Jacob. He
didn't believe he saw. He could have. But he chose to
deliver Jacob. He chose to give him a new name. Don't you love reading that story?
And he wrestled with it. That's what God wrestles with
his people. He's going to defeat us. And
he delivers us by defeating us. Causing us to cling to him. Gave
him a new name in Israel. What was his name? You know,
when he asked him, what's your name, he had to say Jacob. Lord caused him to know what
he was. Sinful man, worm, trickster, deceiver, conniver. That's who
we are. And yet God said, your name's
not going to be Jacob anymore. Your name's Israel. And we've read all Israel shall
be saved. The covenant was made with Israel. You read it too.
Israel, prince with God. He's made us to be kings and
priests and princes with God. Amazing. All Israel shall be
saved. All Jacobs, all worms, all nothings,
all sinners in need of a Savior shall be saved from their sins. I'll tell you who they are. Those who cried, no God, didn't
want Him, wouldn't have Him. shall be saved from their sinful
rebellion against him. Praise his holy name. One more
time, look back in our text, verse seven. Oh, that the salvation of Israel
were come out of Zion. Isn't that your prayer? When
the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice,
and Israel shall be glad. How could we not? In light of
who we are and in spite of us, what God has done for us. Brought back our captivity, took
all our sins away. How could we not rejoice and
be glad? We're not in bondage to sin anymore.
We're not under the law, we're under grace. We've been called
to believe in Christ. What a privilege. He died our
death. He paid our debt. He set us free,
made us free. He did it all. Now I want to
close, as I thought on this, a brother and a hymn that he
sings came to my mind. You just mentioned his son, D. Parks, brother Daniel Parks. When I was a kid, I remember
he would come here. Every now and then he'd come
here and I thought, who is this man? Short man had a big beard,
thunderous voice, played a strange instrument I've never seen except
with him. I heard it's called an auto harp.
I wish he could be here and play it for us, but we'll settle for
me reading it to us. We call him Moose. I have no idea where
that came from. Anyway, this song goes so well
with this song that we just looked at. Pray, bless your heart like
it has blessed mine. He would always sing this song.
It's called Hail Sovereign Love. It says, Hail Sovereign Love
that first began the scheme to rescue fallen men. Hail matchless,
free, eternal grace that gave my soul a hiding place, a refuge
that we need. Against the God who rules the
sky, I fought with hands uplifted high. No God. That was my cry. despised the mention of His grace,
too proud to seek a hiding place. And we all are, until God saves
us. We're too proud. It says, in rapt and thick Egyptian
night, that's our sin, and fond of darkness more than light,
Christ the light came, and we love darkness rather than light.
Madly I ran the sinful race, thinking I was secure without
a hiding place, trusting in myself. Now listen to this. But thus
the eternal counsel ran. Almighty love, arrest that man. And he would always say, and
he did. I felt the arrows of distress and
found I had no hiding place. And that's what we feel when
God reveals to us what we are. We have nowhere. We have no hiding
place. We have no hope in ourselves.
Says indignant justice stood in view to Sinai's fiery mount. I flew the law. But justice cried
with frowning face, your works are not a hiding place. And they're
not. Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
and mercy's angel form appeared. You know who that is? And led
me on with gentle pace to Jesus Christ. And Moose would say,
what a hiding place. On him, almighty vengeance fell
that must have sunk the world to hell. He bore it for His chosen
race, Israel, and thus became their hiding place. Should storms
of thundering vengeance roll and shake this earth from pole
to pole, remember, judgment's coming. No thundering bolt shall
daunt my face. Christ Jesus is my hiding place.
We're safe in Him. A few more rolling suns at most, and I can't help but think of
Brother Deeb when I read this, and all of us. A few more rolling
suns at most will land me safe on Canaan's coast. There I shall
sing of sovereign grace. Moose would say, I'll always
sing of sovereign grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. Aren't
you thankful? God in his infinite love and
goodness would not take no for an answer from you, from all
his people. Praise his holy name. Amen. Lord
bless his word.