Psalm 53

Today's scripture is psalm 53 to the choir master according to Mahalus and Mastil of David The full says in his heart. There is no God They are corrupt doing abominable iniquity. There is none who does good God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand who seek after God They have all fallen away Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good not even one Have those who work evil know knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon God There they are in great terror where there is no terror for God God is the bone to him who encamps against you. You put them the shame for God has rejected them Oh that salvation for Israel would come out of dying when God restores the fortunes of his people Let Jacob rejoice let Israel be glad May the Lord out of blessing to the reading and the hearing of his word the psalm 53 It's a remake of sorts It is a repetition mostly of a previous psalm that you will find in the Psalter Psalm 14 It is like or as if David decided that this song was so good That he needed to remake it That he needed to reissue it he already issued it in 14 And now as we get into the second book of the Psalter David decides that he's gonna issue this song again And normally when a song is is remade or as people call it a song is covered It's usually someone else who remakes it is usually someone else who covers it Like all the people who have remade the Beatles music over the years again and again and again nobody gets their songs Remade and covered like the Beatles do or like Aretha Franklin as she covered Otis Redding's Respect for the olds of you who didn't know that know that was not original with Aretha Franklin that was Otis ready Or like Tina Turner's remake of Proud Mary. No, that wasn't Tina Turner As Clarence Clearwater revival John Fogarty in fact yet This is not someone else covering David's song this is David This is David remaking This is David better yet reissuing one of his more popular tunes as it were What the Bible said in Psalm 14 Essentially it sends again in Psalm 53 And therefore it teaches us I think it it reminds us of a very important biblical principle and that is the principle of Repetition repetition is good

Repetition is biblical Repetition is helpful It is helpful because we tend to forget We forget how good and gracious God is We forget how rebellious and sinful we are And this song reminds us again that humanity is not as good as we often think it is And that God is even better Then we often give him credit for I listen to people Even Christians even Christians believe it talk today about the present Climate of our world and nation Log on to Facebook and Everybody's an expert Log in the Twitter and everybody's a prophet And you might get The impression you listen to these people including some Christian You might get the impression that the world's problems are primarily intellectual ones All we have to do is get people to read this book or that book or get people to listen to this podcast or that podcast If we can just educate more people According to how we think that will bring it in to our social yields or perhaps Listening to people you can easily become convinced that if our problems are not Basically intellectual ones and our problems are basically political ones

And if we can just elect the right people Or get the wrong people out of office Again again we would bring an in To the hills that plague our society

But when you read some 53 All 14 for that matter It is a sobering reminder to us This morning That our problem is not corruption and education Our problem is not corruption and politics Our problem is the corruption of the human heart

In fact so corrupt is the human condition That it is foolishness and Fully to think for a moment that it is not

That's what the Psalm reminds us The problem with our world is corruption of the human heart and to that human corruption There is only one divine cure is not an intellectual problem Is not a political problem It is a heart problem and there's only one cure for a corrupt heart

And that's given to us this morning But it starts with us understanding rightly the human condition and human corruption does it the human heart Contrary to what we want to believe Is not Naturally inclined anymore toward God Men and women are innately bent And bending Away from God

We do not naturally worship him We do not naturally worship God Psalm 53 and verse one says the fool says in his heart there is no God They are corrupt doing abominable and niquity There is none Who does good Refusing To esteem God What this says really is that we therefore esteem ourselves And this makes us fools fools You know the Bible has a lot to say about the fool a lot to say about the fool And Isaiah chapter 32 and verse six the Bible says for full speak folly Their hearts are bit toward God no their hearts are bit On evil They practice ungodliness and spread error concerning the Lord And this foolishness the Bible says it's contagious It spreads Proverbs Chapter 13 verse 20 gravel walks with the wise becomes wise But the companion of fools will suffer harm because it spreads Like coronavirus fools a hard headache And don't listen and Proverbs 18 verse 2 A fool takes no pleasure in understanding But only in expressing his own opinion

I shouldn't call it a Twitter feed them What should they call it I won't say But there is the common understanding of what a fool is And the biblical understanding of what a fool is And this is important distinction that we need to make beloved The common understanding of what a fool is Is a person who lacks good sense right Is a person who has bad judgment

But biblically speaking When the Bible calls somebody a fool This is not an intellectual evaluation of somebody When the Bible speaks of somebody being a fool This is more a theological and moral assessment of a person Someone who refuses to acknowledge and accept the will and work of God Who disregard God and his word This the Bible calls a fool And in the world eyes this person could be at the height of his intellectual powers

In fact the Bible gives an example of this

In 1 Samuel chapter 25 Begin the verse 2 We have the encounter of David when he comes in contact with Nabal

And the Bible points out the fact that Nabal's name means fool The man's name was fool Now you think about that and you probably should understand that that was probably not the name that his parents gave him Nobody would name their son Nabal You probably wouldn't even name your dog Nabal But this is probably the name that he became to have because of his characteristics because of his life The way he went about living But notice when it says about him in verse 2 and there was a man in Mayan whose business was in Carmel The man was very rich He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats He was sharing his sheep in Carmel And the name of the man was Nabal And the name of his wife Abigail The woman was discerning And beautiful But the man was harsh and badly behaved He was Kalebite Again, again, but you see that Full here is not necessarily an intellectual assessment the man had business since

The man could make money The man could walk around As somebody who was highly respected In the business world, but not only did he have business since the man had some type of romantic sense He married well He was a stupid Abigail She was beautiful She was discerning And he was smart enough to take her as his bride and yet Despite all that The Bible says He was a fool

Because Biblically speaking A fool Is a moral and theological assessment Of a person's heart And that person says There is no God

This is a theological error That leads to an ethical and moral collapse

This is a theological error That makes human beings fools Because then man becomes the measure of all things Because then Is not that we stop worshiping Is that we worship What we perceive to be the best in us That's what we do We worship what we perceive to be the best in us We worship the best athletes We worship the best intellectuals We worship the best entertainers We worship the best artists Why? Because ultimately We are just worshiping ourselves We are worshiping what we perceive to be the best of our selves Foulishness So we worship Michael Jordan We worship Michael Jackson We worship Michael Angelo I don't know why we got to worship all these Michaels First up what we perceive to be the best of us

What makes us foolish

Because we're saying there is no God We become the measure of all things But the Bible says in Romans chapter 1 Verse 22 and 23 Claiming to be wise They instead became what Other fools And instead of worshiping The glorious ever-living God They worship idols made to look like mere people

Because the fool has said in his heart There is no God And because he has the worship He worships himself Or the best that he feeds About himself I am the master of my own faith And I become the captain of my own soul

And if there is no God then And I am the master of my own faith I am the captain of my own soul And I become the measure of all things Then all things are permissible All things are permissible And there is no such thing Really beloved of right or wrong Everything becomes subjective Everything becomes conventional And therefore human beings do what is right in their own eyes If Marxism is right then it's right If capitalism is right It's right Communism is right Fascism is right Humanism and secularism is right Racism is right If I am the measure of all things And there is no God Beloved Then that means That a human being is not created in the image of God With inherent dignity And that becomes the root and the ground For racism Racism is rooted In a secular humanism Any belief That one ethnicity or race Is inherently superior to another Is something that can not square With the existence of a holy, good, and righteous God Cannot square With the gospel of Jesus Christ And Christians Christians beloved Who are racists I mean really that's a contradiction That's a contradiction I don't know how that happens But for the sake of the argument Christians who are racists are actually fools Because they act as if The Bible does not teach What it teaches In Acts chapter 17 and verse 26 and 27 From one man, or as the King James would say From one blood From one man, one blood God made all the nations That shall inhabit the whole earth And he marked out their point of time and history And boundaries of their land God did this so they would seek him Don't miss that He did that So that they would seek him Not their own glory Not their own understanding But that they would seek him And perhaps reach out for him And find him Because He has created them And therefore He has never far From them You do understand That humanity men and women Were not created to be fools You and I were created To seek after God The cause of sin Do you know what the Bible now stands In verse 2 No one seeks God No one No one Not only do we not naturally worship God We do not naturally seek God Adam and Eve Beloved were created They were created to know God They were created for communion With God They were created with a desire to seek God And know him more And more And more every day When sin came in Sin destroyed those natural affection Turned those godly affection inside out And rather than seek God You know we seek We seek ourselves Rather than seek the glory of God We seek our own glory And now And now What does the Bible say? And now God has to seek us Because We don't seek him Verse 2 God looks down from heaven And what does he find beloved He finds That there is no one There is no one Seeking him And this is an important principle that the Bible reminds us over and over again That God is the one who does the seeking God does the seeking because we would never seek him God has always been the seeker When Adam and Eve fell in the sin Adam and Eve did not seek God God came seeking after them There was God who sought Abraham And Abraham was living in a pagan culture In a pagan condition Abraham was not looking up Or looking out for God God came seeking Abraham It was God who sought out Moses It was God who sought out Israel It was not Peter, James and John Who went looking for Jesus It was Jesus Who went looking and sought and found Peter, James and John But loving even Saul who later became Paul Was not seeking God It was Jesus Christ who came seeking him He was seeking notoriety He was seeking respect He was seeking a theme in the eyes of others Christ came Seeking him It is not the sheep who seek It is not the law sheep who seek out the shepherd It is the shepherd who goes and seeks out the law sheep Men and women seek everything but God And we will often use even God to get it That is why churches are full of people Who are using God To get money Using God To get love Using God To get health Using God to get prosperity Using God to get a steam Using God to get popularity And this is why the Bible says in Psalm 53 and 3 These things become corrupt They become corrupt Because we make them an end of themselves Rather than seeking God We seek these benefits And in seeking them They become corrupt When you seek love as an end Love becomes corrupt When you seek money rather than seeking God Money becomes away into evil The Bible says these things become corrupt The word there corrupt Literally means rotten Spoiled Or sour It is like what happens to milk When it is left out in the sun too long It becomes cheese and people have the nerve to eat it Really? Really? Most of us there I say have had the unpleasant experience Of having tasted rotten and soured milk And immediately we gag And immediately we want to spit it out But it is the human heart In the sight of God That refuses to seek Him But rather seek all these other things Your heart has been left out in the sun too long His become corrupt Spoiled Sourred This is the human condition And because we don't seek God The Bible says Therefore We don't call on Him either We don't call on Him either See that in verse 4 From human beings We don't naturally call upon God We don't naturally worship Him We don't naturally seek Him We don't naturally call upon Him This is another aspect of our depravity Refusing to call upon the Lord Now this idea of call upon the God is too full Love it The idea in the Bible when it says to call upon God And means that you call upon God Seeking His counsel Seeking His help Seeking His word We do not naturally do this We do not naturally call upon God We call upon ourselves And if we are not confident in call upon ourselves Then we call upon those who we worship We call upon our idols We call upon our heroes Call upon God The idea is we don't call upon God We don't seek His counsel We don't seek His help We don't naturally call upon God In the sense that we call Him into our presence That's the idea there too Is when you call upon God in the Bible You call upon Him seeking His help But there's another aspect to call in upon God It is calling God to be present with you Call God into worship That's what we do right in our invocation What are we doing in the invocation We are invoking the presence of God Bless us Lord with your presence Come now and allow us to worship you We call upon you this morning We call upon God to be with us We call upon God to come that we might worship Him But since we don't naturally worship God Since we don't naturally seek God It stands the reason That we don't naturally call upon God We don't want God here This is the corruption of the human heart This is what we see Manifest it In our streets Every day This is the over-arcing philosophy You hear spilt for Through your television every day This is the over-arcing philosophy That you listen to and watch and read When you log on to the internet every day There is no God We don't naturally worship Him We don't seek Him Do not call We see manifest it in our streets every day But I want to be honest with you this morning And say That this is what we see When we look into our own heart this morning For such corruption There is only one cure The only answer Or more accurately the only cure And remedy For the human corruption Is the grace and the mercy of God In Jesus Christ our Lord The only cure Beloved hear me The only cure For human foolishness Is the wisdom of God In the gospel of Jesus Christ Now I want you to miss that I want you to miss that because David Inspiration of the Holy Spirit does something really remarkable here And he points us to something even more remarkable than David could understand David wasn't the only one who remade Psalm 14 The Apostle Paul covered it too The Apostle Paul covered it too In fact In fact I would suggest to you that Paul made it a bigger hit than David ever did Because Paul made it an international hit He made an international hit Do you understand that when David wrote these words The Jewish nation under David Would have read Psalms of 53 and 14 As an indictment upon the Gentile nation The fools saying there is no God Oh yeah I know who that is Those are the Philistines and Goliath Those are the fools Or that's never conneder in the Babylonians Those are the fools Or that's the Nakarib and the Assyrians They are the fools They are They are the enemies of God They are the enemies of God's people It's the racists And the rapists It's the sadistic and the satanists It's the witches and the wicked And Paul comes along Takes this tomb Remakes it And reworks it And indicts not just the Gentiles but the Jews as well In a Roman chapter 3 And verse 9 Paul says What shall we conclude in Do we have any advances not at all We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power sin This is everyone It's all of us Perhaps it is written and then he begins to quote David Then he begins to sing There is no one righteous not even one There is no one who understands There is no one who seeks God All All have turned away They have all together become worthless There is no one who does good Not even one Paul takes What David would have been pointing At the Gentile nation And Paul says This Applies To you To me To everyone This is the condition Of all of us Before God came And sought us This is everybody's condition One of us naturally sought God None of us naturally Caught upon God None of us did good We were all fools Natural born fools And with die fools Except God did what Mr. Teeth did Have pity on the fool Pity the fool Lord, pity the fool And that's what Paul said The Lord had pity In Romans 3 In the Inverse 21 But now That but Is the mercy The compassion And the pity of God Upon foolishness But now The righteousness of God Has been manifested apart from the law Although the law And the prophets bear witness to it The righteousness of God Through faith In Jesus Christ For all who believe Why for there is no distinction No distinction All all have sin All were fools And therefore For short of the glory of God And yet by his mercy And his grace And by faith and Christ So justified by his grace as a gift Through the redemption That is in Christ Jesus Our Lord Whom Whom God put forward As a propitiation by his blood To be Received by Faith That's it That's it There's the cure There's the cure The bad news Is that there is a universal correction And the good news Is that there is a universal redemption David prayed Didn't he pray in verse 6 He prayed that salvation would come He prayed that salvation Would come to God's people And believe it It has come There is a cure for your foolishness There is a remedy for your rebellion First Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 24 Jesus is not just the power of God Jesus is also the wisdom of God The wisdom of God And now the gospel says to the fool You don't have to be a fool anymore By faith in Christ You can be wise Under salvation You can be wise unto eternal life No man is a fool Who is wise under salvation No matter what the academic say The Harvard education You don't need letters and degrees After your name All you need is faith Trust Not in yourself But in Christ Not in who you perceive to be the best of humanity But faith In Jesus Jesus alone You know what the Bible tells you to do Amazingly Isaiah chapter 55 And verse 6 Seek the Lord While he may be found What else you need to do? Call on him Why? You don't naturally do it Human beings don't seek him Foolish human beings don't call on him He has the Bible says here Seek the Lord while he may be found Call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way And the honor writes his man His foolish thoughts Ignore that there is a God Ignore that you stand in need of him And know there is only one cure The man Jesus Christ And let him return to God And you know what God is going to do? God is going to have compassion on you He is our God And he will Abundantly and overwhelmingly Pardon you Here is the amazing thing Beloved Here is the inexplicable Here is the Unexplainable truth That when you seek God You will find That he was already Seeking you When you call upon God You will discover That he had already Called you I saw the Lord the songwriter said That the word I knew He moved my soul To seek him Seeking me For it was not I That found old Savior True No I Was found Of thee You don't have to be a food anymore The Lord is here The Lord is near Call upon him Seeking Even now This morning And he will be found