Psalm 14

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions.
It is Saturday morning, June or January 23rd. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we will make it through all of the wisdom literature. Well, today we are at Psalm 14. Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the rich blessing it is to know that you are our master, our savior, the one who loves us and cares for us. We pray now that as we read your word, that you would bury these truths in our hearts, that we would know who we are and know what you have done. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, here we go. John chapter, sorry, not John, Psalm chapter 14. to the chief musician, a psalm of David.
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 no one who does good, not, no, not one. 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, who 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."
We need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called? What are we called to do in response to these words? So, A, what is this about? God looks upon the children of men he says, there's no one who does good. No, not one. This is the condemnation that we find Paul quoting in the book of Romans chapter 3, when God says in Romans chapter 3 that we all are like this. There's no one who's done good.
This is a condemnation of all humanity. Here we might think that, oh, maybe with verse 1, 2, and 3, this is talking about just those enemies of God. But here, we know in the grand scope of things, because of God's revelation later, that this is actually speaking of all humanity. All of us, in and of ourselves, are unrighteous. And it's interesting what he starts off this psalm with. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Isn't it interesting that he says that they are corrupt? I mean, this is the epitome of corruption, isn't it?
That we who were created in the image of God, the God who knit us together in our mother's womb, would say such a foolish thing as there is no God. And yet every time we sin, that's what we do. Every time we think that God will not judge us, that's what we do. We're like those who say that there's no judgment for us, but God is a refuge for those who are poor.
Remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are poor And we're going to get to Psalm 46 in a little while in which God says that he is our fortress, he is our rock.
And so what is this about? This is about us crying out with the psalmist of David, 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. Now notice this is a psalm of David. And yet he's already talking about the captivity. Because it's the reality that sin has taken us captive. And so, I'm going to have a hard time picking a best verse here. I'm going to leave that one up to you. But what are we called to do in response to this?
God says that if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. and the truth is not in us. More than that, if we say we have no sin, we make God a liar. Isaiah 53, or 56.3 says, all we like sheep have gone astray, everyone having turned his own way. But the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Salvation has come out of Zion in Jesus Christ. that God has been a refuge for his people in Jesus Christ.
So what are you called to do in response to these words? It's not to try to make yourself righteous, it's to believe in Jesus Christ and to receive his righteousness. See, we're not righteous in and of ourselves. There's a condemnation here. They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good. No, not one. Isaiah says that even our good deeds are as filthy rags.
But here we have salvation from Zion. The Lord has brought us out of captivity to Satan and to his kingdom and dominion of darkness. and that in Jesus Christ there is a rock, a refuge for us. So the call today is, do you believe? Will you confess your sins and will you cling to Jesus Christ? For salvation has come out of Zion.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you do not hide the hard truths from us, but that you so love us that you tell us of the predicament of our sin in our natural state, but yet you have sent mercy in the person and by the work of Jesus Christ. We pray that we would believe in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you today. May He fill your heart with joy and with peace, and may you enjoy worshiping with His people tomorrow. I'll see you then. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.