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.
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,
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,
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.
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,
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.