Revering the Word
Psalm 53 The beauty and richness of Jesus’ forgivness.
Good morning everyone. This morning we are in Psalm 53. The opening of this Psalm says for the choir director according to Mahalath, a masko of David. A masko M-A-S-K-I-L is used in a number of Psalms as the opening as we have here and they're not entirely sure what it means. It has a reference perhaps to wisdom and insight but also it may have been a musical connotation in order to let the musician know who's playing this song which Psalms were songs to play it in a special somber type tone. So again these are this is not something we know for certain but that is likely the meaning of a mask ill. So picture this as having a wisdom with wisdom and also a somber tone to it. We should always take a look at scripture in the setting that it was in. It appears that this particular psalm was written after a time when God helped Israel to succeed after an enemy attack. So that seems to be the setting of the psalm but there's also a lot of flash forward in it to me regarding the New Testament and some of these passages have been used by New Testament authors like the Apostle Paul. So we are going to take a look at what a perspective like ours would be today in the church age. All right here we go. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt and have committed abominable injustice. There is no one who does good. And let's just pause there in wisdom with this somber tone. It appears an enemy has attacked Israel and then has been taken care of by God. God took care of them, took care of Israel but also took care of this enemy. In a sense with wisdom David's looking back in a somber tone saying how sad it is that fools live their lives thinking there is no God and that they are corrupt and commit abominable injustice and there is no one who does good. Now that reference no one who does good is going to come up again in a couple of passages in verse three it says there is no one who does good not even one and that's going to actually be carried forth into the Apostle Paul's teaching in the book of Romans to let us know in the New Testament age that really that's true of all of us. There is no one who does good not even one that all of us have inherited the corrupt sinful practices of Adam that we have a sinful nature to us that we inherited from our forefather and as a result we are under the consequence of sin separation from God and now and today we would be on our path to hell because heaven is a holy place and we are unholy that we have sin that's blocking us from God's holy heaven but what God did is he followed his own rules and he sent his one and only son Jesus Christ to be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and through faith in him the sin that separates us from God gets placed upon his son Jesus Christ. It's really important that we see ourselves as sinners that the world sees themselves as sinners because God's provided a solution but people won't turn to the solution if they don't realize they're under the penalty of their sin and only fools don't realize that their sins going to separate them from God and that's part of what blocks people is people think they're good and as a result they earn heaven or oh God's not going to send anyone to hell because we're all good people no that's not what the Bible says at all the Bible actually says no you're all sinners and you're sin all of yours and mine has separated us from God and we need a solution and God in his great love and mercy and kindness sent Jesus Christ to be the solution hallelujah but you've got to receive his solution because now unlike the Old Testament people who brought animals to be sacrificed to atone for their sins that won't work anymore the only sacrifice that will work is the one that God gave and sending his only begotten son the sinless one Jesus Christ who was able through his perfection to take the fullness of our sin upon himself so that we could be forgiven hallelujah the fool has set in his heart there is no God and David in this somber mass kill is really saddened by the fact that fools are not willing to turn to seek God and all that people would just seek him and that's going to come up in this Psalm verse two God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands who seeks after God do you know that if we would just be humble and if we would just seek him we'd find them the Bible says Jeremiah says that you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart but so many people almost don't want God to be true they've resisted him their whole lives they stood against God they stood against God's people for so long that now to for it to be true they'd have to admit they were wrong they'd have to admit they're wrong about their politics wrong about abortion wrong about homosexuality wrong about things that they're unwilling to be wrong about so they don't even want to seek to find them because they're unwilling to be humble before God and realize you know what I don't want to find out then I'm wrong or for some folks they have sin in their lives and they know it and they don't want to give it up and they want to continue to do it and almost don't want to find out that God is real because then they'd have to change and they don't want to find out that they'd have to change so by putting God on the sideline and on the shelf and and not seeking them and finding them they can live the way that they want but in the end that's going to lead the destruction and separation from God and it's foolish you know the best thing that's ever happened to me is coming to know Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior did you know that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to be with you always we had a Bible study last night and I'm going to be focusing on this a little bit at our church soon that the Holy Spirit has come to reside in you all you know that you can have God as your counselor any moment every moment any moment you turn to God he's there his Holy Spirit is inside those who believe and you can have a guide to guide you through the journey of life what a privilege and blessing it is it's good news the gospel's good news y'all because we can be forgiven of our sin and not only that we can be promised eternal life and not only that but we have a God who wants to come live inside of us and give us counsel and help us in our lives empower us to live for him it's such a blessing and it's so good and people are missing out you know what seek them and you'll find them you'll be forgiven and you can begin to do good with God's help instead of trying to do it on your own because ultimately our sin gets the best of us what what an incredible song this is verse three every one of them has turned aside together they have become corrupt verse three there is no one who does good not even one and again that that is quoted in in Romans chapters one through three trying to teach us about the sinfulness of mankind about the sinfulness of us so that we will turn you know the Bible says that we've all been caught up into a net of sin it's kind of like a net gets thrown into the ocean and it catches all the fish you know all all kinds of fish different kinds of fish get caught in the net we've all been caught up into the net of our own sin but God can free us from the net and give us salvation and give us the promise of eternal life hallelujah verse four have the workers of wickedness no knowledge and this is the people who have come up against Israel and he's saying that they don't even know what they're doing who eat up my people as though they ate bread and have not called upon God the people that are coming against Israel in the Old Testament here and who are coming against Christians today they've not called upon God they're coming against what they do not know there they were in great fear where no fear had been for God scattered the bones of him who camped against you you put them to shame because God has rejected them and that's what happened is as a group of people came up against Israel and then all the sudden God made them afraid of themselves and God took care of them and they were laid waste and their bones were laid waste and scattered before Israel God took care of his enemy and ultimately that's gonna happen y'all ultimately God's people are going to win in the end God's people are gonna be ushered into heaven they're gonna be ushered into a millennial reign and the people who've rejected the Messiah are gonna face tribulation turn to him now receive the blessing be the bride of Jesus he he died to make you his bride Hallelujah oh that the salvation verse 6 of Israel would come out of Zion it isn't that interesting here David is saying oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion you know at this point there's not even a temple in Zion and David's gonna make the plans and his son Solomon's gonna build a temple on Mount Zion which is Mount Moriah that's an incredible thing look that up sometime and ultimately that's where Jesus is going to die for our sin and is on Mount Zion where the temple was built Jesus is going to give his life for our sin Hallelujah and salvation indeed is going to come from Israel out of Mount Zion through Jesus Christ when God restores his captive people let Jacob rejoice let Israel be glad Jacob is became Israel he wrestled with God he struggled with God and God changed his name to Israel and now even Israel who God still has a heart for he wants them to come to know the one who died on Mount Zion to forgive their sin Jesus is the one who came forth as a Jew but now he comes forth to save both Jew and Gentile who believe in him and now Gentiles like us who are non-Jews have become part of the family of God and Israel is really cut off not that God doesn't have a future plan for them but now the family of God is all those who've come to faith in Jesus and may all around the world and may all of Israel come to realize the Savior died for their sin on Mount Zion on Mount Mariah Hallelujah only God can do all of that place your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will have eternal life and you will be forgiven of our sin that we all have through Adam and you can become the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ that means that one day through Jesus God will look at us in the right standing forgiven because of the cross and him dying for us what an amazing psalm God bless you all