We'll read two psalms, two short
psalms, Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. Psalm 14, to the chief musician,
a Psalm of David. The fool have 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. Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? who eat up my people as they
eat bread, and call not upon the Lord. They were they in great
fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous. Ye have shamed
the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge. O that
the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion, When the Lord
bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice,
and Israel shall be glad. And Psalm 53. To the chief musician upon Mahalaf,
Maskeel a psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. Corrupt are they and have done
abominable iniquity. There is none that doeth good.
God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one
of them is gone back. They altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Have the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they
eat bread? They have not called upon God. There were they in great fear,
where no fear was. For God hath scattered the bones
of him that encompeth against thee. Thou hast put them to shame,
because God hath despised them. that the salvation of Israel
will come out of Zion when God bringeth back the captivity of
his people Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. Amen. You'll notice from those two
Psalms that they are basically identical those two psalms easily
work that out from just the reading of them and sometimes when things are
repeated it's because it is important and often we have that in scripture
maybe somebody's name is repeated and it's the idea of stressing
an importance about something and certainly in these psalms
there are important issues that are worth repeating and that
are worth taking seriously hold of. We have in the first verse in
both Psalms the fool have said in his heart there is no God
and the there is is in italics so not there in the original
so we could say the fool have said in his heart no god it's
as though the fool there is emphasizing no god there is it sort of makes
it sort of not quite sound quite so severe but the emphaticness
of it no god no god Bible says much about fools the book of Proverbs for example
it talks a lot about fools there compares the wise and the foolish
there's many references to that in the book of Proverbs I won't
refer to any but I'm sure you can refer to them at your leisure
the contrast between the wise and the foolish but the scriptures talk a lot
about the fool Charles Spurgeon had a bit of
a sense of humor He was preaching one day. You might have heard this story. He was preaching one day. And
before he went up into the pulpit, somebody had given him a piece
of paper. And all that is said on it was
full. And that was given to Spurgeon
as he went up to preach in the pulpit. and during the course of the
service he made mention made a reference to this piece of
paper and he said I've been given this bit of paper at the beginning
and it would appear that the person who wrote it has only
signed their name so he got his own back there in a nice way
referring to the person who had given it to him as a fool such as the humour that Charles
Spurgeon had but the scriptures are very clear
about fools and a couple of references in Luke chapter 12 and from verse 15 to 20 we have these words in Luke chapter
12 verse 15 He said unto them take heed and beware of covetousness
for a man's life consists of naught in the abundance of the
things which he possesseth He spake a parable unto them saying
the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully
and he thought within himself saying what shall I do because
I have no room where to bestow my fruits and he said this will
I do I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods and I will say to my soul
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall
those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth
up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. So we have a fool of someone
who says there's no God and the evidence of God is all around
us in creation and many things the evidence of God is there
and the fool says there's no God and also it's foolish isn't
it to sort of heap things treasured up in this world for ourselves
only then to leave them and perhaps to leave them quite suddenly
as this one his soul was required of him that night so it wasn't
a gradual process or we had time to sort of do anything about
it that night his soul would be required of him and so May
we be those who believe in God and know God and know the Lord
Jesus Christ and have a relationship with God through Christ and that
we value the things of this world in the right way and realise
that they've been given to us by God And we're not here to
hoard up and store up things for ourselves. Sometimes we can
hoard things, can't we? But none of the things that we
have will be of any use to us eternally, the things of this
world. this this man might seem in some
ways to be quite sensible we say well you know I need bigger
barns or pull down these ones and build bigger ones so in some
ways he might have seemed quite sensible but there was but he
wasn't sensible and in not considering his own his own soul his own his own
life and in the end the shortness of it. And indeed all of us,
you know, that's an important question for us all, isn't it?
To ask ourselves and answer, you know, where will I spend
eternity? What is my relationship with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ? we are fools not to ignore it
and not to do anything about it. We read also in 1 Corinthians
and chapter 1 something about foolishness in
verse 17 For Christ sent me not to baptise,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign.
The Greeks seek after wisdom. but we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness
but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men. Verse 26, For you see, your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise, men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise God have chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. I think it was Selina Countess
of Huntington who particularly liked that verse 26 there in
1 Corinthians 1 and she thanked God because she was quite a noble
lady and she thanked God for the M, the letter M which before not many wise not
many mighty not many noble she thanked God for the M because
if it said not any wise not any noble he said I would have been
left out this says not many not many and she thanked God for
the letter M That's what it is isn't it? The
foolishness of God is wiser than men and the foolishness of preaching and how we should love to hear
the preaching and go where it's being well preached And we thank
God that here we've got a pastor who preaches faithfully the word
of God. Maybe we can look back in life
and thank God for others that we have been under or heard who
have faithfully preached the word of God. But of course, for
those who have no interest, well, it is foolish. Why do you Why
do you go there? Why do you worship God? Why are
you going there? Why don't you sort of go to the
shops or the theater or some place of entertainment? Why are you going there instead? And that's how the world thinks
isn't it? But may our desire and b to be
in the house of God and under the ministry of God's word and
in fellowship with the people of God. Again in these two Psalms
it speaks doesn't it of none doing good no not one and in
in Romans 3 23 it speaks all have sinned, all come short of
the glory of God. So we are fools if we dismiss these
things because we're all those who are sinners. We're all sinners,
aren't we? And we all have a sin problem.
And we're foolish if we just ignore the sin problem that we
have. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ
who can remedy our sin problem and Him and Him only. I heard this recently in a sermon
I heard. I've quoted this in a couple
of places recently. I've mentioned it. quite a telling story of an atheist,
quite an ardent atheist and quite vociferous about saying
no God and really making a thing about it, no God and he was dying,
this atheist was dying and a friend of his went to see
him in the hospital or wherever it
was home doesn't matter where it was but his friend went to
see this atheist and as the friend was leaving
he didn't really know what to say but he tried to sort of cheer
him up or try and be positive a bit and he said to his atheist
friend he said hold on to which the atheist replied,
I have nothing to hold on to. Here was one who was so anti-God
and here he is on his deathbed. And he said, I've got nothing
to hold on to. It's not so much, of course,
our hold of the Lord, but his hold of us. But you get the drift.
But I've got nothing. All his wealth, all his views
and all his antagonism wouldn't get anywhere. I have nothing
to hold on to. And by contrast it just reminded
me of our dear sister Marian, now with the Lord. And the final
spiritual words that I heard her say, quoting actually, and
it's one of my favourite hymns too, and one of hers, from the
hymn Blessed Assurance. And I heard her say, Jesus is
mine. What a lovely, what a contrast
with that atheist. I've got nothing to hold on to.
For us to be able to say, Jesus is mine. And I am his and he
is mine. What a wonderful thing to be
able to say, to have that blessed assurance. now and all our days
the Lord is our that hymn goes on the first verse blessed assurance
Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine air of salvation
purchase of God born of his spirit washed in his blood and then
also in this psalm sort of at the end it speaks about salvation
and it speaks doesn't it of joy in verse 7 of psalm 14. Oh that the salvation of Israel
would come out of Zion when the Lord bringeth back the captivity
of his people Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. That's
a wonderful thing isn't it if to have a relationship with the
Lord we know that he is we are his and he is ours of course
chosen before the foundation of the world and to have that
joy and to rejoice in the Lord despite the trials that come
our way and we all have trials We're not those who go around
with a sort of broad smile on our face 24-7. No, life is serious
and life is challenging. There are many things that do
make us low and affect us. But may we know in the Lord that
contentment that even in the tough times, the Lord will help us and bring us through. And he will, of course, not allow
us to suffer beyond what we're able to cope with. He knows what we can take, remembers
we are dust, knows our frame, remembers that we are dust. And so may there be that gladness
that we have, not some sort of superficial thing, but a real
heartfelt, meaningful joy in the Lord. And that chorus of
that hymn that I quoted says, this is my story, this is my
song, praising my saviour all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song. praising my Saviour all the day
long. It's quite a challenge, isn't
it, to do that. As I say, we don't always feel
like praising the Lord, but even in those tough times. And we're
singing at the end about a very appropriate hymn at the
end that we're singing about. It is well with my soul. and
that's it isn't it? Is it well with our souls? It
might not be well with our bodies or our finances or whatever but
is it well with our souls? That's the main thing isn't it?
That we are right with the Lord and that we know that we are
the Lord's we are his, he is our and that indeed that one day
we shall be forever with the Lord and what a blessed comfort
it is to know isn't it that we and perhaps loved ones who are
believers we miss them when they go obviously we're human, we
miss them, we're sad when they leave and yet they're now whereas
it is far better and so that may that comfort us in these
days. So just a few sort of remarks
that I've sort of cobbled together a little bit as I say quite a
few Quite a bit going on the last few days, but sort of felt
it helped just to bring those through remarks this evening. Amen.