Well, after a number of weeks break, we're turning again to the book of Psalms, the Psalm number 14. Welcome you. Thank you for joining with us in this beautiful summer. Yes, we are in summer. I think the 1st of June is the first date of meteorological summer. I think it is anyway. And so we welcome you in the Savior's name. Thank you for joining with us. Lovely to have you in the house of God. So we'll read the Psalm together, a very short Psalm. The words are familiar. And so let's read the psalm anyway, and then we'll come to the preaching of it. Psalm 14, the title says, 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 that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord? There were they in great fear, for God is in the congregation of the righteous. Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge. O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion, when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Amen, and we'll conclude at the natural conclusion of our Bible reading at the end of the chapter, number 14 of the book of Psalms. In preparing for tonight's message, I find myself consulting the recent census figures regarding the religious makeup of the place that we all call home. According to the 2021 census, the main current religions were as follows. Catholic, 42.3%. Presbyterian, 16.6%. Church of Ireland, 11.5%. Methodist, 2.3% other Christian denominations 6.9% and other religions 1.3%. Well those figures were in and off themselves startling. It was another figure that was even more concerning. 17.4% of our population stated that they had no religion whatsoever. It was a marked increase from the 2011 figure when, on that occasion, only 10.1% had no religion or no religious affiliation. A marked increase of some 7%. It's almost reaching a fifth of our population, has no religious affiliation whatsoever. It really was that particular census figure that points out a fact that we already know, the increasing departure from biblical truth by our fellow countrymen and women, and the secularization of our province. I am told that the 2021 census revealed that all council areas, without exception, are more secular in 2021 than they were some 10 years ago. What does a society, a society that no longer fears God, that no longer believes in God, what does such a society actually come to look like? And what are we to expect more and more as we see men and women departing from any belief in God whatsoever? Well, I believe the initial verses in Psalm 14 reveals and gives to us the answer to that question, verses that we want to consider this evening in our Bible study. In the first instance, we come to see that a godless society, and we'll call it that, we come to see that a godless society, first of all, is brazen in their denunciation of God. A godless society is brazen in their denunciation of God. The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. I want you to look firstly at what man says. He says there is no God. Now the term God here is not the term Jehovah. It doesn't say that the Philistines said in his heart there is no Lord, no Jehovah. Really that relates, that title relates to God's essence. But really the word here is the word Elohim. And it's a title that characterizes God as the moral governor of the world. In other words, there is no moral governor in the world. There is no log ever. That's what they're really saying here in Psalm 14. The fool said in his heart, there is no log ever. and thereby I am able to do whatever I want to do. This is what a godless society looks like. A society that has cast God aside and has decided to go down the road of atheism. The words, therefore, that we have here must be understood not as declaring that there is no God, but that there is no God who interferes with human affairs. Charles Simeon, the Bible commentator, he said, the great mass of mankind are living as if there were no superior being to whom they owe obedience. or to whom they were accountable for their conduct. And as you go into your place of schooling, or if you go into your place of employment or just in society at large, you will find that is by and large the attitude of the masses beyond the four walls of this building this evening. People are living their lives with no thought that there is someone greater than them to whom they owe obedience to or to whom they are accountable to. The statement by the fool that there is no God only really comes but to prove the truthfulness of God's Word that makes it clear that man is spiritually blind to the reality of God, to His existence, and willfully so. If man would only but open their eyes and take a look around at creation, they would come to see the order and design of all created things point to an intelligent designer and not to the result of some big bang that supposedly occurred billions and billions of years ago. The problem is that the sinner's mind has been blinded by the God of this world so that he cannot see that. Now what people feared to say in previous generations, and what they only dared to say in their hearts, people today have no difficulty in making known to others verbally in increasing numbers that they simply don't believe in the existence of God. What we have here in Psalm 14 is that the fool has said in his heart, There is no God. But society has got to such a stage that those who live in society, a godless society, a society that God is giving over to their sin, that society not only says it inwardly, but they have come to now express it outwardly. So daring is man in his sin. Now the word atheism does not appear in the Bible, the word of God. However, the belief that there is no God is referred to in the Psalm. Thomas Brooks said that atheism denies God either in opinion and saying that there is no God, or in affection, wishing that there was no God, or in practice, living as if there was no God. Let me repeat that. Atheism denies God either in opinion, saying that there is no God, in affection, wishing that there was no God, and in practice, living as if there is no God. Now the pushback to atheism must come. And thank God it can come in many different ways. What I mean by the pushback is that the church does something about this. that the church is on a front foot when it comes to this matter of atheism. And the greatest pushback, I believe, is when Christians evidence in their lives the reality of the existence of God. Too many believers are living their lives as if they have no saving relationship with God. They really Simply go to the house of God, maybe once on a Sunday, maybe twice. But as for the prayer meeting and as for being involved in God's work or doing anything for God, prayer in the home, having private worship in the home and the family, all of those things are non-existent. And the ungodly, they look on and they wonder, is there really a God? They look at our behavior, they listen into our conversation at work and at school, they listen to what we talk about and what we're engrossed in and what we speak about on a regular basis and they scratch their heads and they wonder and they ask themselves really do these people believe that there is a God? And so the pushback must, I believe, begin in the house of God as God's people begin to live out the gospel in their lives. But alongside that, there are certain non-biblical arguments that can be employed when confronted with someone who states that they don't believe in God. You'll maybe find that at school, maybe you'll find that in your place of employment, you'll maybe find that out. If you decide to do some outreach at some stage in your life, people will simply say, I don't believe in the existence of God. There is what is known as the cosmological argument. That simply means that creation points out to the fact that there must be a creator. Creation points to a creator. All things come into existence. And so God has created all things. There is what is known as a teleological argument, and that really speaks about design within the universe. Not only that the thing is created, but things are designed. There is an intelligent designer with regard to all that is in this world. There is the moral argument. Where do we derive our morals from? If you go out into the world, I would say the vast majority, if not all people, will believe that the murder of a child, the murder of a child is wrong. Sadly, society has shifted so far away from that now, it seems to be that the murder of a child is quite acceptable and it must be taught within our schools. This is what happens whenever society is being given over by God to sin. Now, the world will print out its atheistic scientists to give credence to the teaching that there is no God, Hawkins and individuals like that. But the Christian can also appeal to great minds who believe that all we see came from the hand of God. You see, there is a common misconception that all scientists are atheists. You must never believe that, that all scientists are atheists. But that couldn't be further from the truth. While studies have found that scientists tend to be much less religious than the general public, I noted a survey that was conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, whoever they are, and they found out that just over half of scientists, 51%, believe in some form of deity or higher power. Specifically, 33% of scientists say that they believed in God. Let me give you a number of examples of some famous scientists who did believe in God. They did not believe this. They did not say this in their heart. We think of the world-renowned physicist Sir Isaac Newton, who said after studying the solar system that it could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. Sir Isaac Newton also confessed the admirable arrangement and harmony of the universe could only have come from the plan of an omniscient and omnipotent being. Sir Isaac Newton, the founder of modern scientists and Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, recognized the impossibility of a non-created universe. Everyone who is seriously committed to the cultivation of science becomes convinced that in all the laws of the universe is manifest a spirit vastly superior to man and to which we with our powers must feel humble. Charles Darwin, you've heard that name. This is what Charles Darwin said. He said, I have never denied the existence of God. I think the greatest argument for the existence in God is the impossibility of demonstrating an understanding that the immense universe sublime above all measure and man were created as a result of chance. That's what Charles Darwin said. Johann Kepler, the brilliant mathematician and one of the greatest astronomers could not deny God or his power. He said, this God is great. great in his power, infinite in his wisdom. Praise him heaven and earth and sun, moon and stars in your own language. My Lord and my creator, I would like to proclaim the magnificence of your works to men to the extent that my limited intelligence can understand. And so while the ungodly can pray like their scientists, thank God the Christian, the Christian also as individuals, renowned scientists. who believed in the existence of God. Now while verse one here in chapter 14 reads, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God, you'll notice that there are words in italics. And those words in italics are not found in the original manuscripts. Wherever you find them written in the testaments, you can, I suppose, extract them. They're really placed in here by the translators to help with the flow of the particular passage and there is there is evidence for that to be used as they extrapolate what is written in the original hebrew and also in the original greek but if you remove those words there is you'll see what the phil actually says the phil has said in his heart no god no god in other words no god for me no god for me That's what the fool says, no God for me. These words are really about the expressiveness of the defiance that the sinner shows against God. No God for me. No moral governor for me. No Elohim for me. No father, no son, no spirit for me. In other words, they make themselves to be their own God. But sure, is that not what happened in the fall? Adam and Eve were promised that they would become as gods. They would become as gods, and so they strove for that, and they craved for that, and they desired for that, and they partook of the forbidden fruit. The wonderful thing is that though man tried to be God, God's plan was actually that God would become man. Isn't that a marvelous thing? That God would become man to rescue fallen men. Man had it all the wrong way around. They wanted to be God, but God would become man. But that's just a side issue. Now what does God say about the one who makes such an assertion? Well, look at the verse. God calls that person a fool. You know, atheism, it cloaks itself in intellectualism. We are intellectual. We are educated people. We don't believe in the existence of an unseen entity, and therefore they declare themselves to be intellectual. They declare themselves to be well-educated, cultured people. But the Bible tells us that it is foolish to say that there is no God. So if it is the fool who says that there is no God, then the converse is true, the reverse is true, as it were. If the fool says that there is no God, then it is the wise person who says that there is a God. That's the other side of the coin. You know, you'll maybe get someone saying to you at school or work, you're not wise in believing that there's a God. You're not wise. But the opposite is actually the case You are wise. You are wise for believing in God and not only believing in Him, but trusting in Him and trusting to Him the keeping of your soul. In actual fact, you're the wisest person on the factory floor, not the most foolish person on the factory floor. Because, you see, for a person to reject the existence of God means that they have to suppress the knowledge that the knowledge of God that God has placed into every human being. There is an innate knowledge of God within every human being. God has placed it there. And therefore, that individual has to suppress the knowledge of God that God has placed within every human being. Not only that, but In order for them to say there is no God, that means that they have to know everything if they are going to make such an absolute truth claim like there is no God. It's like me saying there's no gold in China. Well, for me to make that absolute truth claim means that I have to know the geological makeup of all the lands and all the territory of China before I can make that assertive truth claim, there's no gold in China. But I don't have that knowledge. And therefore for an individual to say there is no God, it means that they have to have infinite knowledge of all things. But as we know that no human being has that. And therefore that means that those who say there is no God, they can make this claim. They can say it in their hearts. But we know, we know, and personal experience there is a God. He has saved us, redeemed us, and reconciled us to God. And so there is a brazen denunciation of God by a society that has turned its back on God. Godless society is secondly, and we'll run through these, godless society is secondly inherently corrupt. The reason why a godless society is corrupt is because of those who make up the society. The society is only a reflection of those who make up its composition. And for a corrupt society, there must be a corrupt people that make up that society. And such is the case. Notice what it says in verse one. They are corrupt. They are corrupt. The natural corruption of the human heart, the heart contaminated, controlled by sin, comes to manifest itself in two ways in the life of every sinner. And these are then expressed in the closing part of the verse number one. They are corrupt, and then this is how it manifests itself. This inner corruption, it now manifests itself in two ways. First of all, they do that which is bad. Notice it goes on to say, they have done. abominable works. Every sinful action is abominable in the sight of God, but there are some sins more abominable than others. There are abominable idolatries and abominable lusts, such as were committed in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It may be that these sins are pointed pointed to here in this verse, sins which are usually committed by those who do not like to retain God and their knowledge. We need to learn and relearn that inherent corruption cannot be extracted from the sinner by simply educating them or by throwing money at them from government sources. This sinful corruption can only ever be dealt with when a sinner is given a brand new nature in salvation. And so forget about everything else. Forget about everything else. and give yourself as a Christian to praying and laboring for the salvation of the lost. Anything else, brethren and sisters, is window dressing. It's just window dressing. A godless, corrupt society must be changed by corrupt people being changed by the power of the gospel. It's the only answer, the only answer. And so they not only do that which is bad, but this natural corruption of the human heart, they are corrupt, it comes to manifest itself in the life of the sinner when they fail to do that which is good. They do that which is bad, but they also fail to do that which is good. There is none that doeth good. That's what the verse says. There is none, none that doeth good. Now, while there are many in this world who do what we would term civil good, doctors and nurses, policemen, firefighters, volunteers. There is no one who can do any spiritual good without the enabling help and grace of God. The absence of spiritual good in the life of the sinner is due to the inherent sinful corruption of the human heart. Placing oneself beside the Lord Jesus Christ, who went about doing good, we have to come to the conclusion that there, in light of Him, in light of the Savior, He being the benchmark, there is none that doeth good. There's none that doeth good. Notice that this refrain is repeated twice in the psalm. For emphasis sake, in case we miss it, verse one at the end of verse one, and then at the end of the verse number three, with this added addition, there is none that doeth good, no, not one. No, not one. When we come to deal with the sinner, we need to always have the right prognosis of their problem if the right cure is to be administered and to be prescribed. The problem today is that we think that sinners are pretty good people with only a little badness in them. when we think that way we really don't understand the radical transformational supernatural work that needs to take place within their lives and so we get the idea that we can change them or convince them ourselves by a well-constructed sermon or the employment of some sound apologetics but folks whenever you come to understand that the sinner is inherently corrupt and possesses no spiritual goodness in and of themselves, then you come to realize that it's going to take a divine work of grace for a sinner who cannot do good to become one who engages in good works that are acceptable with God. And this is why we gather for prayer. We gather for prayer tonight, we gather for prayer before our services because as people who have an understanding of the word of God and an understanding about the true nature of man, then we've come to realize that it's going to take more than good preaching for a sinner to be saved and for a saint to be sanctified. It's going to take a work of God, a divine, supernatural, heaven-originated work within the soul. In the third instance, God, the society is marked by three things. Departure, defilement and depravity. Marks that are all mentioned in the verses two and three. It's so evident that, it is so evident that the entire human race has turned away from God and from his word, not only here, but also in other scripture. Isaiah, how does he put it? All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And so we have here, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that understand and seek God. They're all gone aside. There is a departure from God. You see this idea, this idea that the world is full of people seeking after God, it is a fantasy. It is a fantasy. That people are just seeking after God. Let me tell you what people, the world isn't seeking after God. The world is running away from God. They're departing from God. I know whenever God begins to work in the soul, they begin to seek. But by and large, a world out there, a God to society, The society isn't seeking God. They're not looking for God in this land. They want to eradicate God. They want to push God out. And so there is a departure from God. If it wasn't for the seeking of God, of the sinner in the gospel, the sinner would remain in their lost estate. There's departure from God. There is defilement by sin. Goes on to say they are all together become filthy. I'm told that word rendered, become filthy can be rendered stinking. Stinking. In Arabic the word means to become sharp or sour as milk. I don't know if you've ever had the experience of spilling milk in the car. Not a pleasant experience to spill milk in a car. The word has this idea behind it. The idea of becoming corrupt in a moral sense. It's like going to a fridge and opening the door and there's a tidal wave, there's a smell comes out and it hits you between the eyes and it hits you at the back of the throat and it informs you that there's something has gone off. Something has gone off in the fridge. There's maybe a way in there, pushed away in at the back. That's what the phrase means. Society that rejects God is a society that has gone off. Does our society not give us such a stink today where something has gone off? If we feel it has went off, how must God feel about our society? There's depravity. I've already passed comment on that phrase, there's none that doeth good, just to say that this entire passage is quoted by Paul. You'll know that in the book of Romans, chapter 3, verses 10 to 12, as a proof text, as it were, for the doctrine of universal depravity, the depravity of all mankind. There is none that doeth good. And in case you think there is, no, not one. No, not one. There's no doubt that the picture David paints is very much like 21st century society, which brings me to remind you that society has always been this way since the fall. I know that we like to look back and think that it was utopia, and it's paradise, way back in the days of the Old Testament saints, in the days of the apostles. Brethren and sisters, since the fall of mankind, this is society. This is our society. The idea that we're facing something new in 2023 is simply not the case. Yes, in days of revival, there's a curbing of sin, but never the eradication of sin. For all who are transformed in revival, there are many who are not transformed. Since the fall of mankind in Eden, departure, defilement, depravity have been the hallmarks of the human race. The fourth and final instance, I'll give these quickly. A godless society is marked by those who are ignorant, intolerant, and irreligious. Society in David's day, like our day, was ignorant. Verse number four. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? People in David's day lived their lives without any knowledge of God, any knowledge of sin, any knowledge of future judgment, just like the people of our day. And do we not live in an ignorant society? And I'm not speaking about ignorant. Do you know what I mean when I speak about ignorant? Not someone that grunts at you on the way out from a church. You'd say, well, ignorant. Ignorant as in no knowledge. We live in a society where there's no knowledge. And not only outside the church, but in the church. The professing church. The gross ignorance that there is with regard to the word of God and the things of God. So what are we to do? sit back, fold our arms, hold a petty party and say, what a dark and gloomy day it is. No, brethren and sisters, what we are to do is to educate the ignorant. Christ said, go into all the world and preach the gospel and teach all nations, making disciples. We are to teach the ignorant. We're not to sit back and bemoan where society is. This should stir us up. We are to educate the gospel ignorant. How do we do that? We do that through personal witness and through public preaching. That's the means. So they are ignorant. Then they are intolerant. The workers of iniquity, notice what it says. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread? Have you noticed that those who call for tolerance today are those who are the most intolerant in our society? Certainly when it comes to the people of God, the ungodly have no love for them, their tolerance Our intolerance eventually manifests itself in their reproaching and persecuting the child of God. And so this intolerance of God's people is not something new again. David experienced in his days, we experience in our day. David in his day, God's people were eaten up like bread. No tolerance for them. Beloved, this is an evil world that hates the people of God. The seed of the serpent is at war with the seed of the woman and his offspring. The Lord Jesus Christ said, because you're not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. This is something that we are to expect. The world is always going to be intolerant to the true Christian. We must brace ourselves for the intolerance that will come our way at the hands of those who shout the loudest for tolerance. We must expect it. And then finally, irreligious. David speaks in verse four, of those who call not upon the Lord. These people had no desire to pray or engage in any form of worship. Calling on the Lord, yes, it takes in prayer, but it also takes in every form of worship. And here's a people, and they, these wicked workers of iniquity, they called not upon the Lord, and is it any different in our day? I don't need to tell you where the crowds are in the Lord's day. They're not in the sanctuary. They're at the seaside. They're not found in evangelical churches, they're found in the entertainment centers of the world. Few call upon the Lord, and few called upon the Lord in the Lord's day, and few there are who call upon the Lord in our day. Look around us tonight. As God's servants surveyed the godlessness of society in which he lived, I suppose he could have fell into abject depression. But he didn't. David took himself off to God in prayer, and he would offer the following earnest desperate supplication to God, verse 7, and this is where I end. Oh, in light of all this, oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. David expressed in his prayer the great longing of his soul that God would bring deliverance to his captive people. Understanding where such salvation would come from, from Zion, from heaven itself, he took himself off to God in prayer to request such a deliverance. Where do you believe deliverance is going to come from, brother or sister? Who are you trusting to bring deliverance to the land? Well, if it's anywhere apart from heaven and it's anyone apart from God, you're looking in the wrong place and you're looking to the wrong person. Oh, that the salvation, God's salvation will come out of Zion when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people. The deliverance we need can only come to us from God. So let's continue then to seek him for it until he comes and reign righteousness upon us and thereby a nation, a society that has given up on God, forsaken God, is a nation that comes to worship him, to praise him. and to glorify Him in coming days. May God spare us from such a godless society for Christ's sake. Amen.