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The book of Psalms, chapter 53. The book of Psalms, chapter 53. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we'll read the entire chapter and ask Brother Austin to complete it for us. There is none that do it good. God looked down from heaven on the children of men to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them has gotten better. They are altogether become filthy. There is none that do it good, no, not one. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread? They have not called upon God. There were they in great fear, where no fear was, for God had scattered the bones of him that encamped against him. The clouds put them to shame because God had despised them. O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion, when God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad. Father, please bless the service tonight, and we bless the pastor that he may apply us for this preaching, and that we may learn something new today. And just bless us on our way home, and thank you for loving us, and Jesus cannot pray in the name of Jesus. All right, Psalm 53. Now, for those of you who arrived, the first time we started going through the book of Psalms a little while ago, I think it's been maybe a year or two now. I don't know how long ago it's been. Two years ago? Three years ago? Two years ago? And some of you may know, some of you may not, but Psalm 53 is actually almost identical to Psalm 14. And as I started preparing for this, I started going through all the things that I wanted to say that I've already preached during Psalm 14. So I had to revisit a little bit and make sure I am going to cover some of the same material. I mean, there's only six verses in this psalm, so we're going to cover some of the same content for those of you that weren't here for Psalm 14. You get to hear it tonight, and then for those of you who were, I'm sure it'll be a little bit different anyway, so I'm going to put a little bit more emphasis on some other things. But I just want to point that out, and real quick, before we get any further, really, the primary difference between Psalm 53 and Psalm 14 is found there in Psalm 53. If you compare them side by side, they're almost identical, they're slightly different wording, but it's essentially saying exactly the same thing. Until you get to verse 5 in Psalm 53, which is just one verse, verse 6 is similar to verse 7 in Psalm 14, and verses 1, 2, 3, and 4 are similar to verses 1, 2, 3, and 4 on Psalm 14. But the difference here is going to be verse 5 for Psalm 53 compared to verses 5 and 6 in Psalm 14. And I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but I just want to point it out, since they are very similar, and there is a reason always for differences when you see things that are almost the same or similar, and especially when you have the same type of content. The Psalms, this is just a collection of songs, so having multiple songs that are very similar in content and not identical, there's obviously, I think people have the least problem with the Psalms being close but not identical. Some people have a problem and want to say that there's errors in the Scripture when, for example, the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament, and it's not an identical word-for-word, every exact word being there 100%, people will try to say that there's errors or problems with that. Or maybe if you see variations between different accounts of the same events, like in the 4 Gospels, people will try to point to that and say that there's an error. Now, of course, we believe that there are no errors in the Word of God, first and foremost. We also believe that the Word of God has been preserved for us today. So be careful, because some churches and some people will say, oh, we believe that the Bible is inerrant, or the Word of God has no errors in it. But what they mean by that is that if you ask further or press further, a lot of times they'll say, oh, yeah, well, in the originals. So yeah, the Word of God is without errors. The Word of God is perfect. The Word of God has no contradictions. But back when it was first given. Now, unfortunately, we don't have all the words. It's because they want to speak out of both sides of their mouth and say, oh, yeah, the Bible is perfect, the Word of God. The thing about it doesn't make sense. If something's the Word of God, it has to be perfect. God is perfect. God's not going to make any mistakes. God doesn't make any errors. So if you're going to call something the Word of God, you can't have error in it, otherwise it can't be the Word of God. And this is a very basic fundamental truth that people will understand, which is why many people want to say and call it the Word of God still, even though they don't believe they have a perfect Bible in their hands. And they have to resort to just saying, well, things have just been lost over time, but it was perfect when it was given. Why would God go through the trouble of giving something that's perfect, but it's only going to be perfect for a short period of time? Especially when, as we read through His Word, there's multiple places where it confirms over and over and over again that His Word is not going to be lost. You know, that God is going to preserve His Word. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them. From this generation forever. You can read in Isaiah, you can read in Psalms, you can read in other passages that talk about, you know, my word shall not depart out of thy mouth or out of the mouth of thy seed or out of the mouth of thy seed seed from this generation and forever. Right? The Bible has as many claims like that, and it's, well, how can that be possible if from that point that it was given, oh, well, we've lost some stuff. Oh, well, it's kind of the same. It's almost the same, but not exactly. That's ridiculous. God has promised to preserve His Word. We believe that fully. We believe that He has preserved His Word in the English language for us to know today. And I'm not saying that English is the only language that has the Word of God. I'm just saying that we speak English. That is our language. And we know and can be very confident in the fact that God has preserved His Word in the English language for us today. It has been tried. It has been tested. It has stood the test of time. And you could even see the fruits of His Word in English language, which has been used to spread the gospel across the world. So this sermon, I don't want to spend too much time just defending the King James Bible, which, of course, I guess I failed to mention. That's where we find the Word of God in English today is in the King James Bible. It is preserved. It is perfectly preserved. But when we see areas like Psalm 53, for example, versus Psalm 14, where you have some differences, usually they're meant for, well, I think the greatest thing is there's a teaching purpose in providing, whether it be more information or synonymous information, something to help give you more information, Also, it ties in, and man, I don't want to get too deep into this, but just with the, when you see quoting of the Old Testament and New Testament, and slightly different words are used, I think that gives us a good guide on the translation and what God expects out of a translation, that it may not be the identical word that was used, but a synonym is oftentimes used, which gives the exact same meaning and changes nothing in the verse itself, and when the Old Testament is quoted into the New Testament, and we're reading it both in English, and they say something slightly different, but it's exactly the same content, but the word usage might be slightly different or shifted in order or whatever, that doesn't mean that it's an error, and it shows us God's level of what is deemed to be appropriate or correct, right? Like, anyways, I don't want to get too deep into that subject, because I'd rather prove all of that from Scripture, and I don't have all the points out to do that tonight, I want to get through Psalm 53. So all of that was just leading into, we're looking at some of the differences between Psalm 53 and Psalm 14, and in Psalm 53 verse 5 is where the primary difference is, where the Bible says here, there were they in great fear, where no fear was. For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee. Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. Now, in the verse prior, we get the context of who the they that are in great fear, it's the workers of iniquity. It says in verse 4, have the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread. They have not called upon God. Verse 5, there were they in great fear, where no fear was. God's able to put fear in the hearts of people, even when there's no, let's say like danger or anything around them, God could make people to just have that fear and have a spirit of fear. God has done that. He did that when he led the children of Israel into the promised land. He put a spirit of fear into the nations that they were about to destroy. He was able to defend and help Jacob. If you remember when his sons went and destroyed Shechem, when Dinah was found lying with one of the men of Shechem, and then they went in and wanted to get revenge and they killed all these people, the males in that city, then Jacob was worried that other people were going to find out what they had done and then come after them and seek vengeance and then destroy the whole family because of that event. But God was able to still protect them and make sure that they would be unharmed, that God would continue to guide Jacob and be able to use him as he had planned. So God is capable of doing this, but that's what we see here. These people are in great fear where no fear was. And it says, For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee. So the thee is the people of God. Saying God scattered the bones of those that were encamping against them, thou hast put them to shame. Now, thou again is the people of God, right? The person of God has put them to shame. The workers of iniquity, because God hath despised them. Giving the credit to the Lord for the victory that the people of God get over the workers of iniquity. He's saying this is why you are able to put them to shame is because God despised them. God hated them. So when God is going to bring his wrath down upon a people, oftentimes he uses another group of people to do that. And it's of God to be able to put one down and raise up another. And this psalm is saying, well, that's why you were able to do that. Now, in Psalm 14, verse number 5, the Bible says, There were they in great fear. Right? So it starts off the same as Psalm 53 5. And then it says, For God is in the generation of the righteous. So it's still saying, I would say the same thing, but almost just from a different angle, that, hey, God is with the righteous, whereas it's stating in the other way how he's with the righteous in Psalm 53 by scattering the bones of them that are against them and by putting them to shame because God has despised them. And then it says in verse 6 of Psalm 14, You have shamed the council of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. Now, I want to get back into this passage. I just want to point out those that few difference and just kind of show that you can you can use these to look and maybe get a better understanding and and a little bit more detail on what it is that you're studying, what it is that you're reading about. But Psalm 53 is a famous passage or combination. Psalm 53 and Psalm 14 is actually quoted in Romans chapter 3. We're going to get there in just a minute. But I want to just cover here starting in verse number 1 of Psalm 53, the Bible says, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. And this phrase is said multiple times in the Bible. And this is a true statement through the day is long. You know, the fool is the one that says there is no God. This is what we call an atheist today. Someone who doesn't believe that there is a God, which, yeah, it is a belief system, by the way. They want to say they don't have beliefs or they're not religious. Well, yeah, their religion is they don't believe there's a God. The fact of the matter is there is a God. They'd say, Oh, I'm only going to believe in facts and this and that. It's nonsense. They're fools. They're fools. And you truly have to be a fool to think that there is no God. The creation itself is the evidence that there is a God. You can look at creation. If you just take a little bit of time looking at the wonders of the world and the way things work today, you don't have to be some spectacular scientist or have all this knowledge in order to understand how well things work together and that there's absolutely no way that such a complex system like we have on our planet today can just come about by chance. That life can just spring out of nowhere. Not just life, but the continuation of life, reproduction, the systems of reproduction, whether it be plants, animals, everything is reproducing in our world. Everything is. Everything that's alive. Everything that has life is reproducing. And the further you look down close at things, the more amazing it is. And the more you back out and look at it from a big scale, the more amazing it is. These great systems that work together no matter how far you drill in. You drill into things that you think... This is where true science shows the wonders of God. The more man learns about creation, the more magnificent it is. Think about the developments or the understanding or the wisdom that's been gained even in just recent years with the discovery of DNA. With the discovery of the way that many things work that were not understood before. And if you look at our wisdom over time of the things that are real, things that exist... Hey, DNA is real. It exists. How much more is there to learn? I would say it's infinite. The wisdom of the creation of life is infinite. It's just how much closer can we look at things? You keep on looking at the building blocks of God, it goes infinitely. You don't have to get that detailed to know. If there's a code written within us that has all the properties of our whole makeup, of how our body is going to look, about all the different characteristics and traits that we have physically in our body, it's organized in a fashion that only something that is organized itself can put together. Something is God. It's not random. There's no way it can be random. Again, you can look at how the most basic things, birds and bees, and reproduction of plants. I bring this up frequently in sermons when I talk about this subject. It's just so stupidly simple. If you have insects that require plants to survive, and then you have plants that require insects to survive, or you have this symbiotic relationship where they both benefit off of each other, and they both actually need each other to live, how can this all of a sudden just all happen at once, randomly, through chance, to be able to have these things in order, and they all have their own... Plants still need the water and the soil and the minerals and all the other proper ingredients to live and survive. It is too astronomical odds to think that everything can just happen by chance, because lightning hit water or a rock where it's been raining on. Whatever the stupidity is that people want to try to say and conjure up in their minds and just imagine a life without God, an existence without God, a world without God. It's impossible. They're fools. They're fools. It's a foolish thing to imagine that God doesn't exist. It's so self-evident around us. The fool all said in his heart, there is no God. Then the Bible says this, Corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity. Abominable just means it's something that's hated. This is a real strong hate, though. You look at the word abomination in the Bible. It is strong. It's used with an emphasis to show God's utter hatred of something, something that might be detestable or abhorrent. Those are other words that could be used. Abhor is a really strong usage of the word hate. People get tripped up because they'll look at things that are abomination in the Bible that they might not think are that bad and say, Oh, well, I mean, how could this be so bad? Because God said it's so bad, you need to get your view of how bad something is from the word of God, not just from the world or from whatever you've been taught thinking things are okay or just because a whole bunch of people do something doesn't mean it's any less wicked or any less despised in the eyes of God just because many people do it. The Bible tells us what is abominable and what's not. Now, except in areas where you've been desensitized, what's abominable lines up with the conscience that God gave us as long as that conscience is undefiled and the senses haven't been more deadened by the world and by the exposure to extreme wickedness. People get desensitized to things that are extremely wicked, but things that are vile in this world should be repulsive, and they generally are. I mean, normal people, if you see displays of affection between people of the same gender that's an inappropriate display of a gender between people of the same gender is going to make you physically ill. It makes you sick. It makes you angry. Those are responses you're going to get from seeing that unless it's just been crammed in your eyes and in your ears and in front of you, and you've been taught to not have that reaction. And even then, I would say you still probably should have that reaction, but some people don't just because it's been brainwashed into thinking that that's acceptable, that that's okay. But that's just one example of something that's abominable. Many things that are abominable in the eyes of God. These people, this fool that said in his heart, there is no God, the Bible says, corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity. There is none that doeth good. You know, the Bible also says it's impossible, without faith it is impossible to please him. It's impossible to please God without faith. So even if you do things that someone might consider to be good, but you don't have faith in God, you're not a believer, you don't believe on the Lord, you don't believe on God, you don't believe, you don't believe there even is a God, it doesn't matter what good you do, you can't please God because you're a sinner. And because the most basic thing that you can do is just accept that God is real. You have faith that God is real, that God created this world, that God brings salvation. That is some of the most fundamental basic things that God expects you to believe. And without that, you can't please him. Because if you don't believe in God and you're doing things, you're doing them for you, and you're not doing anything for the Lord at all. And that's not going to be pleasing to God either. Verse 2, God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them has gone back. They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now, we're going to turn to Romans 3 really quick, and we're going to look where this is quoted. And I'm going to briefly cover a false doctrine that has arisen from this statement that there's none that seek God and there's none that doeth good. But we've got to understand the context, and we're going to look into the context. We're going to see that they all fit together. But first we're just going to look and read Romans chapter 3 where this comes from. We're going to start reading verse number 9. The Bible says, What then are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now, it is a fact, and it is true, and obviously this verse could be used to show that it's true that there's none that are good. There's none that doeth good. Just like the Bible says, there's none that doeth good and sinneth not. So in the sense that we're all sinners, and this is the point that Romans 3 is making. It's talking about, hey, we before proved that Jews and Gentiles, they're all under sin. It's not like you're any better because you're a Jew or a Gentile in the sense that we're all sinners. Now, there's an advantage of being a Jew, the Bible talks about, about having oracles of God and having this great head start of having the truth from God's Word more available to you because of where you're born, but you're still just as much a sinner because all have sinned because there's none that doeth good. There is none righteous. But when we talk about those that seek God, and what I want to expose tonight is the error that is the Calvinist error that will say that, well, no one ever can seek God, and it has to just be completely supernatural for you to even have any type of desire to seek God or anything that would allow for you to even come to Christ. So the Calvinist will take a position of, and it gets so extreme that they'll say that faith is the gift of God. We read the Bible that says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and know that the gift is eternal life that's given, but they'll say that faith is the gift, that even just being able to believe is a gift that's granted unto people, that God will pick and choose who receives this gift that they will then believe and that God is choosing people to salvation, giving them the gift to believe, and then they believe and get saved. And one of the verses that they'll use to try to prove that is in Romans 3 here where it says, well, see, look, there's none that seeketh after God. There's none. No one seeks after God. It's impossible. There's none that seek after God. But I'm going to show you from Scripture that that understanding of this passage that just in the whole world at all times there's never anyone that seeks after God is false because there are people recorded in Scripture who have sought after God. And there are commands to seek after God. There are plenty of times where the Bible talks about seeking after God. But what I want to point out, though, first of all, is the context in all of the passages, Psalm 53 and Psalm 14, they both start off with the fool said in his heart, there is no God. We start off talking about the fool who doesn't even believe in God. It talks about them being corrupt. It talks about them doing abominable iniquity. And then it's talking about looking down on the children of men to see if there are any that did understand, that did seek God, which I believe is still the same category of people, these fools that have done abominable iniquity, that have said in their heart there is no God. They're not doing good. No, not one. And then in verse 4 of Psalm 53, it says, have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread? They have not called upon God. A category of people here, the workers of iniquity, are the same as these fools. And it says, who eat up my people, who go after my people. And we'll get into that a little bit deeper in just a minute, but I want to point that out. But even in Romans chapter 3, when we continue reading, we stopped reading there in verse number 12. But look at what it says in verse 13. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is akin to the people that even Jesus was calling out. The Pharisees, I would say the reprobate Pharisees, the false prophet Pharisees, that he called them, inside they're full of dead men's bones. Their mouth is an open sepulcher. A sepulcher is something that stores dead bodies, a grave, a tomb. And opening that up, it's just full of rottenness. And that's what the Bible is describing here, is a person whose throat is an open sepulcher, they're using deceit, they've got the poison of asps under their lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. There is a group of people in the Scripture that talks about the wicked or the workers of iniquity. This is not your average sinner. Well, the Bible is true, and we are all sinners, and we're sinners by the fleshly human nature that we have. But not every sinner have feet that are swift to shed blood and mouths full of guile and deceit and everything else. Now look, there's none righteous known at one. We've all, we all come short of the glory of God. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We all fall into that category, but those people who are given over to this reprobate mind that Romans 1 describes, that have these characteristics of just being extremely evil, wicked people. And these are the people that I believe the Bible's talking about in the Old Testament, talks about the wicked as kind of like a entire group of people, the wicked or the workers of iniquity that fall into this category. And among them, there's men that seek after God. And these are the people, like the people we read about that take the mark of the beast, that even after we was preaching on Sunday, even after all the plagues are coming down and the wrath of God's being poured out upon them for all their wickedness, they still don't repent of their wickedness. They still don't acknowledge the Lord. They still just continue in their wickedness and wicked evil behavior because they've gone past that point. Because they've gone past that point. Now, turn, if you would, you could follow along with these references, if you'd like. All of you turn, first of all, to 2 Chronicles 7. When we talk about people who seek God, I'm just going to show this briefly in Scripture. There's lots and lots and lots of passages, but I did this last time when I preached on Psalm 14, so I've really trimmed my list down quite a bit and I tried to use some different passages that I did last time because there's a lot about seeking God. A lot. There's so much about it that when you come across one verse that says no one seeks God, you've got to compare that to a whole rest of the Bible that talks about people who seek God and then try to figure out, well, how does this make sense? How do these passages fit together? How can we reconcile if there's something that seems like it might be a contradiction? It's not a contradiction. It's just what's the context and what is it talking about and who is it talking about? Is it talking about every single person on the entire planet or not? 1 Chronicles 28 is where I'm reading from. You're in 2 Chronicles 7. 1 Chronicles 28, verse 8, the Bible reads, Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you forever. And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. Jesus himself even said, Seek and ye shall find. For those that seek God, he's not far from them. God wants to be found of everybody. If you seek God, he will be found. 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, the Bible says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now, obviously, this isn't saying that they necessarily did do that, but I don't know why it would be saying for them to, well, if you can do these things, then I'll heal you, then, you know, if it's just impossible for people to seek God. 2 Chronicles 11, I'll flip forward just a few pages of chapter 11, verse number 13, the Bible says, And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts. For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priests' office unto the Lord. So this is when you've got Rehoboam and Jeroboam with the split kingdom, and the Levites end up leaving Israel to go into Judah with Rehoboam. Verse 15 says, Talking about Jeroboam. So there's clearly a group of people here that set their hearts to seek the Lord. I mean, that's evident. The Bible says that people that did that went to Jerusalem. Chapter 15, flip over to chapter 15, 2 Chronicles 15, verse number 1, The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while ye be with him, and if ye seek him, he will be found of you. But if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Go flip over to chapter 19. So again, if you seek him, he will be found of you. Chapter 19, verse number 1, The Bible says, And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon me from before the Lord. Now this passage, specifically, this is Jehoshaphat getting rebuked by Jehu. He's a prophet. He's a seer. He goes out to meet Jehoshaphat and he brings a rebuke from God when he says, Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Now in the context of this, he's just getting back from helping people that God said he never should have helped because they're ungodly. And he loved them that hate the Lord. Now you'll never guess who it was that he went to go help. He went to go help Israel. The northern kingdom of Israel, the nation of Israel. And for the people that want to tell you, Oh no, you need to bless Israel and God will bless you even though Israel today is a state of people who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though they're ungodly people that actually hate the Lord, you're not going to get a blessing for that just like Jehoshaphat got this rebuke from the Lord saying, Hey, should you help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? No. He says, Therefore is wrath upon me from before the Lord. We don't need to be helping the military might of a people that reject the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what Jehoshaphat did. He helped out militarily with Ahab. Thank you. Ahab, King Ahab, who was the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Then verse 3 says, Nevertheless, there are good things found in thee and that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land and has prepared thine heart to seek God. So it's evident that Jehoshaphat also still was seeking God. So when the Bible is saying, There is none that seeketh after God, this is why I bring this up because we need to understand how is it. Either who does it apply to when it says there's none that seek after God or when, right? It's possible it could be talking about a time frame where God looks down and says, Hey, there's no one that's seeking after God. That's a possibility, right? But it's clearly not the time frame when we see all these other people seeking after God. Or it could be the context, which is what I believe, of when to somehow there's none. Well, it's none within this group of people that is quoting, like, the fool and the workers of iniquity and the wicked that are referred to in Psalm 53, Psalm 14, which is what this quote was from in Romans 3, which then Romans 3 continues to describe as their throat being an open sepulcher full of cursing and bitterness, feet swift to shed blood, and things like that. And I bring this up because not to downplay sin in general, at all, like any sin, because no sin should be downplayed because all sin will carry the punishment of eternal damnation. All sin does, and all sin is wicked, and we shouldn't be okay or think it's not a big deal to sin in any manner whatsoever. But to be completely honest with what we even see in reality, even though everyone's a sinner, even though I can say 100%, look, I'm worthy of hell. I'm worthy of hell today because my own worth is not able to cover my sin, is not able to deal with that. The only reason I'm going to heaven is because of the gift that Jesus Christ gave me and paid for me when He died on the cross and rose again from the dead, and I put my trust in that salvation. But even as a sinful person, when you look at the people who are described in the Bible as the wicked, they're the people that don't sleep unless they're doing something evil. The people that are literally just plotting and planning mischief and wicked things and murders and all manner of evil against people, those are the people that I believe are given over to a reprobate mind. There's people who sin and commit grievous sins. There's people who commit murders. There's people who commit things, but usually it's because either one, they think they're doing it for the right cause, or you say the apostle Paul attacked the church before he got saved. He was going after the people of God and literally was fighting against them, which was a really wicked thing to do, but he did it in ignorance, in unbelief. He didn't fully understand that what he was fighting against was true, and he was doing it in order to try to serve God. Now look, everything, all the fighting against the Lord was still really wicked and wrong to do. Absolutely. No downplaying that, but he was not someone who was just trying to set up all these traps and just hurt people for just no reason or just solely for his own financial gain or something. Where people are just doing the most heinous crimes or wicked things, that is how the wicked are described in Scripture. Turn, if you would, to Psalm 10, and I'll give you a little bit more of an idea of what I'm talking about when I reference this, when I bring this up. The Bible says in verse number one of Psalm 10, Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hideest thou thyself in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. So when we're talking about the people who none of them seek after God, none of them do good, none of them do righteous, in the context of everything else we saw, I believe it's talking about this group of people called the wicked. It says, God is not in all his thoughts. Let's keep reading, though, about these people who are the wicked. Verse five, His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages. In the secret places doth he murder the innocent. His eyes are privily set against the poor. It's like a predator prouncing on prey. He lieth in weight secretly as a lion in his den. He lieth in weight to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He will never see it. Flip back, if you will, to Psalm five. That's the wicked. And again, you'll see these attributes over and over and over again. Now, I'm not stating, first of all, that someone who has committed a crime that they planned can't be saved. I'm not stating that. This is a broad, high-level characteristic of people who are wicked to the core, though, is what I'm trying to explain as this group of people, as you see these characteristics pile up about a certain small, very small percentage of the people who do these things that are beyond redemption because their heart is like a stone and their conscience has been seared with a hot iron and that they're able to even do these things without any regard to God or anyone else, for that matter. Psalm five, five, the Bible says, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. God hates all the workers of iniquity. Psalm 28, verse three, the Bible says, draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. So there we have the wicked and the workers of iniquity tied together as being the same group of people. I'll flip over if you would now to Psalm 59. Verse number two, the Bible reads, deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloody men, for lo, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty are gathered against me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, oh Lord. Let's go back to Psalm 53. In the context we're seeing the fool send us out there is no God. They've done abominable iniquity. They don't seek God. It says here, the workers of iniquity, verse four, where we left off, have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread. Eating up the people of God like it's no big deal. I mean, you're saying about just like, well, yeah, I'm gonna sit down and have some bread for dinner. That's how they eat up the people of God. And it's all that the people of God would be a righteous people. And for the people just to be able to do that with just no regard, it's a pretty wicked people. That's why they're called the workers of iniquity. It says they have not called upon God. And I was gonna spend a little bit of time on this, but I'm not gonna spend that much time on it just for sake of time now. But when it comes to calling on the name of the Lord, I do believe that people need to do this for their salvation as Romans 10 lays out for us. Just in case there's ever any confusion about this because it pops up every once in a while where people get this thought of saying that like, well, why are we praying with people and lead them in prayer to the Lord and do all this stuff and people wanna say that that's not necessary and everything else. Well, it's a biblical model. People began to call on the Lord way back in Genesis, Chapter 4, I believe. We read about it in the early generations, people began, men began to call upon the name of the Lord. We read about, there's many, many passages. I'm not gonna go into them all right now, but even just Romans Chapter 10, it gives us a great outline of how people get saved. The Bible says in verse number 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. So it goes kind of in reverse order. If we read this up in reverse order, we talk about the people who are going out and, well, who are sent to preach the gospel. And they preach the gospel to those, as a preacher, to those in order to hear. Right? Because you have to hear about something in order to believe in something. And then once you believe, then you call on the Lord in whom you believe. And it's one of those things that's a natural progression. Right? It's a real basic thing. You can't believe on the gospel if you've never heard the gospel. Well, how are you going to hear the gospel? You need to have someone come and tell you about the gospel. You need to hear it from someone who's preaching. And people don't generally just preach the gospel on their own. They're sent. Right? You've got the Holy Ghost sending people. You've got the Word of God sending people. You also have churches sending people to go out and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we see that happening in Scripture. And then once you believe, and just to sum it up real simply, without going into all the Scripture and all the other evidence, it's as simple as what we see in John 4 with the woman at the well where Jesus is talking to her. And Jesus said this in verse number 10 of John chapter 4. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me the drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. He's saying, if you knew the gift, if you knew about it, if you knew what it was, and you knew who I was, then you would have just asked me. So what I would say is if people know the gift of God and they know about salvation, they know what Christ did for them, and they know all this stuff, and they want to be saved, they would just ask God. They would communicate with God because it's a personal thing. Yes, whosoever believeth on the Lord shall be saved 100% through and through. Absolutely. But you have to believe on Him. And that's something that every individual has to do. It's more than just an enlightening or an understanding of the Gospel. You actually have to accept it. It's something that you actually... It's an action in a sense. It's not a work, but there's something that must be done internally for you to not just mentally assent or give your agreement to what salvation is. You can understand what salvation is and still not accept it and still not receive it and still not trust it in your heart for your salvation. People can hear because it's a simple message. People can definitely hear and understand it. It's a very simple message. Hey, you have sinned. You're responsible for your sin. God has a place of judgment because of your sin. And it's called hell. And when you die, you're going to go there unless you put your trust in the Son of God that made the payment for you. He came and shed His blood. He sacrificed Himself up. He did everything righteous. He has all the righteousness that we were supposed to have when we lived on this earth. He had all that. He had no sin. He did everything right. And He offered up Himself as a sacrifice in order to pay for your sins. And He did that for you. And when He died on the cross, He took on the sins of the whole world. He became sin for us. It's an easy message to understand. Hey, someone else is taking your place for you. Someone else is going to prison so you could be set free. Someone else has gone and made the payment and he's died and he's risen again from the dead. And all God is requiring of you to receive eternal life, the gift that He bought and paid for. He'll give it to you. It's yours. It's ready. It's available. You just have to put your trust in that. You have to put your trust in Him. You have to put your trust in that Savior that did that for you. Just believe Him. You have to do that. Once you do that, it's yours. It's a simple message. People can understand that. But not everyone will necessarily accept it. But it's kind of like, why not? Once you come to that understanding, all you have to do is accept that. You accept it by putting your faith in God, but when you're putting your faith in Him, it's hard to even imagine a scenario where you can put your faith in God but not have some form of communication with God in that acceptance. It boggles my mind. I know very near and dear my own salvation when I was in my bedroom and when I called on the name of the Lord for my salvation, when I knew I needed a Savior, when I finally was humble enough to realize I need to be saved. And I'd already heard the gospel that there was a decision point that had to be made where I'm going to accept the Savior. I'm going to put my trust in Him. It wasn't just an understanding that I had. I called on God and begged Him to save my soul. Now, I'll tell you this much because people want to nitpick at the Word of God and want to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Obviously, you can call on the name of the Lord without physically having to open up your mouth and do so. People can pray to God in their heart, in your mind. And God hears that. There's examples of that in Scripture. It's not saying you can't do that. But the point is, look, if you believe these things, if you believe in the Savior, you would just, I mean, why wouldn't you just ask? You would. And Jesus said, if you knew who I was and you knew this gift and you knew what I had for you, you would ask me for it. And that's what people do when they get saved. They communicate that to God. God, my faith is in Christ. Save me. And if you fully understand what the other option is, why wouldn't you be going to God and say, God, I want to make sure that you understand that this is in my heart. And people fight so hard against this calling on the name of the Lord and saying this prayer and other stuff. You know, look, if you really understand the situation you're in of being a sinner, if you really understand the consequence of hell and you really believe that Christ is your Savior and you paid for all of your sins, wouldn't you want to tell God yourself what you're believing? Even though, yes, God can see your heart and God knows your heart, it's kind of like, I don't know how you could have all of that understanding and not do so. That's what I don't understand. Here we have in verse 4, Psalm 53, the workers of iniquity, they have not called upon God. I mean, they don't even believe there is a God. Right? According to verse number 1. Verse 5, There were they in great fear, where no fear was, they were expounded on this, for God hath scattered the bones of Him that encampeth against thee, has put them to shame, because God hath despised them. Oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion, when God bringeth back the captivity of His people. Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. And this last verse here real quickly, the salvation of, and I'm knowing that belief that there's multiple levels of understanding in God's Word. There's a lot of depth. There's surface understandings, but then you can have multiple applications of understanding of what the Bible's talking about here. Because you can have salvation, like a physical salvation of the nation of Israel. But when it's talking about this, I think this is talking about that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion. This is talking about Jesus Christ the Savior. Now, like I said, you could apply this, I think, in multiple ways. But Jesus is referred to in more than one place, and I definitely don't have the time to get into all the reverences of Him being referred to as the salvation of Israel. But the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion. Right? Not the salvation brought to Zion. He's coming out of Zion. Because that's where Jesus Christ, you know, comes out of, obviously. When God bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. So when God brings back the captivity, and, you know, again, Old Testament here, we could be referring to the future captivity of Babylon, the Babylonian captivity, which hadn't happened yet when King David is, when David is pinning down this psalm, right, as a future prophecy to their captivity and then release. But again, talking about Jesus being the salvation of Israel coming out of Zion, I think it's in the broader sense, the spiritual sense, which would also line up with kind of the rest of the context of Psalm 53 as being the one who led captivity captive. As it says in Ephesians 4, verse 7, where the Bible says, But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. So the captivity of bondage, the captivity of hell, the captivity of sin, Jesus took that captive and led that captive, that the captors turned into the captive, right? The one who's bringing the bondage is now brought into bondage. And that's the rejoicing, that's the, you know, the salvation. It's a rejoicing because now you're no longer under the captivity of sin and death and hell because the Savior has come and brought you that salvation to rejoice over and be glad. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for this great passage and for all the truths in your word. I pray that you'll please open up our understanding more, dear Lord, and help us to understand all these areas, especially where it might seem a little bit more difficult because we read different things and we want to make sure that we can understand them and reconcile them all, Lord, since we know that your word is perfect, we know that your word is true, we know that there are no contradictions or errors in your word. Help us to just have the right understanding of the truth. And I pray that you would please guide us all. Help us as we study, dear Lord. Use the Holy Spirit to open up our understanding and guide us in all truth and wisdom. Lord, we love you. Please keep us all safe. We drive home tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now the Psalms were 187. Psalm 187 Jesus loves one. Psalm 187. Jesus loves me, yes I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me. He will die. Heaven's gate to open wide. He will wash away my sin. Let His little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me. He will stay. Close beside me all the way. Thou hast pled and died for me. I will henceforth live for thee. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Amen. Church, great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. Yes, Jesus loves me.