In the sermon titled 'The Fool and You,' Jason Dohm discusses Psalm 14, emphasizing the universality of human corruption and the tendency to reject God as King and Judge. Dohm asserts that Psalm 14, mirrored in Psalm 53, highlights a distasteful truth to the carnal mind: humanity's total depravity. He references Charles Spurgeon's view that the repetition of these psalms is intentional and necessary for understanding. The sermon describes 'practical atheism' as living in denial of God's authority despite professing belief in Him. Dohm traces the biblical narrative from Genesis to Romans, illustrating how sin and corruption have permeated human history, impacting every aspect of human nature. The speaker emphasizes the importance of acknowledging one's sinful state to fully appreciate the Gospel and the grace offered through Jesus Christ. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to have compassion for others and to worship God, recognizing the immense price paid for redemption.

The sermon text is Psalm chapter 14, and I'll be starting, we're going through the whole chapter, so I'll start in verse 1 and go through the end. Psalm chapter 14. To the chief musician a Psalm of David. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt.

They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt.

There is none who does good. No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and Do not call on the Lord? There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge.

O, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion. When the Lord brings back the captivity of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad. Let's pray. Oh Lord God, I thank you that we have the great privilege of reading your word, of going before you and hearing it preached. Lord, I pray for Jason that you would help him to speak with the full authority of scripture, Lord, that you would fill him with your spirit and that Lord that we would listen attentively.

Oh, father, please help us to learn not just to listen and walk away and forget, but to learn to take this sermon, to take the applications and apply them to our lives so that we can be more like You. Oh Lord, please bless this time. In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is The Fool and You. It might be more aptly titled the fool in you.

Because make no mistake, you are the fool in the psalm. This is Psalm chapter 14, it's a psalm of David. And it's to the chief musician. Many of the Psalms are to the chief musician. And this indicates to us that they're not meant just for our private meditation upon them, but they're meant to be trotted out in public and sung in the assembly.

Psalm 14 is almost word for word identical with another Psalm of David, Psalm 53. Here's what Charles Spurgeon says about having these two almost identical Psalms by exactly the same author, David. Spurgeon says, With instructive alterations, David has given us in Psalm 53 a second edition of this humiliating psalm. Being moved of the Holy Ghost thus doubly to declare a truth which is ever distasteful to carnal minds." What was Spurgeon saying there? He's saying that if you have a duplicate psalm, it's on purpose.

God has not wasted one single word in the Scriptures. And if we have it twice, it's because God intended for us to have it twice. And He's poking at something. What is God poking at? He is poking at the distastefulness of the truths in Psalm 14 and in Psalm 53 to the carnal mind.

We don't like it, so we need to hear it twice. We need the repetition. What is being taught in this psalm, in these two psalms, is that all of mankind shares a common disease. A common poison is coursing through all of our veins, and it's killing us all. And you don't want to believe that, but you must believe it.

And so God tells you twice, once in Psalm 14, and once in Psalm 53, and actually in many, many other places in Scripture, some of which we're going to hit today. This is a humiliating psalm, as Spurgeon says. And it's my job to humiliate you today. Because unless you're humiliated by what the Bible says about you, you won't believe it about yourself. And you can never be refreshed by the Gospel.

Until you believe these humiliating truths. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, here we are. We want to open up our hearts underneath the authority of your Word to be taught of you who we really are So that we'll see you as you really are, so that we'll see Christ's work as it really is, so that we can be refreshed by grace. I pray Lord that you would press these humiliating truths upon us.

Don't let us wiggle out of them as we've so often done. We're looking for the way of escape. Don't let us escape today. By your mercy come and press these truths. Entrap us Lord.

We can't get away from them I pray in Jesus name. Amen. I'd like to begin by giving you just a very brief overview of the Psalms so that you get the flow of the psalm. Verse 1 starts really narrow. It starts with the atheistic fool, the fool who has this meditation in his heart that there is no God.

He discounts God. He dismisses God from his thoughts. Verses 2 and 3 broadens way out. You get it. In 1 you start really narrow.

It's just the atheistic fool. Really easy to wiggle out of that one and say you're not that. But then in verses 2 and 3, our way of escape is cut off. It broadens out to all of mankind. And we get the bird's eye view from heaven.

What does God, the all-knowing one, see when he looks down on all of mankind across all of the centuries, what does he see? The psalmist tells us what he sees. Verses 4-6 make evident the madness of being at war with God. In other words, what does it look like to be at war with God? And where does that lead you?

We get that in verses 4-6. And then in verse 7, the final verse, the psalmist looks forward to God showing up and writing all the wrongs. In other words, if it really is true, what God has seen from heaven, that mankind is completely enslaved by the corruptions that have come into our race, then we need for God to show up and right those wrongs. And then for the people of God to rejoice when that happens. And then finally, we're given perfect commentary, not in Psalm 14, but in Romans chapter 3, where Paul takes up Psalm 14 or Psalm 53.

They're identical in what he quotes, so it doesn't matter. And he gives us divinely inspired commentary. He tells us exactly what it means. So we'll end up in Romans 3 knowing that that interpretation of Psalm 14 is the right interpretation because we're given it through divine inspiration. I'm going to divide up the psalm here.

Hopefully your finger is in Psalm 14. I'd like to begin with just verse 1, follow along as I read. The fool has said in his heart, no God. There is no God. They are corrupt.

They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. Here in verse 1 we have the inner meditations of the fool's heart. Not the outward declarations, the inward meditations in the fool's heart. The psalmist here again starts very narrow with the atheistic fool.

Who is the fool? This is not the simple minded. This is not the silly and the thoughtless. We use the word predominantly that way. So if we say, stop being foolish, we're using that word in a very different way than the psalmist is using it, and that the proverbs uses that fool.

You find the fool all over Proverbs. When the Psalmist here or the writers of Proverbs use the word fool, they're not talking about the simple minded, the silly, the thoughtless. Foolishness indicates moral deficiency, not mental inability. In other words, it's not a problem with your brain and how it functions. It's a problem with what you love and what you hate.

It's moral deficiency. When we think about the inner meditations of the atheistic fool, what he says in his or her heart, there is no God. We're quick to think of a Richard Dawkins, a person like Richard Dawkins. If you're unfamiliar with him, Richard Dawkins is alive today. He was a long, long time professor at Oxford University, sort of the top shelf of intellectualism.

And he's probably the most famous living atheist. And he's very bold in his scoffing. He's very bold in his mockery of anyone who would believe such a silly idea that there is a God in heaven. So our thoughts go to someone like Richard Dawkins or maybe an intellectual philosopher from generations gone by, Frederick Nietzsche, who declared that God is dead. But that's a mistake to think that the fool is someone like that.

First, because the person that the psalmist brings to our doorstep is not necessarily a scoffer. He says in his heart. Richard Dawkins says over the bullhorn, every chance he gets there is no God. So he's a different kind of fool that the psalmist has brought to our doorstep. This is a man or a woman who says this in his heart.

In fact, his or her profession could be exactly the opposite. He could say that there is a God, but in his heart he whispers there's no God. Second, we're hurt by the fact that we don't know Hebrew in this way. The word used here is not the word Lord. L-O-R-D, all caps, like we see in verse 2, the Lord looks down from heaven.

That Hebrew word is Jehovah. It means the self-existent God. I am that I am. It's often how God calls Himself. The word used in verse 1 is Elohim.

Which is another name for God, but it's very specific. It's the name for God that wraps up Him being King and Judge. The fool says in his heart, the inner meditations of this fool in his heart is that there is no king and judge in heaven. Spurgeon says this, It is worthy of observation that he does not say that there is no Jehovah, but there is no Elohim. Deity in the abstract is not so much the object of attack as the covenant personal ruling and governing presence of God in the world.

What is Spurgeon saying here? He says, no, no, no. It's not deity in the abstract that is offensive to this fool in his inner meditations. It's not that there would be a God, there's no objection there, it's that there would be a God who would command to be king and call to judgment. And call to judgment.

It's that God has the audacity to say He has the right to govern you and judge you according to his laws." That's the God that this fool is banishing in his heart or her heart. Three things are said of these fools. First, they are corrupt. Literally it means they are spoiled or they are rotted. It could have started well, but now the corruption has set in like gangrene and it's rotting.

These fools are rotting, spoiling more by the day. Secondly, that they have done abominable works. God has said, don't do this, but they will not be held back from anything that their hearts desire, so they run past those boundaries into what God has forbidden. We would call these sins of commission. God said, don't do that.

We say, I will not be governed by you, God. I want to do that. I will do that. And run past the boundary. We commit the sin, a sin of commission.

Thirdly, it's said that of these fools, there is none who does good. Meaning, the things that God has commanded, these fools have said, no, I will not do those things. Not only will I withhold myself from the things that you've forbidden, I will not do the things that you said that I would do." We call those sins of omission. God said, do it, and we say, no, I won't do it. So these fools do what God has said don't do, and they don't do what God has said do.

As we know from experience, sins of commission, doing what God has said, don't do that, often go together with not doing the things that God has said to do. Listen to what Paul says in Titus 1 verses 15 and 16. He uses so many of the same words and phrases right out of Psalm 14 that it's hard not to believe when you look at them side by side that Paul is not actually thinking of Psalm 14 when he's writing Titus 1. Listen to this. Titus 1 verses 15 and 16, he's speaking of those who don't believe.

Paul writes, to the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. Is this not exactly what the psalmist is talking about?

Maybe even someone who professes to know God, but in the meditations of their heart, which works out in the life, They deny him. And they are abominable. They do abominable things. They're disobedient. They're disqualified for every good work.

There is none who does good. No, not one of them does good. This is practical atheism. There's professed atheism, where I'll grab a bullhorn and scream at the top of my lungs to anyone who will hear, there is no God. And then there is practical atheism, which may even come with a profession that there is a God, but in the inner meditations which work their way out in life, there is a denial of God.

Practical atheism. Back to Psalm 14. Follow along as I read the next two verses, verses 2 and 3. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside.

They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one. Here in these verses we have the divine estimation of all mankind. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's divine estimation. The divine estimation of all of mankind.

When God looks down from heaven, what does He see across all of mankind? Those who have lived in the past, those who are living now, those who will live in the future, what does God see of this race of image bearers? The verse begins with God looking down from heaven to see if anyone who understands and anyone seeks Him. So this is a good question for us. Are there people outside of Christ on the far side of being born again who really understand and who really seek God.

This is answered so clearly in our text. The answer is no. No one before they are born again, before the heart of stone has been removed and the heart of flesh has been given as a gift from God, no one understands and seeks God. The person who really wants to be reconciled, but they just somehow can't, and those who are seeking as hard as they can, They really desire to be different and to love God, to love His ways, to be reconciled to this holy God, but they just can't quite get over the hump. That person doesn't exist.

You know that. On the authority of Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, that person doesn't exist. God looking across all of human history for someone who understands and someone who seeks, What does he find? Every single one has turned aside. Psalm 53 is this great prophecy about the Messiah, the suffering servant.

Excuse me, Isaiah 53 is a great prophecy about the Messiah, the suffering servant. Listen to this, Isaiah 53 verse 6, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The foundations of the Gospel are here in this one verse. A whole race of mankind have taken their own way to do their own pleasure.

And our own pleasure in our natural state never matches up with what God loves. Never. Our pleasure matches up with what God hates. And we have sought that and there is only one hope for people in that condition that the Lord would lay your iniquity on one who has no guilt. The Lord has laid on him, on Christ, the iniquity of us all.

Psalm 14 says, they have together become corrupt. All of them together, running headlong into corruption and rottenness, being spoiled, sour, is it sour milk? The souring of milk is the literal meaning of the word used here. There is none who does good. No, not one.

We've all gone astray, as Isaiah 53 says. At this point I want to survey key places where the Bible speaks of this as a universal condition. I want to begin in Genesis chapter 1. You can try to chase me through this track if you'd like or you can just listen. In Genesis chapter 1 you have the 6 days of creation.

Day 1 it's good, day 2 it's good, day 3 it's good, day 4 it's good, day 5 it's good, day 6 men and women are created in the image of God. It's unlike any of the other creation and it's very good. Then in Genesis chapter 2 we read this in verses 16 and 17. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." A wonderful garden rich with foods that can be eaten. All of them.

On limits. Except for one tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can't eat of that. If you eat of that you will die.

At this point it's just Adam. Adam is given this command. And then the woman is made. And in Genesis chapter 3 verse 6, she takes and she eats and Adam is right there and she gives to him and he eats. Genesis 3 has the curse where it becomes so clear that sin and death have now come into the world and are going to wreak havoc through human history.

Sin and death were not in the world before that time, but now man's heart is changed. I'm using that not in a gender specific way. Mankind, the hearts of mankind, are fundamentally changed. So our inclinations are now not towards good, they are actually inclined towards rebellion. Genesis chapter 4 and 5 begins with human genealogies.

And these chapters have a distinctive feature. These three words, and He died. We didn't see this in the earliest chapters, but now sin and death are in the world, and in the genealogies, He lived and He died. And then He lived and He died and He died and He died and he died. There's a drum beat in these two chapters, driving home the point that corruption, rottenness, sin, and death are now in the world.

And this comes to a crescendo in Genesis chapter 6, where there is an explosion of wickedness in the world. Genesis chapter 6 is the flood narrative. Here's what we read in Genesis chapter 6. I'm going to read verse 5 and verse 12. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously.

Think about that. This was true of the people at the time of the flood. God looks down from heaven just like Psalm 14, looking down from heaven to see what is in the heart of man, and he sees this, that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Total corruption. Then we read this in chapter 6 verse 12, So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth." And then the flood comes and everyone, probably hundreds of millions of people, are drowned and only eight people live.

You think, Well, then we're down to the righteous people, so they can start and rebuild, and be free from all that corruption. Well, here's what we read in Genesis chapter 8. The ark has come to rest on Mount Ararat, and the flood waters have subsided, and now they can come off of the ark and they do and Noah offers an offering to the Lord and Here is what God says. Genesis chapter 8 verses 20 and 21. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, Although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. The flood didn't cleanse the earth of the corruption in man's heart. It did not. The imagine of man's heart is evil from his youth.

When God looks down from heaven on Noah and his family, this is what he says. What he says. Listen to Jeremiah 17 verse 9. Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

A couple of incredible truths are taught here. One is that not only is there corruption in the human heart, there is within the human heart a tendency to lie to itself. Now, I mean, this should make us very afraid. The nature of a blind spot is that you can't see it. You're blind to it.

God is declaring here all of mankind has an enormous blind spot. Not seeing ourselves Rightly, the heart is deceitful above all things, above all things that there are to know and to consider, the heart is more deceitful. It is desperately wicked. You say, well, I don't think of myself as desperately wicked. Exactly!

Exactly! Your heart is deceitful above all things. It's deceived you. When you hear that the heart is desperately wicked, you say, I'm not like that. It's a sign of the self-deception.

In fact, that verse ends, who can know it? It's a rhetorical question, meaning you do not know your heart you don't know it you underestimate your sin You're not very offended by your sin, but God is very offended by your sin. You underestimate it. You overestimate your righteousness. Isaiah 64 verse 6, all of our righteousness is like filthy rags.

We're proud of it. We think God must accept it. We offer it to Him thinking it makes peace with Him. The things that we're proud of and that we've done that we think are good and God thinks they're filthy righteousness. We've overestimated our righteousness while underestimating our sin.

Here's what Jesus says in Matthew 15 verse 19. Jesus says, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, and he goes on to say other things. But the list could go on and on and on. Out of the heart proceed these things. Now get this.

The world says the heart is basically good, but environmental factors crowd in on basically good people and they find themselves sort of the victims of doing wrong. Wrong is done to them and so they do wrong, but really underneath it all the heart is basically good. It's the environment that's to blame. But Jesus says that the heart is bad, and that the external factors, the circumstances, the environment just provides opportunity. Just gives you opportunity to prove your wickedness.

Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, 14. This is stunning. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Paul is just working off of a foundation of understanding in which man is dead in his trespasses and sins.

He's not sick, he's dead. And he does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. In other words, truth from God about what's good and not good. He doesn't receive those things because those things are foolishness to him. Our hearts are so inclined towards rebellion and loving what we love and not wanting to be governed by Elohim, the King and the Judge.

What God says becomes foolishness to us. So we don't receive those things. We can't. We don't because we can't. They're spiritually discerned.

We're spiritually dead. Now turn to Romans chapter 1. If you haven't been turning to other places, turn to Romans chapter 1 because this wraps it all up. I've been going in order but this last one's not in order. I backed up in the Bible a little bit to Romans chapter 1, which explains the atheism and the corruption of mankind.

Maybe better than anywhere. Romans chapter 1. I'll be reading verses 18 through 23. Romans chapter 1 beginning I'll be reading verses 18-23. Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 18.

Here's what the Apostle Paul is saying is going on with atheism. Suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. What does that mean? That means that although there is a witness of truth in the world, there's plenty of light. The lack of light is not the problem.

We love sin. So, we don't want to acknowledge truth. Who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness? Verse 19. Because what may be known about God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse." Paul is saying, look around. The eternal Godhead is on display in His creation. Anyone who can look around and See and touch and feel and hear. The works of God's hand is held without excuse. These things are crying out that there is a God.

Verse 20, for since the creation of the world, excuse me, verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Paul is saying that There is a universal testimony that there is a God. It's called the works of his hands. Universal.

It renders us all without excuse. But when you will not glorify God as God, when you say there is no Elohim, there is no king, and there is no judge, Why? Because I can't have a king and a judge according to these words and do what I want. That puts you in a downward spiral of futility of thinking and darkening of mind. Your thoughts become more and more futile.

And your mind just gets darker and darker. Listen to what Aldous Huxley says. My first introduction to Aldous Huxley was being required to read Brave New World in high school. It's probably not part of your curriculum, but it was part of mine. Aldous Huxley was a famous humanist and philosopher from the early to mid 1900s.

So he was in his heyday roughly 100 years ago. And he was from a famous humanistic family. His grandfather, T.H. Huxley or Thomas Huxley, was known as Darwin's Bulldog. In other words, Darwin was the scientist, but Thomas Huxley, Aldous Huxley's grandfather, was the philosopher who enforced his ideas with philosophy.

The scientific ideas of evolution. Here's what his famous grandson, his famous grandson was also a professor at Oxford and a famous humanist. He says, I had a motive for not wanting the world to have a meaning. Consequently assumed that it had none and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with the problem of pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do.

Or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves. For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political. It's a long quote. If you didn't hang in there for the long quote, the last sentence is the punch line. Listen to it again.

For myself, for Aldous Huxley, the philosophy of meaninglessness, There is no God, there is no design, there is no architecture bringing meaning to the world. It was essentially an instrument of liberation. It was essentially suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. This famous humanist is saying exactly what Paul is saying. How can this be?

He said it was just the instrument of his sexual and political liberation. He needed meaninglessness. He needed godlessness to be free, sexually and politically. This is rare, devastating honesty. This is not part of his conversion.

There's no indication that this man was ever converted. This is him having a moment of clarity where he realizes where the philosophy of meaninglessness came from and the purpose that it served for him. This is a humanist in his own words, an atheist in his own words. What's the point? The point is this.

From cover to cover, the Bible has one testimony about what you and I are like. Moses sings the same song as Jeremiah. Jeremiah sings the same song as Jesus. Jesus sings the same song as Paul. Paul sings the same song as many, many others.

There is one view from cover to cover in the Bible. It's that man is corrupt to his core. Total depravity. Total depravity doesn't mean you're As bad as you can be all the time, it means that corruption touches every part of you. It touches your body, it touches your mind, it touches your spirit.

Everything has been touched by corruption. Because of what happened in Genesis 3, mankind was plunged into rebellion. Not just two people, but the whole race. All of those who would come out of their line suffering from the same problem bent against God in rebellion. And just recognize this, whenever you say, that can't be me, you are disconnected from the Council of Scripture, from cover to cover.

Back to Psalm 14. Follow me as I read verses 4-6. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up My people as they eat bread, and do not call on the Lord, there they are in great fear. For God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is His refuge." Here in these verses we have the trajectory of unbelievers and where it leads.

You're filling in blanks on the handout. Trajectory unbelievers. The trajectory of unbelievers. In other words, unbelievers are veering in a very specific direction. What is it?

Where does it go? We're told by the psalmist. We're given a view into the madness of being at war with an almighty, all-knowing God. It begins with a rhetorical question here at the beginning of verse 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?

Here's my translation of that. Are they insane? Have they lost their minds? Do they not know anything? And what is the manifestation of this insanity?

Where does this insanity work its way out in their lives. The psalmist gives us two places where this insanity works its way out in life. First, in attacking the Lord's people. They eat up my people as they eat bread. Jesus said, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me.

This is John 4.34. That's what Jesus' food was, to do His Father's will, to finish the work that His Father had given Him to do. What does He mean by that? He means that it's normal and necessary for me to do the will of my Father. It's like the rest of us need three meals a day, Jesus needed to do the will of his Father.

As normal as eating is to us, doing his Father's will was to him. The psalmist here is saying That attacking the Lord's people, devouring the Lord's people is as normal and necessary to them as obeying was to Jesus. The Lord's people are a constant threat to willful blindness. Just absorb that for a minute. Ask yourself, is that true or not true?

The Lord's people are a constant threat to willful blindness. In other words, if you're in the death spiral of Romans 1, where you will not glorify God and be thankful, you'll say, there is no Elohim, there is no King and Judge because I want to do what I want to do. God's people are a constant threat to that. They're always poking and prodding at that. There are declarations that there is a God in heaven, and this describes His perfections and His requirements.

Every day threatens the liberty that you purchased yourself by your doctrine of meaninglessness, godlessness. And so, They must not be allowed to stand. You must be at war with them and all that they say, because your practical atheism cannot exist side by side with them and what they say. Think of Aldous Huxley. Knowing in his heart that his philosophy of meaninglessness was just an instrument to liberate him sexually and politically, living next door to a bold Christian who lives out his faith and speaks his faith.

You have war there. You have war across the property line there. He will seek to devour that man. To protect the liberty that meaninglessness has bought him. The second manifestation of this insanity is failing to call on the Lord.

Psalm 10 helps us here. So just flip over to Psalm 10. I want to read a couple of verses out of Psalm 10. We don't know who the author of Psalm 10 is. But in verses 3 and 4 we read this.

For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. This is what characterizes the fool of Psalm 14 or the wicked of Psalm 10.

God is in none of his thoughts. God has been banished from this man's thoughts. Because his lifestyle, the things that he loves, cannot accept proximity with God. So he will not call on him. He is not ever in his thoughts.

Look at Psalm 10 verse 11. He has said in his heart, God has forgotten. He hides His face. He will never see. God's not looking at me.

And Where does the insanity inevitably lead? Fear. Sooner or later, the fool, the corrupt, ends up terrified. Because of the ultimate realization that God is with His people and that the fool is not among the people of God. And that God is the refuge of His people.

They scorned the counsel of the poor. They weren't to disappoint the hopes and the plans of the poor among the Lord's people. But in the end, God is the refuge of His people. And this is the terror of the ungodly. That in the end, He is King, He is God, He is Elohim.

Here is the key difference between Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. It's here, the explanation of what this fear of the fool is. Listen to Psalm 53 verse 5. It expands on the fool being in fear. Psalm 53 verse 5.

There they are in great fear, just like Psalm 14. Exact same words. There they are in great fear where no fear was. They've lived a life scoffing at the counsel of the poor, frustrating the hopes of the poor with great boldness. There was no fear there.

They operated as if God were never going to account, but now they are brought into fear. For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. This is the end of those who devour the Lord's people as they devour bread. God scatters their bones. There they are in great fear where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you.

You have put them to shame because God has despised them. This is why they are afraid. Finally, verse 7. The last verse of Psalm 14. Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion.

When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad. Here in this verse, we have the psalmist looking forward to being rescued and freed. If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's rescued and freed. Looking forward to the time when as the Lord's people we are rescued from this world of corruption and freed. David is expressing a longing in his heart to be saved and to be freed.

Yes, he has this longing for himself, but not just for himself. He has this longing for all the Lord's people, for Israel to be saved and to be freed. Friends, in this sin-sick world, how can your heart long for anything else other than God would show up and save and free us from this mess. In Psalm 68, which is also a Psalm of David, so same writer, same psalmist, in Psalm 68 verse 18, David says, you have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive. Sound familiar?

Yes. Paul quotes it in Ephesians 4 verse 8 and he says That's Christ. It is Christ who has ascended on high and led captivity, captive. The ultimate fulfillment of a longing in the heart for the salvation and freedom to come out of Zion from God is fulfilled in Christ. That's the ultimate fulfillment.

Paul makes that so clear in Ephesians 4-8, quoting David. Jesus has ascended on high. He leads captivity captive. He leaves us free. He leads us into freedom.

When that happens, when God shows up through His Christ to save and to deliver, there's only one thing for the people of God to do is to rejoice and to be glad. Rejoice in God. Turn to Romans 3. Now we get the inspired commentary on Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. In Romans 1 and 2, Paul is working hard to convince us that we deserve the condemnation of God.

Whether you're a Jew or whether you're a Gentile, Paul has argued that you deserve to be condemned by a holy God. And now, in Romans chapter 3, he concludes and presses home the argument by quoting Psalm 14, and other Psalms, and Isaiah. He strings a lot of quotes together as you'll see here. I'm going to read a large portion, so work hard to follow along. I'm in Romans chapter 3.

I'm going to be reading verses 9 through 26, where Paul writes, What then? Are we better than they? Are Jews better than Gentiles? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable.

There is no one who does good. No, not one. He's just quoted Psalm 14, verses 1-3. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongue they have practiced deceit.

The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in a sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Did you know that was the purpose of the law? To give you the knowledge of sin. To make you feel as sinful as you are. Verse 21, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God sent forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness. Because in forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Now if we were going through Romans, we would probably spend three Sundays here. But we don't have time for that. But here is essentially the argument that Paul is making.

One, if your reaction to this, like The poison of asps is in your lips. Your mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Your feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in your ways. If your reaction to that kind of language is, that's not me, then you're disconnected from what the Bible says.

You do not understand you. God is trying to get you to understand you, so you'll understand Him and His utter holiness, and how only Christ can bridge that gap, So you'll give up those puny little ways that you've been trying to use to bridge that gap. That never gets you a millionth of the way there. Paul's trying to get us to give up in Romans 3. And to throw ourselves upon Christ.

As the only way to be reconciled to this utterly holy God. Paul's conclusion to all those quotes from Psalms and Isaiah in verses 19 and 20 is two-fold. Here's the two-fold conclusion of Paul. All the world is guilty. All the world.

Every mouth should be stopped. Anyone who thinks they're going to give God a piece of their mind is a fool. When they stand before Him, His utter holiness and their utter sinfulness will be so clear in their eyes that they won't say one word, every mouth will be stopped. Secondly, no one is justified by the deeds of the law. You cannot get back to God through law keeping.

And so we are reduced by Paul to a single hope, but it's a sure hope. Faith in Christ. Laying hold to the death of Jesus Christ by faith. Paul says come and be justified freely by His grace. It's a gift.

It's a gift. You never could earn it. Never In a thousand lifetimes could you earn it? God gives it to you freely. Freely.

Only repent and believe and lay hold of Jesus' death on the cross. He will die your death. You deserve death for your rebellion against God. He will die your death. It is offered free grace.

And this is the way God can be just and the justifier. This is the way God can be just and the justifier. This is the way God can maintain His righteousness and not just pass over sin as if it didn't matter to Him. No, He is utterly holy. He can't even look on unrighteousness.

Every sin must be punished. Every sin will be punished. Oh, let it be punished in him pouring out his anger against your sin on his son instead of you. He can be just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. Applications I commend to you two things, very simple applications.

I commend to you compassion. Either you are in that state, the state described by Psalm 14, Or you were in that state with no way out on your own. You're one or the other. And there's no room for pride in either. You shouldn't be proud if you are in that state at war with an all-knowing Almighty God.

You shouldn't be proud if you were in that state. You had no way to get back to God, but God by His free grace offers up the blood of His Son to cleanse you. Where is room for pride? There's no room for pride. We should be dripping compassion.

Dripping compassion. Not because they are innocent, but because we are equally guilty. Do you get that? We don't believe in innocent victims because the Bible doesn't believe in innocent victims. In an ultimate sense.

There are innocent victims of circumcision. I'm talking about in an ultimate sense. We are all deserving of the condemnation of God. So our compassion isn't based on poor them, they're innocent. No, no, no.

Our compassion is based on we deserve exactly what they deserve. But for Christ, we would be exactly what they are and maybe worse. I commend you compassion. I commend you worship. Here's the final line of a precious hymn when I surveyed the wondrous cross.

The final line, love so amazing, So divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. What would you withhold from a Savior who found you in that position, rebelling against Him, hating the things that He loved, loving the things that He hated? You had no way back to him, but of his free grace, he offers you the way out that you could have never earned in a thousand lifetimes, and now you will withhold from him. No. Love that amazing, love that divine demands our soul, our life, our all.

We were bought at such a price. Live for Him. Live that He might be known and loved and honored. God thank you for your Son. God I thank You for this humiliating psalm.

Let us be humiliated so that we can have the times of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord when we repent. I pray that you would grip the hearts of unbelievers here today. Grip their hearts. Put your hand upon them, not because they are deserving of Your grace, but because Your grace is free and it proves that You are a God of mercy. Glorify Your Son by saving sinners today, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.