Okay, this evening, Psalm 14,
Psalm 14. I'm taking a title for the message
from what is said in verse one. The fool has said in his heart,
the fool has said in his heart, no God for me. There is no God. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good. And he adds again down in verse
three, no, not one. The Lord looked down from heaven
and he says, and his conclusion is that they're all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There are none righteous. No, not one. I'm going to take
the title for the message from that first verse, and I'm going
to call the message The Creed of a Fool. The Creed of a Fool. The Creed of a Fool. This psalm,
along with Psalm 53, if you read it, declares almost exactly word
for word the same thing. The Creed of
a Fool, which is the word creed means the belief. of a fool,
or the doctrine of a fool. The fool has said, no God, no
God. Now Romans 3 also uses these
verses declaring the total depravity, not only of the religious Jew,
but also of the pagan Gentile, the circumcision and the uncircumcision,
all are under sin, all are deserving of God's just wrath, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. They've come short.
How short? Way short. Way short. All human history reeks with
the terrible evidence of the sinner's total depravity and
total inability, total sinfulness. The history of humanity is a
history of their sinfulness against God. When you study history,
whether it's world history or U.S. history or whatever kind
of history, state history, it usually revolves around the study
of the wars and battles and fights that we've had. All human history
reeks with the terrible evidence of the sinner's total depravity,
and I mean by that dead in sin, dead in trespasses and in sin,
total inability. Inability. We have no ability
to believe or understand or to seek God. It is evident that
in Adam all have sinned. In Adam all are guilty. That's
what we read in Romans 3. Let every mouth be stopped and
all the world become guilty before God. What is our state before
God? By nature, guilty. Guilty. Guilty is charged. All are dead
in sin. are in need of salvation and
righteousness in life in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the fool
has said, I don't need a savior. The fool has said, I don't need
a justifying righteousness. That's what the fool has said.
Those who are taught of God, they know they need the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of their salvation. As it says in verse
seven, oh, that salvation of Israel will come out of Zion.
Verse 1, the world's foolish creed or belief, they say, we
don't need God. We don't need God. Brother Henry
preached a message years ago entitled, Goodbye, God. Goodbye,
God. We don't need you. Isn't this
still the cry of the atheist today or the man who is anti-religion? There is, I read some years ago
when I was looking at this message, this psalm 10 years ago, 13 years
ago, there was an ongoing advertising campaign in New York City by
the atheists in that city. And they paid thousands and thousands
of dollars to put advertisement on the city buses. And of course,
the city of New York, They took the money and put the signs on
the buses, and the sign said from this atheist club, no God,
no problem. And then it said down below that
there's two million of us that believe no God, no problem. Come
and join us. We don't need God. Goodbye, God.
The fool today would like to do away with the true and living
God and either fashion a God after their own imagination,
a God they can manipulate and control, or they outright deny
the existence of the God of Scripture. The true God, who is God, that
is sovereignly controls all things, they say, no God. He's not sovereign. I'm sovereign. I'm the master of my ship. I'm
the master of my fate. They deny the sovereignty of
God. They deny that God is God. They've
whittled them out of God as their own imagination. They pray to
a God that cannot save. Our God, the true and living
God, is the sovereign God over all things. He does according
to His will in heaven and in the earth. And no one can stay
His hand, or no one can say to Him, what do us now? Those who
are anti-gospel, anti-God, would not deny God if they were not
a fool. The preaching of the gospel is
foolishness to those who are perishing. Remember 1 Corinthians
chapter 1? If they were not fooled by nature,
having denied God, It's no marvel that they become fools in their
talk and in their practice and in their principles. The fool
has said, no God for me. I don't need God. I don't need
God. I'm going to do it on my own.
The fool has said, I don't need God. Now remember what our Lord
said in Matthew 15, out of the abundance of the heart, The mouth
speaketh. They're just speaking what's
in the well of their heart. As I've said over the years,
what's in the well of the heart comes out through the bucket
of the mouth. When they say there is no God, we don't need God
who is sovereign. We don't need God who made an
atonement for sin. We don't need that God. This is the nature of a sinful,
depraved heart. that is deceitful above all things,
that is desperately wicked, that's full of thoughts against God. The carnal mind, we read many
times in Romans 8, the carnal mind is enmity against God. The carnal mind will not receive
the things of God, foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them because they're spiritually discerned. Sin is always a folly
and it's the height of sin to attack the very God and rebel
against the very God who is God, who does all his pleasure, who
accomplishes all of his purpose all the time. Now notice, he
said they're corrupt in their sinful nature. Verse one, the
fool has said in his heart, God looks upon the heart. God knows
their thoughts. They say there is no God. And
the Lord says they are corrupt. They are corrupt in their sinful
nature, which affects their thoughts, their will, their mind, their
affections. Remember when we studied Isaiah
chapter one, he described that sinful nation from the top of
our head to the bottom of our feet, nothing but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores, just through and through. We
are sinners. We are sinners through and through. They are corrupt in their sinful
nature, which affects their whole body, mind, will, and thoughts. They are corrupt, and then he
says, they have done abominable works. Now, they do works, but
the Lord says they're wicked works. And think about religious
people and even the irreligious. They pass off their wicked works
for righteousness before God. Our Lord said to those Pharisees,
you are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knows your
heart. That which is highly esteemed
among men, God says, is abomination in my sight. Now this is God's
estimation of the human race. This is what he says of us. This
is what everyone is in Adam. corrupt, and any works they have
are sinful works. And then he says, there is none
that doeth good. Preacher, surely there's some.
God said there's none. And then he emphasizes in verse
three when he said, nope, not one. Now the only one, the only
one who has done good is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none that doeth good,
None that doeth good. Now some claim to have good works.
You remember those in Matthew chapter 7? Those in Matthew chapter
7 said, Lord, we've done many, many wonderful works in your
name. And if you look that word up,
wonderful, it's also translated in other places, powerful. Lord,
we've preached in your name. We've cast out demons in your
name. We have done many powerful works. And the Lord comes back
and says, all that you have done is abominable works. That's all
you have done. Workers of iniquity, he said,
away with it. You're nothing but workers of
iniquity. There is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. The wise man Solomon
says in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20. There's not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. We are totally depraved
sinful people. Born in sin, shaping in iniquity. All this flesh can produce is
sin. All it can produce is sin. before
conversion or after conversion. This flesh is nothing but sin,
and all it produces is sin. Those self-righteous Jews that
have that saying recorded in Isaiah 65, come not near to me,
for I'm holier than thou. You've heard that statement before,
haven't you? That man, he thinks he's holier than thou. And the
Lord says, they are smoke in my nose, a fire that burned all
the day long. They're smoking my nose. They
just stink. They just stink. That's why he
says down here, they're filthy. They'll all together become filthy.
And notice the marginal reference is stinking. All a sinner can
do before God is stink. Stink, smelly. It's offensive
to God. Oh, I tell you, we need a Savior,
don't we? We need a Savior that, you know, His sacrifice to the
Lord Jesus Christ is called a sweet-smelling savor unto God. That's the sacrifice
we need, not what we do. Now look at verse 2. Psalm 14
verse 2, the Lord looked down. The Lord looked down. You see,
He's high above us. The Lord who is on the sovereign
throne, He looks down from heaven, looks down from His lofty throne
upon the children of men to see if there are any, any that didn't
understand, to see if there are any that seek God. You come to the conclusion there's
none. None. There is God on His absolute throne. He takes notice
of everything. He takes notice of everyone because
He is not only omnipresent and omniscient, but He's omnipotent. He knows all things. Turn over here to Psalm 139.
Psalm 139, verse 1. Psalm 139, verse 1. that, O Lord, thou hast searched
me and known me. Thou knowest my down sittings
and my uprising. Thou understandest my thoughts
afar off. Thou compassest my path, my lying
down, acquainted with all my ways. There is not a word in
my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. He knows
everything about us. He knows our thoughts afar off.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there any did seek, any did understand, any did seek after
God. No, no, not one. Now, it's always
been that way. Turn back to Genesis chapter
six. After Adam's sin and ruin, and
it plunges all into total depravity, total sinfulness, Genesis chapter
six, turn over there. And this, God looked down from
heaven and he sees us as we are. Genesis chapter six, verse five,
and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every imagination, every imagination, and notice the marginal
reference there, the whole imagination, all of his purposes and desires,
every imagination of his thoughts, of his heart was only evil continually. Look at verse 11, Genesis 6. 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, and all flesh had
corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, the end
of all flesh has come before me. The earth is filled with
violence. Through them, behold, I will destroy them with the
earth. And God killed everybody but
Noah and his family. Put him in that ark and everybody
else perished. Millions, they tell me, millions
perished in the flood. That's exactly what they deserve.
No sinner has right understanding. You see that word there in verse
2? There's none that understands.
No sinner has right understanding of spiritual things. The carnal
mind receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, as foolishest
unto him. We don't have any understanding
of really how sinful we are, now left to ourselves, or the
way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, until God is pleased
to give us an understanding. And so God is pleased to reveal
himself to us, showing us that we are sinners before God, showing
us that the Lord Jesus Christ is our only hope of salvation
alone. He must give us an understanding.
You remember over in 1 John, Chapter 5, verse 20. We know
the Son of God has come and He's given us an understanding that
we might know Him that is true and we're in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and this
is eternal life. No one has any right understanding
of who God is or the way of salvation. There is a way that seems right
unto men, but the end of that way is death. And then the second
charge, the Lord charges humanity with, individually and collectively, none understand or ignorant of
God. And then he said there's none
that seek God. There's no sinner that seeks
after God unless the Lord first seeks him out. Turn just one
page over here to I've got written down Psalm 10
verse 4. And I don't think that's, yes,
that's the right reference. Psalm 10 verse 4. The wicked
through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all these thoughts.
The wicked through pride will not seek after God. I tell you
only when a man will seek after God. Turn to Psalm 27. Here is
when a man will seek after God. Psalm 27. So there's, because
of our total depravity, and ignorance, and darkness, and blindness,
we love darkness, not the light. We have no understanding, we
will not seek the true and living God. And the only way we will
is found in Psalm 27, look at verse 8. When thou saidest, seek
ye my face, My heart said unto me, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Only when God commands us to
seek Him will we seek the Lord. And seeking Him, we'll find Him.
We'll find Him. That's His promise unto us. Now look at verse 3. They're
all gone aside. They're all gone out of the way.
You see, verse 3, they're all gone aside. They're all together.
So altogether, filthy, stinking, rotten, dead, there is none that
do us good, no not one. Now this is what God sees when
he looks upon humanity. He sees rotten, dying, sinful,
decaying flesh. All flesh is, what did Isaiah
say? All flesh is grass. men individually
or nations collectively. It doesn't matter if you take men individually or collectively.
God says all nations before him are as nothing. They are counted
to him less than nothing and vanity, vanity. Now, if you have a zero, If you
add 100 zeros together, what is the sum total of 100 zeros? I think it's zero, isn't it?
If you add a million zeros, vanity is zero. If you add a million
zeros together, you've still got zero. Man, by nature, at
his best state, Psalm 39, verse 5, is vanity. vanity. So it doesn't matter if we talk
about individually or collectively. We've all turned aside. They're all gone aside. All men
without exception, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've
turned everyone to his own way. There's a way that seems right
unto men and the end of that way is death. They're all together
become filthy. You see that? All our righteousness before
God are nothing but filthy rags. Filthy rags. Now, when I used
to work on the dairy farm, I had two uncles that had dairy farms. And when we were through milking,
those cows would come in and we'd hook up the milking machines
and we'd milk them and they would run out the barn at the end of
the session of milking, they would always leave lots of manure. And we would shovel out the barn
and we'd throw the manure away. Now it doesn't matter how high
that manure pile got. It's still manure. That's why
the Apostle Paul said, I count everything else lost, dung, and
ruined, dung, manure, that I may win Christ and be found in him.
Everything apart from Christ is manure. Our best morality,
our best righteousness, our best religious efforts. Add them all up. Manure. Manure. That's what God says. That's
why we need a Savior. That's why we need the Lord Jesus
Christ to put our sin away. And we are only accepted in the
Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse four. Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Well, by ourselves, we don't
have the right knowledge of God. These people who are workers
of iniquity, they have no knowledge. who eat up my people as they
eat bread and they call not upon the Lord. They don't call upon
the name of the Lord to be saved. They persecute God's people because
they have no understanding, they have no knowledge of who God
is. All sinners left to themselves
have no saving knowledge of a true and living God. None whatsoever. And because they don't have any
saving knowledge of a true and living God, they persecute the
Lord's people, they hate the true God of Scripture, and they
go about to establish their own righteousness, but they will
not submit to the righteousness of God. Remember, our Lord said,
don't be surprised if they hate you, they hated me before they
hated you. Because they will not seek God,
because the fool has said in his heart there is no God, because
they are ignorant and dead, they persecute those who are believers. They eat up my people as they
eat up my bread, and they call not upon the Lord. Now, here's
the thing. When you persecute the Lord's people, who are you
really persecuting? Persecuting the Lord. You remember
when the Lord Jesus Christ met that proud Pharisee named Saul
of Tarsus, who was going about to kill believers? And the Lord Jesus Christ met
him, and the Lord said to him, why are you persecuting me? You see, when you attack the
Lord's church and the Lord's people, you're attacking Him.
You're attacking Him. They eat up my people like they
would eat bread. And they do so because they're
ignorant. They do so because they will not call upon the true
and living God. Now look at verse 5. There they
were. Oh, there they were. There were
they, or there they were in great fear. For God is in the generation
of the righteous. God is with his people. God is
with his people. There they were in great fear.
Now, I think this looks forward to the day of judgment. When
they stand before God in judgment, there is no fear of God right
now before their eyes, as we read in Romans 3. But when they
stand before God in that last day, there will be fear in that
day. There they were in great fear.
Those loud-mouthed, iron-handed, proud-hearted, these heady, high-minded
sinners will be one day bowed down in great fear, and they'll
confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
One day terror will seize upon their heart when they stand before
God in judgment. Let those who persecute and rail
on the gospel and the Lord's people beware. God takes notice. He said, touch not my anointed,
do my prophets no harm. God takes notice. I notice this
statement down here in the last part of verse five. God is in
the generation, God is in the generation of the righteous.
Now who are these people? We're only righteous in Christ.
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Blessed is a man to whom the Lord imputed righteousness without
works. God is in the generation of the
righteous. Now, there's none righteous,
no, not one, but God's people are righteous in Christ. He is
the Lord, our righteousness, is he not? He's imputed to us,
freely imputed unto us, righteousness in him. Well, God is in the generation
of his people, the righteous, made so in Christ. He's the Lord,
our righteousness. Look at verse six. You have shamed
the counsel of the poor. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
God is nigh unto them a broken heart, save it such as be of
a contrite spirit. And these workers of iniquity,
these unbelievers and wicked men who say there is no God,
they shame the counsel of the poor. And you remember the Apostle
Paul said, I am not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
our Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. The Gospel of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the counsel is. How
God can be just. We read a while ago how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. That's the counsel of the Lord.
How God can be just and justify the ungodly. You've shamed the
counsel of the Lord. the counsel of the poor in spirit,
because the Lord is his, not only his righteousness, because
the Lord is his refuge. Now, who needs a refuge in a
time of storm? Sinners. sinners. We are in the Lord Jesus Christ
sinners seeking a refuge. He's given us an understanding.
He's given us a knowledge. We seek salvation where it's
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our refuge. He is our strength. You remember Psalm 46 1 God is
our refuge and strength of every present help in trouble because
the Lord is his refuge. The fool who said in his heart
there is no God and those who find righteousness and refuge
in the Lord Jesus Christ, they would shame us and try to embarrass
us and try to shake our confidence and assurance we have in Christ.
There is no God. Why are you spending your time
down there listening to the gospel? There is no God. God is not sovereign. God doesn't have salvation. You
don't need God. Goodbye, God. The Lord is our refuge. They're hiding in a refuge of
lies. Isaiah calls it. We're hiding in the refuge the
Lord has provided for us. Christ our refuge. Now look at
verse seven. Oh, that salvation was a marginal
reference has who will give salvation. Now what do sinners need? They
need salvation. They need a savior who can save. Who will give the salvation of
Israel? Oh, that salvation will come
out of Zion. Who will give this salvation
out of Zion? Zion is God's habitation. Zion is God's church. Zion is
where the gospel is sent out. when the Lord bringeth back the
captivity of his people, Jacob, he's a God of Jacob, Jacob have
I loved, when God brings us out of captivity by the salvation
of the Lord, and he brings us out of that captivity of sin
and bondage to the law and bondage to Satan, we shall rejoice, Jacob
shall rejoice, and Israel, God's people, This is God's spiritual
children, true spiritual sons of Abraham. We shall rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ and we shall be, what, glad? Glad,
glad. We're glad in Him. We rejoice
in Him. The Lord will give salvation
unto Israel. God's elect. We've talked about
the fool's creed, the fool's belief, now here is the believer's
creed, salvation of the Lord. Salvation of the Lord. Who does
give freely from Zion? the salvation that God has purposed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God, of God that showeth mercy
in Christ Jesus. Let me read this to you, Psalm
37, But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, He
is their strength in the time of trouble. The Lord shall help
them and deliver them, and He shall deliver them from the wicked
and save them. They trust in Him. They trust
in Him. Now look at verse 7 again, Psalm
14. Oh, that salvation. The salvation
of Israel. That's God's elect. That's God's
children. or come out of Zion, when the
Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, call his name
Jesus, he shall save his people from their sin. Jacob will rejoice,
and Israel shall be glad, shall be glad in the Lord Jesus Christ. David, the king of Israel, And
all the Old Testament saints, they had one hope of salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember our Lord said, if Abraham
rejoiced to see my day, he saw and was glad. Our Lord said Moses
wrote about him. Simeon was in the temple waiting
for the consolation of the Lord. They did rejoice in the Lord
and they were glad. They were glad in him. Glad in
him. always glad in Him. Sons of Jacob shall rejoice.
We rejoice in the Lord, don't we? For the Lord hath made me
glad through thy work. I will triumph in the work of
thy hands. The Lord hath done great things for us. Listen to
this. The Lord hath done great things
for us whereof we are glad. He's done great things for us.
We can always find reason to rejoice in the Lord. As Paul
said, rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice in the
Lord. Rejoice in Him.