You Were Born With A Heart Problem

Psalm 14. I've tried to just explain how there are a few different genres of the psalms.

So what you can listen for as we read Psalm 14 initially is the type of psalm this is.

You can see in verse 1, he says, the fool is this.

And so what's the opposite of a fool?

It's a wise person.

And so it's not talking about a person who has a mental impairment.

This comes from a king who was called a fool as he danced celebrating, praising God for God's grace and faithfulness.

And it comes from an underdog army that's been called foolish and hopeless in this world, easily crushed,

that had God standing in their midst delivering and proving himself to be faithful as their God.

So he's using that mockery that the people of God had received and he's proclaiming the truth about God.

What is true wisdom in this psalm?

Psalm 14.

To the chief musician, a psalm of David.

That superscription we believe to be inspired as well.

And it shows that God's covenant people were organized in their singing.

They practiced, they sounded, you know, probably different than the other nations.

But this was part of what it means to belong to God as he puts rejoicing and singing on the lips of his people.

Just as we've begun singing today.

Verse 1.

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.

We all 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.

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.

Amen.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

You may be seated.

As we just read, Lord, we ask that you will rule us by your word and spirit in such a way that more and more we will submit to you.

Keep your church strong and add to it.

Destroy the devil's work.

Destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your word.

Do this until your kingdom is so complete and perfect that in it you are all in all.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Abby Wardell in Ogden, Utah was still a baby when she had her first open heart surgery.

She was in and out of the hospital as she got older,

and when she was 11 years old, some of you are 11 or close to that now,

the doctors told her that her heart, that most important muscle of the body,

was only pumping at about 13% capacity.

Her family had no idea this was the case.

And so it came as a big shock,

and they set into a time of grieving and mourning over the condition of their daughter's heart.

Well, beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

from Psalm 14, I want to preach today to you and whoever God gives ears to hear

that all of us were born with a sick heart. Amen?

We were all born with a heart problem.

What's the problem with your heart?

According to Psalm 14, verse 1,

Psalms 14:1

what is the problem with your heart and mine since birth?

David says, the fool says there is no God.

And where does David say this of the fool?

Where is it in the fool that he wants to believe there's no God?

It's in the heart.

And he makes it very clear.

He's not just speaking about one individual.

He's speaking about an entire category of creatures.

Men and women, children, made in the image of God.

And as God looks from heaven over all the earth,

there is not one who has a good heart.

So you and I were born with a heart that in its natural state

is not a tabula rasa, as John Locke taught.

It's no blank slate.

It's corrupt.

It's twisted.

It's inclined toward evil.

Psalm 14, verse 1 says that sin,

Psalms 14:1

it has a place of dominion,

and that's the heart.

You were born with a proud heart

that wants to deny the awesome reality

that you have a maker.

Your heart does not want to submit

that there is a Lord, a creator over all.

Your heart and mine does not want to be accountable to God.

Our Lord Jesus confirmed this powerful, fundamental problem.

Matthew 15, 19,

Out of your heart come evil thoughts.

This is something that every generation will admit

if God gives them the grace to be humble

and accept the truth.

Jeremiah 17, 9 said,

The heart is more deceitful than all else.

The heart is desperately wicked.

It's desperately sick.

Who can understand their own heart?

Your heart and mine, when we were born,

it kept us full of blindness and spiritual ignorance.

We were born alienated from God

because we were born under the curse of Adam.

Romans 1, 24 and 28 says,

Because we refused to have God in our knowledge,

not only were we born under Adam's curse,

we also refused that in the pride of our corrupted hearts,

and because of that, God gave sinners like you and me up

to a reprobate mind and to the lusts of our hearts

to do what is wicked in God's eyes.

Do you agree we have a serious heart problem from birth?

No one is exempt.

No one who came from Adam.

That's the problem with our heart.

And this sick heart also has several effects.

The effects of your sick heart.

Your sick heart makes your life corrupt.

Verse 1.

The word for corrupt,

it's like milk that you leave out of the refrigerator too long.

You set it out in the sun.

And if you're to take that

and to try to put it into your mug and make coffee,

you'll spit it out.

That's what happens to our heart

under the curse of sin.

Verse 1 says,

You do abominable deeds.

These are deeds that are hardly able to be spoken of

in God's eyes

because they're so grotesque and evil.

Why is it that humans do that?

It's because we have a sick heart.

The effects of a sick heart

in verse 1 are both sins of commission

and sins of omission.

You commit a sin.

You do abominable deeds.

But also you omit to do what God has commanded

which is a sin of omission.

He says no one does good.

There's a cliche t-shirt that you can buy at any target near you

and it says,

Be a good person.

That's legalism.

Every human being has a conscience

because we're made in God's image.

Romans 1 says,

We all know in our hearts and our minds

what is sin.

We know it.

And these t-shirts say,

Be a good person.

Well, how good of a person do I have to be?

And how do I know what's good?

No one does good.

Not good enough.

There's no spiritual meritorious goodness

that we can do.

Your sick heart affects your life.

Isaiah 59 7 says,

Your feet run to evil.

They are swift to shed innocent blood.

Your thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.

Desolation and destruction are in your highways.

Watch out for a person with a wicked heart.

They will destroy everything in their path.

That's a fool.

It could be the most intelligent person.

That's a foolish way to live your life,

being ruled by your heart.

So your sick heart,

it also means that you will never choose to seek God

if you're left in that natural state.

Look at 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.

There are none who seek after God

because their hearts,

ours and yours as well at birth,

are so corrupt,

we're inclined away from God.

We will never choose to seek God.

Some of you maybe are here today

or in this last season of your life

and you find yourself seeking after God

and His truth maybe like you never have before.

That's because God, by His grace,

is drawing you to Himself.

He has called you away from your own fallen heart

to see Him,

to follow Him and to hear His truth.

Genesis 6.12 says,

God saw the earth and it was corrupt

for all flesh had corrupted their way on earth.

You will never choose to seek God on your own.

In your sick heart,

it corrupts everything you do.

Look at verse 3.

They have all turned aside.

Together they have become corrupt.

None good.

Not even one.

A triple negative.

Proverbs 14.12 says,

There is a way which seems right to man,

but in the end it leads to death.

There is a way that man thinks is right.

You're following your heart

and in the end it leads to death.

Everything you do has become corrupted.

Finally, your sick heart makes you hate God's people.

If you're wanting to know right now,

maybe some of what this guy up here

is trying to tell me is true.

Well, here's a quick test.

Do you love the people of God?

If God has given you a new heart,

you will be with God's people.

You will not give up meeting together.

If you feel like I don't need those people,

I'm not one of them.

I'm going to live my life following my own heart.

You have no assurance.

You have no assurance that you are part of God's people

because the sick heart makes you hate God's people.

Verse 4 says,

There are a people that God has set aside for himself

in every generation

who by his grace alone call upon his name.

And this people are odd.

They come together.

What they do seems very odd in the eyes of the world.

And the world will want to mock,

take advantage,

maybe in business or otherwise.

Eat up God's people like you eat bread

because they're disposable.

The sick heart,

it makes you hate

those whom God has called righteous

and whose lives are being conformed

to the image of Christ

by the grace and the power of the Holy Spirit.

You will hate that

because that's pointing to your conscience.

There's something missing in my life

and I can't get it together.

Those are some of the effects

of a sick heart

according to Psalm 14.

Well, here comes some good news.

Beginning in verse 5,

we read of God now.

David, once again in the psalm,

takes his eyes off of the world,

off of man.

Don't you need to do that at least

once a week with God's people?

And he puts his eyes on God.

And what I see in verse 5 and 6,

it's the stance that God takes.

It reveals God's heart.

God stands with one group of people

and he stands against another group of people.

Look at verse 5.

God is with the generation of the righteous.

But God stands against those

who conspire to humiliate God's people,

whom he calls the poor.

These are those who are poor in spirit,

who are depending on God,

not on their own strength.

God is against those who are proud,

arrogant,

and whose hearts are hard toward God.

God stands against you in verse 6,

who would shame the plans of the poor.

But God is with those,

verse 5,

whom he has called righteous.

Another translation handles this very well.

It says,

God stands in the company of the righteous.

And because God stands with his people,

the poor,

the needy,

the wretched,

he's standing against those

who hate his people.

God stands with his people

who he has called righteous.

Former fools,

saved sinners.

Those are the people of God.

That reveals his heart.

Verse 6 says that God stands

as the refuge

for those who are poor

and for those who would get devoured

by the world otherwise.

God's stance reveals his heart.

When our Lord Jesus took on flesh,

God the Son came to earth.

He did not join the elite of Israel

and Jerusalem.

Even at his birth,

he was always on the run.

He was not to be found in the palace.

He is with the poor.

He is with those who need a Savior.

He is with the sick,

the wounded.

And he comes to show,

this is my heart

to save those who will need me

and who will come to me humbly.

Let me ask you this question

as we look at the last couple verses.

If this is God's heart

and this is God's stance,

what do you want your heart to feel

for all eternity?

What do you want your heart to feel

for all of eternity?

Because according to Psalm 14,

your heart will experience

for eternity

either great terror

or great rejoicing.

Look at verse 5.

Because of where God stands,

those alienated from God

are in great terror.

The Hebrew, it's fear of fear,

terror of terror.

I picture David

as that underdog,

commander in the army,

and he knows there's a moment

that something changes in the battle.

Now all of a sudden,

we're on the offensive.

They're in terror.

Remember,

we were hunkered down

but the tide has turned.

Some of you have played sports

and team sports

or maybe like taekwondo

or something like that.

You know that moment

where it turns.

Your team rallies

in the third quarter

and now all of a sudden,

we have the confidence.

We're getting those 50-50 balls.

The tide is on our side.

If you're among God's people,

you're in the company

of those God has called righteous.

You don't live in fear.

In the book of Acts,

there's that turn.

They are cowering

in a building

behind closed doors

and then the Lord

gives them the Holy Spirit

and in confidence,

they come out

and they proclaim.

They get arrested

and beaten

and thrown in jail

and when they're released,

they come back out again

in the public

proclaiming the name

of Jesus Christ

because there's no salvation

apart from Him.

and the disciples

die as martyrs

except for John

who's dipped in oil,

burned,

and sent to be

all alone

on the island of Patmos.

There is no fear

in God's people.

Instead,

there's rejoicing.

Paul and Silas

behind the prison doors

praying loudly

so everyone can hear,

singing hymns

and songs

and spiritual songs

just like we did now,

proclaiming the good news

unashamed of the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

There's great rejoicing.

But there will be

great terror

for those who reject God now.

For any who are ashamed

of Christ in this life,

they are in great terror.

For God is with His people.

Verse 7 says,

When the Lord restores

the fortunes of His people,

let Jacob rejoice,

let Israel be glad.

Psalm 14 is looking forward

to deliverance

coming from Jerusalem,

from the temple,

and David in the office

of worship leader and king.

The Holy Spirit is ministering

and giving him

these prophetic words

of a coming Messiah,

a day when the fortunes

will be turned,

where the tide is now

in favor of those

with whom God is standing

and His army is advancing.

He looks forward

to that great day.

We receive this now

knowing that Christ

is the Messiah.

He is the one

that comes out of Zion

to bring deliverance

for His people.

And we can also read

Psalm 14

looking forward

to an even greater deliverance.

We look forward

to that day

when Christ will return.

And Jesus in His own words

in Mark 8 said,

whoever will be ashamed

of me and my words

in this sinful generation,

the Son of Man

will also be ashamed

of Him

when He comes

in the Father's glory

with the holy angels.

Do you look forward

to that day

when Christ

will come again?

Amen.

Come quickly,

Lord Jesus.

So will you have

great terror

or will you have

great rejoicing

forevermore

at Christ's return?

I don't want anyone

to leave here unclear

about how it is

that you,

the worst of sinners

like Paul

and like I feel,

can have rejoicing

and confidence

that I belong to God

through Jesus Christ.

How can sinners

like you and me,

how can fools

like those of us

who want to say

in our heart

there's no God

and live like

a practical atheist,

how can we rejoice?

Especially when

verse 3 says,

they have all

turned aside.

Together,

they have become

corrupt.

None are good.

Not even one.

In God's holy,

just,

and faultless

evaluation,

there's not a single

person on earth

in any generation

that has a heart

that's good enough.

How can we rejoice?

If there are none

who do good,

none who,

who can

be in the presence

of a holy God

and God

can justly say,

you are good enough,

you have enough

love in your heart

for me,

then how can we

rejoice?

You and I

need a new heart.

The heart

we're born with

in our birth,

it's not enough.

We need God

to intervene

and to do something

inside of us,

don't we?

I told you about

Abby,

that girl

that was born

with a bad heart.

Her family

and her

collected some

of the facts

from her story.

They reported

it this way.

Her need

at age 11

was listed

on a Monday.

She got a call

on a Thursday

and she said,

the night before

I couldn't sleep.

I just had

this really

strong feeling

that my heart

was coming.

On Friday,

April 13th,

Abby got

a new heart.

It was a new

beginning for her.

She said,

I felt amazing.

I had so much

energy.

I had never felt

my own heart

beating like that.

So I thought

it was working

too well.

She said,

it's working

too well.

Why is it

working so well?

She said,

I could feel

my heart beating

all the way

to my fingers

and my toes.

Some of you,

that's your story

spiritually.

You've known

your heart

is broken

and sick.

And you also

can testify,

God gave me

a new heart.

He's given me

a care

and a love

for Him,

for His people,

for the church

I had no capacity

for.

My heart might

be working too well.

I want to serve Him.

I want to proclaim

the gospel

from the rooftops.

Is this supposed

to be this way?

Praise the Lord.

I want you to turn

with me,

please,

before we see

how God fulfills

this with the

outpouring of the

Spirit.

See a promise.

This is God's promise

all the way through.

Please turn to

Ezekiel chapter 36.

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

Ezekiel 36.

I'm just going to

read a couple

verses.

You're welcome to

stay there in your

Bible.

Otherwise,

just listen.

To give you

context,

Psalm 14

comes from David.

This is when

the kingdom of God

is being settled in.

Jerusalem is just

conquered and

becoming their

capital.

Not very far

along in Israel's

history.

Well, we know

the problem with

national Israel.

Their hearts

were corrupt.

They could not

keep God's moral

law.

And their

disobedience

brought the

punishment of God

to send them

into exile

outside of the

land.

And while

they're outside

of the land

in Babylon,

God raised

up this prophet,

Ezekiel,

and he didn't

even live in

Israel.

And yet,

some of the

most glorious

prophecies about

how God will

keep his promise

came from

Ezekiel.

So there are

God's people in

Babylon in

captivity.

The northern

tribes are in

Assyria.

What hope do

they have?

How will God

be faithful and

make all things

right?

In Ezekiel 36,

starting at

verse 26,

the word of

the Lord comes

to the people

of God.

God says,

I will give

you a new

heart and

put a new

spirit in

you.

I will remove

from you your

heart of stone

and give you a

heart of flesh

and I will put

my spirit in

you and move

you to follow

my decrees and

be careful to

keep my laws.

promise.

The promise is

that those who

are far off,

those who are

foolish,

those who have

failed and

disobeyed and

rebelled against

God time and

time again,

the Lord promises

he will be

faithful.

He will give

you a new

heart.

You can't come

up with it on

your own.

He will pour

out his spirit

on you.

In Romans 3.21,

we read how our

Lord Jesus Christ

took on flesh.

to give you a

new heart.

And you receive

it not by being

a good person,

but you receive

it freely through

faith in Jesus

Christ for all

who will believe.

Romans 3.23,

for all have

sinned and fall

short of the

glory of God,

but they are

justified by his

grace as a gift

through the

redemption that

is in Christ

Jesus.

Jesus stood in

your place and

in mine on the

cross and he

took the wrath

of God against

your sins and

mine so that he

could justly be

the justifier of

sinners.

He could justly,

without violating

the justice of

God, turn around

and pour out the

blessings of heaven

through the Holy

Spirit applied to

his people.

And only then can

sinners and fools

like us rejoice.

peace.

I invite you to

reflect and ponder

how is your

heart today?

How is your

heart today?

Have you received

this promise from

verse 7?

Have you received

the salvation that

God sent from

Zion, his very own

son, Jesus Christ,

our Lord?

has he restored you

from being desperate

and needy in a

dire, miserable

state?

Has he filled your

heart with rejoicing,

with gladness?

Titus 3, 4 says,

when the good news

and the loving kindness

of God our Savior

appeared, he saved

us, not because of

works done by us in

righteousness, but

according to his own

mercy, by the

washing of

regeneration and

renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom

he poured out on us

richly through

Christ Jesus, our

Savior.

Regeneration, it's a

new creation that

happens inside of

you.

It's what Ezekiel

prophesied, that

heart of stone is

replaced.

It's spiritual open

heart surgery.

And a good heart is

put inside of you by

God's grace.

There is no one with

a good heart that's

born of Adam.

That's why our Lord

Jesus Christ was not

from the line of

Adam.

He was born of a

virgin.

His heart, according

to his human nature,

was good, perfect,

righteous.

And as he puts his

good, righteous heart

in his people, the

Father can look at

this company of

people, a generation,

and say, I just see

the righteousness of

my son.

That's all I see.

I dwell with such a

people.

This is who I stand

with.

Romans 3, verse 28,

Romans 3:28

gives us great caution.

Because that's how God

saves us, there is no

room for any one of us

to boast.

Amen?

We don't wear shirts

that say, be a good

person as you carry

around your expensive

coffee.

No.

We say, repent of

being a bad person by

God's grace.

Ask for a new heart.

no room for boasting.

For we hold that if you

are unified to Christ,

you are justified by

faith apart from the

works of the law.

Faith does not overthrow

God's moral law.

On the contrary, the new

hearts inside of God's

people give the power,

the love that we lack on

our own to uphold his

law slowly, imperfectly,

gradually by his strength

working in us.

He doesn't give us a new

heart to send us off to

be licentious, to be

antinomian, lawless.

No, his new heart increases

the love for God because

he first loved us.

Ezekiel 36, 27, once

again, God has kept his

promise to you who are

regenerated, to you who are

saved, to you who have even

a small faith and a growing

love for Christ.

In God's words, I have

given you a new heart.

I have put a new spirit in

you.

I have removed from you

your heart of stone and I

have given you a heart of

flesh.

I have put my spirit in you

and now I move you to

follow my decrees and

because of my son's heart

in you, you are now

grateful and joyful and

gladly desiring to keep my

love.

Abby and her family got

connected with the donor

family.

A little boy from Colorado

whose heart was donated so

she could have that surgery

she needed.

Abby reflected that this boy

lived in Colorado.

He was a little bit older

than her.

He played lacrosse and

football.

She said, I have a feeling

like he enjoyed making

people laugh.

This person had such a huge

impact on my life, she said.

And her mother agreed.

The words, thank you, feel so

inadequate.

But there's no way to really

express how you feel for

someone and a family who

made that kind of sacrifice.

What is that new heart of

God's people?

We are overwhelmed with

gratitude.

Our words feel so limited.

Our singing feels so soft.

But that's the Holy Spirit

taking even our groanings and

mediating it as a joyful sound

to the loving heart of God in

heaven.

If God has given you a new

heart, rejoice.

You desire to obey Him out of

that humble gratefulness.

Let's spend some time reflecting

on Psalm 14 and the long

gospel that you've heard today.

If you don't know whether you

have a heart of stone still,

this is the hour God calls you

to respond.

By His providence, in ways I

can't explain, no one else can,

He causes each one to hear

the gospel and to respond.

Don't go away here with a

hard heart.

If God is causing you to seek

Him, respond in obedience with

the power of the Spirit inside.

Amen.