Psalm chapter 53, and we'll be
looking at this psalm in its entirety, verses 1 through 6. The title of the message this
evening is, Fear Not the Foolish. Fear not the foolish. The scripture says in verse 1,
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. has said in
his heart, there is no God. There was once a missionary who
was ready to preach the gospel in a faraway country to a cannibalistic
tribe. And as he was boarding the plane,
one of the men said, you're a fool, they'll kill you. And that missionary
turned and replied, a man is not a fool to give up what he
cannot keep. to gain that which you cannot
lose. Friends, we cannot keep this life. Only a fool would
have his best life now. Only a fool. Every man is born truly a fool. We all. had our conversation
in time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the lust of
our flesh and the desires of our mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." So when we talk of this
foolish man, this man has said in his heart, this fool has said
in his heart, there is no God, know this, he was talking about
every one of us. Every one of us are born Breathing
our first breath, we are fools. You can see this in usually the
children and the young adults who think that life is something
guaranteed. I cannot fathom the foolish things
that I have done, thinking that it could happen to everyone else
but me. I was bulletproof. I was invincible. I was a fool. I was a fool. We come into this world hardened
against God, loving the things of this life, and striving to
get more, always striving for more. Is that not the natural
man? Always coveting. And when you get it, you always
want more. And that's not enough, because
once you get it, you've got to keep it. And so you struggle
to keep it. All the while, time is ticking.
The moments are fleeting. This flesh is dying, and we were
worried about stupid, foolish things. Scripture says, for it is appointed
unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. Friends,
it is appointed. We have no vote in this. We have no say-so in this. It is appointed of God when and
where and how we will die. It is appointed. And immediately
after that is judgment. The scripture says Lazarus died
and was carried into the bosom of Abraham. The rich man died
also and he opened his eyes immediately in hell. judgments that fast,
that fast. Are you such a fool? Are you
such a fool to try to keep this life? Are you such a fool as
you would hang on to the fleeting joys and pleasures of this mortal
life, knowing that you are appointed to die? What a fool. What a fool. Jesus said, Whosoever
keepeth his life will lose it. You want this life? There it
is. You'll lose it in the end. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake shall find it. I'm so glad. I'm so glad that
the Lord had said such a thing as that. Whosoever loses his
life, we gladly give up this life for him. I'd much rather
have him. You can have all this world.
Give me Christ. Give me Christ. There was a story of a medieval
king who had a jester. And this jester always made him
laugh. Very, very funny man. And so when the king was sad,
he'd call this jester in. And they called him fools. He'd
call this fool in. He said, fool, make me laugh.
And the jester would do a silly story, or he would make a gesture,
or he would fall down, and the king would be happy. One day,
the king fell sick and was dying to death. Oh, I'm sorry. First of all, he made him laugh.
He made him laugh so much that the king handed out this scepter.
He gave his royal scepter to this fool. He said, when you
find a fool greater than yourself, give the scepter to him. And
the king began to die. He was in his last days and he
called his jester to make him laugh. And the jester asked him, are
you all right? He said, no, I'm dying. I'm going
on a long journey. The jester said, have you prepared
for this journey? Have you known about this journey? And he said, yes, I've known
of it for a long time. And no. I'm not prepared to go."
And the fool handed the scepter to the king. He said, I finally
found a greater fool than me. You are a fool to think this
life lasts. We are fools and we're born this
way. There's no greater fool than
a man who knows his mortality, knows he will die. And yet all
he cares about is the wealth, rank, and happiness of this old
carnal, dying flesh. What a fool. The scripture says,
For as for a man, his days are as grass. The flower of the field so flourisheth,
the wind passeth over it, and it's gone, and the place thereof
is known no more. But friends, one day we will
go to the grave, and I imagine that maybe one or two generations
may think of us, but after that, no more memory of us. There will
be no more memory that we were even here. None. The wind passed over. It's gone. Ecclesiastes 9 tells us a live dog is better than a dead
lion because in life there's hope. Friends, there's only hope
in life. He says, For the living knows
that he shall die, but the dead know nothing, neither have they
any more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten altogether. forgotten altogether. All men
by nature know there's a God, they know that they're dying, and yet they prove this by judging
one another. Isn't that right? Every society
has some set of laws, and yet they themselves who judge do
the very same things that they judge others for. I'll tell you
what, if a man is very envious, Usually, he'll try to find envy
in everyone else. Whatever our sin is that's greatest
to us, surely we look for that in others. This is natural for
men to do this. How then do men think they'll
escape the judgment of God? How is it possible that you will
judge a man and yet you will not expect to be judged of God? That's a fool. A fool. The foolish man is arrogant to
suppose that all is well, or by ignoring the impending
judgment that somehow it will pass over. Isn't that how we
deal with a lot of our problems, just ignore them and stick our
head in the sand and suppose they'll go away? That's just
the natural way of doing things, because we're foolish. We're
foolish. To ignore the reality of God's
existence or to ignore his right to judge is nothing but stupidity
and ignorance. And friends, the root of all
of this foolishness is the heart. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. This word heart What does that
mean? When God speaks of the heart,
what is he talking about? He is talking about the very
core of our being, the very innermost being that makes us who we are. Each one of us are individual.
We're different, but we have this in common. We have the same
core. The same heart. A foolish heart
that says there is No, God, we are corrupt from the core. And
this scripture here, if you look at your text there, the scripture
says the fool has said his heart, there is no God. These words
there is are in italics. That means they're not there
in the original text, but the translators put them there to
help us. So you can either read this with
or without those words. First of all, let's read it with
the words. He says, there is no God. Have you known a day
greater than our day where men actually stand up and profess
atheism like in our day? They wear it around their neck
like a badge of honor. I'm an atheist. We live in a day where men defy
boldly the existence of God. They mock men of faith. They
suppose themselves to be God. Make no mistake about it, that's
their faith. Their faith is in themselves. Their trust is in
themselves to be God. But, friends, who is more foolish
than an atheist. Who is actually more foolish
to deny that there actually is a God? These are the greatest fools
of all. The second way to read this is
the fool has said in his heart, no God. No. I've heard that word before from
my children. And when they tell me that word,
I get kind of upset when I tell them to do something and they
would say no. But that's exactly what we said
to God. No. We are like those men that Jesus
talked about in the parable that said to the king, I will not
have this man to rule over me. That's the core of our hearts. That's the core of our natures. Foolish. In Psalm chapter 2,
it says, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine
a vain thing? The kings of the earth have set
themselves against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder. Now, I'll tell you what. You
can say that all you want to. You can say, No! No! It doesn't
matter. God still rules you. God still
reigns over all men. How foolish! God says he shall
have them in derision. If you are a foolish person,
listen to me, the God of heaven shall laugh at you. The God of
heaven shall laugh at you. Do you suppose if you one day
walked up to an ant, and an ant stood up and stood at all six
of his little hands at you, and he said, I hate you! I'll defy
you! You would laugh with contempt
and step on him. And it would be the end. That's
exactly how men are to God. It's foolish. It's arrogant. It's pride. are so corrupt to rebel against
God. Scripture says in 2 Chronicles
13, 12, O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord
God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper. Why do you
kick so hard against the prick? Why do men kick so hard against
God? They won't prosper. They all
die. They all are defeated. They all
suffer eternal damnation, and yet they still kick, they still
spit in the face of God. How foolish. Friends, God has set His King. God has set His King. And God
didn't ask us who we would like to be king. God set His King,
His Son. Scripture says, kiss the son,
lest he be angry with you. Lest he be angry with you. Scripture
says that he will break men like an iron rod against a clay pot. How easily is a clay pot broken
with the swipe of a rod, an iron rod? That's how easily men are
destroyed in hell. That's how easily men are cast
into everlasting chains of darkness. I want to be clear. This text
is speaking of universal depravity of man. This is who we are by
nature. This is who we are by nature.
And God says this in verse 2. He says, God looked down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that
did understand, that did seek God. And what did God find? God Almighty. who does not miss anything, whose
eye is a flame of fire, who is a consuming fire. He sees all. He is omnipotent, omniscient,
all-wise. And he has looked, he has searched
the heart of every man. And what did he find? Every one
of them has gone back. What do the foolish atheists
teach men? that men are evolving. Men are
going forward. God says, you've gone back. You know why every preacher,
if you were to listen to men before, they would say their
generation was the worst. But I'll tell you what, that's
not true now because our generation is worse. And I'll tell you this,
get this, the next generation will be worse than us. Why? Because they all go back. They've
all fallen backwards. They are all together become
filthy. And there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. Have the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Are you so stupid? That's what
God says. Have you no knowledge at all?
Have I not written my law in your hearts? Have I not set examples
daily in front of you that you will die and face judgment? And yet you would continue in
this? You would still be filthy? Men are altogether become fools. Is there any hope for fools? As a fool speaking to fools,
I tell you, yes, there is hope for such fools. I have found
hope. I have found life. I have found
understanding. And it's only to be found by
the grace of God. Only by grace. Verse four, it says, have the
workers of iniquity, no knowledge who eat up my people as they
eat bread. They have not called upon God. Truly, men have knowledge of
God. They have knowledge of death. But the matter of their earthly
knowledge is no way going to give them heavenly knowledge. You cannot learn this by some
academic study. You cannot understand the things
of God because these things are not carnal, they're spiritual. They have to deal with the immortal
soul of men, not with the carnal flesh. This flesh will die. The
soul will exist forever. Scripture says they, professing
themselves to be wise, became fools. Is it not the record time and
time again in history that religion, false religion, always seems
to try to silence God's people? Have you ever seen those foolish
people who have that bumper sticker, Coexist? Oh, that just infuriates
me to death. I just think they're the biggest
fools in all the world. God's people are like sheep.
And he likens us to sheep because of a very specific reason. We
are helpless and defenseless against the enemies of this world. Someone once said that a lie
will go around the world three times before truth puts on its
shoes. That's just the way it is. And so we are helpless at times.
We feel helpless. We feel like our voice is stifled.
We feel like when we witness it, nothing happens. Everyone's
voices are drowning us out, like we're not being heard. We cry to men and say, death
is coming. Justice and judgment is coming.
We are watchmen on the tower. The enemy is at the gate. And our voice gets drowned out
by fools. We feel helpless and defenseless.
But here's the hope. Here's the hope. Friend, God
has a people. There's hope. If you're a fool
in need of hope and understanding, know this, the hope is that God
has chosen him a people. God has chosen him a people in
his holy, sovereign mercy from before the foundation of the
world, God chose him a people. And not that these people were
any different than anybody else, scripture says, that God takes
of the same lump to make vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor. See, there's no difference in
the man. The man doesn't make the difference. He's the same
worthless lump of clay as everyone else. Who makes the difference? God
does. God takes that foolish man. And by his own sovereign power
and grace, he molds him into a vessel fit for glory. That's amazing. That's simply
amazing. And it's very important for us
to see this. Otherwise, we become proud. Prince
Grace is never a proud doctrine. It's always an humble, humiliating
doctrine. God makes vessels of honor according
to his own sovereign grace, but to make a vessel of dishonor,
what does God have to do? All God has to do is give him
life, put up with his foolish, stubborn, arrogant sin, and let
him alone. You see, the vessels fitted for
dishonor are fitted by their own sin. You see, God just simply
does nothing to them or for them. And they perish in their sins.
Grace must be given. God's work must be done in the
heart of the fool to make him wise unto salvation. Jesus said, this is the work
of God, that you believe on him on whom he has sinned. Faith. Do you know that's the work of
God? That is the craftsmanship of
God in the soul, is to produce faith in a man who's faithless. Do you believe on the Son of
God? That's the work of God. That's
not your work. That's not my work. It is the
work of God. The foolish man has no reverence
of God's work. You know, if I desire to help
God save me, I'll do it later. I'll do it when I'm pleased.
No, you won't. You better beg God for mercy,
because maybe he'll just leave you to yourself. Man needs the work of God. And
friends, when this work of God comes, know this. We are a persecuted
people. We are boldly persecuted at.
And he said they eat up my people like bread. In other words, they
they they demolish. They they seem to destroy the
works of the church. They always are attacking God's
people. The wicked seem to prosper and
the godly seem to suffer. Is that not always how it's been? Look over to Psalm 73. I love this man, Asa. We have
a lot in common. We have a lot in common. Look
what he said in verse 3. He said, For I was envious. At
who? The foolish. When I saw the prosperity of
the wicked, for there were no bands in their death, but their
strength was firm." In other words, they didn't fear death.
If you'll notice, these guys go around and they boast against
God, they blaspheme against God, they have no fear of God, and
death does not bother them. Bothers the heck out of me. I'm
telling you, at times it just overwhelms you, the fear of death. But they have no bonds in their
death. They're not troubled like other men, neither are they plagued
like I am. Their pride compasses them about
like a chain, violence covers them as a garment, their eyes
stand out in fatness. They have more than the heart
could wish. They're corrupt. They speak wickedly concerning
oppression. They set their mouth against
the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth. Man,
their tongue walks through the earth. It goes fast. It just spreads like wildfire. Their blasphemous lies go out
and people just take them in, just drink them in as though
they were fact. Therefore, God's people return
hither, and the waters of a full cup
are wrung out to them." What does that mean? God's people
return always to him. When the wicked prosper, where
does God's people go? We go to his throne. We bow down
and seek his mercy. We want to find solace. at his
feet, and a full cup is wrung out.
You take a dry cloth, and it's light, it's fluffy, dip it in
some water, what happens? It becomes heavy. How often are
we dipped into the troubles of this life? We become weighed
down with difficulties. And the world just rings us out. Tears flow from our eyes, sorrows
come from our hearts, we ache, we suffer, we have pains and
difficulties in this life, we have trials and tribulations. Where do we go? Go to God. Go to your refuge. Have we trials and temptations?
Yes. Is there trouble anywhere? Yes. Never be discouraged. Take it
to the Lord in prayer. There they were in great fear. That's our text. Go back to your
text. This is us. There were they in great fear. I'm always afraid. Fear comes on us in a moment's
notice without any reason, rhyme, just fear. What causes us to fear? It's
our circumstance. It's how we perceive things,
what we're looking at that causes us to fear. We look at the world
and where it's going, we fear. We look at our nation where it's
going. We fear. We see all these people boldly
speaking against God and gaining the masses. And we fear. We're
in great fear. But notice what God says. Where
no fear was. Friends, we fear where there
is no fear. There's no fear. to fear. There's nothing to fear. Why? For God hath scattered the bones
of him that encampeth against thee. Thou hast put them to shame
because God hath despised them. I'm so glad that God has set
himself against my enemy. Against those who would eat me
as bread, God has set Himself between me and them." No fear. If God stands between me and
all my foes, there is no fear. There's no fear. I want to show us a couple of
illustrations of this in Scripture. Go to 2 Kings. 2 Kings. Chapter 7. 2 Kings chapter 7. There was a great famine. So
much so that they were eating the heads of donkeys. That was
the prize meal of the day. If you can find a donkey's head
and you were wealthy, you had a great meal. They were starving to death.
And God's man comes and he says, ah, the Lord's message is tomorrow. Tomorrow at this time, there'll
be so much food that it's sold for basically nothing. And the king, he said, if God
opened the windows of heaven, how could this be? How is this
possible? And the man of God said, well,
you'll see it, but you won't taste it. And then we read of
these three lepers who have no idea what was transpiring. They just know they were hungry.
And they said, if we stay here, we're going to die. If we go
in the city, we're going to die. Why don't we just go out here
to these enemies of ours and we just go see? Maybe they'll
spare us, but if they don't, we're going to die anyway. So
they go out to the camp of the Syrians. You know what they find?
Nobody. God had already scattered that
people and made them leave all their stuff. And these three
lepers, they start grabbing that food and eating and getting so
full. And then they say, well, we've
got to have some saved up. So they go and they bury some
treasure. They bury it for themselves. And they come back and there's
still so much more. And they say, well, man, we've
got to share this with somebody because we can't keep this to
ourselves. We don't have enough digging space to bury all this
stuff. And so they go in the city and
they say, there's food. The enemy's gone. Isn't that what God says to the
fool? God has scattered our enemies
by the death of his son. God has already accomplished
the victory. The victory is won. There is
nothing to fear. They're gone. My sins are gone. Why? Because Jesus Christ bore
my sins in his own body on the tree and God meted out all the
justice that I deserve on him. Oh, there's nothing left but treasures
for me. Nothing left but eternal life
and riches. The second example is found in
2 Kings 19. This is talking about Hezekiah
when he received the letter from the Syrian king. And he said, look, we've done
destroyed everybody else. What makes you think that your
God is going to save you? Their gods didn't save them.
Your God won't save you either. And Hezekiah got that letter
and he was so afraid. And he took that letter and he
spread it out before the Lord. And it's distinct, he spread
each page out before the Lord. He said, God, help, help, help. And God sent one angel and destroyed
165,000 men in one night, and that king went back home with
his tail between his legs. God wins the victory. He tells Hezekiah, he said, not
one arrow will fly over your wall. There's nothing to fear. I've already won the victory.
Do you fear? Why do we fear when there is
no fear? Go back to your text and we'll
finish this. Oh, that salvation, 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." Friends,
God's salvation has come. Why did God save that little
city, Zion? Because his Christ was to come
out of Zion. And he did come out of Zion.
He did come out. And he has saved his people. The Scripture says, foreknew, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son. And whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And them he called, he also justified.
And them he justified, he also glorified. What shall we say
to these things? If God be for us, who can stand
against us? Who's going to accuse me? God justified me. Christ died
and rose again for me. Who shall separate me from His
love? Not the foolish. Let the fools rage. Let them do their worst. My Savior
stands between me and them. There is no fear. There is no
fear. I pray that God would comfort
you Spread it out before the Lord, whatever it is. He cares for you. A stand will
be dismissed in prayer.