[0:00] Please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, you're holy.
[0:13] And as we've seen and sung, when we encountered your holiness, the only response is, woe is me. And as we will see in our passage this morning, you're holy, but the people you've created are not.
[0:32] We've neglected. We've not pursued you. We've sought after things that will fail to give us true pleasure. Lord, I pray that your spirit would use the word today in our hearts and our minds.
[0:50] Shape us to be more like Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Our passage this morning is Psalm chapter 14. Psalm 14.
[1:03] I'll read that. Psalm 14. The fool says in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt.
[1:14] They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
[1:27] They have all turned aside. Together they have all become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge? All the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread do not call upon the Lord.
[1:42] There they are in great terror. For God is with the generation of the righteous. You would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion.
[1:56] And the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad. Let Israel be glad.
[2:32] Let Israel be glad.
[3:02] And Psalm 53, which is almost identical to it, was written by David. And like most of the Psalms, it's meant to be sung by the people of God. Most of your Bibles probably have a note at the top that says, To the chief musician or to the choir master.
[3:20] A Psalm of David. This Psalm was written to be sung. It was created to proclaim truth about God and truth about man. To shape the worldview of its hearers.
[3:33] And to speak truth to the troubled mind when things don't seem to make sense or go the way they should. The previous few Psalms, Psalm 3 through 13, are full of David pleading with God.
[3:48] Pleading with him to save him from his enemies. Asking God why people are bent on his destruction. They showcase all the ways that David feels trapped. Or betrayed.
[4:00] Plundered. Sinned against. And Psalm 14 sits at the end of those 11 Psalms like a plumb line. A straight edge to remind the singer and the hearer both.
[4:13] That God is good. God is holy. And we are not. God is strong. And a refuge. But we are weak. And in need of salvation.
[4:26] Worldview shapes culture. That's why this series is important. Worldview shapes our culture. It shapes it personally. But also it shapes it in our family.
[4:37] In our church. Our city. Our country. What we believe. What's in our heart. Comes out in the actions. And the ways that we interact with other people.
[4:49] And communicate with them. Paul in his epistles. Encourages the reading of scripture. And prayer in the corporate body. In Ephesians 5.
[5:00] Paul tells the church to speak to each other. In Psalms. And hymns. And spiritual songs. In singing truth about God to each other. And to God.
[5:12] We encourage each other with that same truth. What we believe. And what we repeat. Shapes our culture. Belief. Shapes culture outside of our church.
[5:23] Walls as well. The world lives out of their own worldview. Having their own psalms. And hymns. And spiritual songs. Plenty of the songs. And the radio. Are absent of God.
[5:35] They may not talk about God. Or anything in particular. Or they may glorify sin. But some make it a point. To actively mock God. Or even mock those.
[5:46] Who believe in him. Others gladly. And proudly. Lay claim to that first line. Of Psalm 14. And proclaim to crowds of thousands. Don't worry.
[5:57] There is no God. Last year. When there were lockdowns. Due to COVID. All over the country. A dozen or so celebrities. Got together. And made a video.
[6:08] They sing a rendition. Of John Lennon's. Imagine. I'm paraphrasing. But they essentially said. It's been a rough few weeks. What the world needs.
[6:19] Is a song about unity. If you aren't familiar. With John Lennon's song. I won't sing it. But here's a portion. Imagine there's. No heaven. It's easy if you try.
[6:31] No hell below us. Above us. Only sky. Imagine all the people. Living for today. Imagine there's no countries.
[6:43] It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. Imagine all the people. Living life in peace.
[6:54] You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will be as one. The message. Of that song.
[7:06] And the culture that promotes it. Is that religion. And God. And followers of God. Get in the way of our true peace. Of our true happiness. And unity.
[7:17] Their worldview comes out. In the culture. Which is why we view scripture. Is so fundamentally important. To the Christian life. Christianity claims. That God has revealed absolute truth.
[7:29] In his word. This psalm. And the other 149. And the other 65 books. In the Bible. Are that straight edge. That plumb line.
[7:41] That we can evaluate. And diagnose. Why. Fools would spout. Such nonsense. And what the truth. Really. Actually is.
[7:52] Psalm 14. Says us. Why the fool acts the way he does. And how God sees the fools. From heaven. In the psalm. We will look at man's rejection of God.
[8:04] We'll look at God's review. From heaven. Of mankind. We'll see. God's righteous people. And finally. The revelation. Of Israel's salvation.
[8:16] Man's rejection. God's review. God's righteous people. And the revelation. Of Israel's salvation. Verse 1.
[8:26] In our passage. Is pretty straightforward. And sets the tone. For this psalm. The fool. Says in his heart. There is no God. This stands in sharp contrast.
[8:42] To the wisdom of. Psalms and Proverbs. Psalms 111. Verse 10. Says. The fear of the Lord. Is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it.
[8:52] Have good understanding. His praise endures forever. Proverbs 9. 10. Says. The fear of the Lord. Is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the Holy One.
[9:04] Is insight. And Proverbs 1. 7. Addresses both at once. The fear of the Lord. Is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise. Wisdom and instruction.
[9:15] The lines are clearly. Clearly laid out. There's a foolish man. Who denies. There's a God. And therefore. Denies. And despises wisdom. And despises wisdom. And instruction. And the wise man.
[9:26] Fears the Lord. And therefore. He lives out of that. He gains wisdom. Insight. And understanding. This delineation. Of these two groups of people. This distinction. And difference.
[9:37] Starts us on our path. To understand. Why. Is there evil in the world. And helps us answer. Questions like. Why does the world.
[9:47] Promote sin. Within its cultural mediums. Of television. Radio. And print. Why do people. Call good. Evil. And evil good.
[9:58] Why is divorce. On the rise. And marriage. In decline. Why is homosexual marriage. Growing. And why is acceptance. Of homosexual marriage. Insisted upon.
[10:09] Why are godless stories. Of the origin. Of the universe. Promoted so. Passionately. David really. Recapitulates. And restates. The fool's inner voice.
[10:21] He summarizes. The fool's. Liturgy. The statement. They repeat. And repeat. And repeat. To themselves. There is no god. There is no god.
[10:32] There is no god. This becomes his mantra. His theme song. To his life. The hammer. He uses. To slam. The whisper. Of conscience.
[10:43] When it rises. The lullaby. He sings himself. To sleep with. When he can't sleep. And the soundtrack. To his exploits.
[10:53] And evil deeds. There is no god. This self-proclamation. That there is no god. Didn't begin with. Charles Darwin. David Hume.
[11:05] The enlightenment. Or. Friedrich Nietzsche. David mentions it here. Of course. David. mentions the fool. And their rejection of god. But this lie. Is as old as the garden of eden. The serpent told Eve.
[11:18] You could be as wise as god. You can become like god. The statement's different.
[11:29] But the logic is the same. God becomes irrelevant. You become the captain of your fate. You get to make the rules. You get to decide.
[11:43] What. You do. And won't do. If you can get rid of god. Or pretend he doesn't exist. Or convince yourself. Then you can have charge of your life.
[11:57] That's the real motive. The core rationale behind the fools. Rebellion. Is that they want to be god. They will deny there's a god. And want to be him at the same time.
[12:09] Being a fool. Is natural. It occurs. Just because. We're human beings. As I was preparing this sermon. I was talking to Pastor Tripp.
[12:20] About the passage. And he made the connection. That. The fool says in his heart. There is no god. And that foolishness is really. A rejection. Of god's authority.
[12:33] Proverbs 22. 15 says. Falling is bound up in the heart of a child. But the rod of discipline. Drives it far from him. Children are born foolish. Not knowing there's a god.
[12:46] Eventually suppressing the truth of god. If god doesn't. Work in their hearts. Children act out of their world view. If there's no god. And there's no rules. No standard.
[12:57] What would stop me. From taking this toy for my brother. If there's no god. I can ignore my parents. I can yell about. Not wanting to do my chores. And slam doors. Children want to be in church.
[13:09] Charge. They want to be god. They don't want to be. In a world where there's rules. They want to be in a world where there's rules. They just want to make them themselves.
[13:21] Good. Godly discipline. Drives that folly away. It doesn't make the child righteous. But alerts the child. Of the danger and foolishness. That the train of thought.
[13:33] Will mature into. It teaches them. There's a creator. And he's revealed rules. And written them on our hearts. And children. Who grow up. Pretending.
[13:45] And wishing they were god. Grow into adults. Who openly mock. With statements like. There is no god. God. When the fool suppresses.
[13:57] That truth. When he's allowed to continue. To suppress that truth. And convince himself. Of lies. He embraces corruption. And abominable deeds.
[14:08] Paul says the same thing. In Romans chapter 1. Verses 18 to 23. Paul says.
[14:21] For the wrath of God is revealed. Against heaven. From heaven. Against all ungodliness. And unrighteousness of men. Who by their unrighteousness. Suppress the truth.
[14:34] For what can be known about God. Is plain to them. Because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes. Namely his eternal power.
[14:44] And divine nature. Have been clearly perceived. Ever since. The creation of the world. And the things. That have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God.
[14:57] They did not honor him as God. Or give thanks to him. But they became futile. In their thinking. And their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise.
[15:08] They became fools. And exchanged the glory. Of the immortal God. For images resembling mortal man. And birds. And animals. And creeping things.
[15:20] Paul is clear. As he sets up the stage. For this massive argument. That's going to take 11 chapters to develop. He's clear. Man suppresses the truth. Man suppresses the truth. By their sin.
[15:32] By their unrighteousness. But they know. Mankind knows. There's a God. They refuse to honor him. Creation.
[15:43] And general revelation. Reveal God's invisible attributes. His eternal power. And divine nature. They're clearly perceived. And then ignored. And suppressed.
[15:53] Instead of seeking. The revealed God. They embrace foolish. Futile. Thoughts. Futile. Vain. Empty.
[16:03] Unhelpful thoughts. And their hearts become darkened. They think. And promote such foolish thoughts. Like. There is no God. That futile.
[16:15] Wrong thinking. That rejection. Of God. Is the root. Of evil. Of sin. And unrighteousness. As Paul states.
[16:25] In the remaining verses. Of chapter 11. Chapter 1. The suppression of truth. Rejection of God. The ignoring of God's nature. And revealed truth. Lead to a multitude of sins.
[16:36] That Paul calls out. In chapter 1. We see an increase. In impure lust. Dishonorable passions. Including homosexual passions. Lust.
[16:46] Actions. And relationships. All manner of unrighteousness. Evil. Covetousness. Malice. Evil. So envy.
[16:57] Murder. Strife. Deceit. Covetousness. And malice. Maliciousness. Gossip. Slandering.
[17:08] God-hating. Insolent. Haughtiness. Boasting. Inventing new ways of doing evil. Disobedience. To parents.
[17:19] Foolishness. Faithlessness. Heartlessness. Ruthlessness. It causes the ignoring of God's decree. That those who practice such things. Deserve to die. Not only doing those things.
[17:32] But giving approval to those. Who practice them. That's quite a list. Of evil things that Paul calls out. That come about when we suppress the truth.
[17:44] The reason the world is filled with evil. Evil people. Evil schemes. Evil promotions. Evil actions. Sin. Evil. Evil. It's because mankind.
[17:55] You. Me. The people in here. The people out there. We have suppressed the truth. We have lived. Even just for.
[18:06] A mere moment. As if there was no God. No exceptions. Paul quotes Psalm 14 in Romans 3, 9-12.
[18:42] Both Paul and David agree. There is no one good. God confirms this in verse 2 when he reviews mankind from heaven and adds his insight.
[18:59] Verse 2 says, The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. The Lord looks down from heaven.
[19:11] The Bible makes mention of this multiple times. In Genesis 5, around when Noah was building the ark, Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
[19:26] And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. Genesis 11, 5, the Tower of Babel.
[19:36] The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the children of men had built. Genesis 18, 20. When the men came to visit Abraham, the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.
[20:00] And if not, I will know. In Exodus 32, when Aaron and the people of Israel are making the golden calf, And God says to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
[20:16] You get the picture. When a holy God looks at the sinful people on earth, He finds corruption and sin. God looks to see if there are any who understand.
[20:31] Are there any who seek after Him? And His review comes up empty. The search for a good person without sin turned up nothing. Verse 3 is His answer.
[20:44] They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. God's verdict from His sight in heaven is guilty.
[20:58] He's called in as a witness and also as the judge. He testifies that in His search, no good person has been found. They have all turned aside.
[21:09] They have all suppressed the truth. They're all comforting themselves with soothing words from Nietzsche, God is dead. God remains dead, and we have killed Him. God continues His testimony in verse 4, saying that the evildoers that eat up the people of God are without knowledge.
[21:30] They don't call upon the name of the Lord. It's a good example of what clashing worldviews look like even today. The people who hate God, hating the people that love Him.
[21:42] Verse 4 says, Have they no knowledge? All the evildoers who eat up my people, as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord.
[21:58] The wicked hate the people of God, just like they hate God Himself. They can convince themselves that there's no God. They can lie to themselves and tell themselves there is no God.
[22:09] But when they encounter somebody who calls upon God, a person of God, they're as ready to consume and devour them as they would eat bread.
[22:22] This is what Christ warned us of in John 15, verses 18, 19, and 21. Christ is warning His disciples, If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
[22:36] If you were of the world, the world would love you. It would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
[22:47] But all these things they will do unto you on my account, on the account of my name, because they do not know Him who sent me. The corrupt, evil, fool that rejects God and expresses truth will be mad that you are not joining Him.
[23:04] This is the cause of another facet of evil in the world. Persecution, secularization, and insistence that sin be celebrated, and public shaming for those who don't celebrate it, is a result of the fool hating God and hating Christians for following Him.
[23:26] But the works of the evildoers are futile. Like their thinking, it's futile. Verse 5 and 6 show that even if the world hates us and persecutes us, even if Christianity becomes a banned religion in America and churches are forced to move underground, God is still with His people.
[23:47] He is their refuge. Verses 5 and 6 read, There, they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is His refuge.
[24:04] Even though evil assaults and assails and the world would mock us and tease us and tell us that our God is dead, God is with His people.
[24:15] He is our refuge. The fact that Almighty God protects His people terrifies the world. But God has placed His king on Zion and the fact that He has the nations as His inheritance should cause those nations to tremble.
[24:31] God always has kept His remnant, His chosen ones. Even when evil seems to prosper, God has never forsaken them. God is with the generation of the righteous.
[24:43] But I'm afraid we're often all too comfortable to jump into this bucket, to jump in with this generation of the righteous, and then peer out at the others, the sinners, with a sense of peace and smug self-assurance.
[25:02] We're forgetting in reality we're still sinners. We're still fighting sin, still giving in to temptation. We find it easiest to condemn sins in others we ourselves have never struggled with.
[25:19] We find it easy to condemn sins that we've caught victory over. The core message of this psalm and the one Paul happily carries into Romans 3 is that no one's righteous.
[25:32] Your victories over sin or lack of temptation in certain areas is something to praise God and thank Him for. But as long as you're breathing, as long as you're still on this earth, you're a sinner.
[25:46] Maybe less of a sinner. Maybe more like Christ, more sanctified, but still a sinner. There's no scale.
[25:57] There's no steps up of righteousness. It's not a dimmer switch that we can get slowly, slowly, slowly more brighter, more righteous, more like our Savior.
[26:15] We are sanctified. We are not made righteous by our deeds. It's not a dimmer switch. It's a light switch.
[26:27] On or off. Either you are in Christ, united to Him, justified with His righteousness or you're not. Our good deeds are filthy rags to God.
[26:41] And hear me carefully, after you've been saved, your good deeds do not make you more righteous with God. The good works that believers do are prepared beforehand for them to walk in them.
[26:56] They're done with the work of the Spirit in us, but they do not make us more righteous. if this psalm is going to give us a correct perspective that we, not just the world, but that we are all sinners living in a fallen world with other sinners, if we get that perspective right, it affects how we interact with these other sinners.
[27:21] I tried to find the full story, but I couldn't. I was reminded in preparing this of a story I read in a book of a shipwreck. The shipwreck happened in the middle of the night, and as the boat sank, people were taking bits and pieces of this ship and swimming to a nearby island.
[27:41] The narrator started to note two groups forming on this story. One group on the island felt great relief at being safe, so much that they started to sing in joy together.
[27:56] together. They formed a circle and laughed and cried together of the great trials they'd just gone through together. But the other group of people left the island, knowing that this was a safe place, a refuge, but knowing that other people out there still in the water needed that refuge.
[28:18] They kept swimming, looking for people that needed to be saved. This group was filled with tired, exhausted people, searching, calling, looking for others in the water.
[28:31] When they would find one, they'd bring it back to the island. But by this time, the first group had a fire going. They were all dry, eating and drinking from washed-up boxes on the shore.
[28:45] And as the wet, cold, and near-dead person made their way to the warm fire, the first group kept their distance, whispering, why does this person take so long to come out of the water?
[28:58] Why are they still so wet? Forgetting that mere moments ago, they too were in that same situation. This can be us all too easily, can't it?
[29:11] Don't we too easily forget the grace and mercy shown to us, and look down on the person that might come into our church smelling like alcohol, tobacco, or worse?
[29:23] If we really let this psalm shape our worldview, if we let the word of God correct our hearts with its piercing work, we will remember that we too are sinners, and there are other sinners in this world who need to hear that there is a God.
[29:41] The other sinners in this world need to hear there is a God, he is not silent, he has spoken to us in his word. When sinners come to our church, they should hear the gospel, they should know that God sees them as a sinner, they should know that Christ came to save sinners.
[30:02] Christ can change their clothes, their attitude, their addictions, and their patterns of sin, but it only comes once he has changed their heart. After he gives them faith, and calls them to himself, and takes away their sin, and gives them his righteousness, then the process of sanctification can occur.
[30:25] But it doesn't always have to be that extreme. We can just as easily feel self-righteous if we don't watch those movies that that family watches.
[30:38] We don't listen to that music that that guy plays in his truck. We don't read those books unless the author was born before 1900. just as easily, those standards become the means by which we judge other people, and in a split second decide whether they will be in heaven with us or not.
[30:58] Or if in heaven, if they get there, how happy God will be with them versus with us. I know I do this. I do this.
[31:09] I do. As a child, I remember smug conversations with friends about things. instead of conversations like, my dad can beat up your dad, it was statements like, my parents don't let us do that.
[31:22] It's wrong. Why would you do that? And suddenly I was reading people's spiritual state and condition, engaging their eternal state before God by extra-biblical standards.
[31:34] I would hear someone say something I wasn't allowed to say, and in my heart I would condemn them to hell. Suddenly I felt more spiritual and looked down on them. And don't get me wrong, we're to call each other out on our sin.
[31:49] We're to encourage each other and spur each other on to good works. We've got these equipped groups starting with that sole intention of being close knit groups of people who can encourage each other and call each other out on our sin.
[32:03] But a smug, self-righteous approach that elevates your standards and mocks another is not the same thing. Because we too are sinners saved by grace.
[32:13] We need to show brotherly love and patience with those that Christ loves and has given his life for him. We need to remember that while we too, we too are only redeemed by the grace and mercy of God.
[32:29] We have to keep in mind, brothers and sisters, we too are sinners. Redeemed? Yes, we are. Forgiven? Yes. Are we being made into the image of Christ?
[32:41] Yes. Are we perfect and sinless? No. We still need the gospel. We need the truth that Christ came to save sinners and that we too are sorry sinners in need of forgiveness.
[32:57] Which brings us to the conclusion of this psalm, verse 7. Psalm 14, verse 7 reads, Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion.
[33:11] The Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come from Zion.
[33:25] David has reviewed the state of the world. He's given his perspective. And then God's given his perspective. The consensus is, there is no one that does good.
[33:36] They are all corrupt. As a sentence of Abraham, we are corrupt. Sorry, of Adam, we are corrupt. We too have believed the lie that we can be like God.
[33:49] We've suppressed the truth. We've lived as fools telling ourselves there is no God. We can look through that list of sins in Romans 1 and realize if we all had to raise our hands, many of those sins are sins we've committed.
[34:07] And if we're honest with ourselves, there are more sins there than we care to lay claim to. But there they stand, reminding us that as good as you might think we are, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
[34:22] We're all sinners. We have all, every one of us, turned aside like our father, Adam. We need a new father, a new representative, one that did not turn aside, one that is not corrupt, one that is good.
[34:40] David pleads, oh that salvation for Israel would come from Zion. In Hebrew, the word salvation is a familiar word to us. In Hebrew, the word salvation is Yeshua.
[34:53] Oh, that Yeshua for Israel would come from Zion. Maybe you're tracking where this is going and it's not a trick with words. Yeshua is Hebrew.
[35:05] Jesus is our English equivalent from the Greek New Testament. Jesus really means salvation. David is pleading for salvation to come. He sees the state of the world, the sin, the corruption, and he asks for salvation to come.
[35:22] It did come. as the only begotten Son of God and the Son of Man. The Son of David comes to this world, the world he looked down on from heaven and saw evil.
[35:37] He lives in it perfectly. The Lord looks down from heaven on the church of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. When Jesus, the salvation of Israel, was baptized, God proclaims, I found one.
[35:54] There is one who understands and seeks after God. We're told, Behold, a voice came from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
[36:09] Jesus, the beloved Son, the salvation of Israel, came from Zion. He offered up his life for those the Father gave him, those he loved, you.
[36:21] And that spirit calls all that the spirit calls, he's given his life for. All that hear the gospel and repent, Christ has loved and given his life for.
[36:37] He took the sins of the wicked, he took our corruption, all the times that we lived like there was no God, he took and he carried them to the cross.
[36:47] God bore our sin, our corruption, our turning away, and instead gave us his righteousness. We can claim to be the righteousness of God, not because of our works or deeds, but because God has imputed the righteousness of Christ to us.
[37:07] Brothers and sisters, those of you that are in Christ, when the Lord looks down from heaven on the children of men, see if there are any who understand, who seek after God, you are counted.
[37:19] You are found to be righteous because of Christ's righteousness. Though you feel the weight and the burden of sin inside and out, in your heart and in the world, Christ has borne your sins away.
[37:33] You are reconciled to God and accepted in the beloved. Jesus, the son of God, the son of David, was buried and rose three days later in triumph over sin.
[37:45] Over evil, corruption, and his enemies. This psalm is right. There is no one good. We need salvation. The world needs salvation.
[37:56] The salvation that David asked for, we now look back on with praise and joy. Christ came to save sinners, of which I am chief. Brothers and sisters, tell the world, Christ is not dead.
[38:10] There is a God. Christ came to die for fools. That deny him. This psalm gives us a right world view.
[38:22] Reminds us we're helpless, foolish people, rejecting God and committing evil. But God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
[38:34] Christ came at the right time and died for the ungodly, breaking the power of evil. evil. Yes, we have evil all around us. We have sin in our hearts, inside and outside.
[38:49] We live in a fallen world where people hate God and they hate the people of God. But we have a refuge, a stronghold. The king from Psalm 2 didn't go anywhere.
[39:00] That reminds you, brothers and sisters, of where this king is. Hebrews 10, 12, and 13 says, James Montgomery summarizes it well in the hymn we're very familiar with, Hail to the Lord's anointed.
[39:27] He writes, Hail to the Lord's anointed, great David's greater son. Hail, in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun. He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free, to take away transgression and rule inequity.
[39:47] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you are holy and in your looking down on the children of men, you do not throw up your hands and give up, God.
[40:06] But you sent Christ to live a perfect life, die a perfect death, and rise victorious so that we could be called the righteous ones of God.
[40:19] Help us to preach the gospel of this great news to ourselves. When we see the evil in the world and we see it terrifying us, help us to take refuge in the fact that you have overcome the world.
[40:32] Help us to worship you this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. We'll close by singing hymn 498.
[40:48] We spoke of the holiness of God. We spoke of the fool's rejection of God. we spoke of the total sinfulness of man.
[41:00] And thank God we've spoken of God sending his son to be the friend of sinners. Let's stand as we sing 498, Jesus, what a friend for sinners.
[41:11] Amen. Jesus, what a friend for sinners.
[41:30] Jesus, lover of my soul. Friends may fail me, foes of fail me, if my Savior makes me whole.
[41:50] Alleluia, one of Savior, alleluia, one of friends.
[42:01] Saving hell, we keep him loving, he is with me to the end.
[42:13] Jesus, what a strength in weakness, let me hide myself in him.
[42:26] Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, he my strength, my victory wins.
[42:40] Alleluia, what a Savior, alleluia, what a friend.
[42:50] saving, saving, helping, keeping, loving, he is with me to the end.
[43:04] Jesus, what a help in sorrow, while the willows o'er me roll.
[43:18] Even when my heart is breaking, he might offer my soul.
[43:30] alleluia, what a Savior, alleluia, what a prayer.
[43:44] Saving, helping, keeping, loving, he is with me to the end.
[43:57] Jesus, what a guide and keeper, while the tempest still is high.
[44:12] Storms about me, night o'er takes me, he my pilot hears my cry.
[44:26] hallelujah, what a Savior, hallelujah, what a prayer.
[44:40] Saving, helping, keeping, loving, he is with me to the end.
[44:53] Jesus, I do now receive him, more than all in him I find.
[45:08] He hath granted me forgiveness, I am his and he is thine.
[45:21] redeemed to re going tonut get what a campuses, hope, the月 Receive this benediction.
[45:55] Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. And the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him.
[46:13] Having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in the cross in him.
[46:32] Amen.