And please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 53 this morning, Psalm 53, where we will be talking about deliverance from depravity. The salvation from Zion is the hope of God's people in a corrupt world. As you're turning there, I would just like to take this opportunity as a pastor to echo Paul's words in 2 Thessalonians 2 of, I give thanks for you brothers. I'm thankful for each one of you and God's work of grace in your life. And I look to see that more and more. I pray the word of the Lord would speed and be honored in your lives every day. Psalm 53 is our text together today. We'll begin by reading this. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity. There is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. And those who work evil, no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, they do not call upon God. There they are in great terror where there is no terror, for God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you. You put them to shame for God has rejected them. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. When God restores the fortunes of His people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. If this psalm sounds familiar to you, that's a good thing, because it is almost identical, or very nearly the same as Psalm 14, a psalm we've already looked at together. In fact, There's really only one major change between the two, which you see in verse five here of our psalm. There are a couple other smaller changes throughout the psalm between Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, but it's almost the same psalm. And that, of course, makes us ask the question. Why in the book of Psalms does the Lord include another psalm that's almost identical to one we've already sung or looked at, made our own? I think the repetition of this psalm points to the importance of the message that it has for us. Pardon me. I do believe, in fact, that this is a message that we have a hard time grasping well, but it's an essential message. And I'd like to summarize it this way this morning, although there's more to it than this, but perhaps as we look at Psalm 53 today, just to summarize it this way, there is no hope for humanity apart from God's salvation. That is simply a must-get kind of a truth. There is no hope for humanity. Humanity is corrupt. Humanity is depraved. But if God saves, then we have salvation. We see in verses one through three of this psalm that the world is filled with corrupt fools. Corrupt fools. In fact, it opens up here with a fundamental kind of foolishness. Not just a superficial kind of foolishness the psalm is talking about, but a fundamental kind of foolishness. It says, the fool. has said in his heart. The fool is the man is talking about here, not just one particular person, but any person who fits this kind of a description. And this person, as you look in scripture, might be very intelligent. He might be very well-educated, maybe civilized in the ways the world would consider very civilized. But he is morally someone who is thick-headed. In fact, In many ways, in Scripture, this terminology is pointing us to someone who is the essential godless man. He is a fool. And that comes out here in what he says. He says in his heart. Now remember, this is the core of who he is. This is not just, again, a superficial reaction to a situation. This is something that he is in his heart. The core of who he is, how he thinks, what motivates him, where he plans his life, what his ambitions are, what his value system is. It's his heart, and this is where he's saying this. There is no God. That's the essential characteristic of a fool. We might immediately start thinking in our day of famous atheists, people who argue there is no God. But really what the psalm is talking about is not so much theoretical atheism as it is simply practical atheism. A way of life, a way of thinking, a whole way of conducting ourselves that goes about it as if God does not matter. God is irrelevant to this person. He can do whatever he wants to do, and as far as he's concerned, there can be a God or there cannot be a God or whatever. It just doesn't matter, practically speaking. Now, he might be a theoretical atheist. He might invest his life in producing arguments to prove there is no such thing as God. Okay, those kind of people would fit in that, in this category as well. But the majority of the people that we meet, In fact, as we'll see here, the way most of humanity or all of humanity is by nature, we're not so much worried about spending our time writing books about proving there is no God. We're actually more concerned with, you know, making a living. I want to make some money. I want to have a good life. I want to have a good time in life. You know, these kinds of things. And we then conduct our lives as if God was not God, but rather, in fact, we were God. We get to decide for ourselves what's good. We get to decide for ourselves what's best. And we go about achieving that by our power. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. He's not concerned about the day of judgment. He's not concerned about what God thinks of him. He doesn't think about God's instructions all that much. He doesn't worship God, at least in any meaningful way. Perhaps he's a Sunday go-to-meeting kind of Christian. You know, he'll show up on Sunday morning, go to church. You know, if that's the socially acceptable thing to do, perhaps. But when it comes right down to it, God doesn't matter to him. So, God looks down from heaven, the Psalm describes in verse two, on the sons of Adam, to see if there are any who act wisely, who have the understanding of the way life really ought to be lived, which is also described here as who seek after God. A true life of wisdom is a life of seeking after God. A life of understanding is a life of seeking after God. That's what God is looking for. And what does he see in verse 3? They have all fallen away. They've diverged from seeking after God. Together in mass, they have become corrupt. This is a different term than what we saw up in verse one. It's talking about a moral corruption. Together they have become corrupt, depraved. In fact, it goes on to put this point even more sharply. There is none who does good, not even one. No human being in all the world does good. That's God's assessment of the situation here in Psalm 53. Now, as we enter into this, important to step back and ask ourselves this, can the world really be as bad as God says it is in verse three? I mean, come on now. If you look around, you can see an awful lot of good things in this world, can't you? After all, we have a fairly orderly society that we live in. You can take your child to the doctor and expect high quality care. You can deposit your money in a bank and expect to get it back again. Your car is engineered and manufactured to perform for a couple hundred thousand miles or more of driving. Your neighborhood is relatively safe. I mean, besides that, you just look around. You can find many people and organizations that are dedicated to doing good deeds, like raising money to support veterans or wounded police officers, building schools, providing things for help for children, maybe underprivileged children. You see acts of kindness regularly. You really do see somebody in the grocery store help that little old lady with her groceries. Right? So as you open your eyes and you look around, is this song kind of exaggerating a little bit? You know, I mean, it's saying there's nobody who does good, not even one person does good. Come on now. Right? It's just, that way of thinking, that very way of thinking that says, come on now, and looks at the world and says, we're actually, there's a lot of good things going on here. makes a fundamental error. What it does is confuse God's grace with man's goodness. It looks around the world and it sees all the good things that people do, and it thinks, see, we're not so bad after all. But it ought to look around at all the good things people do and think, God has been exceptionally gracious to us. giving us so many blessings that we do not deserve. Now, why do we make this kind of an error? This way of looking at things essentially looks at things superficially, on the surface of things. It fails to see the real issues at stake. God looks at the sons of Adam in verse two to see if there are any who what? Who seek after him. That's the standard he's using to evaluate mankind. It's not ultimately whether you help the little old lady across the street, but are you seeking after God? To seek after God is to trust Him, to submit to Him, to obey Him, to worship Him, to honor Him. That's the fundamental issue. Seek the Lord in His strength, seek His face continually, Psalm 105, verse 4 says. But ever since the fall, the basic orientation of every human heart has been to seek our own. We seek after our own. That's what we're after. Why do we do the good things we do? Because it's good for me. Because it helps my scenario in life, my society, my family, myself. And really, unless God intervenes to give us a new heart, we are proud idolaters, worshiping and serving the creature rather than the creator. And that is depravity. That is, in God's eyes, ultimate wickedness. It is ultimate pride. It is setting ourselves up against God. You say, really? Doing good things can be setting ourselves up against God? Absolutely. When we see things from God's perspective, that He is God and we are not, just that basic truth right there, He is God, we are not, should tell us something about how we should conduct our lives. but we don't live our lives that way, as if he truly was God. We serve ourselves. And thus we are that fool that the Psalm is talking about. The fool is one who lives as if God did not matter, as if he was not God, as if I could be God. It's the university professor who teaches that we can understand whatever discipline it is that he specializes in without regard to God. That is the fool. of this song. It's the journalist who writes as though it makes no difference if God exists, as he reports. It's the battalion commander who sees life only through the grid of what makes a successful military career. It's the business owner who doesn't see his business as a moral concern at all. It's the football coach who prays before games but totally ignores God's value systems. It's the programmer who loves what he can do with computers and doesn't see God as relevant at all. What's God got to do with this? It's a bunch of data after all. And what this psalm is telling us, and here's where we need to get this message, and I believe this is one of the reasons why this psalm is repeated. This is so hard for us to get. All these people I just listed are all participating in the corruption of the human race. That's what they're doing. God assesses them as they have all fallen away. They have together become corrupt. They are furthering the corruption, the decay, the depravity of the human race. You say, really? Yes. God in his common grace takes all these things that we humans do, and he uses them for good in his good providence. He accomplishes his purposes. His kingdom stands. But as far as we're concerned, the very fact that we are attempting to do these things apart from God, to make ourselves great, shows we're no different than the Tower of Babel. We're every bit as wicked as that society. Every time we try to construct our greatness apart from God, we are rebelling against it. We're living in ultimate flagrant rebellion against God. And God hates that. We are corrupting ourselves. And the fact that we look at what we accomplished through this and see it as success, and we hold it up to our children and the next generation as success, we're corrupting those children. We're sending them to universities to say, get a great career. This is what life is all about. And you are corrupting them. We hold up our economic greatness and say, this is what you need to have to have a good life. You're corrupting people by doing this. You can count on it. that all of our efforts to establish our own goodness will ultimately result in more corruption. That's the end of the flesh. It always is. It dies. You see, when judged by God's standards, not the standards that we invent, but by God's standards, it is absolutely true. There is no one who does good, not even one. Nobody. You, anybody else, nobody does good. The world is filled with corrupt fools. And so as we sing this psalm, it ought to drive home to our hearts. There is no hope for humanity apart from God's salvation. You can't make it better. You can't make this world better. You can't establish your kingdom. So what do you find happening in verses four and five then? The psalms sings of what God does in response to a foolish world. Have those who work evil no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread? They do not call upon God. There they are in great terror where there is no terror for God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you. You put them to shame for God has rejected them. We see here ignorance in verse four, a profound ignorance. In fact, the Psalm asks in shock, How it is possible that these workers of evil are so ignorant of reality? I think we're living in such a dream world. They've just made up their own world like they don't even know anything. Have those who work evil no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread? So no matter how educated they are, no matter how technologically advanced they are, No matter how civilized they think themselves to be, they are ultimately without knowledge. Because the glue that binds all human knowledge together is missing for them. They don't have it. By the way, did you notice already in this psalm how acting wisely, in verse two, God looks to see those who understand, who act wisely. Acting wisely is connected to seeking God. If you separate those things, You no longer have understanding. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1 7 says if we can put a theme verse on the whole book of Proverbs, that's it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. These workers evil have no knowledge. They don't understand. In fact, their efforts at knowledge are idolatrous. They're simply furthering their idolatry. You know what? Mankind was made to know. Every single one of you here today, you were made to know. That's why you like to do new things and grow in new things. And so we seek knowledge. But we were made to know God, ultimately. That's the whole reason why we were made to know. And so when we reject God, but still seek knowledge, we are acting idolatrously. We reject all true knowledge, and all of our knowledge becomes skewed. Everything we think we know, think we know so much about, it actually turns to moral pea soup in our brains, and we get it all mixed up. We end up committing abominable iniquity. They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity. The Psalm describes us. That's what happens when we do not fear God. It describes the workers of evil here as doing a couple things. First of all, eating up God's people like they eat bread. What a picture there. Because they do not live according to God's ways, the world system of the fools is always working at cross purposes with God's people. God's people, it's assumed in this Psalm, although it's not talked about, are those who have fled to Him for refuge, who trust in Him, right? They know, just like David said in Psalm 51, in sin did my mother conceive me. Okay, I'm those fools too, but what do I do about it? I flee to God for refuge, for salvation. Those people are working then at a totally different purpose in life than the world of foolishness around them. This cross-purpose is the way the world deals with God's people can come through persecution, through very explicit opposition. We might think of things like in the 20th century, Soviet communism and how it intentionally tried to produce an atheist society. and would systematically purge anybody who opposed that. Murdering, killing, imprisoning, whatever it took to get rid of people who did not live according to that belief system. They were eating up God's people. But you know, this can also happen not just through persecution, but through assimilation. The world will work to assimilate God's people. Swallow them up in that sense as well. And this is probably the much greater danger for us in our society That we would become assimilated into the world swallowed up by it begin to think like it act like it Start worshiping its gods being pressed into the world's mold, losing our identity as God's people with a whole, a distinct vision of what we're here for, what we're all about, what we're trying to achieve. That's one way the world will try to swallow you up if you're God's people. It will try to assimilate you. It will try to bring you into what really is its corruption, its decay. It'll try to make you think this is the way the world really works. And so you need to live your life this way. And that too is eating up God's people. Be aware of that as you go into the world this week. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, as you're interacting with the world system, realize that the world is always actively working to assimilate you. It really is trying to further its agenda, which says there is no God. I don't have to think about God when it comes to all these facets of life. I'm not accountable to God for all these facets of life. We can set up our own, we can set up our political and national systems. We can set up our entertainment systems. We can set up our educational systems and we don't have to reference God. We don't have to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord. You just come and be a part of it too. Right? And as long as you don't say, Jesus is Lord, then you can fit right in and partake of all of our riches that we will give to you too. And you start marching to the beat of that drummer instead of according to what God says. They're eating up God's people, young people in particular. I would urge you in this, it's not that as we get older in this life, that we aren't still just as capable of being assimilated by the world. In fact, if we aren't pursuing after Christ and aren't having our minds conform to this world, we can, as we get older, become assimilated to the world in much more sophisticated ways, even, that look better than you do when you're young. But it is true that when you are young, there are what Paul told Timothy about youthful desires. You're looking forward to life. You're looking forward to what seems like the good life. What's attractive? What do I want out there? And you're setting up your life to get there. Realize the world system is simply out to eat you up. It's promising you the good life, but don't be taken in by fools. They're fools. The world is filled with corrupt fools. We don't realize that, we won't have wisdom. And look what happens to God's, well, I can't move to that yet. There's one other thing in verse four about fools here. I almost jumped to verse five. They do not call upon God. They do not call upon God. This calling upon God, you're saying, well, that means prayer, right? Well, yes. But even more deeply, it means true worship and dependence on God. That's what the whole idea of calling upon the Lord is. Psalm 116, 17 says, I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord. So yes, it is praying, certainly. But it's praying that arises from fearing God, loving God, trusting God, depending, serving God. And that's why we shouldn't be taken in, by the way. You ask, well, like, what about a Bible belt scenario where, you know, everyone is a Christian? So, you know, we pray before our city council meetings. We pray before our high school football games. We pray before, you know, you name the public event, but nobody lives like it. Is that calling on the name of the Lord? No. You're not living like one who trusts in God, whose identity is in God. And that's exactly why you do call on the name of the Lord when you trust him. You realize your dependence, your life is from him. You have to call upon him. And you look to him as the one who can save you. They do not call upon God. That's the characteristic of a fool. Again, he lives his life as really in the practical, God doesn't matter. all that much. And what happens then in verse 5? Right in the place, right where they believed they were most secure, where there was nothing to fear and nothing to dread, absolute terror strikes. God arises in judgment, in his wrath he brings them to complete shame. It describes it here, he scatters the bones of him who encamps against you. It's as if the fools don't even have a decent burial. It's like a battlefield scene where the corpses are so thick that they can't even bury them all. This is what happens when God arises against the fools. They won't even get the decency of an honorable burial. They will be completely wiped out. This is what God does to all the enemies of himself and his people. The hope of humanity is only found in God's salvation. And that's why as we come to the last verse of the Psalm, God's people rejoice in his salvation. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad. God's people rejoice in his salvation and in nothing else. Vain is the help of man. Put not your trust in princes. Don't put your trust in the United Nations. Don't put your trust in the United States government. Don't put your trust in therapy and psychology. Don't put your trust in education. Don't put your trust in, well, the economy's got to get better so we'll all have jobs. You know what? All those human activities do have a right aspect to them. They were made for us to do under the Lordship of Christ. But you let any human institution, any human activity, get out from under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and it becomes idolatrous. It becomes something we begin to put our trust in, to rest our weight and security on, as if that's going to give us true life. But when we've honestly understood verses 1 through 3, we can never do that. We have to turn to God. There is no hope for humanity, apart from God's salvation. And that's why God's people pray. As in verse 6, so as Jesus taught us to pray, your kingdom come. Oh, that the salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. God, come. Come and deliver your people. Come and establish your kingdom. This is what we need. Yes, we're endeavoring to be faithful. We recognize in this world, and you're sustaining it by your common grace. You are upholding all things by the word of your power. If it were left to us today, if you took your hands off of, let's just say the United States of America today, or Colorado Springs today, if you took your hands off and let us go in our depravity, we would utterly destroy ourselves. And we know that. We depend upon you. But we're asking not just for your restraining in that sense of evil, we're asking you to come. We're asking you to come and send your salvation. That's what we delight in. And you know what? We have seen God working throughout history to answer this prayer of His people, haven't we? Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. What has God done? We remind ourselves over and over again as we go through the Psalms, we have seen him send his son, Jesus. Now think about how he did that. He did that in such a way that all the worldly wise, all the fools of this world who will not trust in him will never see. They don't see that as an exercise of power and dominion of God accomplishing his wonderful purposes on behalf of his people. Again, what is that? Even if they say the name Jesus. But we have seen in Jesus Christ the glory of God. He's full of grace and truth. All of who God is manifested to us. And He sent His own Son. Even to Zion. to be manifested there as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, to be lifted up as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The world mocked Him, the world scorned Him, but we see His glory there because we know that's the true answer to all of our corruption. It's death and resurrection in Christ. We have seen God raise him from the dead. Three days later, he truly bodily raised Jesus from the dead. And that is the hope of this whole world. Apart from that, we have no hope. We have seen God receive his son up into glory, exalting him to his right hand, giving his stamp of approval, his judgment of approval on everything his son has accomplished. We have seen him send out his spirit and establish his church on the day of Pentecost. And we have seen Him continue to build that church. We have seen Him work in lives down through the centuries and the millennia. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. God says, it's coming. I'm accomplishing it. I am answering that prayer. And there is coming a day when He will be revealed in all of His power and glory, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. That is our hope. And I believe Psalm 53 is given to us again today as God's people, even in this church. Because we have to be divested of any hope in mankind. We so naturally turn back there. Like, maybe there's something the world will give me that I need. But God says, here is where your hope is. And when your hope is in the right place, then there's a true expectation of joy. When God restores the fortune of His people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. There's a true expectation of joy. We have a foretaste of that joy right now through the down payment of the Holy Spirit Himself. But we're looking forward to ultimate joy, true vindication, ultimate exaltation with God. You see, the life of trusting Christ is a life of joy even while living in a world filled with foolishness. Do you trust Him today? If so, let us confess our hope and our joy that Jesus is Lord, together as a congregation. Jesus is Lord. Amen.