You Have No Good Apart From Christ Pt 1

The Old Testament reading this morning is in Genesis, chapter 5, verses 5 through 8.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the

Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. The New Testament reading is

Matthew 23, 37 through 39, and John 10, 1 through 18.

So we'll start on page 829 of the Pew Bible. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would

I have gathered your children together as hens gather her brood under her wings, and you would not.

See, your house is left to you desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord. And John 10, starting with verse 1.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens.

The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all of his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

But he flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. For as a father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and I have other sheep that are not of this fold,

I must bring them also and they must they will listen to my voice for there will be one flock, one shepherd.

For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.

This charge I have received from my father. You may be seated.

Good morning, everyone. Open your Bibles to Psalm 14.

Psalm 14. I'll read as you can see in the bulletin. I'm kind of grouping 14 through 16 together.

Not going to get through all that today, but I'll read 14 and 15 now and we'll go to the

Lord in prayer. Psalm 14 to the choir master of David, the fool says in his heart, there is no

God. They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds. There's 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.

They have all turned aside together. They have 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 and do not call upon the

Lord? 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 when the

Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad. Psalm 15, a psalm of David.

Oh, Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.

Who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend.

And whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord. Who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

Who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

God, thank you for this Lord's day. What a great day it is to worship your grace. What a great name. What a great salvation you have given your people to thank you with.

Lord, we understand, we know, we have proper anthropology because you have told us that there is none who is good.

The world tries to claim some sort of good that they have of their own. But we know the truth, that there's none.

Father, we've all turned away. We've all went astray like Adam. Lord, we know that left to our own condition, we are pitiful.

God in heaven, I ask, I pray, I beg of you that you would make this truth resonate within our heart, even in this moment, that we'd see that our only good is found in you.

Thank you, God, for being the God that you are of grace, who has given us Jesus Christ. And so let our hearts, let our minds, let our attitudes, let our desires go to him, even in this moment, as your word is declared and as we listen.

In Jesus' name, amen. I remember there's a lot of propaganda, if I may call it that.

That's probably not the best word for it. When you're in elementary school, to not smoke when you're older. So I guess it's good propaganda.

And I remember one, you know, being in school and there was a picture, it really caught my eye, of lungs and they were normal lungs.

You know, I have that nice red or pinkish hue to it. And it looked all right, but my eye didn't really think much about it.

But then next to it were these lungs that were really black and nasty. And it said something about how these are smoker's lungs and the other lungs are just normal lungs.

And it really made me then go back to the to the lungs that were without smoke, without that kind of decay.

And it really made me focus on it all the more and appreciate all the more the healthiness that it was.

It made me really appreciate how the lungs are supposed to truly look like, that I didn't quite have the appreciation before I saw the blackened lungs.

And here I say that not because this is a sermon about whether or not smokers can go to heaven or not, because I think they can.

They might get there a few days earlier, but, you know, that's about it. I said in my notes not to make that joke and I didn't listen.

I'm sorry. But nevertheless, this isn't about smoking as it is to say that contrast can help us out a lot.

Contrast can help us understand both aspects, whatever is being contrasted. And here in Psalms, we see a lot of contrast, the same contrast over and over again.

And that is godly people, ungodly people, God's people and God's enemies. And we see we see it on display here in 14 through 16 once more.

God likes to set up that contrast for his people to behold. What does it look like to be a godly person?

What does it look like to be God's people? And the enemies of God are laid up before our eyes for us to get a better understanding to see what it means to be a pure, pure person.

OK, you ever get frustrated with the world and with the enemies of God and how God is patient with it?

It's because it's for a purpose. It's for your good. And we will worship in light of it in eternity because of it.

And we see these contrasts constantly. And 14 through 16, I see a lot of connections.

And so I wanted to really try to group it together as we go through them. 14, I see it's a chapter focused on the atheists.

OK, chapter 14 is a chapter focused on the atheists. And I mean the biblical atheists, the true atheists that actually exist, not the ones that we that we're told exist in the world today.

The biblical category of an atheist is a focus of 14. But through it, we can see that it gives us an understanding of what it means to be

God's people. And then 15, chapter 15, we see our need because we see that there's a little bit of atheists in all of us.

There's a little bit of rebellion in all of us. And 15 really highlights that. There's a little bit of atheism in all of us.

And then it sets up beautifully for 16 in which Jesus Christ meets us in that need.

And that is the story over and over again in the Bible. The need and Jesus meets that need in the

Bible over and over again solidifies us in the fact that, my goodness, there is a great need here.

And Jesus Christ proves to be the only one who can fill that need. And so 14 is the focus of the atheists in which we see, man, there's a little bit of atheists in all of us.

15 is, Psalm 15, it really signifies, shows that there is really no one who's good.

16, we see that, well, the only good that we can have then is in Jesus. Look at, just real quick, so I can kind of try to grab both parts before we get into it.

Look at chapter 14, verse 1. The fool says in his heart, there is no

God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good.

Paul uses that later on as a very universal statement. None, literally in the whole world, who does good.

But then if we can get that connection at the very end, this is where we're headed to. This is what we're looking at.

Look at chapter 16, verses 1 and 2. You see what's being set up there?

There's none who does good. And it's going to highlight that. And then it's going to set up for the fact that we realize through that, that I have no good besides Yahweh, besides the

Lord and his Messiah. And this is what's going on with these chapters. This is what our hearts should celebrate as we go through it, that we are not good, but in Christ we find our good.

So the way I'm going to break down 14, I'm going to probably focus on 14 and kind of talk a little bit about 15.

And that's about all the time I'll have. But the way I'll break it down is the first part, Psalm 14, 1 through 3, atheism defined.

We need to define atheism because the atheists today try to define it their way. But it's not the biblical way. It's not true.

So atheism is defined in chapter 14, or Psalm 14, 1 through 3. And then moving on from that, verses 4 through 6 is atheism in practice, what they do, what they like to do.

And Psalm 14, 5 through 6 is atheism's security or the lack of, they have no security.

And then finally in Psalm 14, 7, a cry for help from God's people in light of what we've gone through.

So going right into it, atheism defined. What is an atheist? What does it look like? Well, look at verses 1 through 3.

The fool, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Now we'll just stop there.

The fool says in his heart, there is no God. We kind of talked about what a fool is.

I made mention of it. A fool in scripture isn't necessarily talking about someone's lack of intellect.

So we see the atheist there, there is no God, but the Bible doesn't know anything about a person who actually, truly, intellectually can say that they don't believe in God.

Romans 1, we talked about, Paul is very clear. God has revealed himself to everyone.

They know there's a God. And so the fool here who says there is no God is not so much saying intellectually there's no

God, but a living out a practice as if there is no God.

Fool, you know, you remember Psalm 8, there's too much evidences for God for anyone to actually intellectually be excusable to say there is no

God. You remember the whole point of Psalm 8, it's sandwiched with that statement, Oh, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Remember, that's an objective statement. God's majesty is revealed all creation. And no atheist can sit there and say, well, no, not really.

We don't know if he actually exists. It's not true. And so, couple that with Romans 1, how

Paul says that everyone knows God exists. When we see here in chapter 14 or Psalm 14, verse 1, that the fool says in his heart, there is no

God. It's not so much an intellectual belief that there truly is no God, but rather it's a practice that they live as if God does not exist.

Atheism in the modern form doesn't exist, except for in the past few generations, you realize that.

Society, all cultures throughout the world have always been theistic in some degree. They've always realized that there has to be some kind of spiritual power above them, right?

And so this is not talking about the modern day atheists because that doesn't exist, truly, if they're being honest.

But really, this is talking about a fool who lives as if God does not exist.

Because look what it goes on to say in verse 1. The atheists, they are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.

So we can see, what is the nature of them denying God is they live as if he doesn't exist.

And that's what sin is, right? When we do not obey God's law, we are acting as if he does not exist and he is not who he says he is.

It's exactly what happened in the garden with Adam and Eve. At that moment, they are acting very atheistic, that God did not give them a very good command for them not to eat of the tree.

But they became atheistic in their thinking in which they sinned against the God who exists, who has revealed himself, who is very good in all his ways.

And so we can see that a proper definition of atheism is one who lives as if God does not exist.

And beloved, how much do we practice that, even in our own daily lives? How much can we fall prey to this kind of nonsensical thinking that God is not above looking down on us and has given us his law for our good to do.

Instead, we think that it is not for our good and we shall do our own thing. This is an atheistic thinking, it is a foolish hearted thought that leads to sin, that leads to death.

Now the fool says in his heart, the atheist, there is no God, and how do they display that in their deeds?

We can see the second part of the atheist defined is that it is a universal problem.

It is a universal problem. Look at verse 2. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man.

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, all of mankind, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

Now we have to be careful. When we see language like that, it is not like God doesn't know and now he is like, let me look to see if there is anyone who does good.

We have to understand that God is not like us. He doesn't need that kind of thing. The reason why it says that is because it gives us an explanation of what

God is doing. In other words, God has looked and he knows. It is not like God is thinking maybe there is none who does good.

The fact is this is God's omniscient, his all -knowing gaze is upon all of the world.

And he knows that this problem, that there are none who does good, is universal. It is everyone.

There is not one person kind of that left his gaze that is actually doing good. The point is that his omniscient gaze is upon everything he has looked and he knows.

None does good. This is a problem for everyone. No one can say that they are good of themselves.

No one can say that they follow God truly. Everyone has fallen into this atheistic category.

God's eyes are like our eyes of fire. He sees everything. And he knows the condition of man.

He knows man's condition. He has proper anthropology. And where the world says that there is good inside of man and he just gets it messed up every now and then,

God is very clear. There is none who does good. No, not one. The problem is universal.

Because if it wasn't universal, there would be good in man and guess where that good would come forth from? Man, God doesn't like to share his glory like that.

He is very selfish that way. He will be glorified for all things, even the good that man receives.

There is none who does good. No, not one. And remember where we're going in chapter 16. My only good is found in you,

God. This is a universal problem. And look at what it goes on to say in chapter 2.

He looks to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. He looks to see if there are any who understand.

And what does it mean to understand? It means to seek after God. Kind of says the same thing in verse 4, so we'll point that out right now.

Have they no knowledge, understanding, knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the

Lord? So what does it mean to understand? What does it mean to have understanding? Now the world will tell us it means to have all sorts of worldly wisdom, go to college, learn about rebellion against God and how he doesn't exist, and get your

PhDs, your master's degree, your bachelor's, and that's how you gain knowledge and understanding. The Bible doesn't say that.

The Bible is very clear. What does it mean to know? What does it mean to have knowledge? What does it mean to understand?

But first and foremost, to seek after God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.

Right? And so to know, to understand, to have knowledge, the first step means that you are trying to seek, you are looking for, you are wanting to worship

God. So the definition of an atheist is that they are without knowledge, they're without wisdom, they're without understanding because they do not seek after God.

And finally, we see in verse 3, we see that this is in, well, we'll read the verse, they have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt, and there is none who does good, not even one.

This is an unorganic problem. In other words, God did not create people this way. God did not create people to be rebellious against Him.

We see that they have become this way. They have become corrupt. They have went aside and went their own way.

God has created man upright, but man has sought many devices. And those devices have led them astray to seek their own way, and so they're without understanding, they're without knowledge, they do not seek

God, they are atheistic. So, concluding with defining what an atheist is.

Atheism is not doing good, not seeking God.

It's a universal problem. And beloved, even God's people struggle with atheism, do we not?

Even we, there's a little bit of atheism even within our own hearts, even after God rescues us, right?

How often do we seek to go about our livelihood, our different things that we must do, not with the idea, not with the passion to give it to the

Lord, to serve Him with it. How often are we not seeking God in everything we do, but rather we're seeking our pleasure.

We can be very atheistic when we commit sin against God, and we find ourselves in this mode in which we are no longer living for God, instead we're living for self, for pleasure, for everything else.

Beloved, we have become atheistic. We've become atheistic. But you see, we need to see the good that lies ahead.

We need to see where the Bible is bringing us here. We need to see the need that it produces within our heart, that as we see the atheists and their hatings, we can't help but see a little bit of their atheism within our own heart, and so we are reminded to go again to chapter 16, verses 1 through 2, in which it concludes,

You are my Lord, I have no good apart from You. I prove to be an atheist apart from You.

I need You to direct my steps. And so, let's move on in chapter 14,

Psalm 14, 4 through 6. Let's see the atheistic practice. The atheistic practice.

And he says, really, if you look at 4, he says, Have they no knowledge all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread?

They eat up my people as they eat bread. They're against God's people. They're against God's people.

They eat up my people as they eat bread. And look what it says in verse 6. You would shame the plans of the poor, but the

Lord is His refuge. So what does the atheist do? Well, they work against God's people. And again, this is a common theme we've been going through with the psalms so far.

God's enemies work against God's people. This is what they do. They're engineered, so to speak, by their father,

Satan, to do so. The atheistic practice is to work against the people of God.

They shame, it says in verse 6, the plans of the poor, of God's people.

What are the plans of the poor? Well, it's the very opposite of the plans of the evil. They seek and call upon God.

And so when they see God's people seeking God and calling upon Him and seeking knowledge through Him, they hate it.

They strive against it. They work against it. So the atheistic practice is to work against God's people.

They do not love and they do not serve God's people. But then, again, let's look at where we're going in Psalm 16, verse 3.

As for the saints in the land, as for God's people in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.

The atheists hate God's people, hate the saints. The one who is not an atheist, the one who is

God's people, the saints are their delight. They love the saints. Is there no atheism a little bit left over in our hearts?

How often do we not strive to help out God's people? How often does our love for God's people get very cold?

We consider how much that our whole mindset should be to love Christ and His bride, and so our whole desire should be every thought, how can

I help out the bride of Christ in every way? And a lot of times that's when the bride hurts you, and you can show

God's love in that reality. But how often does our love for the bride grow cold, and we prove to be atheistic in the way that we treat the bride, we're not patient with them, not loving with them, not thinking how can

I serve them best in each and every situation? Again, there is atheism even in our hearts sometimes with this problem, with this problem.

But again, we need to remind ourselves, chapter 16, verse 3, the saints are to be my delight, and they will be through the help of the

Lord, as we'll get to. And so, moving on, Psalm 14, 5 through 6, what is the security of the atheists?

What is their security, or I would say the lack of? Well, look at verse 5. They are in great terror,

God says, David says, through the inspiration of the Spirit. There they are in great terror.

Psalm 53 is actually a psalm that is almost identical to Psalm 14.

The one major difference you see is in this verse here, Psalm 53 says they are in terror when there is no terror.

So there's this kind of nature of the way the atheist is, the way that the godless is, is that they are constantly in terror, even perhaps when there is no terror following them, but they can't help but to feel like something is fundamentally wrong.

And we can see why, because he goes on to say in Psalm 14, for God is with the generation of the righteous.

In other words, God is not with the atheists. And so, therefore, there's a certain feeling of dread within them in which something is wrong here.

And we see this very often. We see this very often. You ever notice that godless people, they tend to have a lot of problems.

And this is a natural result of God's judgment upon them because they are not his people.

And so they live in terror constantly. And again, if I may say so, how much do we have a little bit of atheism in our own heart, right?

We are supposed to be the ones who are secure. We're the ones who are supposed to have a sure foundation, are we not?

Because God is with us. Look at chapter 15, verse 5. At the end of it, the very end of the chapter, he who does these things, we'll get to what that is, shall never be moved.

And look at the promise of chapter 16, or Psalm 16, verse 8, I have set the Lord always before me, because he is my right hand,

I shall not be shaken. So God's people, it's the very opposite of being in terror, foundations moving under them.

Rather, we are to be the secured ones. And if you look at the context in Psalm 14, it's when we are being persecuted.

You think of the hardest times we could go through, and we have no idea what it is, is whenever someone wants to kill us because we are godly.

You talk about a hard thing. Imagine trying to go to bed at night with your family, not knowing whether or not you're going to have people beating on your door to take you to prison, to kill you.

That's a whole level that we can't even fathom, a certain level of terror within our hearts that we can't even fathom.

And here, the psalmist is saying that even in those moments of great persecution, they have a steady foundation under us, under them.

But how often, how often, and I am the worst at this, do I let the most minor things cause me to be shaken up?

How often, whenever something just doesn't go quite the way we would like to, if we were God, God has his own plans, and now all of a sudden we're all shaken up and our foundations are completely moved under us, and we're in great terror.

I love it, I think there's a little bit of atheism in all of us. There's a great need for us to look constantly to something, and that something is found in chapter, in verse 7.

And this is a, the fourth part here, this is a cry for help from God's people, a cry for help from God's people.

Look what he says. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion.

When the Lord restores the fortune of his people, let Jacob rejoice and let

Israel be glad. Now, he's crying out, let there be salvation coming forth from Jerusalem to restore

God's people, their fortunes, and certainly I think he's, in regards to chapter,

I keep on saying chapter, it's technically Psalm 14, I'm sorry, Psalm 14, in which the godless, the atheists, are crushing down upon God's people, and he's saying, oh, that salvation would come and our fortunes would be renewed in light of, even despite of, the atheistic attacks.

But I also believe that it's forward -looking. I also believe that it's forward -looking unto chapter,

I'm just gonna say chapter. Are you guys okay if I just say chapter instead of Psalm? Let's just go for it. Psalm 15 and 16, the fortunes that he wants is forward -looking.

Look at 16, five through six. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.

You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. The idea is that whenever they drew up lines to marker what land

Israel would have, it's the lines, he's saying the lines, God has given me prosperity, fortunes, lands.

He has given me, my cup is full. The point that he's getting at is the

Lord has given me great fortune. And we can't be carnal purely here.

We're not just talking about physical land. We're not just talking about physical wealth. We're talking about the great Messiah who has brought about spiritual fortunes beyond anything we can understand.

And so this cry in verse seven of Psalm 14 is a cry that salvation would come forth from Jerusalem and give fortune, give blessing to his people.

And so as we consider the fact that we all have a little bit of atheism in us, the fact is that none of us are good, the cry of our hearts should be, oh, that Jesus would come forth from Jerusalem and save us from these things.

It's forward -looking as well. The cry here in verse seven is needed because as we consider the atheistic attacks upon God's people, and we consider the fact that we all have a little bit of atheism in us, the cry is that we need

Jesus. And I think Psalm 15 really reveals that, and we're gonna go through that quickly.

But I think Psalm 15 really, really shows that well. If you look, it asks, the first question it asks, it's a

Psalm of David, and Psalm 15, verse one, O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill? Who shall have that prosperity? Who shall have that inheritance?

Who shall have that fortune? Who shall be with God? Christian, I hope the greatest delight that you have is to be in the presence of the

Lord. If it's not, then you're being an atheist. I hope your greatest desire is to be in the presence of the

Lord. Then whenever you think of how fortunate I can be, may it be because you are at the holy hill of the

Lord. The question here is, who can inherit these things? Who can have these things?

And what's the answer? He, verse two, who walks blamelessly and does what is right, can

I just say good? You get the point? In Psalm 14, there is none who does good who can be with God, he who does good.

You see the point there? We can't be with God. We can't have that fortune. We can't have that inheritance, because none of us are gonna do that in order to inherit the presence of God.

There is none who does good. We're just told that, and then in chapter 15, we're told, and guess what?

The only ones who can inherit the greatest good in the universe, God, are those who are good.

And that should leave us saying, well, that's not me. That's not me. We can see, it says, and speaks truth in his heart.

And then verses three to the rest of the psalm, what is it talking about? It's talking about being good to our neighbors.

It's talking about being good to people around us. Well, what is the atheist in the last psalm?

Well, they hated people around them. They hated God's people. They worked against them. They ate them like bread.

They did things that were evil against them. But here we see the one who is welcomed to the presence of God is one who is good and the one who does the opposite of the atheist and actually loves his neighbor, actually serves his neighbor, we see in verses three to the end, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a vile person is despised.

You see, the atheist despises the godly. Well, the one who is good, who inherits good things from God, is the godly who despises the atheist in whose eyes a vile person is despised but who honors those who fear the

Lord. Again, going into Psalm 16, keep your finger there, but what is, remember what David says, is

I, the saints are my delight. It goes on to say in verse four, who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

In other words, you promise to do something, later on you see that that doing something is actually gonna end up hurting you, but because you made that promise to your neighbor, to your fellow neighbor, you will do it anyways.

Who does not put out his money at interest, who does not take a bribe against the innocent, and look at that, he who does these things shall not be, may

I say it in terror, he shall not be moved, he shall be steadfast. And again, we're left with this nagging question, right?

If none does good, and I am, no one does good, and I'm part of that no one, how can

I have this great inheritance? Our hearts and our minds should go back to Psalm 14, 7, oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when the

Lord restores the fortunes of his people, and then we should think of Christ Jesus.

Jesus would come forth from Zion a victor. He would save his people from their sins.

You ever notice the way Jesus approached Jerusalem? You know, this is great cry, oh, that salvation would come forth from Jerusalem, and then

Jesus, it's like this is echoing in the back of his mind as he's coming and approaching upon Jerusalem for the final time to bring about that great cry.

And you notice, look with me at Mark 10.

Go to Mark 10, verse 32. Mark 10, verse 32.

I just absolutely love this image of Jesus in the

Scriptures, in the Word. Jesus is approaching

Jerusalem for the final time. Jesus knows what's about to happen there. The great cry of history, oh, that salvation would come forth from Jerusalem.

Jesus is about to fulfill, and he knows it. This is the purpose of all creation right here, for him to do this great act.

And Jesus goes forth like a mighty conqueror. And in verse 32, and they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, to Zion, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed.

And those who followed were afraid. This idea that Jesus was so determined to go to Jerusalem that it put awe and fear in their hearts, perhaps because they knew that the people in Jerusalem, they were the atheists, they were the godless, they were the

Pharisees, they were the Sadducees, and they had made it clear that they wanted to kill this Jesus. So perhaps there was a little bit of that in their head.

My goodness, they want to kill him there? And look at him triumphantly. Look at him in Matthew, it says he set a space to it.

He was determined to go there despite the fact that death was awaiting. Jesus' determination, he was going ahead of them, and they were in awe of it because Jesus knew that this is where salvation would come.

He even talks about how salvation would happen in the following verses. At the middle of verse 32, and taking the 12 again,

Jesus began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the

Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the

Gentiles, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him, and after three days he will rise.

You see, this is answering that great cry in Psalm 14, verse 7. Oh, that salvation for Israel will come out of Zion.

Now, sadly, the Jews thought the salvation coming out of Zion would be Jesus coming in to destroy the

Romans, a carnal salvation, we may call it. But Jesus had something greater in mind, a spiritual salvation, in which our fortunes would be spiritual, in which we would, despite the fact that the atheists hate us, we would have a resolution within us, a foundation under us that is full of godly awe and love for the salvation he has brought for us, that we would be good in light of Jesus' great work on the cross, that we would be able to approach his holy hill because of his great sacrificial love for us, and this would create in us a certain, what?

Goodness, to be good, to have the great fortunes that God gives to those who are good because of Jesus' sacrifice.

So this psalm, this cry, oh, that salvation would come, is answered in Jesus and his sacrificial love for his sheep.

So you want to turn away from atheism and realize of your own power you look more like psalm 14 than you do like psalm 15.

So let the cry of your heart be psalm 14, 7, and then set your eyes upon Jesus.

Set your eyes upon what he has done for his people. And so then, with that established, with Jesus bringing good to his saints, we can then, if you look at psalm 16, it's a great celebration.

It's a great celebration of promise after promise to make us good in light of Messiah coming forth from Zion.

And so I'll finish this sermon just reading it, and then we'll go to the Lord in prayer. Psalm 16.

Subdavid, preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the

Lord, you are my Lord, and I have no good apart from Christ. As for the saints in the land, well, they are the excellent ones in whom is all of my delight.

The sorrows of those who run after another God, they shall multiply. Their drink offerings of blood

I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. But the Lord, he is my chosen portion in my cup.

You hold my lot. The lions have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night. Also, my heart instructs me.

I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure.

For you will not abandon my soul to shield or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

So no matter what you're going through, O Christian, look to Jesus and what he has done. That there is an atheism in your heart, but there is a

Christ who has conquered that atheism. What can man do to us when Christ has been so good to us?

God in heaven, I thank you. I am reminded of how my good is not good at all.

Each day of my life, Lord, as I struggle with sin, you set my sin before me.

But God, since I am part of your sheep, since I am your church, part of your church,

I'm so thankful, Lord, that I have these promises here. That although my sin is ever before me,

Christ is set before me as the conqueror of my sin. And so I can't help but to say, hallelujah, glory be to Christ who has come forth from Zion to vanquish my unbelief, my sin.

Lord, how much of a delight it is, a pleasure it is that I'm not the only one, but I have a church before me, saints who you have called out and you have made them your sheep so that their good is found not in themselves, but found in you as well, so that we are all in this identity together.

And no matter what we might be going through in this moment, our good is found in Christ. And so we are secure

Forgive us, Lord, for we often look away from that. Like sheep who hear a noise, see something scary, we get scared and we run away.

Lord, please gather us when we have done this. Bandage our wounds and remind us once more that we don't live as atheists, but we live as God's people.

This is most understood when we go through the harshest of times. And so I pray,

Lord, that when we face these harsh times, we don't forget you, but rather we lean into you and we see that you will reveal yourself in this moment.

Thank you, God, that we have such a firm foundation in Christ. And I pray that this would be a reality in our life and so that those who are true atheists, those who deny you with their lives and habits, that they would see the goodness that's found being near Christ in his holy temple.

And so they would be, Father, desiring to see what Christ is all about by looking at his church.

Let us be people in which we reflect you and glorify you in that way. Thank you for being the

God that you are, for empowering us through the Spirit. May we rely upon him in this moment. In Jesus' name, amen.