and go with me to the book of Psalms, Psalm chapter 14. And tonight's message is this, God's word on atheism. on atheism and we know that atheism is something that's rampant and on the rise and the boldness to declare yourself as someone who does not believe in God is something that has become greater and greater in our society. It's far more accepted than it ever once was. And I don't like that, and I disagree with that. And there's a message here and some emphasis on atheism. Now, it's not new. David was dealing with folks who denied the existence of God. And David's going to deal with it. He's going to make some plain points and some things. that I think will help us to understand and see God's word on atheism. Now, I want you to know something. When you're dealing with someone who does not believe in God, you should always remain and stay gracious and kind. When David writes Psalm 1, I'll just guarantee you this, he's not yelling at somebody saying that the fool has said his own heart. And we need to watch the tone we use when we deal with folks who disagree with us. And if you want to be a blessing to somebody, if you want to help somebody come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're not going to be effective if your first move is to spit in their face. And so you need to use some common sense and grace and a gracious spirit and a spirit like the Lord Jesus when you're dealing with folks who disagree with you. And when we come to this text, God's word on atheism, David's going to deal with some things, some sad things, some sad truths, and we're going to find out some information, some things I think will be helpful as we consider God's word on atheism. Let's read the Bible passage together tonight. Psalm 14, beginning in verse number one. The Bible says this, 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's 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. The Bible says in verse number one of Psalm 14, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Now, when we come to the passage of scripture, God's word on atheism, we're going to break it up into two parts. As a matter of fact, the first six verses is part one. It's the qualities of an atheist. The second part is verse number seven, the hope for the atheist, which it's no secret, is the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll begin with the first thought here, the qualities of an atheist. And the Bible begins to describe some details about atheism and the man, the person, the woman, the boy, the girl who has said in their heart, that there is no God. The Bible says in verse 1, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. The emphasis here is on these two words, no God. Now I'll show you something interesting about our Bibles. If you'll look in your Bible, you see the fool has said in his heart comma, there is no God. How many of you, when you look at your Bible, you see the two little words, there is, and you see them in italics? Have you noticed that that's in italics? Now, I want you to understand something. I don't ever bring question on the Word of God. When I read my Bible, I am reading the Word of God, and I've got it, and I'm thankful for that. But it does help us understand a few things. Our Bible was translated into English out of other languages. And the book of Psalms primarily was translated out of the Hebrew. And with the original Hebrew does not... We have this understanding that there is, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. The understanding of the language is there is no God. But the translators, they use the little phrase, there is, to give us clarity. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. The emphasis in this passage of scripture is, no God. A fool says, no God. A fool says, no God for me. A fool says there is no God, no God for me. And the Bible makes it plain and talks about the spirit of a person who says, no God, no to God, or that there is no God. By the way, the atheist is the person who says there is no God, and the fool is the person who says there is no God. And when you say there is no God, you are The Bible qualifies you as this atheist, but I'll have you know something. When you come to a place in your life where you believe in God, but you say no to God, you have fallen into the same trap that the atheist has fallen in, because we all must say, yes, there is a God, and yes, I must honor and obey and follow God. You see, God needs to have a prominent place in all of our lives. The qualities of an atheist. The first thing the Bible says of the qualities of an atheist is that he is a fool. Now the word fool is also foolish. He's a fool. He is leaving out God. The fool has set his heart. There is no God. It is a very foolish thing to leave out God. The Bible says the atheist is a fool. Now I don't want you to misunderstand. There are lots of extremely intelligent atheists. But the word fool and intelligence aren't on the same plane. You can be very intelligent and very foolish. It is a foolish thing to turn your back on God. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. This word fool has a sense of stubborn rebellion. The Bible says that a quality of an atheist is that he's made a foolish decision. I think it's interesting to see here. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. Where does this root have, where does this rebellion have, where does the foolishness begin? The fool has said in his heart there is no God. I'm just going to tell you something. You have to make up your mind that there is no God. You have to decide and make an intellectual decision counter to how God has created you to say that there is no God. I'll just tell you, it takes lots and lots of faith to believe that there is no God. Now, the atheists would want to argue that, but it takes a lot of faith to believe there is no God. It takes a lot of faith to believe that everything that is came out of nothing. Out of nothing came everything. It takes a lot of faith to believe that. It's a foolish thing to believe that there's no God. God has given us so much evidence. that he is God. God speaks to his people through creation. I think creation, and the creation is one of the greatest and loudest proponents of the fact that there is a God. I mean, look around. Think about the creation. I love spring. I love spring. I love to see when the forsythias start to bloom and the redbuds start to bloom. I love it when things start greening up a little bit. How many of you like that? Some of you have already mowed your grass. I'm proud of you. I'm going to put mine off a while. But I'm thankful. I'm thankful. I like to watch it. And it's an amazing thing that God has done. And creation that we see and witness and can touch is an amazing thing. It's that time of year I've got baby goats being born. I mean, it's an amazing thing. It's amazing. And God's done that and provided for us that, and it won't be long until we start planting stuff. I saw some folks are starting to plant lettuce and onions. Hallelujah. That's good. I see that hand. God bless you. And you know, you're supposed to give the preacher a little bit, just so you know. I think that's in the Bible. I'm just, I'm messing. But it's amazing, the little seeds go in the ground and God does a work and produces enough to feed us all. And I'm just amazed. God in creation, he's done so many things. So many mighty, wonderful, amazing things. And I'm just gonna tell you something. If for some reason you think that all of this just oopsie happened, the Bible says that's foolish. That's foolish. You know, you study, and we've talked about this occasionally, but it's important we reiterate, and we're gonna reiterate it year after year after year after year, but we talk about this. Folks who are a lot smarter than me who study the atmosphere and study the planets and study these things, if God were to allow the sun to creep just a little bit closer, we'd all burn up. If God would allow the sun to creep just a little further away, we'd all freeze to death. But God, since the beginning, has kept the sun and the earth in a perfect rotation, so perfect, so perfect, that we can set our clocks to the second. as to how long it's going to take this year for this giant earth to do its rotation and sun. It's unbelievable. And you know what else is amazing to me? This is just a few things that just come to mind. God's kept it going like that for thousands of years. Since he spoke it into existence, he's kept it going on for thousands. Have you ever spun a basketball on your finger? I can do that. I can spin a basketball on my finger. I practiced it a lot when I was a teenager, because that was really important. And I've retained that skill. Probably couldn't right now. But at any rate, if you've ever tried to spin a basketball on your finger, you can do it. But you know what happens? It doesn't take very long for that basketball spin on your finger for it to wobble and fall off. But God has been able to maintain planet Earth in its orbits since the beginning of time. It ain't wobbled. It ain't slowed down. Yeah, you're right. It just happened like that. Wow. I'm just going to tell you something. The Bible says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And I'm not going to be mean to people who deny God, but the Bible says it's a foolish thing to disregard God. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Let's continue. We could park there for a long time. The Bible says they are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. Now I want you to understand something. The qualities of an atheist is foolish. And then the next quality of the atheist is corrupt. Now here's something that you've got to keep in mind. If you take God out of your logical equation, I want you to know what it produces. Corruption. You see, if you take God out of your logical equation, the natural thing is if there's no God, there's no higher power, there's no ultimate punishment or reward, there's no God. If you take God out of the equation, let me just tell you something, it leads you quickly down to a path of corruption. If you leave God out, there's no moral compass. If you leave God out, there's no morals at all. There's no right, there's no wrong. We're just animals. If you leave God out, you begin to make decisions that are rotten. The word corruption literally means rotten. And you begin to rot and degenerate into the most vile and wicked of things. Have you noticed something? Have you noticed among the crowds of people who declare there is no God, you begin to watch the folks who leave God out. It won't be long until they're not only leaving God out, but they're doing abominable, corrupt, things. It's the byproduct of leaving God out is corruption. I don't know about you, but when the Bible teaches us that we are to live in the fear of the Lord, I'm going to let you know something. The fear of the Lord is something that keeps Cody Sturgill in line. The fear of the Lord and Ruth and Mama Those three powers combined, I'm just going to tell you something, I'm going to do things a little different than Cody would do if there wasn't the fear of the Lord, Ruth, and Mama. But ultimately the fear of the Lord. You know what I mean? But when there's no God, if there's no God, well, why in the world? Would we be nice? If there's no God, why in the world would we share? If there's no God, why would we love? If there's no God, why would we take a wife and raise a family? If there's no God, why would we give a rip if others beside us live or die? If there's no God, I want you to know something. Folks who live without reverence and fear of God, they make decisions without God. And the byproduct of leaving God out and the qualities of atheism is corruption. The fool said in his own heart, there is no God. The Bible says, and it continues, it says they are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There's none that doeth good. And the Bible says, look, the atheist is not good. The atheist is not good. I've met kind atheists along the way. Really, they've not embarked on the depths of what they profess because if you leave God out, it's not good. It's done good. Verse number two, the Bible says, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. Now, I want to remind you of something. When we come to Psalm 14, the whole Psalm, as far as I can tell, is addressing the idea of atheism. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. That's the beginning. And out of it, we build on this. And so the second verse, points us and gives us some more understanding that the fool, the atheist, the fool who said there is no God, the Bible says the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. Verse number three, they are all gone aside. Now the Bible says when God looked down on those that deny and say no God, he said they don't understand. I want to remind you of something. If you leave God out, the key to everything, the byproduct is corruption. But also if you leave God out, the key to everything, the byproduct is also complete and total misunderstanding of everything that's going on around you. Now if you try to process life without God, I want you to know something. You're going to end up messed up. You're going to end up messed up. If you leave God out, you can't make sense of anything. If you leave creation out, you can't make sense of things. If you leave God, the will of God, the sovereignty of God, the grace of God by sending Jesus Christ, if you leave all this out, you can't make sense out of life. The Bible says, I looked on the atheist. I looked on those folks who say, no God. And he said, I saw no understanding. There was no understanding. You're going to misunderstand it all. You're going to come up with some of the craziest notions imaginable. Let me give you one crazy notion. Out of everything, out of nothing came everything. Millions and billions of years, nothing produced everything. That doesn't make sense. But in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You know, that begins to become more and more rational. The Bible says they are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There's none that do us good. No, not one. The Bible says about these folks, they are all gone aside. They're all gone aside. I like that phrase, they're all gone aside. Now, this is something to think about. Do you know that God has designed a glorious path for your life? He really has. There's no wasted people in God's design. I'm thankful for that. You know, God has a purpose for every life. And I love that. I love that God, as small as I am in the grand scheme of everything, God has a plan for my life. And I'm thankful when we start looking at other people, we think, you know, God has a plan for their life. But the Bible says something about the folks who say no to God, they say no God. He says they've all gone aside. Now God has a plan, and I'm going to tell you something, there's sweet peace, satisfaction, fulfillment in the purpose of God for your life. But the Bible says when you leave God out, look, you've left out the key. When you've left out the key, you've left out something that is very important. You've gone aside from the will of God that God has designed for you. They've all gone aside. Man, you say no to God, and I'm going to tell you what you do. You step out and away from God's plan for your life, which is very best, and you begin to embark on a journey that leads ultimately to destruction. You see, qualities of an atheist, they're all gone aside. Look at what the Bible says in verse 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord. Now look, qualities that an atheist has continued misunderstanding, have they no knowledge? And the Bible says this, they eat up my people as they eat bread. Do you know something that happens? When you leave God out of, over time, you're corrupting, you're misunderstanding, you're not seeking God, you're going aside, the byproduct of atheism is corruption, anger. What happens? You eat at my people's, they eat bread and call not upon the Lord. In the jungles it looks like cannibalism. In our society, in our society it's abuse, disregard for human life. In our society, a modern, sophisticated society. There's no regard for unborn children. In our society, it's a disregard for life, and grandma's old and not useful anymore, let's put her down. And you think that's harsh, but that is actually the sentiment of so many people who leave God out. They eat at my people. They eat up my people as they eat bread. I want you to know something. Evil, wickedness, no compassion is the byproduct of atheism. It's a quality of an atheist. They eat up my people, call not upon the Lord. Verse number five, look at this. There were they in great fear. And let me tell you something that's gonna happen to the atheist. There's coming a time that the atheist is going to suffer great fear. It's fascinating to read stories, and I heard a few as I prepared this message, but I'm not repeating in detail. It's fascinating to hear stories of professed atheists that, on their deathbeds, cry out in fear to God. It's fascinating. The stories repeat themselves over and over again, and I don't like that. I mean, it breaks my heart. I'm confident that as David wrote this, he wasn't like, you big fools. I feel like David's heart was burdened that there are people who left out the greatest treasure that life has to offer, a relationship with the very God who created them. But I want you to know something, there's come a time when great fear will strike the heart of an atheist. There was a Russian astronaut who, flew into space and he flew into space and he was a rank, unkind atheist. He said, I've been out of this world. He said, I didn't see God. Someone said, if he'd opened the door of the spaceship, he'd have met him. The sad news is, it's a point when a man wants to die, and after this, the judgment. And it breaks my heart to think that there's masses of people who leave God out, say, no God. There's come a time where there'll be great fear. Exactly. One of these days, every knee will bow and tongue confess that there is a God. And I'm just going to tell you something. It breaks my heart. And I pray that God will help people like us that let Jesus shine through their lives to prove to other folks that there is a God. I wonder, does your life speak in such a way that an atheist would say, I've got something about them? Or are you full of bitterness and wrath and anger and gossip and wickedness? What's the hope for the atheists? I'm going to get to that in just a minute. I don't want to jump ahead just yet. The Bible says there were they in great fear. For God is in the generation of the righteous. There's a distinct difference between those people who trust the Lord and those who don't. It's the fear factor. The Bible says in verse six, you have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. The Bible gives us one more little look into the atheist. He shames the counsel of the poor. He shames the people who just simply trust in God because the Lord is his refuge. You shame the counsel of the poor. The qualities of an atheist. Number two, the hope for the atheist. Here's what David says, oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion. The salvation of Israel has come out of Zion. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. This verse points to the coming of the Messiah. This verse points to the coming and hope that we have in Jesus, the promise of everlasting life and peace with God through faith in Christ and David. not knowing yet exactly what Jesus was going to look like, knew that God had promised he was sending a Savior. And David said, Oh, Lord, that you would save these lost people who have turned their backs and denied that there is a God. Or would you save them? The hope for the atheists is the Lord Jesus Christ. The hope for the atheists is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus has come and paid the price for the sins of the whole world. And people like us are to live for Jesus. And when we do, the spirit of Jesus will work and move in our hearts and lives. The testimony of Jesus will come out of our mouths and the spirit of Christ will work as we witness and share the gospel with the lost and God deniers. And God by his power can do a work and change their lives. David looked around and saw what a mess the atheist had made. He says, I'll tell you what we need. We need Jesus. I'll tell you what they need. They need Jesus. I'll tell you what we can do. We can love and live for Jesus. He says, Oh Lord, do a work. Maybe you're dealing with an atheist in your home, in your family, in your life. Look, don't scream at them. Don't yell at them. Don't stay mad at them all the time. You love Jesus and let Jesus live through you. And you share Christ with them graciously. And you let God change your life. And like Dave, you say, oh Lord, we need you. We need a moving of your spirit. Lord, we need you to come. David said, we need the Messiah to come. That's what we need. And you know what we need? If we're gonna see God change the hearts and lives of the atheist. We need God to come. We need Jesus to move. the Lord to change them. I know that He can. May God help us. Aren't you glad we have a God that's so good? I'll just tell you something. It takes far less faith to believe in God than it does to try to disprove Him. But I'll tell you, when you do put your faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ He's going to help you keep all the other things in life in line. Oh, let's keep our faith firmly in the fact that there is a God. He's good.