June 30 Sermon: Folly’s Echo, Wisdom’s Call

Explore Psalm 14 as we navigate through themes of human depravity, the distinct lives of the righteous, and the profound promise of God's deliverance. Discover how these ancient truths can guide us in today's complex world. Tune in to find wisdom and encouragement for your spiritual journey.

Consider these questions as you listen:

1. How does recognizing our own depravity help us appreciate God's grace more deeply?

2. In what ways can you see the difference between the lives of the righteous and the ungodly in your own community?

3. What practical steps can you take this week to live out the truth that God is your refuge and deliverance in times of trouble?

Transcript:

On our way to General Assembly a couple weeks ago, we were making our way to Memphis, and we were about two, two and a half hours away, I believe. And suddenly, the GPS app on my phone let me know that it was rerouting me. Well, from what I could tell, the way the quick message flashed on the screen on the car, it looked like it was because of flash floods that were in the area. But it was really quick. I really couldn't tell. Well, instead of staying on the freeway we were on, it routed us into Tennessee earlier than we had expected. And we went from a... a nice four-lane road straight to Memphis to crossing the Mississippi. And we found ourselves on assorted two-lane state highways and county roads. What my brain was sure that my eyes had seen regarding flash flooding was confirmed by the fact that to the east there were dark clouds and a beautiful full rainbow. You know the full rainbows you see as the sun's going down, the colors are extra bright. So, I assumed that the flash flooding was what was going on. Well, we were in some small area, and we were sitting at a stoplight, and I decided that, hey, we're on some interesting roads here. Maybe if I back out of the GPS app and put our address in again, maybe it'll put us on better roads because the flash flooding is over. It is flash flooding, after all. Right? It's quick. So, as I was doing this, the light started to change. And as we got closer and closer, I started to wonder if I put the right address in.

Because we were not anywhere near what looked like would either be the church that was hosting this event or the hotel. Well, little did I know... that as I backed out, trying to get a better route, I did not enter in the hotel address. I just randomly, as I was in a hurry, put in Cordova, Tennessee instead of the hotel address in Cordova, Tennessee. Well, we still had about 30 minutes of travel left at this point, and we turned every direction in every small town. The conversation was about, boy, that fried catfish establishment looks like... a couple of buildings bolted together. And I bet that's really good food. And same with the barbecue places. Well, we got closer and closer, and I started to get more nervous and nervous about where we were going to end up. And, well, we got there, and the female voice of Google Maps says that we've arrived at our destination. We were at a stop sign in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't even a stoplight. Nothing. At this point, I'm pretty sure Mike Droger was very impressed with my navigation skills. Regardless, we weren't that far from our destination, but after 15 hours of travel at this point, we were glad to get where we were going. We were glad we were close. I went back in, found what I had done, and we ended up there. Again, we weren't terribly off course. We found the hotel. Within a few minutes, we were there. But I had foolishly put in the wrong information, and while I thought everything was all right, I thought we were good to go. I ended up at a dark corner, nowhere near where I wanted to be. So as we drop into Psalm 14 today, we see the psalmist telling us that the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And one of the points of application that we are going to consider here with this passage is that we need the correct navigation of God to understand how we are going. How we are going to navigate our lives. It's important that we understand that we don't just need the general direction of where we are going. We need God. We need Yahweh, the triune God of history, because He is the one who is going to bring and has brought salvation to His people. He is the one who restores the fortunes of His people. And so to reject Him is foolishness. But here we see that there is wisdom in seeking His face. So let's line out this passage and then we'll traverse through this familiar psalm today. So our first point today is the depravity of denying God. All of our points today are going to start with D to help us remember them. So the depravity of denying God. And so when we look at this passage, we don't get the idea that our condition is essentially good. Instead, this psalm is an important reminder for us of the depth of our sinful condition. Second, we will see that there is a difference among the righteous. When we understand who God is and understand this, this will be fleshed out in our lives. It's going to reflect in us. We will see the character of God in us when we know who He is. Finally, we see the deliverance that is promised by God. The people not only have a means of navigating this life, but they know the destination. And the destination is the salvation that comes from the hand of God. And so we start off here with our first point, the depth of our depravity here. And as we look at through verses 1-3 of Psalm 14, we really dive in. We dive into the heart of the big idea of this chapter. It's a familiar passage. Psalm 53 is actually nearly identical to this psalm. And this idea of rejecting God as foolishness presents itself in other passages in the psalms as well. We've seen this idea earlier on with some of the other psalms we've looked at this summer already. And you likely remember what I've said before about the statement, there is no God, but I'm going to refresh your memory. This statement here, that the fool says in their heart, there is no God, is not that these foolish ones have decided to accept the philosophical position of materialistic atheism. It's not like atheism as we conceive of it today. Surely to reject the existence of God is a foolish thing to do. But the idea here is not a philosophical atheism. It's a practical atheism. Because in this time, to deny the existence of God or of a deity would not have been something the psalmist would have been addressing. Because everyone around them had these pagan gods that they worship. Remember, the main thing we see in the Old Testament is idolatry, right? So, there was no people group. There were no neighbors of the Israelites who would say, matter is all there has ever been and all there ever will be. This is not atheism as we conceive of it now. The idea here is that in their sin and in their rebellion against God, they are functionally denying the existence of God because they don't believe that He will punish them, that He will judge their sin. Basically, they don't believe that God will judge their corruption, their rebellion, their sin. So as we look at these words today, we see the depth of their depravity and sin. The psalmist says they are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. And in fact, there is none who does good. And as I always say, this is an observable fact. Humanity, since the fall of our first parents, has been mired in sin. We are born into it and it has completely corrupted us. And we can observe this and we see it not only in the world around us, but when we stop and think about it, we know this is true in our own hearts as well. So David goes beyond our perception of human depravity and what he does here is he draws our minds to considering it from the perspective of God. And that's a humbling thing to think about when you stop and consider it. If I, as a fallen sinner, make the observation from my view of the world, what does a holy, righteous God see? Well, the psalmist here emphasizes this idea by a poetic device of repetition. Humanity is not just corrupt and doing abominable deeds. The righteous one looks down to see if anyone understands or if anyone seeks after him and the answer is that they have all turned aside and together they have become corrupt. And then the repetition occurs and then there's some additional emphasis with the repetition. There is none who does good. And then David adds this, not even one. It's like, if you didn't get it before, I'm going to emphasize it here. Not a single one. Like I said, we see this with our human eyes. Imagine what an omniscient God sees. We will justify sin. We will come up with all kinds of ways to polish up the human condition as best as we can.

But if we compare this to the perfect holy God of history, we understand that what we read here is our state of affairs. None do good. Not even one. And this is a powerful statement and it does a great job of convicting us of sin because this strong statement is one that we really can't argue against. We know this when we see it. And there's no amount of spin that can change the mind of the Holy One regarding the condition of the world. And this rebellion has us practically saying that we don't believe that there's a God who's going to judge us. And this is the epitome of foolishness. And this folly has echoed in every generation because we want it to be true. We want this foolish idea that there is no God who will judge us. We desire this to be the state of affairs. We want this to be true. In our sin, we don't want to be judged. And we really don't want to be judged by God. In fact, we want to be God. We want to make the rules. We want our will to be done. And everywhere we look, this is the state of affairs. And it's been a disaster. When we try to set ourselves up as God, we see what happens.

And while it's important to have this root understanding of this truth in us, it's also important for us to remember that this isn't just an out there problem. This isn't just a bigger state of the world problem. Our sin individually causes us to deny God not only in the big stuff in our lives, but in the little decisions we make as well. And we need to be mindful of the foolishness of our selfish sinfulness in every area of our lives. And this is hard. Because it is much more comfortable to look out at the world and see the foolishness of this world that denies God, that denies that He will judge, and look on that in judgment.

But looking at the foolishness of the world too deeply can make us miss the foolishness of our own hearts, can it? So we should desire to put the foolishness in our own hearts aside because we know that there is great benefit in righteousness. So as we move on to the next two verses, we will find a contrast as we get to our second D, the difference that there is for the righteous. So the state of affairs in regards to sin is obvious. And David now is going from the idea that there is none who are righteous, not even one, and then he is speaking about those who oppress the people of God. And this shows us the difference that is present in the righteous. They are the people of God. There are none who are righteous, no, not one, but there are some people who are set apart that God now looks upon as righteous. And so there is a question that the psalmist drops on us here. Have they no knowledge? And this is kind of an interesting question because we have just seen the folly of the wicked displayed in their rebellion against God and their belief that He will not judge them. Just like we know the truth of the depravity found in the denial of God, we do know the answer to David's question. His question here is, have they no knowledge? Well, the answer is, even if they do know, they don't care.

That's ultimately what sin and rebellion is, right? Think about something that you did wrong as a child. You were contemplating doing this thing and you thought about being caught, and in the midst of it you thought, I don't care. I'm going to do it anyway. I'm guessing, parents, you've seen your kids do that as well. That type of attitude in our sin is peak rebellion. We know we're sinners when we get caught up in the moment and we disobey the commands of God. Yes, sometimes we get caught up in the moment and we sin without that rebellious attitude, but we know the depth of our sinfulness when our attitude is, I don't care. So this question then helps us to see the peak of depravity in those who oppress the people of God. They eat up people as they eat bread is an interesting statement here. And the idea that I get in reading this is that they just do it repeatedly and they're devouring it as though it satisfies their hunger to oppress others. And it shows their selfishness and the depth to which they're rebelling against God. And what we're seeing here is the worst of the worst because of how they are treating those who are the people of God. They are those who do not call upon the Lord and they are bringing hardship upon those who do call upon God. Those who acknowledge their need for God are the people of God. The people who understand that their sin is a problem and that they need a rescue. That's the idea of the righteous. And we read that those who hurt the people of God should be in great terror. Now we've seen this idea a few times in the Psalms so far this summer and it's the idea that God is not blind to injustice and oppression. We see here that he is with the generation of the righteous. Those who acknowledge their sin and turn from it. They are protected by God. And the ultimate difference we see here is that those who are set apart and righteous are protected by God. But the rebellious will experience his wrath. And this should cause us to pause and consider the condition of our hearts once again. Have we cried out to God acknowledging our sin? Do we desire to turn from the evil that's in our hearts? Am I a fool? Stubbornly opposing God in my disobedience? The call on us here is to desire to be in the generation of the righteous because God is with the generation of the righteous. And this is the difference that we're looking at here. God is near both the foolish and the righteous. The difference is he near them in mercy or is he near them in wrath? And we see the mercy that God gives to his people on display for us in the last two verses. And they show us our final point here that there is deliverance promised to the people of God. Now as I said, the Lord is the refuge for those who are being oppressed. They have a shelter. When the difficulties come they have a promise that they will be rescued. As I point out, when we're in the Psalms, it's important that we remember the personal nature how God speaks in these Psalms. As we look here, Lord is once again in all caps. This is the personal name of God. It's Yahweh who is the refuge of his people. They know him by name. It isn't some random cosmic power out there somewhere. This is a personal God. A God who has spoken to his people. He has revealed himself. He has revealed his name to them. There is no refuge in the idols of the surrounding pagan nations. This is Yahweh who made the heavens and the earth. He is the one who promised that one day the head of the serpent would be crushed by the promised seed of the woman. This is the God who is in covenant with his people and he doesn't break his covenant promises. This is talking about our covenant God. So this is more than just a therapeutic poem or a therapeutic song to make the people of God feel better when they're being oppressed. The Holy Spirit inspired this Psalm to remind the people of God that they are set apart. That they have the promise of God's protection and they have his salvation. And David has an an emphatic prayer here that shows his trust in the salvation that God brings. He says, oh that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. He is looking to God to save his people. Their salvation does not come from any of the neighboring nations. None of the earthly powers around them are going to provide their rescue. Salvation comes for the people of God by the hand of Yahweh. And notice that the Psalmist believes the prayer will be answered because he says when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. There is a trust here that God will do what he promised to do. David trusts in the steadfast love of God to bring salvation to the people of God and will cause them to rejoice and to be glad. And what good news this statement is. Because we surveyed the condition of the world and the condition of our hearts and we can easily feel as though there is no hope. And the truth of the matter is that apart from God there is no hope. Because there is no one who is righteous. No one who does good. Not even one. No human agent is going to bring salvation to us. But David prays that salvation would come from God and as believers in the world and in the Lord Jesus Christ we know that this prayer has been answered. The ending of this psalm is one of my favorite portions of the Psalter because of the reality of the truth of what we know in Jesus. David prayed that salvation would come out of Zion and it did. It came from the one promised to come from the promised line of David. It was through the one who wrote this psalm that God one day took on our flesh and he came out of Zion to save his people. There are none who are righteous not even one. And so God came as one of us to live a perfect life for us and to bear the wrath that we deserve for our sin. This is the gospel. And it's why we can sing and we can pray this psalm with joy. We know that in Christ God has restored the fortunes of his people. And this not only gives us a reason to rejoice but this is what helps us to navigate the course of our lives. Set before us is the foolishness of denying God's judgment or the call of wisdom to trust in God and the salvation he brings to his people. And the world has convinced us that there are many maps to happiness and fulfillment but scripture is clear. It is the God who stepped into history to save his people who is able to bring us to our destination. Our trust should be in him bringing us to that destination despite the appearances of the world around us. He will bring us to himself because in Christ he has fulfilled his covenant promise to do so. So may we continually turn from the foolishness that we are prone to and cling to the word of the one who has saved us. And may we faithfully proclaim that salvation comes out of Zion and that God has restored the fortunes of his people. So as you step out into the world this week remember these three D's that we saw in this passage this week so that you might live in light of these important truths. The depravity of humanity causes us to need the wisdom of God. And there is a clear difference in the righteous or between the righteous and the ungodly and that our deliverance from sin calls the wisdom or calls for the wisdom of following God in repentance and faith as we walk in newness of life in this world. So may we live in that wisdom knowing that God has delivered his people. Salvation has in fact come out of Zion for us. Amen. Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God we thank you for the truth of your word that in it we see verified what our eyes behold. There are none who do righteous. There is no good no salvation that comes from humanity. And so we pray oh Lord that we would look at this state of affairs and remember that you have brought salvation. And may it help us to navigate our lives. May we be continually remembering that you have saved us. And may like David may this cause us to rejoice and may the proclamation of this gospel news be on our lips that others might hear and believe in your truth. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.