Let's again take out our Bibles and let's turn to Psalm 14. Psalm 14. We continue in our Summer in the Psalms series. I will say, after having been gone for a week, it is such a delight to be back home among you. It's always fun to be in other places and to visit other churches even, but it's always great to be home. So let's read together Psalm 14, starting in verse 1. Again, this is God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word. To the choir master of David. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord? There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion, when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. The grass withers, the flower may fall, but the word of our God remains forever. You may be seated. Let's pray. Gracious God in heaven, we thank you for this reading of your word. We ask, O God, now that you would grant to us ears to hear, eyes to see. We pray that the seeds of your word may be planted deeply into our hearts. May they take root. May from this seed grow the plant of faith. May we be fruitful. Help us, O God, to be fruitful. Convict us of sin. Teach us your word. Encourage us, strengthen us, show us our Savior Jesus today, in whose name we pray. Amen. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaim His handiwork, Psalm 19 boldly proclaims. And as we read in our New Testament reading in Romans 1, it reminds us that the creation itself speaks to the divine nature and eternal power of God, such that all of humanity is without excuse. These truths were on my mind and in full display this past week as my family was on vacation in Yellowstone National Park. We observe the beauty and majesty of the created order, the creativity of the Creator. The whole earth is filled with God's glory. The earth, the whole cosmos, in fact, displays God's majesty. It displays the knowledge of the Lord as our Creator, as our Sustainer. So obvious are the signs and wonders of the natural order that one must choose to ignore the evidence in front of them in order to deny that there is a God who is worthy of our worship. And yet, in face of such evidence, in face of the cosmos which screams of God's glory, the fool says to himself, he says to his own heart, there is no God. The fool purposes in his own heart to convince himself that either God does not exist, or that if God does exist, God doesn't actually matter. Either way, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1, they are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. and in their drive to live autonomously as a law unto themselves, they deny God and they determine for themselves what is good and what is evil. Unless we think that this is a particularly modern problem, in our world of pseudo-science and philosophical atheism, Psalm 14 tells us that it's actually not. The self-deception of denying God has gone on for a very, very long time. As long as man's fallen to sin. And here in our text today, we find in Psalm 14 an extended meditation on the folly of the wicked who act as functional atheists. Although they're probably not philosophical atheists, they are at least functional atheists, and there are many of that sort in our world. as well. In truth, no one in their heart of hearts is truly an atheist. They know the truth, but suppress that truth so that they can live as they please. And their suppression of the truth may go as far as them actually being deceived in their own hearts. They've taken up counsel within themselves and convinced themselves. Sometimes the lie is so deep that even the liar is convinced by his own lies. Such is the case with many in our day who deny God in their hearts. And the only hope that they have, the only hope that anyone has, is that they might be transformed in Christ. They might be made a new creature in Christ. They might repent of their sin. They might believe, might be renewed by the Spirit. of God. This is the hope, by the way, which Psalm 14 ends with. David prays for salvation to come. Now, as we turn to our text, just somewhat as a side note, but worth pointing out, Psalm 14 is actually nearly identical to another psalm. That is Psalm 53. So Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 are nearly identical, not exactly identical. There are a few differences, some key differences. Psalm 14 uses the divine name Yahweh, whereas Psalm 53 uses the term Elohim, which is the generic or general word for God. In addition, there are some varying word variations in verses 5 and 6, but otherwise they're nearly the same thing. Now with that detail out of the way, let's dive into our text. And we see David begins his community lament like this. He says, the fool says in his heart, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Now the word fool is the Hebrew word nabal. In the Bible, the fool stands in contrast to the wise. You have the fool, and you have the wise. The wise man seeks godly wisdom. He receives the guidance of an abundance of counselors. He fears the Lord, for fear of the Lord is, what? The beginning of wisdom. Now the fool is his opposite. The fool seeks his own way. The fool does not seek godly wisdom, nor does he seek the safety of an abundance of counselors. He does not fear the Lord, and he does not possess godly wisdom. And so the fact that the fool is said to deny God should not surprise us. That would be the natural consequence of his following. In fact, to claim there is no God is the very definition of foolishness. For doing so is to arrogantly claim that you know all that there is to know, contrary to the evidence of the created order. Now, the Hebrew word nabal, or nabal, may seem familiar to you. That word may seem familiar to you. And if you know your Bibles, you might remember in 1 Samuel, chapter 25, there is a man who, incredibly enough, is named Nabal. Nabal, you might remember, was the husband of Abigail, a discerning and wise and beautiful woman. In 1 Samuel, David had been protecting the flocks and the men of Nabal. How Nabal rewarded David and David's men was to treat them harshly. And so David gathered his men. Ostensibly he went to do harm to Nabal. But hearing of what had happened, his wife Abigail wisely intercepts David and his men and convinces him not to act against her husband. And she says to David, 1 Samuel 25, verse 25, Let not my Lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal, for his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. Aren't you glad that you're not named fool? Well, some of us act the fool though, don't we? Even in that marriage, there's a stark contrast between the husband and wife. The wife is wise, and she acts wisely. Nabal is a fool, and he acts foolishly and arrogantly. Which is to say, the fool, the Nabal, is a man of folly. Here is a fellow who did not seek godly counsel, nor was he willing to listen to the counsel of others, including his own wife, whose wives the man of folly walks in his own ways, walks in his own power, does not take in the counsel of others, and lives by his own purposes, not walking in the ways of the Lord. And so as David says, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Now we should point out, it's not necessarily that the fool denies the existence of God. What he denies is that God even matters at all. Instead of seeking an abundance of godly counselors, Where there is great safety, we read this in Proverbs 11, 14. Notice where the man of folly takes up his counsel. In his own heart. in his own heart. He says to himself, he speaks to his own heart, there is no God. In other words, he considers his own so-called wisdom. He talks to himself and he thinks, you know what? I've got the best kind of wisdom. I mean, who's the smartest man in the room but me. He is his own counselor, speaking to his own heart, because he's convinced that he's the smartest fellow in the world. And he concludes, foolishly, he concludes that the Lord doesn't matter. I don't need the Lord's counsel, he says. He has his own counsel. And so doing, the fool has deliberately made himself to be the center of all moral and ethical decision making. He has become a law unto himself, or as we often will say, he has committed himself to his own autonomy. The fool has rejected the law of God as binding, or even important, and thus the man of folly becomes a man of lawlessness. and therefore he becomes a practical atheist, if not one in reality. Now, there may be many in our own day who fit this description. Many in our day refuse to use their God-given reason and their God-given powers of observation to look with discernment at the created cosmos. Instead, they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They take up counsel in their own heart and they continue in rebellion against God and God's law. In claiming to be wise, they have become fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling men or beasts. Many God-deniers actually are great worshippers, but what they are worshippers of are mainly themselves, if not the world. It's not necessarily, though, that the fool has rejected God's existing. Rather, what they're rejecting is that God is really important. They have no need for God. The fools of this world may even agree that there is a God, but in the end, what they would say is, God doesn't actually matter. They see following God as folly. Why? Because God is a barrier to them getting to do whatever they please. They're committed to their own autonomy. They've taken up counsel in their own hearts. They are the smartest sort of fellows. They figure they don't have a need for God because God gets in the way of what I want. And so in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul asks, rhetorically, where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through folly of what we preach to save those who believe. The foolishness of God, if one could really call it that, is greater than the wisdom of men. You see, the man of folly is wise in his own eyes. The skeptic thinks that he has true wisdom through which he can overcome the unbearable weight of religion and superstition. And yet, all of creation and the whole history of this world is an argument for God and against that sort of skepticism. Because it can be no other way. You see, one cannot make sense of this world if there is no God. There is no rational explanation, even for the existence of the universe, if there is no God. And so Paul's challenge in 1 Corinthians is for the skeptic and the debater of this age to stand up. You know, you have some questions to answer. Who's going to answer the questions? Anyone? He lays down the challenge. Let Him be shown that though He may say in His heart, there is no God, He can't actually live that way. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. God has continually shown Himself. God has shown Himself persuasively to men, through the created order, so that all of humanity is actually without excuse. And so the fool who denies God, who lives as if God does not exist, or God does not matter, cannot actually believe so in the deepest recesses of their heart. They can't actually live that way. Though he has wrongly reasoned in this way, saying to his own heart that there is no God, what he has actually done is suppress the truth, and remove any restraint upon evil in his heart, and has opened himself up to the floodgates of iniquity. That's the second half of verse 1. As he denies the existence of God or denies God's importance, David goes on to say, they are corrupt. A fool who denies God is corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. This is where a commitment to autonomy leads to. The rejection of God, even pragmatically or functionally, leads to actions which are debased and wicked. Actions which are founded upon self-interest and a disregard for that which is lawful according to God. What the foolish man does is act in corruption. does wicked deeds. ESV puts it, they do abominable deeds. What is being described here is the inner and outer effects of the fool's rebellious lifestyle. Corruption pollutes the heart of men, which therefore manifests itself outwardly in vile and wicked deeds. In other words, the denial of God is not some amoral sort of a place. There's not like this neutral place where like, well, you know, just deny God, but I can still have this to know. What it's going to lead you to is just simply evil. Among the fools, the psalmist says, there is none that do good. Are you going to be able to live morally outside of God? Outside of Christ? The Bible says no. The fool doesn't do anything righteous. The fool only does those things which are displeasing to the Lord. This is where lawlessness and a suppression of the truth leads. And so how will the Lord respond? Upon this ungodly and rebellious situation, the Lord looks down from His throne. Verse 2. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand who seek after God. The Lord observes the situation. And this summary statement here brings to mind a scene at the Tower of Babel. where the arrogant and corrupt men began to build a tower in order to reach the heavens. Ostensibly, they're building this tower so that they can get up to the heavens and dethrone God. I mean, talk about a foolish endeavor. These wicked men sought to do away with the Lord. And the Lord looked down upon them from heaven. He looked upon the children of man, and He sees their corruption. In Genesis chapter 11 we see God act in judgment, confusing the languages of the people, causing them to be driven and spread throughout the world. Similarly, God looks upon the corruption of the world prior to the flood and acted in judgment by flooding the earth. The thematic links between these accounts and then Psalm 14 is brought into greater focus. God looks upon the situation. God looks into the world. God sees the vile. God sees the corruption of the fools. He checks. He looks to see. Is there anyone who understands? Where is the skeptic? Do you understand, really? What he's asking, what he's looking for is, is there anyone who has a knowledge of God? Does anyone know God? Understanding is to walk in wisdom, to walk in the light. This is to know the Lord. The lack of understanding then is to walk in darkness, to walk in corruption. And so God is scanning the landscape, as it were. He's searching for those who walk in His light, who have understanding, who seek after God. And what does the Lord find? He finds no one. Of all the children of man, and this is a shorthand phrase which refers to all of humanity, not just Israel, All of the children of man, all of humanity is corrupt. All of humanity is in rebellion against their Creator, living godless lives, living lives filled with sin. They have, David says, verse 3, all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. Again, we're drawn back to the text of Genesis. God has looked upon the actions of men that He has created. He sees their corruption. He sees their wickedness. Consider another example from Genesis. Sodom and the other cities of the valley. Abram asks God whether he would still destroy the cities if there were some righteous people left. And you might remember that Abraham starts with 50 righteous and then that number continues to dwindle down and down and down until we're down to 10 people. And all there was actually in that city was Lot and his family. And God rescued them out of Sodom and then He destroyed the city. Psalm 14 says unequivocally that there is none who does good, not even one. Now on one level you might say, surely this is hyperbole, right? I mean, none at all? What about me? You might be thinking. Am I? Are there really no righteous people in the entirety of the whole world? Has everyone turned aside? Are all corrupt? On one level, the poem is emphasizing the corruption of this fallen world, the complete and total depravity of all of humanity. And we should understand that this is really true. Outside of the saving, transforming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no righteous person. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You see, the reality is that without Christ, without the Holy Spirit, without God saving you, where you were given a new heart, a new spirit, you too would remain among the corrupt children of man. There is no one who is righteous in and of themselves, except for the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. The state of sinful man is a point the Apostle Paul makes in Romans chapter 3, when he says that both Jew and Greek are under sin. And then he goes on to quote this passage, None that is righteous, no, not even one. Left to ourselves, beloved congregation, the situation the Lord would look upon is a world filled with rebellious sinners, wicked fools who are morally corrupt, And there would be no one who does any good at all. This is the default position outside of Christ. No one could do anything which was pleasing to God, because all are infected with the sin nature inherited from Adam. No one does good. The Lord will not only look upon the corruption of men, He will act in judgment. So in a sense, as we go through Psalm 14, you see really the bad news first. It ends with the good news. We'll get to that. Lest you're worried. We'll get to that. But God will act in judgment. Notice too, the foolish men are called, in verse 4, evildoers. And they are found to have no knowledge. Does anyone understand? No. They have no knowledge. They are called evildoers because they are morally wicked in their actions. They turn to other gods. They deny the kingship of the Lord. But not only do they do wicked things, they lack foundational knowledge of God. They do not know the Lord. They do not relate to the Lord rightly. It's not that the foolish evildoer lacks intellectual prowess or the ability to learn. The fool is not stupid. It's not like they're dense in the sense of their cognitive abilities. It's that they lack experiential knowledge. They don't know the Lord, relationally. They don't know the Lord. They don't have a relationship with God. They have rejected the Lord. They're in active rebellion against Him. This is what it means when it says they have no knowledge. It's not about their intellect. Unbelievers aren't dumb. They don't know Christ. David goes on to speak of the evil they do. He says, they eat of my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord. The foolish evildoer's deeds move beyond their refusal to call upon the Lord and serve Him, but impacts also the relationships around them. In other words, this is not only relating to God, it also relates to their fellow human beings. They devour people like one might devour bread. Their rebellion against God moves on to conquest against their fellow men. Now, I don't know about what your household is like, but in my household we love bread. My family could devour a loaf of homemade bread as quickly as it's taken out of the oven. That's the picture here of the evildoers' actions towards people. They casually consume people, like you might consume a fresh baked loaf of bread. They take advantage of them. They take all that they have. The prophet Micah employs this same imagery to describe those who cruelly exploit others. And in that case, in Micah, they should have been protecting them, instead of devouring them. Instead of calling upon the Lord, they help themselves to the goods of the poor. They help themselves to the goods of the vulnerable and the downtrodden. They use other people to serve their own purposes. The wicked fool exploits others, but they eventually will find themselves in terror. Verse 5. Here we find the promise of future judgment. Though they are consuming currently, there is a terror which is to come. For those who practice wickedness, the Lord will bring about justice. Whereas the Lord is with the righteous, He protects His people, He is a terror to those who are rebellion against Him. Here the wicked will gain the knowledge that they otherwise lack. But sadly, it will not be a blessing to them, it will be a curse upon them. And as the Lord brings judgment, the fool will finally acknowledge that which they had all along been denying. But now, they will acknowledge it, not with rejoicing, they will acknowledge it in terror. For the righteous, of whom the Lord has saved, This is a great comfort. But even though the wicked had consumed God's people like bread, and thus there is suffering for the righteous in this world, we can rest assured that there will be an end to the suffering. And that the wicked themselves, those who consume, will be consumed by the Lord. And the people of God will be vindicated. Verse 6 says, you would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. See, the godless and wicked fools may heap scorn upon the poor, but God is their refuge. Here it appears the fool may even have some level of power in society. And often that is the case. We see that in our own day. Aren't there not many fools who run our government? They might use their power against the people they should be serving. They may harm those who are vulnerable or hurting, those who seek to follow the Lord. Rather than be undermined, the poor learn what the evildoer never seems to know, and that is, the Lord is their refuge. As you suffer at the hands of the wicked, know that the Lord is your refuge. The Lord is the refuge of the faithful. Beloved Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. This is why Paul says in Colossians chapter 3, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Jesus Christ, he says. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. The wicked may suppress the righteous in Christ, but the Lord is our protector. And in the end, those who do wrong, they will receive the full wages. They will receive their full wages, while those who know the Lord will receive their inheritance. Because Christ has already paid the penalty for your sin, if you're in Him. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus says, I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who can heal the body and after that have nothing more than that they can do. But I will warn you. Whom to fear? Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. In other words, fear the Lord. Don't worry about men who can consume you like bread. Don't worry about the politician or the whatever who can kill you. Don't worry about men who can take your life. Worry about the one who can take your life and also send to hell. And in other words, fear the Lord, not men. Those who are in Christ have no need to fear those who can only kill the body, but have no power over the soul. You don't need to fear men. You may suffer, beloved, at the hands of wicked in this life. But our fear ought not to be of men. Our fear is to be of God. And the fear of the Lord, the Bible tells us, is what? The beginning of wisdom. Judgment will come upon the wicked. The Lord is our refuge and our strength. Which leads us now to our final point. Psalm 14 ends with hope for the righteous. There is hope here for those who are in Christ. Although most of the poem has been preoccupied with the deeds of the wicked and the response of the Lord in judgment as He thwarts the schemes of the wicked against the people of God, as God provides refuge, know this too, God also provides salvation for His people. Here we find the people of God crying out to the Lord for restoration. While the fool denies God His proper place, the righteous are crying out to be saved. What a contrast from verse 1 to verse 7. And people don't cry out to God unless they believe that there is a God who can in fact save them. And so in verse 7 we find this idiomatic Hebrew expression, Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. Here we find a passionate plea. Oh, that someone would come. Someone would save the people of God. And clearly that someone is Yahweh, right? Someone that is the Lord. It is Christ. Zion. Out of Zion, you see, Zion refers to a geographic place. That is, the hill on which the city of Jerusalem is built. Here is the place where the Temple is located. Here, Jerusalem, as we know, was the center of the Davidic rule. It was the capital of David's kingdom. And Zion is also considered to be the place which Yahweh rules from. Zion is the seed of authority. So in that sense, there is a geographic place called Zion, but also it points to the greater Zion. It points to a spiritual place that is the heavenly place. That place from which the Lord rules and reigns. The place in which the true temple is. The true seat of authority is. David, who is the king of Israel, from Jerusalem, prays that from that greater Zion, that place of divine and heavenly authority, that out of that Zion might come salvation for Israel. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 11 quotes from Isaiah chapter 59. He speaks of a deliverer which would come from Zion. A deliverer from Zion. And we know that the Deliverer, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who brings salvation. It is Jesus who is the answer to the cries of David for the people of God. Out of the heavenly Jerusalem has come the Savior. In Hebrews chapter 12, He says, but you have come to Mount Zion, into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, into the innumerable angels and festal gathering, into the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, into God, the judge of all, into the spirits of the righteous made perfect, into Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. He says, the sprinkling blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. What Psalm 14 does is, in this prayer of lament, in the midst of the foolishness of the world, in the midst of the wicked who deny God, who corruptly take advantage and seek to do harm to the people of God, God promises the hope of deliverance by a Redeemer. The request is for God to act decisively, to act on behalf of God's people. And the Messiah has always been understood to come from the heavenly place, that is, the heavenly Jerusalem. And beloved, God has answered His prayer. God has heard the prayer of David and has sent Christ. Jesus Christ is the Redeemer who comes and has come. So as David prays on behalf of the people of God, he prays with confidence. He prays knowing that, in a sense, God has already answered his prayer. Because David knows the covenant promises of God. He knows that God's promises are sure. In time and space, this was yet future for David, and yet it's so certain it may as well have already happened. And so what will that Redeemer do that He prays for? He prays that the Lord will restore the fortunes of His people such that Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad. In other words, that there would be blessings which would come. The people of God who are in exile in this life, who are suffering in this life, might receive blessing. And beloved, in Christ we experience every spiritual blessing from the heavenly places in Christ. We have a foretaste of heaven, yet we look forward to that day when we will see Christ face to face. When we will see our Redeemer who lives and reigns. As the hymn writer states, my hope is built on nothing less. than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust this sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name." My only comfort and my only rest is in Jesus Christ, who is the Redeemer, whose blood was shed at the cross, who paid the penalty for sin fully, Well, what one must do is repent of their sin, turn from their wickedness, turn from their foolish ways in denying God, and trust in Christ by faith. Trust and know Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. It is a folly to deny God. It is a folly, it is foolishness to live as a practical atheist. And yet many of our fellow human beings live in this very way. And so what the world needs is the Gospel. The world needs to know the good news of the Redeemer who has come, who has fully paid for your sins at the cross. Our world may be filled with corruption, but our hope is found only in Christ Jesus, who sets us free. All those who trust and rest in Him. This is the call of the Gospel, right? That we would trust and rest in Jesus. Who has forgiveness of our sins. We are justified by faith in Him. His blood covers all of our sins. Not by the works of our own righteousness. And so far from the independence of humanity, we need to depend upon the Lord. We need His mercy, which is new every morning. We need to experience God's mercy and to do so is to have His blessing, to know His blessing. It's not receiving things. The blessings of the Lord is not receiving things. It's receiving God in Christ. This is our great blessing. Our inheritance is the Lord. We're not for the grace of God. Beloved, all of us would be like the man of folly, wouldn't we? All of us would be like the man who says in his heart, there is no God. But the Lord in His mercy sent someone to proclaim the Gospel to you. You heard the Word of God. You heard the good news of God's grace. And so Christ has commissioned His church to continue making disciples of the nations until the end of the age. So let's go boldly into the world. Let us make disciples of the nations. Let us bring the gospel to bear. Let us bring the comfort of the Redeemer, who restores the fortunes of His people, who blesses us with every spiritual blessing from the heavenly places. Let us point to those who are caught in their folly, the true hope, the true wisdom that is found only in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Gracious God in heaven, we rejoice for the salvation, for the Redeemer who has come. We pray that we might be faithful to proclaim your excellencies to all the nations. We also pray, Father, that there are any among us who do not know Jesus Christ, that as they hear of the foolishness of living apart from God, they might be jealous, as it were, jealous for the blessings which are poured out from the heavenly places, that they might rejoice in the Lord. We pray for Your Spirit to be at work in all of our hearts, particularly the hearts of those who do not know You. They might turn from their sin, they might trust and rest in Jesus Christ alone. Bless us, we pray. Help us to walk in Your light, in the knowledge of our Savior, even Jesus Christ. And we pray this in His name. Amen.