These words are cited by the psalmist as typical of the speech of the ungodly.

Thus have spoken those who reject God's authority since the record of fall of man in the garden. We might think that this is a new phenomenon, but it has ever been so. God has so made man that we must recognize his authority above all things if we are to have any peace and order in our lives. Yet always, it has been the nature of man to try and go his own way and be his own authority.

According to St. Augustine "If you believe what you like in the Gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospels you believe, but yourself." St. Augustine wrote these words in the third century and they are just as true today as then. Yet, in every age men and women have sought to believe only the portion of the Gospel which is convenient and palatable to the current age.

In Psalm 12 we have a contrast presented between the ungodly who worship themselves, and the godly, who live by the eternal word of God.

Verse one begins with the most basic prayer; "Help me" and cries out from an apparent state of spiritual despair: "Help me, Lord, for there is not one godly man left". "The faithful are minished from among the children of men. The word minished means "diminished". The King James translation reads: "for the faithful fail among the children of men". I rather like the Amplified Bible's translation which reads: "For principled and godly people are here no more; faithfulness and the faithful are vanishing from among the sons of men."

In writing this Psalm, David, no doubt wrote from his own experience and with self knowledge of his own fallen-ness and sinfulness.

David proceeds to describe the nature of the ungodly: "They talk of vanity every one with his neighbor; they do but flatter with their lips and dissemble in their double heart." The Revised Standard Version translates this passage "Every one utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak."

When verse two speaks of man's vanity and "double heart", it means that we, each of us, like David and like St. Paul lament the fact that we are at war with ourselves: we do what we should not do and do not do what we should do. The Book of Common Prayer says that we "have left undone those things which we ought to have done and done those things which we ought not to have done and that "there is no health in us".

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)

In Genesis 6: 5-6 we read "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." Unless we are able to grasp the fact of our fallenness and the evil that is part of human nature apart from the grace and mercy of God, we will fall into self-deception.

Pascal put it this way: "Man is nothing but insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and regard to others. He does not wish to be told the truth, he shuns saying it to others,; and all these moods, so inconsistent with justice and reason, have there roots in his heart."

In our Psalm, David declares the attitude of those who live in rebellion against t God: ""With our tongue we will prevail, we are they that ought to speak, who si lord over us."

From Adam's subtle attempt to blame the fall on God for giving him Eve, to the modernist liberal trying to convince himself that original sin does not exist, man has always tried to talk his way out of his moral predicament. Modernists try to talk their way around the moral teachings of the Bible, in a vain attempt to evade God's authority and their own responsibility.

Yet all spiritual growth begins with an acknowledgement of God's sovereign authority and our need for a truth higher than us. God decrees what is moral and just. In our Epistle and Gospel for this morning we have an amplification of this basic truth. In the Gospel we see the truth that we cannot exist in a spiritual vacuum. Nor can we claim to be Christians, while being divided against Christ's teachings, which are inalterable. Paul declares "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks." And affirms once again that "no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, nor any idolater has any inheritance in Christ." Then, like David in Psalm 12, Paul declares "Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." He exhorts his reader "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Either God must be in charge, and must be worshipped, or we will fill the vacuum with worship of self with all its consequences.

Self worship comes in several forms, but always it requires the substitution of human reason for godly authority. The end result, whether in the form of narcissism, objectivist atheism, socialism, communism or other self worship is chaos.

Fundamental to all such concepts is the somehow man be moral and overcome selfishness, greed and covetousness without any objective standard beyond himself.

Always, the first thing to go is the Christian doctrine of Original Sin. Next to go must be the Ten Commandments, and finally, the very concept of God.

All human freedom begins with the acknowledgement that God has ultimate authority precisely so that we can have freedom.

The necessity of having a working understanding of the true nature of godly authority cannot be overstated. If anyone refuses to admit to the authority of God, he must begin to worship self or, in the abstract, to worship humanity or human reason. If a person dedicates himself to the principle that God does not exist, or that God does not matter, his reward will be living a life of total denial and total rebellion in which he substitutes his own will for the revealed will of God. Generally, the result is that such a person gets to create and live out a preview of his own little hell in this life, as well as sharing ample portions of it with others around him. In the end, such persons are allowed to get their wish and be eternally separated from God. "Depart from me, I never knew you."

Shakespeare wrote: "To thine own self be true", adding "and it must follow, as night the day, thou canst not be false to any man." (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3)

But, at the heart of liberal, revisionist Christianity, is the attempt to have it both ways. They want to only partially be true to themselves and their calling as Christians. Liberals want to affirm part of the Gospel, but ignore the parts they feel are somehow 'incompatible" with the modern world. Since they are being false to themselves, they cannot help being false in the application of the entire Christian message. Thus, they are on a slippery slope from untruth to greater untruth. They ultimately cannot affirm and worship God, but only the individual's own worship of himself. Let me give you an example:

Recently, I had lunch with a priest of the Episcopal Church. While I was waiting for him, I picked up a tract published by the Diocese of Texas from the tract rack in his narthex. It was titled "The Creeds" and attempted to explain why they were important to a newcomer to the Episcopal Church. One section was titled "Do I have to believe everything in the Creeds?"

This is the answer, in its entirety, which I think proves my point.

Question: Do I have to believe everything in the Creeds?

Answer: "Relationship with God is a personal journey and also one we share with others in this community of faith. The Creeds clearly state the beliefs of the Church, and we recite them as we join with those around us in the process of discovering our relationship with God. So it is not easy to answer this question "yes" or "no". It is important that we take part with fellow seekers in this lifelong journey."

Note the words "personal journey", discovering", and "process". It should be pointed out that the Council of Nicea issued the Creed which bears its name and on the authority of the 318 bishops of the whole Church, who signed it, declared an anathema on anyone who could not accept the Creed as the teaching of the Church.

Attacking the bible and received doctrine is nothing new. We have already heard St. Augustine on the matter. It has always been so. But heretics are much more subtle today than the heretics of the past.

David, watching the ungodly appear to prosper, must have been at a low point to cry out that it seemed there were no godly men left.

Yet under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the psalmist answers his own plea for help from the Lord in verse seven: "I will up, saith the Lord, and will help every one from him that swelleth against him…" and in verse eight: "The words of the Lord are pure words, even as the silver which from earth is tried and purified seven times in the fire."

Doctrinal fads come and go, trying to build and sustain a church on the shifting sands of the culture is doomed to failure, while the "faith once delivered", the Word of the Lord, endures forever.

So David, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost declares God's answer to the delima of the ungodly who lie and deceive and speak with a double heart:

Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise, says the LORD. I will protect them from those who malign them. And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times. O LORD, you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever. The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men. (NIV Psalm 12:5-9)

The great Victorian preacher, Charles Spurgeon, in a sermon on this psalm, decrying the prevalence and acceptance of immorality and wickedness in his own day said :"When those in power are vile, their underlings will be no better. As a warm sun brings out noxious flies, so does a sinner in [held up in] honour foster vice everywhere."

We see evil and rebellion all around us, even in the Church. But the Christian duty is to have faith and trust that God is in charge, and to live accordingly. In his sermon, Spurgeon adds: "It should be our daily prayer that we may rise above our age as the mountain-tops above the clouds, and may stand out as heaven-pointing pinnacle high above the mists of ignorance and sin which roll around us." That affirmation of God's sovereign authority must also be our response to evil and rebellion.

We are they that ought to speak; who is lord over us?