Sermon Tone Analysis

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to the book of Psalms.

Turn to Psalm 14, our psalm for this morning.

We’re just gonna jump right in.

The basic message of the psalm is this: Humanity is universally depraved, yet there is a people who have been and will be delivered.

This is an unbelievably unpopular view.

When I was in college, we went round and round; we argued about every kind of theological viewpoint and there were only a handful of students who could bring themselves to believe in the doctrine of total or universal depravity.

Several of my professors (men and women who had lived much longer than us and who had seen and experienced much more)—these older, wiser Christians were more readily willing to admit, along with Psalm 14, that mankind is utterly depraved and that this is a universal truth.

This is not a fun truth.

It’s not a great doctrine to discuss or to preach, but it is an important and immensely biblical doctrine.

Apart from Christ, without a relationship with God, our default position is one of depravity.

This is a rather gloomy view to hold.

But, you see, it’s not a view that man made up; it’s not a view that I chose to have because I’m some kind of relentless pessimist.

This is God’s view of the matter.

The Lord looks down from heaven, says the psalmist, and sees mankind in this position.

This is us from God’s perspective.

Corruption is Universal

The word for fool is the Hebrew word nabal.

In Isaiah, we see the picture of what a fool is in Biblical language.

A fool is not just a silly, thoughtless person as we might think of from a movie or from real life.

A fool, biblically, is not just someone who’s intellectually challenged but rather one who is altogether ungodly.

In our psalm today, the fool speaks.

Notice from where the fool speaks and what the fool speaks.

The fool speaks from their heart.

What the fool says may not be public; it could be secret.

But even if it’s secret, it’s no less powerful.

The heart is the controlling center of a person.

The fool says, in his heart: “There is no God.”

And that’s what really drives him and his thinking.

What the fool means, then, is that God does not matter, He doesn’t count.

The consequences of this belief:

You might be thinking: “Fools.

Who would think such a thing?! How can someone be so foolish?”

But it’s worse than we think.

David uses plural pronouns and plural verb forms:

Their hearts…they are corrupt…their deeds are vile...

David’s not thinking of a isolated fool here and there.

David’s not thinking of that one foolish friend or that village fool; he’s not thinking about a particular case but a universal condition.

The whole race consists of nabals, of fools!

There is no way of overturning this verdict.

The Lord Yahweh has dropped in and checked it out thoroughly.

The Lord looks down—a word that indicates close and careful scrutiny.

He’s put us all under the microscope, squinting His eyes, and pulling into focus the deepest parts of us.

What He sees is, unlike His verdict in Genesis before the fall, not good.

There are some who blatantly deny God re verse 1: “There is no God.”

And there are others who simply neglect.

The Lord is looking to see if there are any who seek Him.

And He comes up empty.

People simply have no desire for God, no longing to know Him or enjoy Him.

Again, you might be thinking of someone else, but I know many people who have set in a pew for years who have no hunger or thirst for God, no longing, no craving to have Him or to know Him.

Again with the plural words, David shares the verdict.

That last sentence—not even one—might be there for those of us who’d like to believe that David is exaggerating his case a little bit.

“Oh, now.

David’s just using hyperbole to make a point; he doesn’t really mean it.”

NOT.

EVEN.

ONE.

It’s as if David is saying, “Now I want you to understand that this is true literally, individually, exhaustively, universally.”

You might disagree with David’s assessment, but then you’re not the author of this psalm, are you?

We’re trying to understand this psalm and follow its argument.

Paul picks up on this in Romans 3. There, Paul argues that every man—whether religious (Jew) or pagan (Gentile), is under the power of sin:

Corruption is Universal

When David is writing this psalm, he’s not depicting a Moabite fool or a Philistine fool.

He writes about himself and everyone around him—Israelite fools.

Psalm 14 reflects the situation in Israel, among the professing people of God.

No exemptions here.

We like to believe that we may be exceptions.

But what about Psalm 14:2-3…what is it you don’t get?

This is us.

This is a snippet of our biography.

A good friend of ours passed away at the end of May and his funeral was Friday in Kansas City.

Bob was 86 and he loved Jesus.

He was an engineer and an incredible intellect.

He had a Master’s degree from Columbia University (that’s an Ivy League school; you know, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.).

But Bob never let on.

I didn’t know where his degree was from until I read it in his obituary.

He knew—he’d tell you—that he was no different from anyone else.

He wasn’t above anyone else; no better, no worse.

He knew he was just ordinary, common human clay and a miserable sinner like everybody else.

Bob knew and lived his life with the understanding that his condition and his need were the same as anyone else.

We tend to flatter ourselves into thinking that we are somehow exceptions.

“Look at me! Look at my life!

Look at my degrees (I stuck them on the wall for you to see)! Look at all my accomplishments!

I’m not corrupt.

I do a lot a excellent stuff.

I do good!

I don’t know who Psalm 14 is talking about, but it sure as shootin’ ain’t me!”

We flatter ourselves.

And Psalm 14 (and others like it) make sure to fully flatten our self-flattery.

If we accept what Psalm 14 has to say, maybe we’ll let it season our prayers.

Listen to this old Puritan prayer:

But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;

  my best prayers are stained with sin;

  my penitential tears are so much impurity;

  my confessions of wrong are so many

    aggravations of sin;

I need to repent of my repentance;

I need my tears to be washed;

I never do anything else but depart from Thee, and if ever I get to heaven it will be because Thou willest it, and for no other reason beside.

I am sinful even in my closest walk with Thee; it is of Thy mercy I died not long ago...

My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin, a river of corruption since childhood days, flowing on in every pattern of behavior.