The subject of Psalm 14 is so
very, very important. And it's very important because,
and we know it is, because almost the same words are given three
other times in Scripture. We have it here, then we have
it another time, just almost a repeat of this psalm again
in Psalm 53. And then Paul in Romans 3 quoted
a great deal of this. And when he quoted it, he applied
it to Jew and Gentile. So it applies to everybody in
this room. And the same truth is repeated
throughout the Scripture. So it's very, very important.
So the best thing for us to do would be to listen and give our
utmost attention to what it says here. Now our title will be our
divisions. The title is our divisions. The
fool and the wise. The fool and the wise. We're
just going to look at three verses. Let's start with verse 1. This
is a Psalm of David, but God gave him the words to write.
Psalm 14, verse 1. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. The fool hath 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 seek God. They are all gone
aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. No, not one. Let's talk about
the fool here for a little bit. Psalm 14.1 says, The fool hath
said in his heart, there is no God. Now the name that God gives
to everyone that rejects his son, this is the name God gives
them, is the fool. The fool. The word simply means
stupid. That's what it means, stupid.
The root word signifies a withered piece of grass or a carcass. You know, a withered piece of
grass, it withers because it has no life in it. It has no
sap in it. It's not connected to the root.
That's why it withers. So we have here a man who's a
natural man. We have here a man who has no
life in him, not the life of Christ. Christ is the root. He's
divine. And this man has no life in him.
He has no sap in him. He has no wisdom in him. That's why the Scripture speaks
of the natural man and says, all flesh is grass and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, and the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth on it. Surely the people is grass." Just withered grass. John Trapp called this man the
sapless fellow, the carcass of a man that walks The walking
sepulcher of himself, that's what he called it, in whom all
religion and right reason is withered and wasted and dried
up and decayed. That's us by nature. That's all
men by nature. Is that what we're going to write,
though, on your gravestone? We're going to write on your
gravestone, here lays the fool. The fool. God says any man that
leaves this world without relieving on his son without trusting God
for free justification from all our sins." He said, a man that
leaves this world like that, there's nothing else that fits
him better than the fool. Just the fool. Here's the source
of the fool's rebellion. It's his own heart. Look at verse
1. The fool hath said in his heart, The fool is set in his
heart. This word heart means our nature. It means you're born, you're
conceived in your mother's womb and it's the very nature you're
conceived in. And you come forth whatever nature.
A dog's going to be a dog. It's going to have the nature
of a dog. And a cat's going to have the nature of a cat. They're
not the same. A sinner's going to come forth
with the nature of a sinner. Everything he's going to do is
going to be dictated by that nature. He's a sinner. He says
here, this is in the heart. This is the nature. This is what's
wrong with him. God says the imagination of a
man's heart is evil from his youth. He says the heart's deceitful
above all things. Is your heart sitting there thinking
to yourself, nothing about me deceitful. That's what he's talking
about. The heart's deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Ecclesiastes
9.3 says, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness
is in their heart while they live. And after that they go
to the dead. Now here's what madness is. This
is true madness right here. This is how the fool answers
God. This is how he answers God. Right here, verse 1. The fool
has said in his heart, no God. No God. The words there is are
supplied by the translators. You take them out, you get the
true meaning. The fool does not say there is no God. You can't
say that and be honest about it. And God says that. Romans
1, He says He's made it manifest in the natural man. He put it
on the conscience. And He says He's made the creation
and given the light so that men are without excuse. Men know
that God exists. Say they don't. Oh, they want
to. But here's what it means. And another thing too is if that
word there, if it meant that, if it meant he's saying there's
no God existing, the word would be capital L-O-R-D. which would
be Jehovah, which means existing one. It would be there's no God
existing. But it's G-O-D, which is Elohim, and that means God's
name as the sovereign authority, as the ruler, as the one who
has the right to command, and you have to do it. That's what
it means. So here's what the fool's saying.
It's not the existence of Jehovah, it's God's authority he's saying
no to. He's denying God. He doesn't
want God to be the ruler and the law giver and the sovereign
savior. The fooler replies to every command
that God gives and he says, no God, I will not obey you. That's what the fool says. That's
what he says. Let's say there's a man, he's
got one supply of daily food and that is from a certain king. that's providing him this daily
food. And this man commits a crime against that king. He commits
a crime against that king. But this king graciously comes
to, sends his ambassador to him, and he tells him, he says, I've
got several men in the land that have committed crimes against
me, and I'm gonna show them mercy. I'm not telling you who they
are. I'm gonna show them mercy. And he says, so that they won't
perish because of these crimes they've committed against me.
And he says, I found a way that I can show them mercy and I can
be just. My own son is going to pay for
their crimes. The king says this to his men.
My own son is going to pay for their crimes. Now, the king says
to you, here's what you must do. You must obey my command. You must obey my command. You
must publicly confess that you've sinned against me. You're going
to have to tell the world that you've transgressed against me.
And here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to
have to trust my son to be the one that's paid everything for
you. You're going to have to honor
me in saying you've sinned against me. And he says, and you're going
to have to honor my son by trusting my son. It's what you're going
to have to do. And this man, he knows the king's
his only provider of bread. He knows that the king's going
to show mercy to some men in the land. He don't know who they
are. He might be one of them. He don't know. And he knows that
he's guilty. He knows that he's committed
a crime against this king. But he knows this king's yoke. What he commanded is very easy
and light. All he's got to do is honor the
king and honor the king's son. All he's got to do is confess
he's guilty and trust the son to save him. That's all he's
got to do. But with all that understanding and knowing this
king can cut off his supply of bread like this, and knowing
that if he don't obey this king, the king has said, you're going
to die. You're gonna die. But knowing all this, this man
answers the king and he says, no, I won't have you to reign
over me. I won't confess my sin to you
and I won't honor your son. Absolutely not. What else could
you call that man but a fool? What other name for him than
stupid could you give him? I mean, honestly. Sinner, that's
what you're doing. Sinner, that's exactly what you're
doing. You've committed high treason against the King, against
God. And He sent forth His Word. He's
the one in whom you move and live and have your being. He
holds your life in His hand. And He's come to where you are.
And He said, I'm going to show mercy to a multitude of people.
I've chosen who I'm going to save. I'm not telling you who
they are, but I'm going to save a multitude. And I found a way
to be merciful and just. My son's coming to where you
are. My son's laid down his life, and he's bore your sin, the sin
of these people, and put it away. So I'm merciful. I can be merciful
and just. And He says, now here's what
you're going to have to do. You're going to have to confess you've
sinned against God. And you're going to have to honor
my Son. And trust Him to save you. You're going to have to
stop doing anything to try to save yourself and trust Him.
And knowing God is the one in whom you move and live and have
your being. Knowing you've sinned against Him, and all men do.
Knowing that he sent forth his son. It's no it's obvious. He had knowing he's going to
show mercy to a multitude Knowing all these things still the center
sits there and says no I will not Honor God. I will not honor
God I Don't know what else you can
call him. I don't know what else you can call him. I So here's
what God says. He says, no, I don't think I'm
all that guilty. I don't think I'm all that bad.
I think I'm innocent. And if He does think He's guilty,
He thinks, well, I can do some works and make up for it. So
God tells us what we are. Notice here in verse 1, He says,
they... You see, at first He said the fool singular, and here
He says they, plural. The fool is Adam. The fool said
in the garden, when God said, don't eat this tree, the fool
said, no God, I'm going to eat the tree. And he died. And so
when he died, because he was the representative, his sin passed
upon all men and all men died. And for that now, here's the
description of all sinners in Adam. They are corrupt. They have done abominable work.
This word corrupt means not only is the sin nature corruption
itself, it means by not believing God, it further corrupts that
which is already corrupt. And by doing anything to try
to clean itself up, it further corrupts that which is already
corrupt. It's an active work. You see,
every work that a person does, it may be a good work. I mean, as far as good works
go, it may be a nice work. It may be a very sacrificial
work. But not confessing our sin and
not bowing to God's Son and not having been made new by His Spirit,
and confessing that all we are is owing to what He's done for
us by grace, honoring Him, what we're doing is we're trying to
save ourselves. And so we're just making the
corruption we already are worse corruption. And the man who says,
well, I'm not trying to save myself, I don't even believe
God exists. Well, that liar is corrupting
himself because he's not believing God. You see, unbelief's not
neutral. You can't not believe God and
be neutral about it. Unbelief is active. It's active. Disobedience to God. Every moment
a man refuses to believe God, he's saying in his heart, no,
God. That's what he's saying. God
sent the truth to you, right here, right now, right where
you are. He sent the truth to you, right here, to you, right
here. And God has come forth and He's
speaking. God is telling you right here,
this is your condition. This is the condition you're
in without Christ. And God says right here today,
this is what He says, believe on my son. And the man who won't
believe on his son is, he may not be doing anything. He may
not be, he may not just be trying to just not listen, but he's
actively calling God Almighty a liar. What he's doing? He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that
believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of His Son." Unbelief is not
neutral. It's not neutral. So you imagine you're guilty
in an earthly court. You're just in an earthly court
and you're guilty. And you've got an advocate that's talking
to you and trying to help you with this judge. And the lawyer
comes to you and he says, listen, this is what the judge has said.
The judge says you're guilty. And the judge says, the more
you try to plead your innocence and the more you try to save
yourself from this guilty charge, the more guilty you're making
yourself. But the judge has said this to you. He says, sent me
to tell you that if you just declared yourself guilty, he's
dropping all charges. And yet you sit there and you
say, no, I don't, I'm not going for that. I'm gonna save myself. I'm gonna save myself. And the
lawyer says, pleads with you. He says, listen now, this is
the deal. If you try to plead your innocence
or save yourself, the judge says you're sentenced to the death
chamber. And you say, no, I'm gonna do
it anyway. I'm gonna try to save myself. Listen now, be sure you
hear me good now. You're not walking out of here
You're not walking out of here. The police are standing right
here and you're not getting past them. So whatever you decide
right here, this is, I mean, this is it. And the man says,
no, I'm not, no. And they say, all right, take
him to the death, take him to, put him to death. See, we're
not getting out of this world alive. We're going to meet God. We're going to come to Him. And
we're going to see Him. And He's going to deal with us.
He's going to deal with us. And Christ has clearly said,
whosoever will save his life shall lose it. That's what the
judge has said. So we better heed what He says
and quit trying to save our life because it's just going to corrupt
us more. Well, verse 1, He says there, and there is none that
doeth good. There's none that doeth good.
When I was in Australia, there was a lady at this jewelry store
there in Sydney. And I was talking to her, and
I quoted this verse. And as soon as I quoted this
verse, she started telling me about medical discoveries, and
she started telling me about benevolent things men had done,
and how men had provided for poor folks, and just different
things. And she said, see? She said, how can you say there's
none good? She said, look at all that. That's
good. And I said, well, I didn't say there's none good. God says
there's none good. And she said, no, I don't believe
that. And she didn't know it. This
lady was just as kind as she could be. She didn't know what
she was saying, but what she was saying was, no, God, I don't
believe you. I don't believe you when you
say there's none good. I don't believe you. You see,
with mankind, there's all these varying degrees of sin. varying
degrees of sin. So that some are really, really
bad and some are not quite as bad. But filth, comparing filth
to filth is still filth. It don't matter. It's still sin. And the only reason some aren't
as bad as others is because God restrains some more than He restrains
others. That's the only reason. God's
perfection. You see, He's perfection. He's
perfect. He's the standard of purity.
And He's the one who determines what a good work is. God is. Now, the exalter of man's free
will, who's going to stand up today and be preaching about
man's will, he's going to come across election in the Bible.
He's going to find it. He's going to meet with it sooner
or later. He's going to have to deal with it. So this is the
genius way he's come up with to deal with it. He says, the
way God elected the people was God looked down through time
from heaven. And he saw who would believe
on him. And he said, I'll choose that
one. Because he saw he would believe on him. Nothing offensive
about that. That means I'm the one who I
made God bow to me. If that's true, right? Nothing
offensive about it. Well, our text says God did look
down from heaven. It says indeed He did. It says
there in verse 2, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek
God. I like Spurgeon's picture he painted with this. He said,
Behold the eyes of omniscience ransacking the globe and prying
among every people and nation. You just picture him just looking
at everybody, just going all over the globe, just looking,
trying to... He's just wanting to see... What did he say there?
I just want to see if there's any that understand, if there's
any that seek God. That's what he's just... That's
all he's looking for. Now the boaster says, God saw some would
believe. That's what he says. But now
let's hear what God says he saw. Verse 3, they're all gone aside. And now Psalm 53 says, every
one of them is gone back. Not only did God not find seeking
sinners, not only did He not find anybody seeking Him and
looking for Him, He found sinners going away backwards from Him.
And He says in verse 3, they all together become filthy. They all together become filthy. Now that, there's none that doeth
good, no, not one. So that means all together, No,
not one. Altogether, we've all become
filthy. The word filthy means a putrid
stench, like a rotting corpse. I mean, we are dying. That's
what we are. And we don't like to be around
a corpse that's dying. I mean, a dog or something like
that that's dead, you don't want to keep that thing laying around.
And that's what we are. We're dead and we're dying. We're
rotting every day. You don't look like you did five, ten years ago, you're dying. You're dying. You remember me
telling you about the astronauts that stayed up on the space lab
for so long, and I think it was like a year or something like
that, and they were coming back, and they were going to interview
them, and I wanted to hear what they had to say. And the first thing they talked
about that they couldn't get over, it wasn't anything about
space. First thing that they talked about when they got back
was how bad Earth stunk, how it stinks. They just talk about
how bad it stinks. We can't smell it because we're
around it, because we're in it all the time. But that's what
God says about us. They're altogether become putrid. They're altogether stinking.
They stink. Now here's how God, that's depravity.
That's the doctrine of depravity. It's not a doctrine. I'm teaching
you the doctrine, but this is what we are by nature. This is
how we come forth into the world. If God does not save us, this
is how we are. Now, God defines depravity in
Ephesians 4.18. Let me just read this to you.
Here's what depravity is. Being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart. That's depravity. That's what
it is. Alright, now let's look at the wise one. Let's see about
the wise one. Now let's go back up to verse
1. Opposite to the fool, is Christ Jesus the wise. He's the wise
one. Just as far opposite as you can
go to the fool is the man Christ Jesus, the God man. The name
that God gives Christ is wisdom. Wisdom. In Proverbs 8, 12, this,
listen to this, I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge
of witty inventions. Counsel is mine. and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. By me kings reign and princes
decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles,
even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me, and
those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honor are
with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit's
better than gold. It's better than fine gold. My
revenue's better than choice silver. I lead in the way of
righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I
may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I'll
fill their treasures. That's Christ. That's Christ
our wisdom. He's wisdom. That's who He is.
Now the source of the fool's rebellion is his own heart. The
Lord said, The fool hath said in his heart, No God. But here's
what Christ said in his heart. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Him and the Son of Man who walked
this earth, who is God, he walked this earth in perfection so that
his heart was one with God's heart. What pleased God pleased
Him, and what pleased Him pleased God. He's one with God. He said,
I delight to do your will. to like to do it. Jesus said,
my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish
His work. This is my meat, this is my life, is to do His work
and to finish it. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And He says, in Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. God wasn't pleased with
all that. He gave that to show over a course of years, to show
as He's putting together the Old Testament Scriptures that
He's given men the spirit to write them. And He's given them
the Spirit to teach prophecy, to teach about Christ and what
Christ is going to do. And God gave these Old Testament
sacrifices, blood running all through the Old Testament, to
show Christ and to show who He is and to show what He would
do, to show it all. But God never was satisfied with
any of those sacrifices. Those sacrifices were a shadow
of Him that was to come. If we so depraved, we'll hold
on to the picture. Can you imagine that? Can you
imagine if you had a picture of somebody, a loved one, they're
off in another country and somebody gives you a picture of them and
you sit there and you held it, you looked at it, you kissed
the picture and all that, just like folks do when their sweetheart's
off a hundred miles away or whatever. But then when they come to you,
and they come to where you are, if you keep on holding on to
that picture and kissing that picture, when they're standing
right there beside you, they need to load you up and take
you to the wacky farm. Something's wrong. Well, He came, and when He came,
we just want to hold on to the picture. We want to hold on to
the form and just discard the substance. He's the substance.
But He came and He said, my will is to do the will of Him that
sent me. I came to do a work that He sent me to do. He came
to satisfy justice for God. He came to redeem the people
God gave Him. He came to put away their sin
by the sacrifice of Himself. He came to call them out. He
came to glorify the Father. He came because He's manifesting
the fullness of the Godhead in a body, this one did. He had
a work to do and He said, and I'd like to do it. Of fools,
we saw there in verse 1, it says they're corrupt. Verse 1 says
they're corrupt, they have done abominable work, there's none
that doeth good. But here's what it says about
Christ. His heart was pure. It was pure. The angel said unto
Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore that holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. They came
forth pure inside and out. And because Christ's heart was
pure, His works were perfect. Everything He did was perfect.
Christ Jesus is the one who doeth good. God said, it says there,
they've done abominable works. There's none that doeth good.
Christ is the one, the one who does good. And God says He does
good. There's my standard right there.
And I won't receive any other but Him, God said. The Lord's
well pleased for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law
and He will make it honorable. He healed six sinners when He
walked this earth and He's still healing six sinners. Sinners
are sick with sin, that's who He's healing. And clothing, He
clothed them in His righteousness. And even His enemies bore witness
to it. He stood up, preached one day
in a synagogue, and these men said, From whence hath this man
these things? What wisdom is this which is
given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his
hand? Everybody recognized it when he walked this earth. Look
here in verse 2, of Fools we read, The Lord looked down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that
did understand and seek God. Fools don't have any understanding.
No understanding. But of Christ's understanding,
Isaiah 11 says, The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall
make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And
he won't judge with the eyes. He won't judge by sight. He won't
be fooled by what he sees with the eye. I mean, you can be fooled.
He won't be fooled by the eye. He'll judge righteous judgment. Righteous judgment. He's the
wisdom of God. He's how God manifests wisdom. He's how God manifests that He's
wisdom. He's how God manifests His wisdom
in finding a way He could be just and justify. A merciful
God and a just God and a Savior. He's the wisdom that is of God
Christ. He's made unto us wisdom. He
gives us an understanding. He gives us an understanding
when He enters in, according as His divine power hath given
to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through
the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
And when He enters in and calls us, He gives us the mind of Christ. He gives us an understanding
of who He is and what He's done and what He's accomplished for.
It says there, fools don't seek the Lord. But not only did Christ
always seek the Father, and always seek to do the Father's will,
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to seek
out a people, and He's seeking out a people. He's still doing
it. Christ did all these things that I'm telling you He did when
He walked this earth. He's doing them now. Christ is alive. He's alive and He's doing by
the Holy Spirit now what He did when He walked this earth. He's
healing sick sinners right now through His Gospel. Truly healing
them. Giving them eternal life. He's
teaching them wisdom and knowledge by His Spirit, by His Gospel.
This is what He's doing. And He's seeking out His sheep,
His lost sheep. He said, this is the Father's
will that sent me. God entrusted it all into His
hand. And He said, and the Father trusted
Me, and all which He's given Me, I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up again at the last day. And so he said, I'm
seeking my lost sheep and I will find my lost sheep and I'll keep
my lost sheep. And he said, and my sheep hear
my voice. It's because he speaks effectually
in the heart and makes us hear his voice. And he says, and I
know them. I know them experimentally. I
know them so that they know me by my power, knowing them. And
he says, and they follow me. They always do. They follow him,
and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." Don't you want
this safety and security? Don't you want a refuge? Don't
you want one that you know nobody's ever going to be able to pluck
you out of his hand? of fools, it says there in verse
2, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men,
and look at verse 3, this is what he saw, they're all gone
aside, they're all together become filthy, there's none that doeth
good, no not one. But God looked down upon this
one, and behold a voice out of the cloud which said, this is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. And yet, as he walked this earth,
we said, no, God, we won't hear you. We said, no, God, we won't
hear you. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. We said, no, God, we won't have
anything to do with him. We tried our best to get our
hands on him. We tried our best to take God
and kill God. That's what we try to do. And
finally, when his hour was come, when it was time, he himself
allowed us to take him. And he showed us that it was
him allowing us to take him. Because when they came to arrest
him and he said, who is it you're seeking? And he said his name,
they fell down on their back. And he said, let me give you
some power to get up, get up. And they got back up. If He takes
His power away from you, that's exactly what you'll do. You'll
be like a puppet where you take your hand out of it and it just
drops to the floor. He's the one holding you up right now.
And then He went there on that cross and He was doing this for
vile, base, corrupt sinners like this that all our lives would
say, No God! No! We won't have anything to
do with. That's who He's doing this for. And He's there on that
cross and He's bearing what we are. until he bore it all away
and cried, it's finished. I did the work God sent me to
do. It's finished. And God the Father declared one
more time that he's well pleased with him. He raised him from
the dead. The earth shook and men came out of the graves and
he raised him up out of that grave. And he said he's well
pleased with him. He's made complete satisfaction
for the sin of his people. And God declared it by raising
Him from the dead and leaving our dead body of sin right there
in the grave. The dead body of sin of all those
elect for whom He died. He left it in the grave. He left
that. If you can go and you can look
in a grave and you can imagine Christ going in that grave, a
lifeless body, then see your body, your whole body of sin,
Go into the grave, and when you see by faith Christ come out
of that tomb, and you see Him go and sit down at the right
hand of the Father, you see your life go there, a sinless life
go there and sit down at the right hand of the Father, and
your sin is left in the grave. All of it, so that God says,
now, law has nothing whatsoever to do with my people and my relationship
with my people. Be sure to read your bulletin
on Debt to the Law by J.C. Philpott. He said, what would
you think of a wife who marries a new husband and her old husband's
dead? But she just keeps on talking
about the rules and regulations of her old husband. We're married
to Christ now. And we're walking with Christ
now. And by faith we love Him. And we seek to honor Him and
glorify Him like a faithful bride does to her husband because he's
proven his love to her. Now sinner, this is the King's
Son. This is the King's Son. Christ Jesus, our God and Savior,
the only wise one, and He says to you today, I have reserved
mercy for thousands. He says, I put away all their
iniquity, their righteousness is of me. He said, I'm not telling
you who they are. Not going to tell you who they
are. He says, but this is what I am going to tell you. You're
guilty. You're guilty. And I hold your life in my hand.
In me, you live and move and have your being. And now you're
guilty. But are you one for whom he died?
Without a doubt, you're guilty. But are you one for whom he died?
Will you prove that His Holy Spirit's washed you in regeneration?
Will you prove that He's come and spoken life into your dead
where there was nothing but deadness? Will you prove that He's done
everything necessary from choosing you and redeeming you to calling
you? Will you prove that He's done
it all by His effectual, saving, sovereign grace? Will you prove
it by sliding upon your breast and saying, Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord,
for once in your life! Yes, Lord, I agree with you! I am the fool. I am the fool. Oh, I'm against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that you might
be just when you judge me. God, for the first time in my
life, I take sides with you. I am the fool. And you smite
upon your breast and say, Father, please have mercy to me, the
sinner. And I'm here to tell you right
now upon the authority of my God and my Savior, my Master,
that you will go down to your house justified. I guarantee
it. I don't say that with any reservation.
Or will you look mercy and righteousness right in the face and say to
Him again, no God, no. It's going to be one or the other.
It's going to be one or the other. You're going to say, no God,
I'd rather perish in my sin. I'd rather go to hell and serve
you. If so, there's only one thing
you prove. You indeed are the fool. The only thing you prove is we
were going to write on your gravestone, here lays the fool. Here lays
the fool. Harden not your heart. Get alone
with God and get it settled. Get alone with God. Whoso is
wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the
loving kindness of the Lord. That's what he said. Who is wise,
and he shall understand these things, prudent, and he shall
know them, for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just
shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein." Look over
at Isaiah 35, and I'll end with this. Isaiah 35. He said, a high way shall be
there, and a way. Christ is that way. He's that
high way. He says, and it shall be called
the way of holiness. That's who He is. He's the way
of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it, but it shall be for those the wayfaring men, though fools
shall not. They shall not. Fools shall not. Verse 9, look down there. He
says, but the redeemed shall walk there. The redeemed shall
walk there. And the ransom of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads. And they shall obtain joy and
gladness and sorrow and sighing, shall flee away. No neutral neutrality
in this thing. We're going to hear God speak
and we're either going to actively call Him a liar and say, no God,
and declare we're nothing but the fool. Or we're going to submit
to Him and say, Lord, you're right. I'm the fool. And aren't with that, there's
everlasting salvation. There's free forgiveness and
everlasting joy. Everlasting joy. Oh, I pray the
Lord apply it to your heart today. Amen.