Series: Psalm
Title: Lost in Shameless Ignorance
Text: Psalm 14: 4-7
Date: March 24, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Last
week we took the first half of Psalm 14, hearing God declare that those who say
no to God’s command to believe on Christ break the first table of the law, which
is against God.
Proposition: In the second half of Psalm 14, God declares that those who
say no to God’s command to believe on Christ also break the second table of the
law, which is against the Lord’s people.
I will
give you our divisions as I read our text.
Divisions:
I. THE IGNORANCE OF THE UNBELIEVER--Psalm
14: 4: Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as
they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD. II. THE FEAR OF THE UNBELIEVER--5: There were they in great fear: for God
is in the generation of the righteous. 6: Ye have shamed the counsel of
the poor, because the LORD is his refuge. III. THE FAITH OF THE
BELIEVER--7: 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.
I. THE IGNORANCE OF THE UNBELIEVER—Psalm 14: 4: Have
all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they
eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
The LORD
says, “Are you not even convicted in your natural conscious? Is there not one
worker of iniquity who understands that you are eating up MY PEOPLE? Do you not
see you are heaping ruin upon your own head?”
They Eat Up My People
God
says in our text, “They eat up my people.” All unbelievers are guilty of eating
up the LORD’s people in some regard.
There is no neautrality in this warfare. Christ said,
Matthew 12:30: He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
First, unregenerate
religious leaders and civil leaders are guilty. False teachers take advantage of
sinners for personal gain. Universally, among all false teachers past and
present, the false doctrine of salvation by the work of man is the common
heresy. Whether they teach sinners have a free-will or that justification is by
the contribution of the sinner or if they deny some aspect of total depravity
or unconditional election or limited atonement or irresistible grace or
preservation of the saints, all works religion, in some way, teaches salvation,
rewards in heaven or loss of rewards, based on the sinner’s works rather than
teaching the truth that salvation is A-Z of the Lord. God describes all false
teachers as cannibals.
Micah 3: 1: And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of
Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; [Is it] not for you to know
judgment? 2: Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin
from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3: Who also eat the flesh
of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones and
chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. 4: Then
shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his
face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their
doings. 5: Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err,
that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their
mouths, they even prepare war against him.
Also,
God charges rich men in business as eating up the LORD’s people. In greed they
have turned the marketplace into a place of robbery—making life hard for the
LORD’s people, attempting to force us to forsake days we worship to do their
work.
Amos 8: 4: Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy,
even to make the poor of the land to fail, 5: Saying, When will the new moon be
gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat,
making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by
deceit? 6: That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of
shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? 7: The LORD hath sworn by
the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. 8:
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein?
and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned,
as by the flood of Egypt.
Also,
every unbelieving family, and every unbeliever living among believers, is guilty
of eating up Lord’s people:
Jeremiah 10: 25: Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that
know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have
eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his
habitation desolate.
They
eat up the Lord’s people, by rejecting our God and our Gospel. Their words
against our Redeemer eat us up.
Application: Each unbeliever here should know, the believers here and
in your house are eaten up in sorrow of heart at your lack of concern of the
fact that you are perishing in unbelief. Think of how many are born in the darkness
of their dead hearts into families where everyone is in the same spiritual death.
They teach one another darkness is light.
So they live and die never asking, ‘Am I not in the way of
destruction?’ Unbeliever, do you not see
what a valuable thing you have, to have loved ones who know the truth, who
desire to teach you the truth?
As They Eat Bread
God
says, v4: They eat up the LORD’s people, “as they eat bread.” The way a man eats his earthly bread is the
way the unregenerate man eats up the Lord’s people.
·
Without any more conscious thought—toward God
or toward the LORD’s people—than they have of eating a piece of bread.
Application: Unbelievers here today, you’ve probably never even considered
that by your rebellion against God you are eating up God’s people in your own
house and here, causing injury, grief and oppression in many ways.
·
They do it daily. Just as men always have an
appetite to eat bread, unbelievers have a continual appetite to eat up the
Lord’s people, to consistently reject our Savior and thus reject us.
·
With their mouths. Just as the unregenerate
man bites and devours his bread so with his mouth the unbeliever eats up the
LORD’s people, gnashing upon the believer with his teeth and belching out opposition
against our Savior, Ps 59:7: Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords
are in their lips:…
·
Verse 4: And call not upon the LORD. Unbelieving sinners eat up those who pray for them, yet
they will not pray for themselves.
Christ
tells us why unregenerate men eat up the Lord’s people.
John 15: 18: If the world hate you, ye know that it hated
me before it hated you. 19: If ye were of the world, the world would love his
own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. 20: Remember the word that I said unto
you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they
will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours
also. 21: But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because
they know not him that sent me. 22: If I had not come and spoken unto them, they
had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. 23: He that hateth
me hateth my Father also. 24: If I had not done among them the works which none
other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both
me and my Father. 25: But this cometh to pass, that the word might be
fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
II. THE FEAR OF THE UNBELIEVER—Psalm 14: 5: There
were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous. 6:
Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
God is In His People
God is in
the generation of the righteous--Generation refers to God’s spiritual race—his
seed—his children.
Psalm 22:30: A seed shall serve him; it shall be
accounted to the Lord for a generation.
1 Peter 2:9: But ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;…
God’s
children are righteous by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us through
faith.
Isaiah 54: 17:…their righteousness is of me, saith the
LORD.
Christ took
our flesh for us, lived for us, died for us, called us, quickened us, made us
righteousness in him, and Christ keep us—“I give unto them eternal life; and
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (Jn
6: 39; 10: 28) Therefore our text says, God is in his people, who he has made
righteous.
·
Personally, through the Holy Spirit, Christ
abides within each believer:
John 6:56: He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, dwelleth IN ME, and I IN HIM.
John 17:23 I IN
THEM, and thou IN ME, that they may be made perfect IN ONE; and that the world
may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Galatians 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless
I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth IN ME and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for
me.
·
Collectively, Christ is in the midst of his
church, his golden candlesticks
Revelation 1:13:.in the midst of the seven candlesticks
one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt
about the paps with a golden girdle.
·
Both are meant when Paul wrote:
Philippians 1:6: Being confident of this very thing, that
he which hath begun a good work IN YOU will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ:…2:13: For it is God which worketh IN YOU both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
The Fearful and the Unafraid
Because
God is in us, we are not fearful of the things that terrify ungodly men—and
that terrifies the ungodly—verse 5 says, “There were they in great fear: [because]
God is in the generation of the righteous. Ps 53 adds, “where there was
no fear.”
Have
you noticed, the closer this world comes to the day of judgment the more fearful
the unregenerate world becomes? Yet, they are fearful of THINGS: fearful we
will run out of water, fearful of climate change, fearful of guns. One of the
false doctrines of our day is separatism—that good and evil is in things. So
with all man’s might he is trying to avoid some things and save other things.
This is fear where there is no fear.
So when
the unregenerate behold believers are NOT fearful of the things they are
fearful of, not even of the ungodly themselves, it is a sign to the ungodly that
God indeed is in the generation of the righteous and the ungodly is reminded he
is an enemy of God.
Philippians 1:28: And in nothing terrified by your
adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of
salvation, and that of God.
Example:
King Saul hated David, sought to kill him. But when God manifested his presence
in David, it struck Saul’s conscience with fear. "Saul was afraid of
David, because the Lord was with him, and was departed from Saul." (1 Sam
18: 10-11)
Isaiah 4:5:.the LORD will create upon every dwelling
place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the
shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all, the glory shall be a defence.
[Paul said] 2 Co 12:9: And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I
rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [Peter
said] 1 Peter 4:14: If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil
spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
Shaming Rather Than Believing
The
LORD says to the rebel, though you fear because I am in my people, yet instead
of believing on me, you shame them for trusting me, “5: There were [you] in
great fear: [because you behold] God is in the generation of the righteous. [Yet,]
6: Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.”
This was
particularly true of Christ when he walked this earth: God was in Christ.
Christ is the Poor—he had no place to lay his head. The counsel he gave was believe God. Though they beheld God was in Christ, rather than
believing God, they shamed his counsel.
Psalm 22:7: All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they
shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8: He trusted on the LORD that
he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
Psalm 42:10: As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies
reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
Now, Christ
our Counselor, through the Holy Spirit, has made us willing in the day of his
power to lay hold of Christ our Refuge. Our counsel to the unbeliever is seek refuge
in the Lord Jesus. In Christ the believer is protected on all sides by our
Savior: he goes before us and is our rearward; he is beside us, above us and
underneath are his everlasting arms
Psalm 46:5: God is in the midst of her; she shall not be
moved: God shall help her, and that right early.
Yet, even
though the rebel beholds we are not fearful of their fear because Christ is in
our midst, rather than believe on Christ, he shames our counsel because the
LORD is our Refuge.
Application:
Friend, don’t shame my counsel. And don’t call my Counselor a liar any longer
by your unbelief. My Counselor cannot lie—he has counseled-decreed within
himself before the world was made. But when he revealed his promise to Abraham,
he also, confirmed it with an oath.
Illustration: In a court of law, when men are sworn-in, they swear by
the greater. They lift their hand to God and make an oath to God that they
promise to “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Hebrews 6: 16 For men verily swear
by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all
strife.
God who
cannot lie counseled with himself to save his people by himself and revealed his counsel to Abraham—made a
promise to save Abraham and all his spiritual seed. But God who cannot lie, not
only promised Abraham, he also confirmed his counsel with an oath, swearing by
himself because there is none greater than God. So then we have from God who
cannot lie both the decree of his counsel, plus his oath annexed to it.
Hebrews 6: 17: Wherein God, willing more abundantly to
shew unto the heirs of promise the IMMUTABILITY OF HIS COUNSEL, confirmed it
BY AN OATH: 18: That by TWO IMMUTABLE THINGS in which it was IMPOSSIBLE
FOR GOD TO LIE, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for REFUGE to
lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19: Which [hope] we have as an anchor of
the soul, both SURE and STEDFAST,
Our
hope is Jesus Christ who has entered into the presence of God as a Forerunner, guaranteeing
us who believe, we shall likewise enter after we have run this race looking to
him the Author and Finisher of faith. He ran the race looking to the joy set
before him. He is the joy set before us.
This is
why I say to you, sinner, don’t shame the counsel of my Counselor. Believe my
Counselor. His counsel is unchangeable.
But he is so willing for his people to know he shall save us, that he interposed
himself with an oath. If he promises to
be a refuge to you—even confirming it by an oath—then he shall be a refuge for
you.
Now,
sinner you will either be with us safe and secure from the enemy IN Christ our
Refuge or you will be outside and BE THE ENEMY of Christ our Refuge.
"The
workers of iniquity" shamed Christ on the cross who made the LORD God his
refuge as he suffered for his people, BUT our Refuge put them to shame, Psalm
53 verse 5 says, “for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth
against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.”
But,
believer, the fear that grips the
world of the wicked is of the LORD and for a reason, like it was in Moses day:
Exodus 15:16: Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the
greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass
over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.
Believer,
everything in this world—good and evil—our God is working together “for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
III. THIS IS THE FAITH OF THE BELIEVER—Psalm
14: 7: 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.
Christ Breaks the Chains
Christ
is the Salvation of God’s people—his Israel. Though we are eaten up and scoffed
at because the LORD is our Refuge, even for our enemies, we pray for Christ to
come out of Zion and save you. When he
came the first time—he “brought back the captivity of his people”—he led
captivity captive. If he comes today
into your heart he will do the same. This one you call a liar, sinner, is the
only one who can break those chains that hold you in your captivity. When he
redeemed all his elect on Calvary’s tree—“Jacob rejoiced!”—if he comes to day
so will you—this conniving, tricking, supplanting Jacob standing before you is
proof—he makes all his Jacob’s rejoice in the day of his power! If he does—“Israel shall rejoice!”—all his
people—these very ones you once ate up, and shamed, we shall all rejoice with
you. And we shall all rejoice in the LORD.
And,
believer, though our enemies rage right now—the faith of the believer is to
wait, watch and pray—for soon very soon. Christ Jesus the Salvation of Israel shall
return out of Zion! When he does he shall free us completely from all
captivity into his glorious presence. Then
with all his saints together at last—Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be
glad.
Sinner,
stop eating up God’s people and call on the Lord for mercy, eat the Bread from
heaven. Stop fearing THINGS. You see we
are not fearful: of YOU or your THINGs—Christ is our Refuge. But don’t keep scoffing at us because Christ
is our Refuge—get in the Refuge. Believe
on Christ. I pray he comes now and bring back your captivity. What rejoicing we will have in the Lord if he
does.
Believer,
keep asking the Lord to break their chains and keep watching and waiting. He is coming.
I’m telling you he is coming.
Amen!