THE
FOOL
Psalm
14:1, “The
fool says in his heart, ‘There is no
God.’ They are corrupt, their deeds are
vile; there is no-one who does good.”
Psalm
53:1 then adds, “The
fool says in his heart, ‘There is no
God.’ They are corrupt, and their ways
are vile; there is no one who does
good.”
Do
the two passages sound similar?
They are.
Psalms 14 and 53 are almost exalt
duplicates. Then too, the Apostle Paul
quotes quite a bit from these two Psalms
in Romans 3.
The repetition of the verses
certainly attests to the importance of the
passages!
Let’s look at the verses now in
some detail.
DAVID BEGINS THE PASSAGE WITH THE WORDS “The fool.”
The word fool in the Bible
means, someone that is lacking in common sense, understanding; someone who is dull,
sluggish, silly, stupid, foolish.
The term draws to mind a person
that makes bad choices when it comes to
God, morals, personal habits, or eternity.
The
Hebrew word that is translated fool in the
two verses that we are exploring today is
Nabal. One of the wisest women in the Word
of God was named Abigail.
You may remember her as being one
of David's wives.
She is known in Scripture for her
uncommonly good sense.
By contrast, her first husband was
named Nabal--or fool. He was an evil man.
1 Samuel 25:25 quotes Abigail as
she refers to this mean-spirited fellow, “Don’t
pay any attention to that good-for-nothing
Nabal. His name means ‘fool,’ and it really fits him!” (The
Contemporary English Version)
The
Bible, in Psalms 14 and 53, gives 12
characteristics of a fool.
Please notice:
·
They say that there is
no God --- verse 1
·
They live corrupt lives --- verse 1
·
They do vile things --- verse 1
·
They are without understanding --- verse 2
·
They ignore God and do not seek Him --- verse 2
·
They do not do good --- verses 1 and 3
·
They never learn due to their ignorance --- verse 4
·
They live in ignorance of God --- verse 4
·
They seek to devour God's people --- verse 4
·
They never pray --- verse 4
·
They are eventually overcome with great fear or dread ---
verse 5
·
They frustrate the plans of the poor --- verse 5
Jesus
adds to this list in Luke 12:19.
The fool says, “You
have plenty of good things laid up for
many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and
be merry.”
The fool is totally caught up in
the here and the now.
He ignores his soul as well as his
obligations to God.
Such an attitude is foolish.
Listen to the Lord's words in Luke
12:20:
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This
very night your life will be demanded from
you. Then who will get what you have
prepared for yourself?’”
Scripture
then goes on to note several other
characteristics of a fool:
·
Proverbs 29:11 notes:
“A
fool gives full vent to his anger....”
·
Psalm 92:6 adds: “The
senseless man does not know, fools do not
under-stand....”
·
Proverbs 1:7 declares: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and discipline.”
·
Proverbs 1:22 likewise notes: “How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?”
·
Proverbs 13:19 then cries: “...Fools detest turning from evil.”
The
fool is obviously a person that is both
evil and ignorant and is content to stay
that way. He wouldn't change even if he
could!
NOTICE NOW THAT THE FOOL
SAYS, “THERE IS NO GOD.”
How
many of you have ever heard of Lloyd
Thoren of Petersburg, Indiana?
He operates a Dial-a-Atheist phone
service.
·
Do you need an uplift?
·
Do you need something to inspire you?
Then
just give Lloyd Thoren and his "Dial
an Atheist" service a call!
Can you possibly imagine anything
more pitiful and hopeless than that? I
think a root canal would provide greater
excitement.
Mahatma
Gandhi, the late spiritual/political
leader of India, was once approached by an
atheist who had hopes of creating an
anti-God society.
Ghandi's comment was, "It
amazes me to find an intelligent person
who fights against something which he does
not at all believe exists."
Calvin
Coolidge, the former President, once said:
"It is hard to see how a great man
can be an atheist.
Doubters do not achieve.
Skeptics do not contribute.
Cynics do not create."
Along
this line, Charles M. Houser once wrote:
"Atheism never composed a symphony.
Never painted a masterpiece.
Never dispelled a fear.
Never healed a disease.
Never gave peace of mind.
Never dried a tear.
Never gave an intelligent answer to
the vast mystery of the universe. Never
gives meaning to man's life on the earth.
Never built a just and peaceful
world.
Never built a great and enduring
civilization."
An
atheist complained to a friend that
Christians have their special holidays,
such as Christmas, Easter and the like;
the Jews likewise celebrate their national
holidays such as Passover, Yom Kippur and
so forth.
He then went on to say, “But we
atheists have no recognized national
holiday.
It's unfair!
It's discrimination!”
The friend, being a quick wit,
replied, “Why don't you celebrate April
Fool's Day?”
NOW LET'S LOOK AT THE WORDS “NO GOD” IN OUR TEXT
As
you look at the Psalms in question in some
of your Bibles, you may notice that the
words, "there is" are in
italics.
What does that mean?
Can anyone tell me?
When words are in italics in
Scripture, it means that those words were
not in the original
text. The words were added by the
translators so as to help make the meaning
of the passage clearer.
Let
us leave “THERE IS” out of the two
verses that we are studying and see what
happens: “The fool says in his heart,
‘NO GOD’”.
·
Simply, No God,
·
No God for me,
·
No God in my life,
·
No God in choices,
·
No God in my eternity,
·
No God in my thinking,
·
No God.
·
Rather, I am going to have my own way.
·
I am going to do as I please.
·
I am going to have my fling.
·
I am going to live as I want to live!
Such
a man or woman no longer has a sense of
being under some kind of moral authority.
He has discarded God and His Holy
Word therefore he is out on a spiritual
limb all by himself. God is no longer
there so he is free to do what he wants.
The
atheist therefore thinks in his heart that
there is no Judge,
·
no Final Arbitrator,
·
no Governor of the world,
·
no Providence ruling over the affairs of men.
The
scriptures are correct; such an individual
is corrupt as well as vile.
He or she is a fool.
I
want to now share with you Psalm 53:1 once
again. This time from The
Contemporary English Version:
“Only a fool would say, ‘There is no
God!’ People like that are worthless;
they are heartless and cruel and never do
right.” Such a person says, “no
God.”
Such a person is truly a fool
indeed!
PLEASE
CONSIDER WITH ME FOR A MOMENT THE END
RESULT OF SUCH A CONFESSION.
Walter
Hooper, who was C. S. Lewis' personal
secretary, laughed when he read the
following epitaph: "Here lies an
atheist, all dressed up with no place to
go."
Lewis, however, did not completely
share in his laughter.
He responded soberly, "I'm
sure he wishes now that were true."
Hell, my friends, is a sobering reality
for those who do not believe.
Denying
the existence of fire does not keep a man
from getting burned by its flames so
doubting the existence of God will not
stop the Judge of all the earth from
destroying the rebel who breaks His laws.
The sin of atheism is a crime which much
provokes heaven, and will eventually bring
down terrible vengeance on the fool who
practices or proclaims it--even if only in
the secret confines of the
heart!
On
an episode of Barney Miller, the popular
situation comedy that's still watched in
syndicated reruns, the police captain
Barney got into a conversation with one of
his detectives, Dietrich, about the
existence of God.
"Barney, do you believe in
God?" he asked.
Miller said, "Well, I've
always thought that there was something
out there."
"Not me," said Dietrich.
"We are all probably the
result of a big accident of some
kind."
Barney said, "But what if you
are wrong, and you wake up down there in
an afterlife and have to explain yourself?
What will you say?"
"Oops," replied Dietrich.
What
about you? If you were to stand before God
today, what would you have to say?
To bet your life against the
possibility of God's existence is a fool's
gamble. To deny the existence of hell is but a fool's hope The Bible
says that it is a “fearful
thing to fall into the hands of an angry
God.”
I am certain that facing Him at the
Great White Throne Judgment with eternity
on the line is going to draw forth a
greater response of anguish than
"Oops."
The
poet therefore penned:
"On
earth are atheists many,
In
hell there is not any."
SO, IS THERE A GOD?
The
truth is, the fact of God is so obvious
that the Bible doesn't even try to prove
it. The
Book simply opens with the declaration “In
the beginning God created....”
John
1:1 adds: “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God....”
God was, is, and ever will be.
I
want to briefly share with you eight
simple arguments for God's
existence.
I could give you more but I will
limit myself this morning:
1.
Creation and design
The
creative works of God declare that He
exists.
The world, it's order, it's beauty,
it's laws all declare that there had to be
some sort of master plan, a master
designer that was behind it all.
That designer was and yet is God.
Isaiah
40:26 declares: “Lift
up your eyes on high and see who has
created these stars, The One who leads
forth their host by number, He calls them
all by name; Because of the greatness of
His might and the strength of His power
not one of them is missing.”
He
prescribed their orbit.
He set them in the heavens, and
although they are great in light and
number, they nonetheless ever move as He
commanded!
Earlier
in that same chapter, He again speaks of
His greatness in comparison to His
creation.
Verse 12: “Who
has measured the waters in the hollow of
His Hand, and marked off the heavens by
the span, and calculated the dust of the
earth by the measure, and weighed the
mountains in a balance, and the hills in a
pair of scales?”
In
verse 28, He then answers His own
question.
“Do
you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Creator of
the ends of the earth--THE LORD.”
The
Apostle Paul therefore wrote in Romans
1:20: “Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- His
eternal power and divine nature -- have
been clearly seen, being understood from
what has been made, so that men
are without excuse.”
2.
The Nature of God
Man
could not have thought up a God that is
perfect. Look at the gods of the ancient Greeks and the Romans.
They all had faults, sins, vices,
but only on a larger than life scale.
Man does not have within himself
the moral capacity to have come up with a
sinless and holy God.
·
Look at the existence of the conscience -- is that a
product of evolution?
·
Imagine a human being coming up with the idea of
self-denial or cross bearing.
·
What man could have thought up The Ten Commandments?
Moral law implies a moral lawgiver and moral governor
of the universe.
Who might that be if there is not a
God?
3.
Universal belief in God
The
great majority of men in all ages and
places have acknowledged the existence of
God.
God has placed such a conviction in
man.
He has declared His being from the
beginning by that which He created.
Man believes in the existence of
God because God has left His autograph
everywhere!
·
Look at the mountains,
·
The sunsets,
·
Birth,
·
Animal life,
·
A garden,
·
The heavens on a bright starry night,
·
A mother’s love,
·
The complexity of matter,
If
a person can see all of these things and
not see God, then he or she could also
LOOK ALL OVER THE SKY AT HIGH NOON ON A
CLEAR DAY AND NOT SEE THE SUN!
4.
Universal hunger for God
Mankind
is in a never ending search for God. Look
at all of the religions, the substitutes
that we human beings have come up with. There must be a supreme being that has placed that hunger
there and that is capable of meeting that
hunger when people turn to Him and meet
His terms for reconciliation and
fellowship.
While
in Romania some time back, evangelist Luis
Palau told a television reporter:
"The experience since World War II of
atheistic governments in Eastern Europe
was essential because many people felt,
‘We tried religion and it didn't work,
so let's try atheism.’
But these past forty years have
proved that a nation without God can not
flourish.’
Palau added, 'The experiment we
call atheism' was worth it because it
proved to this generation once and for all
that the human soul clamors for
God.'"
5.
History
As
I love to say, history is really "His
Story!" The record of events in the whole of history gives
overwhelming evidence of the existence and
providence of God in the rise and the fall
of nations, the preservation of the races
such as the Jews, and the innumerable
events which had no natural explanation
other than it was an act of God!
6.
Personal testimony
Millions
of people down though the ages have had
personal encounters with God. He has saved
them, delivered them, healed them, or
performed some other grand miracle in
their lives.
·
Read the story of John Newton who wrote "Amazing
Grace."
·
Read the account of the conversion of Billy Sunday, the
baseball player turned preacher.
·
Read The Cross and
the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and
read of the conversion of Nicky Cruz, the
former gang leader in New York
City.
Jesus
did it!
There is no other plausible
explanation!
Multitudes can testify of changed
lives by simple faith in God.
If
Jesus Christ has saved you and you can
testify of His miracle working power to
transform lives, then I want you to stand
up right now.
Each and every one of you is a
walking, talking witness to the existence
of a great and gracious God!
You may be seated.
While
this is true among Christians, not one
infidel, agnostic, or atheist can boast of
any benefits whatsoever from their
unbelief! Not one!
7.
Scripture
Listen
to this true account: The wife of an
alcoholic spent years living in total
misery until someone gave her a Bible and
she became a believer in Jesus Christ.
The lady found much comfort in
reading the Word and in time it became her
most treasured possession.
Her husband, though, sneered at her
newfound religion.
He mocked her and tried to get her
to turn away from her faith.
One day he came home drunk,
snatched her Bible from her hand, and
threw it into the lit fireplace.
He shouted, "Now we'll see
what will be left of your precious
Bible!"
The next morning the fellow had
sobered up and he decided to clean out the
ashes from the previous evening's fire.
As he did so, he noticed a few
pages of Scripture had not been burned.
His eyes fell upon Jesus' words in
Matthew 24:35 which state: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass
away.”
He was startled as he read the
message.
In time, the Holy Spirit used this
experience to convict him and to bring
salvation to his sin-hardened soul!
The
Bible is God's Book!
Look at it's beauty.
Consider it's many prophecies.
Meditate on it's amazing historical
and scientific accuracy.
If you do so with a pure motive, I
promise you, you will see God written out
on every page!
8.
The life of Jesus Christ
Jesus--the
holiest man who ever lived--testified that
their was and is a God.
·
He submitted to God.
·
He declared that He had seen God.
·
He was spoken to by God.
·
He prayed to God.
In
fact, Jesus and God were so intertwined
that Jesus was to note that “If
you have seen me, you have seen the
Father.”
Do you believe? I
believe!
As I close out this
sermon, I want to share with you a true story borrowed from the
pages of The
Reader's Digest.
It's an account about a man in
Manhattan by the name of Marcel
Sternberger.
Marcel Sternberger was a creature
of habit.
He used to take the 9:09 Long
Island Railroad to Woodside every morning.
When you live in New York, you
begin to live like a machine.
Everything is like clock-work.
Even the delicatessen man learns
just three words: "Thank you,
Next."
Like rote, life goes on.
Again, Sternberger used to get on
this 9:09 train to Woodside every day.
One day he didn't do it.
He decided to go and visit a sickly
friend who was dying. He wanted to pay him
a visit because he knew he wouldn't be
around that much longer. As a result,
Marcel hops a different train --- a train
that he had never ridden before.
As he gets on another man gets up
hurriedly to leave.
This leaves a vacant seat which
Marcel manages to get.
Sitting next to him is a man who is
reading a Hungarian newspaper.
Marcel Sternberger, being of
Hungarian decent himself, eventually
strikes up a conversation with the fellow.
He asks the stranger what he is
doing in New York City.
The brother replies that he is in
the city looking for his wife.
"What do you mean, you're
looking for your wife?"
The stranger then said, "Well,
my wife and I used to live in Dubreken in
Hungary. During the war, I was taken away and made to work in the
Ukraine burying the German dead.
In time I managed to escape and run
back to freedom. When I returned home, I
found that my wife had also been taken
away by the Nazis. One of the neighbors
said they thought she had been taken to
Auschwitz and, therefore, she would have
been killed in the gas ovens."
Someone else told him that they
thought that the Americans had arrived in
time to save some of the prisoners and had
taken some of them to America.
His wife might have been among
those that were rescued.
He said, "By a long shot, I'm
hoping my wife is here."
Marcel Sternberger kept listening
to this story. The more he listened, the
more familiar the account sounded to him.
He asked, "What is your wife's
name?"
The stranger said, "My wife's
name is Maria.
My last name is Paskin.
It's Maria Paskin."
Sternberger took out his wallet and
found a dog-eared piece of paper.
As he looked down he saw the name
Maria Paskin with a telephone number.
He had met the lady at a party some
time back.
She had shared with him the same
story that he had just heard.
For some reason, he made a note of
her name and number. Marcel then said, "Look, I want to do something
for you now.
What is your name?"
He said, "My name is Bela
Paskin."
Sternberger then said, "Bela,
get off with me at the next station."
As they got off of the train,
Marcel went over to a phone and called the
number on the dog-eared piece of paper.
After many, many, rings a feeble
voice answers the phone.
Marcel asked if he was speaking to
Maria Paskin and she said that he was.
He then went on to say,
"Maria, my name is Marcel Sternberger.
We met some weeks ago."
She said that remembered him.
He said, "Can you tell me what
your husband's name is?"
Rather shocked, the lady answered,
"My husband's name is Bela Paskin."
He said, "Can you tell me a
little more about him?"
Again, the two stories were
identical.
Sternberger said, "just a
moment, I think you're about to witness
one of the greatest miracles you will ever
see." Then, as Marcel held on to the receiver, he called Bela
Paskin into the booth and he said,
"Would you please speak to this
person?"
In about 10 seconds or so Bela's
expression changed. His look was beyond description.
He then started to scream as the
tears profusely poured down his creeks,
"It's Maria!
It's Maria!
It's Maria!"
Marcel Sternberger took him away
from the telephone and hailed a taxi.
He was going to go with his new
friend to be a part of the moment when he
decided that the occasion was to sacred
for him to witness.
So he put Bela Paskin into the cab,
paid the taxi driver, told him where to
take him, and sent him on to the reunion
of his dreams.
Listen to the way the writers of The
Reader's Digest end this article:
"Skeptical persons would no doubt
attribute the events of that memorable
afternoon to mere chance.
But was it chance that made
Sternberger suddenly decide to visit his
sick friend, and hence take a subway line
that he had never been on before?
Was it chance that caused the man
sitting by the door of the car to rush out
just as Sternberger came in?
Was it chance that caused Bela
Paskin to be sitting beside Sternberger
reading a Hungarian newspaper?
Was it chance or did God ride the
Brooklyn subway that afternoon?"
Was
it chance?
I will leave that for you to
decide.
However, let me say that that the
God that we serve is a God that does
things like that. He is a great God; He is an awesome God!
I
also submit to you that it is distinctly
possible that the same God who
orchestrated the events that brought Maria
Paskin and her husband together has
likewise ordered the events that has
resulted in your being here this morning.
I submit to you that the God who
is, is the God who is seeking to speak to
and minister to your needs right here
today
Won't you respond to His loving
hand?
Someone noted:
“If
our greatest need had been information,
God would have sent an educator.
If
our greatest need had been technology, God
would have sent us a scientist.
If
our greatest need had been money, God
could have sent us an economist.
But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us
a Savior.”
That Savior came, bled and died for me, for you. If you
have not accepted Him into your heart,
please do so today. Don't
leave here a fool.
Don't say, "No God."
