Children can be dismissed for children's church at this time. So children be dismissed for children's church and Take your Bibles, you would, turn to Psalm chapter 14. Amen. Psalm chapter 14. We're gonna begin this morning by reading this psalm, and then we'll launch into the message today.

Psalm chapter 14. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good.

The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and see God. They were all gone aside. They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No.

Not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the Lord? There were they in great fear for God is in the generation of the righteous. You have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. All that the salvation of Israel were come unto Zion.

When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, thank you for your word today and thank you for the reminder this morning to say yes to God and not no. We thank you, Lord, that you said yes to us, that you said yes to the will of your father in heaven and came and died on the cross for our sins. And, Lord, that you have invited us to be accepted in the beloved into your family through faith in your son, Jesus Christ.

Lord, I pray if there be some here this morning that have not yet made that decision, that today would be their day of salvation. And I pray that all of us would be reminded today, each and every day to say yes to you. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. David writes in Psalm 14, he reminds us of the sad legacy of humanity that Paul repeats in Romans chapter three, and it isn't a pretty one.

The legacy of humanity is kind of bound up in this one word, no. The legacy of humanity is a creation of God that continually says no to him. No. No. No.

Another passage we'll read in a few minutes, we read this phrase, we will not have this man to rule over us. In this regard, that man is Jesus Christ, God himself. And this is sadly the legacy of humanity, but it does not have to be your legacy. It does not have to be you because God has given us a second chance in Jesus Christ to know him and to say yes to him and to say yes to his invitation to become a child of God and enjoy all of his blessings. Why are we here this morning?

I mean, why are we here on this earth? Well, we're told in Revelation four eleven, thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Why otherwise would God have created us if not for his pleasure? If not for bring to bring him love and fulfillment and glory. That's why God made you and God made me.

We are his creation. Sadly, his creation turned on him all the way back in the Garden Of Eden and caused the separation, a rift between us and our God so that we do not bring him the pleasure and glory that we ought to, but we can again in Christ Jesus. But one of the first things you must understand is why you are here and who made you. God made you and you are here for his glory and for his pleasure. Yet mankind continues again and again to deny his creator the glory and honor and pleasure he is due.

The question this morning is, how about you? No or yes? Which are you saying to God today? There are basically two ways that man deals with God. Either says yes to God or he says no to God.

If you say yes to God, you are rewarded. Hebrews eleven five and six, we read, by faith, Enoch was translated that he should not seen death. That that means is he was taken straight to heaven. He did not die. One of two people in scripture, Enoch and Elijah, that we read about this.

By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see God and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony that he, what, pleased God. What does that mean? That means he said yes to God over and over and over again. But without faith, it is impossible to please him.

For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and he is a rewarder, a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. God is a rewarder of those who say yes to God, who desire to know him and to please them with their lives. He rewarded Enoch. He rewarded Abraham. Galatians three six, even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for what?

For righteousness. Abraham wasn't a perfect person. Go back in the book of Genesis and read about Abraham. You will find out Abraham was not a perfect person and yet he was chosen and blessed and rewarded and guided by God himself. Why?

Because he was a man of faith. And God counted his faith for the righteousness that he lacked because Abraham when God came to Abraham and said, I want you to follow me to the land that I will take you and I will make of you a great nation, when Abraham had no children and he was up in age, Abraham said what? He said yes to God and he went. And God rewarded him. God rewarded him by taking him to the land that he would later gift his sentence.

God rewarded him with many blessings. But most importantly, God rewarded him with the righteousness that he lacked to be accepted by God because he said yes in faith to God. Jesus, praise the Lord, said yes to his heavenly father. When it's time for him to go to the cross, he said, not my will but thine be done. And because Jesus said yes, we have the opportunity today to say yes to his invitation, to come to him in faith and receive forgiveness from our sins and eternal life in Jesus Christ.

If you will but say yes to God this morning. In Matthew seven twenty one, we read, not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter in to the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven. What does that mean? You're not gonna get to heaven because you tell people you're a Christian. You're gonna get to heaven by saying yes to who?

By saying yes to God in faith. By saying yes to Jesus Christ. That is the only way to get to heaven is in receiving Jesus Christ as your savior and saying, yes, I will accept Jesus as my Lord and I will accept his work on Calvary's Cross and I will accept his forgiveness and invitation to be his child. Yes. God rewards those who say yes.

God punishes those who say what? No. First Thessalonians one eight and nine. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and and from the glory of his power. There's a broad way that leads to destruction, Jesus tells us in Matthew seven, a narrow way that leads to life.

Which path will you choose? The majority stay on the broad way saying no to God. I'll do it whose way. I'll do it my way. Few there be that find the narrow way that leads to life who say yes to God.

John three eighteen says, he that believeth on him, that's Jesus, is not condemned. But he that believeth not, that says no, is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Jesus came to this earth. He gave his life for us that we might be redeemed. He came in person to show and to reveal God to us.

You say, well, nobody's ever seen God. Well, yeah, they did. Jesus walked on this earth for thirty three years. They saw God. They talked with God.

They saw him do many great and mighty miracles. They saw him die on a cross for the sins of his creation. And then they saw him rise again from the, what, The dead. And their record is recorded in this book that is before us. What will you do with Jesus?

Everything depends on that. Will you say yes or will you say no? Let's begin with the category of no. Let's begin with no. The fool has said in his heart, there is what?

There is no there is no God. The fool has said, there is no God. There is no there is no such person. The Bible tells us the beginning of knowledge and wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The fear of Lord.

What does that mean? That's mean acknowledgment that there is a God in heaven, a creator who made us to whom we are accountable. That is the first step of knowledge and wisdom is the admission that there is a creator who made us to whom we are accountable. Step number one. The fool, the Bible says, has said in his heart, no God exists.

Therefore, hey, I can do whatever I want because there is no God to whom I will give account. There is no life after death for which I have to prepare for so I can just live the way I want to hear without any regard for the one for whom I am accountable. That sounds kinda cool. But one day, the Bible says it's appointed unto man once to die, but after this, the what? And then it's not going to be cool.

It's not going to be cool because you haven't prepared particularly for that which is to come. And sadly, you've missed out on what God has for you here in his service also. The Bible there is the fool who has said in his heart, there is no God at all. And then there is there is the wicked who lives like there is no God. The wicked doesn't necessarily say, I don't believe in a God, but the wicked doesn't live like there is any God.

Psalm 10 verse four. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. In other words, lives day by day even though in his heart he knows there's a God, but he lives day by day as though there is no God. There is no one to whom he is accountable and he lives wickedly simply to indulge his fleshly appetites mainly.

That is the wicked. Then there is the there there is the wicked or the the reprobate. Let's see here. Yeah. Romans one twenty eight.

Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. So the point the writer of Romans making, once they did believe in God, but they didn't want to believe in God because he was restricting. And so even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. We see this sadly very much in the world in which we live today where people have been given over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are simply destructive. They destroy families.

They destroy lives. They destroy individuals' joy and happiness and fulfillment. They destroy nations. And this is what man does to himself. It is his legacy, sadly, in sin.

If we say no to God, we're on the broad way that leads to what? To destruction, both temporal and eternal. And so often you try to reason with those who have rejected God in their in their mind and have been given over thus to a lack of common sense. And it's hard to reason with them because Satan has their he has their mind. And they continue to do those things which are destructive and inconvenient even for them.

Yes. I did spell reprobate wrong. Alright. Then there is the rebellious. The rebellious.

Luke nineteen eleven through 14, another typo. And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable. He said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his 10 servants, and he delivered, them 10 pounds and said unto them, occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us.

How do you think it ended up for those people that decided that they were not going to have the king to rule over them. Well, it didn't end very well. There is one true eternal king who is rightfully so because he is the creator of all that is and that is Jesus Christ. And should you find reasons to reject the authorities of others upon this earth, you must not reject his. You must not reject his.

He has made it clear. We can enjoy his presence for all eternity and his blessings beyond imagination, or we can spend an eternity in a place called hell. But that choice is up to us. Will we say yes or will we say what? No.

Psalm two, three, and four, we read of some. They say, let us break their bands asunder, cast away their cords from us. He that hiddest sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. You can rebel if you want, but God is still God.

He's still on the throne. In the end, the creator and God of the universe is going to have his way and his will. His will, first of all, is that you be saved, that you say yes. He sent his son. He suffered on the cross for you so that you might he desires that you say what?

Yes. He loves you that much. But if you say no, you have chosen to spend eternity separated from him. There is the rebel. There is the the idolater who replaces God with other things to worship and and to follow.

Romans one twenty one, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. Their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible to man and to birds and to four footed beasts and creeping things and worship and serve the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.

That is not a passage meant to praise them, but to condemn them. Because mankind over and over again, in his rebellion, has decided that he would form a god in his likeness that that would justify his activities. And man became idolaters worshiping gods who are not gods at all, bowing before them, sacrificing to them, living for pieces of stone rather than serving and enjoying the love and grace and mercy and justice of the true and living God who gave his son for them. Others go about trying to please God on their own terms. Yes, they admit there is a God.

Yes, they admit they're accountable to him. But they go about pleasing him the wrong way. There is a right way and there is a a wrong way. There's the way that God has provided and the way that man has invented. Which way?

Which path? The broad way or the the narrow way? The narrow way is the way God has provided. The broad way is the way that man has invented. And it does not lead us to heaven.

It leads us to eternal destruction. Ephesians two eight nine says, for by grace are ye saved, saved, Off the broad way that leads to destruction onto the way that leads to life? Or by grace are ye saved through faith. Faith in who? Faith in Jesus Christ, saying yes to Jesus and his invitation to become a child of God be forgiven and be led by him.

For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of what? Works, lest any man should boast. Almost every other religion invented by the mind of man to reach God is based upon man's works. Go to church.

Give money. Be nice. Do this. Do that. Keep these sacraments.

Do this thing. Follow these tenants. Follow this list. Do these things and you will earn your place in heaven. There is no such thing.

There is no earning your place in heaven. Our works were told. Our righteousness are as filthy rags before God because you cannot get rid. You cannot cleanse the stain of sin in your life. Only God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, can do that if you will say yes to Jesus.

He is the only way. You can outdo everybody else in the good works race and you'll still be a sinner. Not acceptable to God if you refuse Jesus. Galatians two sixteen says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works law. For by works the law shall no flesh be justified.

Paul was speaking as a Jew. The Jews were given the law, the 10 commandments and all that went along with it. The Jews prided themselves in having the law. The Jews prided themselves in keeping the law, which nobody ever kept perfectly. And Paul writes, you can keep trying that route if you want to, but it will never save your soul because the law cannot save.

It can only, what, condemn. It can only condemn you when you fail it and you will. The only way to heaven, the only way to be forgiven, the only way to have eternal life, to be justified before God is by believing in Jesus, by saying yes to Jesus. These are all ways all many ways to incur the judgment and the wrath of God. Say no to God as your Lord.

Say no to God unwilling to admit his existence. Say no to God unwilling to come to God through the way he has provided his son Jesus Christ, say no to God will land you in a place called the Lake Of Fire. Saying no to Jesus. But let's look at the other option. How about saying what?

Yes. How about saying yes? God hasn't asked some great feet of you. He hasn't asked you to promise that you'll never do this again or promise that you'll do this every day of your life. No.

All he has asked is for you to say yes to Jesus, for you to believe and trust in Jesus, for you to receive his invitation to salvation. All God asks is that you say yes to his gift and receive it today. John three sixteen, that's not the verse up here. I'll get to that verse in a minute. John three sixteen, for God so loved the world, that's you, that he gave his only begotten son, that's Jesus, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Okay? Perish, that's the broad way that leads to destruction. Everlasting life, that's the way that leads to heaven. All you have to do is by faith say yes to who? Say yes to Jesus.

And you will be on the way that leads to where? To heaven. That's that's the better option, I do believe. That Jesus suffered for and he rose again to accomplish in us. That Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the father this very moment pleading with you through his word and through his spirit to accept him and to receive him and to choose the way that leads to life that he has prepared for you.

He is inviting you. He is beckoning you today from heaven to receive him, his forgiveness, his gift. But you have to say yes to Jesus. Romans ten nine and ten ten nine and thirteen says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus that means say yes to Jesus who is your what? He is your Lord.

He is your maker. He's your creator. Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. If you don't believe Jesus is alive from the dead, then you're probably not gonna say what?

Yes. Because you're not saying yes to anybody if he's dead. Doesn't do us any good if he's dead, but he's not dead. He's risen again from the dead. He is seated at the right hand of the father.

There a living savior beckons you to say yes to him. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Get off the way that leads to destruction. Get on the way that leads to what? To life everlasting.

Be forgiven of the sins which hang over your head. It's better to accept that that is the case and seek God's forgiveness for him to take that away rather than to deny that that's the case and have to pay for them later. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be what? That's you, whoever you are, whatever you've done. God saved many a person in scripture that was the vilest of the vile because they came to a realization in their heart that they were a sinner, that they were in trouble, and that there's a God in heaven that loved them that was giving them a way out.

Rahab, the harlot of Jericho to Paul, the persecutor of Christ and Christians, who became people of faith. God saved their soul, he will save yours. No one is beyond. As long as you are alive here today, Christ is inviting you if you will say yes to him, if you will. John six thirty six and thirty five and thirty seven say this, and Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth in me shall never thirst. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now, obviously, speaking metaphorically at the beginning there, if you say yes to Christ, it doesn't mean you never have to eat again. Okay?

It's a metaphor. Yes. He's speaking spiritually of your spiritual hunger, of that void that is inside of you, if you will acknowledge it, that needs a savior. Jesus said, I will fill that and you will never spiritually hunger or thirst ever again if you will say yes to me. And whoever comes to me, anyone who comes to me, I will not what?

I'm not cast out. I will accept you. I will receive you if you will say yes to me. If you will choose God through faith and the son of God for deliverance and salvation from sin and hell, he will, by God's grace, grant you eternal life, and you will never perish, he says. You will become a citizen of heaven, a child of God.

He will give to you the gift of the Holy Spirit. He will forgive all your sins. He will promise never to leave you nor forsake you, and he will answer your prayers. And the list could go on and on and on. Count your what?

Blessings. Name them one by one. For the sake of time, we won't name them all this morning. But in Jesus Christ, you have many blessings. If you've just said yes to Jesus and his offer of salvation, have you said yes to Jesus, or are you still saying no?

The invitation is is open for you today. You can say what? Yes, if you will believe. However, I do want to note this in closing this morning, Not all who say yes to Jesus for salvation receive the same measure of joy and blessing and reward as others. The only way to heaven is saying yes to Jesus as Lord, the son of God, the risen savior who died for you on the cross.

But does that mean that God's children never say no to him about anything? I wish that were the case. That we always said yes. But sadly, we do not always say yes. We said yes to receiving eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ and we have become the children of God and we have been given eternal life.

But sadly, sometimes we're not the children we ought to be. And sometimes we don't say yes to God. Sometimes we question his way, his guidance, but we should not. And despite having been received as his children, there are still consequences sometimes for saying no that we need to be aware of. Consider Jonah in the Bible.

God came to Jonah with an assignment. He's a prophet. He obviously believed in God. He had been prophesying for God. He'd been speaking for God.

And God said, I have this assignment. I want you to go to Nineveh. I want you to tell them judgment's coming if they don't turn and repent. And Jonah said what? No.

No. Not going. Why? Well, as a kid, I thought, well, Jonah was scared. I don't think that was the main problem.

Jonah didn't want those people to be warned because they were his enemies and he wanted them to die. That's why. He had decided they were not worth him going, so he got on a ship and he went the what? The other direction. How sad, by the way.

That should never be the child of God that we decide that somebody is not worthy. You're not worthy either. Only in Christ Jesus are any of us worthy. And if he's changed our life, he can also change theirs. But Jonah had other thoughts.

So he jumped the ship, went the other direction. How did that end up for Jonah? Well, he got tossed off the ship. He got swallowed by a whale. He spent three days in a whale's belly.

He got spit up back on shore and God said, okay, let's try number two here. Let's try this again, Jonah. Go to Nineveh. This time Jonah obeyed. But wouldn't it have been nice for Jonah if he'd have done the right thing the first time and said yes to God the first time?

Sometimes we're like Abraham. We grow impatient with God. God said, I'm gonna make of you a great nation. I'm gonna give you descendants of the stars of heaven. Abraham's a 100 years old and he still doesn't have any children.

And so he thinks, well, you know, God needs a little help. I'll do it. I'll I'll help God out. And he went to his wife and his wife gave him Hagar and he had a child by Hagar. That was not God's will.

He said, I'm gonna give you and Sarah a child, and we are still suffering from that mess because of the sentence of Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the father of the Arab peoples, do not get along very well with the descendants of Isaac and Jacob, the children of Israel, still to this day. The Bible says this, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

Don't run ahead of God. Keep saying what? Yes. Yes. I'll wait.

Yes, Lord. I believe you. Yes. I'll wait. Unless you jump in and make a mess.

Sometimes like Saul who was told to go and to kill all of the Amalekites and only did a half job, we say to God, yes, I'll do it. And then we don't. You ever been there? Sure you have. Yes, God.

I'll do it. And then you don't. At least not as God has said. And then we make excuses. God isn't buying it.

God isn't buying it. Instead, God tells us to do this. If you say yes and then you don't do it, there's only one way to deal with that, and that is to go tell God you're sorry for what you did and admit to it. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He that cometh to his covereth his sins, denieth them, justifieth them shall not prosper.

But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. God says, just just just admit that you failed and I will help you to fix it. But sometimes we put off the fix because we're not willing to confess the what? The fault that we have. Say yes to God.

Say yes to his offer. Sometimes like Peter, we think we know better than God. Peter said Jesus said, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem and die. And Peter said, no, you're not. No, you're not.

Jesus said, get behind me, Satan. Peter wasn't listening to the right voice. He wasn't saying yes to Jesus. He was saying no to Jesus and yes to Satan. It was God's will for Jesus to go to the cross.

Jesus knew that. Peter was standing in the way because he was saying no. Bible says we need to trust in the Lord with what? All our heart. And sometimes, we're not gonna like the assignment.

And sometimes, we're gonna have a hard time believing what God has said to do that we really need to do that. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not into your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him. He shall direct thy paths and he will never direct you the wrong way. But if you say no, the the road's gonna get rocky.

So learn to say yes. Trust him. He knows what he's doing. Sometimes, like Elijah, we get afraid. Now, Elijah got afraid.

He had this great great amazing victory on Mount Carmel. And right afterwards, Jezebel the queen says, you're not gonna make it away from here alive, Elijah. You're a dead man. And even though Elijah just called fire down from heaven and bested 700 false prophets of Baal, he got scared and he turned tail and ran. Ran into the desert and said, God, pour me pour me.

Look what I did and now this has happened and and just take me. Just get it over with. I'm done. What was he saying to God? No.

But praise the Lord, we do have a merciful and patient God who puts up with our baloney and our stubbornness. And like Elijah, rather than just turning away from him, He picked him up. He gave him courage and he gave him a push. And he said, you're not alone. You're not alone.

Bible says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighted in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. For a just man falleth seven times and rises up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. If you have said yes to Jesus Christ, you are a just person because you have been justified in Jesus Christ. You will fall.

You will stumble. Learn from the stumbles and thank the Lord that he is a God of mercy who picks up his own and says, okay. I know you're trying to walk. You've fallen on your face four times. Let's try it.

Let's try it again. Let's try it again. Sometimes like the Ephesians, we have lost our first love. Our our zeal for knowing the Lord better. And we need to repent and go back to how it was in our hearts when we first got saved, when we were passionate about knowing him and serving him.

Sometimes we're too busy for God or can't trust him enough to let what we are hanging on to go. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Say yes to God points his finger and says that needs to go, say what? Say yes to God. When God points his finger and some says, that thinking is wrong, say yes to God.

When God says, I want you to go do this, say what? Say yes to God. You will never regret saying what? Yes to God. You will regret saying no.

Who are you? Are you one who has said no to God this morning? Who needs by faith to say what? To say yes to Jesus and to God's offer of salvation. Bible says he came unto his own, his own received and not, but as many as received him said yes.

To them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be what? That's open invitation for every one of us to say yes to Jesus Christ. If we will say yes, he will do the work. But you must say what?

You must say yes. Or this morning, are you one who have said yes to God? And there was a time when you were experiencing his blessings and growing in your faith, but you've fallen away from his blessing, his service, and you need to rise up again, repent of your sin, and do the first work. Is that you? Do you need to confess something today where you have said no in your life, in your service to Jesus and say, I'm sorry, Lord.

I got that wrong. Today, I'm saying what? Yes. Confess your sin. What would it be today?

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you, Lord, for the invitation that you have given us through the one you sent to die on the cross for our sins, our risen savior Jesus Christ. And Lord, if there is one today that you are dealing with who needs a savior, I pray as we give sing this hymn of invitation that they would be willing to come and receive Jesus Christ today, that they would be willing to say yes to Jesus who gave his life and died for them. And, Lord, I pray for your children here today who may be struggling with many different things in their life, decisions they have to make. Lord, who have sometimes, in some cases, made the wrong ones.

Lord, I pray that you would remind us of your grace and your mercy, that we would be willing to confess our no's, and that we would be willing to say yes today to whatever it is you have called us to. In Jesus' precious name, do pray. Amen.