Psalm 14 - Fools Be Trippin

Church, I have a question for you, and that is what makes the gospel good news?

What makes the gospel good news?

The literal translation of the word gospel in the Greek is good message, good news.

The good news is good because there is also bad news.

Now this is Christianity 101, very basic, and you never graduate from this.

The good news is good because the bad news is real.

The bad news is real.

If you've ever read the Bible, if you've been alive for a few years, if you have any self-awareness at all, you know there's something wrong with people.

We're selfish.

We hurt people to get what we want.

We have this amazing capacity, amazing capacity to trust ourselves, or to at least buy into the lies that we tell ourselves regularly.

Now, there, yes, people do amazing things as well.

They save lives, they create beautiful things, they provide for hurting and needy people around us.

But even in that, we can be rather inconsistent.

We do something really selfless and sacrificial, and then we judge others for what they're doing or not doing.

We secretly take pride in our actions.

We wish more people would validate our humility and that they would validate our sacrificial attitude.

So we're all over the map as people again.

We're just everywhere.

And the Bible tells us this again and again, just reveals to us the brokenness, right?

So Paul says in Romans 7, that it's through God's perfect standard that we realize that we don't meet that standard.

And this isn't, it doesn't really matter to people who don't care about God's standard, but God's standard is real.

So the bad news is that me and you, we break God's law.

It's bad news because, as I alluded to earlier, God is holy and just.

He cannot overlook sin.

So Christ came and paid the price for your sin, which was no small feat, given the fact that no one else could do that for you.

Christ came, paid the price for your sin, so that you might be free.

Worship God and follow Him.

This is why the gospel is good news.

Something you are completely unable of doing.

Bringing salvation, earning salvation, obtaining it, reaching it.

Someone has come for you.

In Psalm 14, David's point, I think in the aim, which is very similar to Psalm 53.

So I encourage you after the sermon, later on, read Psalm 53.

You'll see all the similarities to Psalm 14.

And David is seeking to give wisdom, to enlighten, to teach them, the people, what is true and what is real.

But even the language of Psalm 14 is sharp and heavy.

Psalm 14 paints the picture of man's foolishness and God's deliverance of the righteous.

You get nothing else, hear that.

Psalm 14 paints this picture of man's foolishness and God's deliverance of the righteous.

And this is a pattern that we see play out again and again, over and over throughout humanity and in our own lives.

We're foolish.

God delivers the righteous.

If you're a note taker this morning, here's my three points.

In verses one through three, we see the fool and his folly.

Verses four through six, we see the fool and his condition.

And in verse seven, we see the wise man and his cry for deliverance.

The fool and his folly.

This is what the fool says in verse one.

There is no God.

The fool is those who reject God.

Or any semblance of those kinds of things, they reject there is no God.

And there are a million replications to that belief, to that statement.

There is no God.

It's not real.

So who are the fools?

Those who reject God.

It's important for us to clarify there are those who do that blatantly.

They declare with their mouth there is no God, and they proceed to live their life like it.

And then there are others, for whatever reason.

They don't say that with their mouth, but they do live that way.

They live as if there's no God.

As if somehow the world just came into being by some accident out of nothing, and out of nothing came something, and there wasn't any intent there.

And all the amazing creation around us, the trees, the sky, the earth, all of creation, our bodies, our minds.

Just a mistake, it just happened.

They live as if they can do whatever they want.

For there will not be a day where they give account.

There is no standard for them to keep.

This is what the fool is, those who reject God.

And then we're given a list of their follies.

It's interesting how fools lie to themselves and to others.

And they believe their lie.

They can believe these things and promote these lies.

And they're deceived by them.

Romans 1 tells us that God reveals Himself in all creation.

That all creation is screaming that there is a God, there is a creator.

And yet mankind is so clever to find a way to keep lying and deceiving and promoting the lie that there is no God.

And their folly is that they're corrupt.

They do abominable deeds.

This means worthy of causing disgust or hatred.

No one, there's none who does good.

Why is that?

Well, because they've rejected God.

They've rejected any kind of standard for what God might hold them to.

And when you reject God, I know this is really simple logic, but it seems to be missed by most of our world, and if we're honest, oftentimes in our own heart as well.

If you reject God, then anything goes.

Your morality is your morality, and your truth is your truth.

So if you feel like, hey, I don't have to do this to be a good person, well, if you're the one making it up, then that's true, because it's true for you.

There's no God.

Who's to say?

If I want to just practice all kinds of wickedness and slaughter people, I could do that because I'm my own judge.

And see how the reasoning goes.

No one who does good.

But what happens with those who reject God is they kind of can get in a group together and they realize that there needs to be some standard.

We can't just be killing one another all the time and doing whatever we want.

Right?

Society or a civilization would self-destruct pretty quickly.

So they begin to form some rules.

Well, you can do this, that's permitted, but you can't do these things.

They have standards.

And you see how civilization, in one group, you can eat your neighbors.

Kill them and cook them and eat them.

That's fine.

In this other group, you can't eat your neighbors, but you can do genocide on your neighbors.

That's okay.

In this group, you can't eat them or do genocide, but you can genocide the unborn.

That's okay.

And you just see how cultures begin to have their arbitrary ideas of what's right and what's wrong.

David's reminding us, God's word is reminding us, that there is a God and there is a standard.

That's how it can be said that none does right.

There's none who is righteous.

Why?

Because there's a lawgiver, God.

But is folly the fool's folly?

This is how it is.

They're corrupt, abominable deeds.

And God looks down and he says, all turn aside.

Together they are corrupt.

No one who does good.

None who does good.

Not even one.

It might be easy for us to sit here and read David's word and say, yeah, I'm with David.

Those people who are pestilents or foreigners or whatever, they were wicked people.

There were wicked people in the land.

And we live in the same time.

There are people who live among us who hate God and they reject God and shame on them.

They should know better.

That's true.

But lest we think that David is not condemning us, let's turn in our Bibles to the New Testament book of Romans.

We will turn to Romans, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.

In Romans chapter 3, it's important that we see this.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Paul is quoting here from a couple different Psalms, but beginning in verse 9.

In Romans chapter 3, beginning in verse 9, what then?

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Are we Jews any better off?

Now think, Paul's thinking back to Psalm 14, because he's going to quote it.

As if the Jews have been touting that out and saying, yeah, look at all these wicked people who are forget God and they reject God and then they break his laws.

Are we any better than the Jews?

Are Jews any better off?

No, not at all.

For we all have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, just for clarification, Greeks are everybody else, are under sin, as it is written.

None is righteous, no not one.

No one understands.

No one seeks for God.

All have turned aside together.

They have all become worthless.

No one does good, not even one.

The curse of sin is far reaching.

There isn't a group or a community or a people who are immune to sin.

And it makes everyone a fool.

A fool's folly is evident.

It's all around.

His life, the things he's pursuing, all those things bring destruction because they promote himself over God.

And you might hear that and you think, yeah, but I'm listening I'm not.

I don't reject God.

I'm not a fool.

I follow, like I do the religious things.

I'm a good person.

Like, genuinely, I'm a good person.

I hear you.

Jesus says in Luke 18 that no one is good.

There isn't one who is good.

You will not be able to go on the day of judgment when Christ returns or you die, and go and stand before Jesus and say, But I'm a good person.

Jesus is the only person who's walked the earth who is good.

And so you begin to understand.

We read Psalm 14.

Apart from Christ, we are the fool.

We are the fool.

And our condemnation is clear.

Our behavior, our rejection of God, maybe not in word, but in deed.

We chase after other things to satisfy.

We don't submit to God's law.

And I'm not saying that if you sin once here or there, you're a fool.

I'm not saying that.

Saying if you have chosen to reject God's ways, you've chosen habitual patterns of sin in your life.

You've chosen to not confess to the Lord, confess to others.

You've chosen to just kind of do this on your own.

As if you and Jesus can strike a bargain.

I'll keep some of these things, I'll not do these bad things, and you'll let me into heaven.

David in Psalm 14, Paul in Romans 3, Jesus and Luke 18 make this case that we are all fools.

And this is our condition.

Look at verses four through six.

Have they no knowledge of 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.

So we're told right in the beginning of verse 4, their condition, the condition of the fool is that they're informed.

Have they no knowledge?

All these people who do these things?

They eat up my people as bread, to impress the poor.

Have they no knowledge?

No, they do.

They've been informed.

One is I mentioned earlier in Romans 1, throughout creation, or creation has been revealed to them.

God is real.

One of destroying God's people.

Those who reject God have this kind of unique thing about them.

They reject God, and oftentimes they feel it's their duty to then persecute or subdue or silence God's people.

I don't know if you've seen this irony in your own evangelism.

Maybe you were this way before the Lord saved you, but you can have this hostility toward a God that you don't believe in.

Well, Psalm 14 tells us what, because they're fools.

They're fools.

They've been told they have the information, and they're guilty of destroying God's people, they're guilty of rejecting God.

So their condition is informed and guilty, guilty.

Verse 5 says they're in great terror.

Why?

Because God is with the righteous.

And again, there are some people who just live their life and they don't think twice about it.

Or so it seems.

It appears as if the idea of God in the Bible hasn't even come across their transom.

They're not worried about it.

But yet, verse 5 says they're in great terror.

How is this possible?

One, we have this, again, amazing ability to distract.

To distract ourselves.

Oftentimes, most of the time, this looks like sin.

This happens in our lives too, as believers.

Condemnation comes, or we feel guilty over something we've done, or maybe we haven't sinned, but there's a hard thing ahead of us.

There's a real challenge before us.

And our tendency is to go and be distracted by something.

We go to our entertainment with our phones or TV or hobbies, or we go to work to make more money, to buy more things to be distracted with.

We just we pursue distractions.

The fool is the same way.

Pursuing distractions to hide and mask the terror that God is not with the fool.

There are times when just the lies begin to build up and callous the heart.

And although they might not feel terror in that moment that you're talking with them, or in a particular moment, there will come a time where they will feel the great terror because they have been told and formed, and they are guilty.

And they will stand before a righteous God.

It's amazing how much people want to take poor people and use them.

And we see this throughout the Bible, we see this throughout human history.

We see it in our own day and age.

Few people, I'm not saying no one, but few people want to go to those in poverty and actually just help them out of the goodness of their own heart.

They want to help them because they have a use for them, or they don't want to help them, they just want to abuse them and use them for other things.

And so often, fools who are driven by selfish desires can go to poor people and use poor people for their own benefits.

Oppressing them, manipulating them.

All these things happen.

The Lord is the refuge of the poor.

Poverty in a sense of money, although it is that.

I think it's also poverty.

Those who are oppressed by power, those who are oppressed with manipulation, those who do not have the ability to liberate themselves out of their struggle in this life, and who are being oppressed by others.

The fool says, I can get away with this because there is no God.

Yet God is the refuge for the poor.

Again, the fool has rejected God and abused God's people, flouting God's rules and commands, and destroying those who belong to God.

I mentioned earlier in Romans chapter one that God reveals to all mankind himself through his creation.

But do you remember the end of Romans 1?

It has a similar tone about people rejecting God and doing what they want.

The end of Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 28, says, And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to debased mind, to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

There they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless, though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only Them, but give approval to those who practice them.

What a picture of fools.

Foolish people who've rejected God.

They know the standard.

They know the consequence.

But they continue to invent evil.

And not only do they practice these things, they give approval to those who practice them.

They egg one another off, they encourage one another in their foolishness, in their rejection of God.

So in their condition, they are guilty.

Some people might give an excuse or an accusation almost.

Well, if God was real, then he should reveal himself to me.

And then I would believe.

Then I would follow him if he would just reveal himself to me.

Ironically and tragically, this was a common response when Jesus walked the earth.

He healed people, he cast out demons, he multiplied food to feed thousands of people.

He raised people from the dead.

And yet, people still wanted more science.

The truth was right in front of them.

They were fools.

If they were looking for the truth, they would have found it.

What they were looking for is things that they wanted to worship.

Jesus says in John 6, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

Whoever believes in me shall not thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

All that the Father gives me will come to me.

And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

Any who comes to Jesus, he will not cast out.

So you cannot say, well, if he would just reveal himself, then I would believe.

For he has revealed himself again and again.

People testify to this, to the mighty hand of God working in their lives.

The thing is about a fool, they're not looking for salvation.

They're looking to continue worshiping what they want to worship.

Had the people been wanting to worship God, had they been genuinely seeking after God, he would not have cast them out.

He would not have rejected him, because he is the bread of life.

It's his desire to feed those who are hungry, it's his desire to give drink to those who are thirsty.

They saw him and they did not believe.

The fool looks and doesn't see.

Because they're not wanting the truth.

They're wanting to stay in their sin.

This is the condition of the fool.

The fool isn't necessarily confused and just accidentally on the wrong path.

The fool hears and sees and yet continues to stay on the road to destruction.

So God has revealed himself.

He's revealed himself in his general revelation in creation.

He's revealed himself in his specific revelation in God's word through God's Spirit.

He has revealed himself.

He has made himself known to you.

Are you following him?

Are you really genuinely following Jesus?

As the wise man responds by looking for salvation.

The wise man doesn't say, Well, I can figure this out on my own.

The wise man sees his need for a savior, cries out for deliverance, as David does in verse 7.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people.

Let Jacob rejoice, and let Israel be glad.

David's cry is to the Lord, to the covenant-keeping God.

I mentioned this we're in Psalm 8, but look again in Psalm 7, look at verse 7.

As we talked about this in Psalm chapter 8, the Lord, capital L-O-R-D.

Psalms 8 · chapter mention

It's a covenant name of God.

Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God.

When the Lord, the covenant-keeping God, restores the fortunes of his people, salvation, full deliverance is what David's saying.

David isn't saying when the Lord helps us out a little bit, when the Lord helps us kind of find the right path in life and make some good choices.

But when the Lord brings salvation, when he takes the people who are dead in their sin, rejecting God, as Ephesians tells us, enemies of God, and he brings them to life.

That is salvation.

He does something that no one else can do.

He changed hearts, he changes lives.

That salvation for Israel would come when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people.

Jesus Christ would come.

The seed of Abraham, the serpent crushing Messiah who will deliver his people and restore the fortunes of God's people.

When he comes, his salvation will be complete.

Christ has come.

As I said earlier, he has defeated the power of sin and the consequences of sin.

And he will once and for all defeat the enemy and the foolish ones.

Church this morning.

Not everyone here has repented and put their hope in Jesus Christ alone.

There are some in this room who, I'd imagine, are wrestling.

You really want to follow your heart and worship what you want to worship.

But you understand what God's word calls you to.

But it's good that you understand that clearly in your mind.

That you get that clear.

I hear what the Bible says, and I want to obey it, kind of, but I also know I want these other things.

You've gone to the right churches.

You know all the right answers.

You've lived the right way for so many years.

But yet, if people were to look into your life, they would not find a repentant, humble person who's seeking after God regularly in his word, that his word might transform you.

Person of grace and mercy because they've been shown grace or mercy.

But rather a person of pride, judgmental spirit, who thinks as if they've been saved by their own merit.

Although they would never say that with their mouth, they believe that in their heart, and so they are deceived.

Listen, don't be a fool.

Repent and follow Jesus.

This isn't so much about information, getting the right information.

This is an issue about worship.

What is it that you're to worship?

Don't be a fool.

And don't fall for foolish thinking.

Little promises that you can follow God and you can follow someone else.

You can follow God and you can follow something else.

It's not what we're called to as Christians.

It doesn't work that way.

God will judge the fool.

Hebrews 9 27.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time.

Not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

David's cry in Psalm 14 is that everyone's stuck in their sin and fools have rejected God, but that God would come and deliver his people, save us from our sin, that we would understand that there is a God, and he has revealed himself, and that we would cry out to him for salvation.

Because Jesus is going to return.

He is going to return.

So may we be those who are in Christ, who are righteous, who have been delivered, who have forsaken the foolishness of the world, who have forsaken the foolishness in our own hearts, who are trusting in Christ alone.

Church, as we wake up, Lord willing, tomorrow morning.

All the lies of the world are going to come in.

They come in quick.

You don't even need to turn on your computer or your phone or the TV or go be around people.

Just the lies of the world, the lies of our own heart as well, they come in so quick.

They start spreading just these lies.

Well, maybe there is a God, but He's not as strict as the God of the Bible.

Maybe there is a God, but it's okay if you overlook these things.

It's okay if you sit a little bit here.

It's alright.

The big God.

He can take care of it.

Or the lie.

God doesn't love you.

God didn't really say that.

You're a fool.

You think that Jesus actually lived on the earth for all those years and suffered and was persecuted and was beaten and abused and crucified on the cross for you?

How many lot of times does that lie come in?

In some form or variation, Jesus isn't able to save you.

Or Jesus doesn't want to save you.

But as Jesus declared in John 16, 16, versus John 6, he is the bread of life.

He desires to nourish, to save.

This is what David is crying out in Psalm 14.

Though it feels that there's fools out there and they're doing abominable things and wicked things, and they've rejected God, that God, Jesus Christ, will return and he will set all things right.

And so our hope is in him.

Our hearts are worshiping him.

Our obedience follows him.

Because he's real.

The hope we have is real.

The forgiveness we have is real.

The calling on our lives to forsake all and follow Jesus is real.

And it's good.

And this is the good news.

And we're not we're not stuck in our sin.

We're not stuck being fools.

But that Christ has come for us.

So may we respond with worshipful, obedient hearts.

Church, let's pray.