Hosea, chapter 9, verse 7. My subject, the preacher, is
a fool and the believer is insane. The preacher is a fool and the
believer is insane. In Hosea, chapter 9, verse 7,
the prophet writes, The days of visitation are come. The days of recompense are come. Israel shall know it. The prophet
is a fool. The spiritual man is mad. for the multitude of thine iniquity
and the great hatred." Now down through the centuries, the prophets
of God, and the word prophet is preacher, the preachers of
God, and men inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak for God. have been accounted fools. They have been ridiculed, they
have been treated with contempt, they have been even killed, and
their message is totally rejected. In Matthew chapter 23, our Lord
spoke about this in Matthew 23, verse 34. The Lord Jesus said, Wherefore,
behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and
some of them you shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall
you scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city
to city, that upon you may come all the righteous blood of every
prophet from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias,
son of Barakas, whom you slew between the temple and the altar."
In the seventh chapter of the book of Acts, Stephen had something
to say about this. the prophets of God, the men
inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak for God, being accounted
as fools, ridiculed, and held up for contempt. In Acts 7, verse
51, Stephen said, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, you do resist, always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers
did, so do you. which of the prophets, preachers
of God, have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain
them which showed before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the coming of the Just One, of whom you have been now the betrayers
and the murderers." And then our Lord told His disciples in
John chapter 16, verse 1, John 16, verse 1, the Master
said, These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not
be offended. They shall put you out of the
synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do
unto you? Hold you up for contempt, treat
you with contempt, hold you up for ridicule, and even kill you,
and reject your message. These things will they do unto
you? Because they have not known the Father, nor me." I have three
points to the message this morning. First of all, The preacher is
a fool, saith the world. Secondly, the believer is crazy,
insane, saith the world. And then my third point will
be, who is the real fool? Now the preacher is a fool, that's
what the world says. The prophet is a fool. He preaches
from a book which he says. is the oldest book in the world. He preaches from a book which
he says was written by forty different men over a period of
some fifteen hundred years. He preaches from a book which
he says was written by the Holy Ghost, that these forty men,
the last of whom died almost two thousand years ago, that
these men were holy men who wrote not of themselves and not out
of their own imagination, but who were divinely inspired by
the Holy Spirit of God. These men who were shepherds
and peasants and kings, these men who were learned and unlearned,
most of whom never met one another, wrote a book inspired by the
Holy Spirit wrote a book which is without contradiction, wrote
a book which is without error, wrote a book, and when it was
brought together in sixty-six manuscripts, it tells one story
of redemption. The prophet is a fool, for he
preaches from a book which declares in Revelation chapter twenty-two,
verse eighteen, I testify unto every man that heareth the words
of this book. If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written
in this book. He preaches from a book that
declares, If any man take away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book
of life and out of the holy city and from the things that are
written in this book. The preacher is a fool, for he
says that this book is verbally inspired, that it is the infallible,
absolute, inerrant Word of God Almighty. And to believe this
book is to be saved, and to disbelieve it is to prepare for an eternity
in hell. The preacher is definitely a
fool. And then this man is a fool because
he preaches a God who is a spirit, whom he says is before all things
perfect and independent, who by his power and wisdom created
the angels and the universe out of nothing. This preacher says
that if God made the world and all that dwells therein just
by speaking. Turn to Genesis chapter 1, beginning
with verse 1. In the beginning, the preacher
says, in the beginning God, perfect and independent, needing nothing
to add to Him, holy, almighty, sovereign, eternal God, who hath
no beginning or ending, created the heavens and the earth. And
the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the water. And God said, and God said, Let
there be light. Verse 9, And God said, Let the
waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and
let the dry land appear. And it was so. And verse 11,
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass. Verse 14, And God
said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to
divide the day from the night. And verse 20, And God said, Let
the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature. Verse 24,
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after
his kind. Cattle, creeping things, beast
of the earth, after his kind, and it was so. And God said, Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness. Verse 27, So God created man
in his own image. In the image of God created he
him. Male and female created he them. The preacher says that God made
man out of the dust of the earth and breathed into that body his
own breath, and that man stood up a living soul. The preacher is a fool. The preacher
says that man did not long remain in that state of innocence, but
man was tempted by a powerful angel whose name was Lucifer. who at one time was the most
powerful being in heaven or in earth, but who rebelled against
God Almighty and who fell from heaven, of whom Christ said,
I saw him fall as lightning from the heaven. And man in the perfect
garden of Eden, created in holy innocence, walking with his God,
was tempted by this devil. And he believed the devil's lies,
and he sinned against his God. And as a result of that sin,
man died spiritually. He lost communion with God. He
lost his fellowship with God. He lost his knowledge of God. And he was separated from God. And since that time, according
to the book of Romans, chapter 5, since that rebellion, Since
that fall, since that sin, all mankind, every son of Adam, every
descendant of this first man, has been born dead in trespasses
and sins, without any knowledge of God, without any love for
God, without any desire for God. separated from God without hope,
without help, and without God in this world. Romans 5 verse
12, Wherefore by one man sin entered into this world, and
death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for all sin. Verse 18, Therefore as by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Verse 19, For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners. Man living now in darkness Man
living now in death. Man living now in separation
from his God, not knowing God. The preacher's a fool. And then
the preacher preaches a plan of mercy. He says that this sovereign
God, this God who knows all things, this God who works all things
after the counsel of his own will, This God, who does according
to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of this earth, knew that man would fall. And before man ever
fell, this God, in his sovereign mercy and in his sovereign grace
and in his sovereign love, decreed from all eternity to save a people
for his glory. And after man fell, God spoke
to the prophets about this plan of mercy. He told them that the
seed of woman would come. He told them that a prophet like
Moses would be raised up. He told them that a priest after
the order of Melchizedek would come. He told them that an eternal
King of Kings and Lord of Lords would sit on the throne of David
eternally. He told the prophets God, who
at sundry times and in divers manners spake to us in times
past by the prophets, hath spoken to us in these last days by sun. And God gave these people in
Old Testament days types and pictures and symbols of this
plan of mercy. He showed them through the blood
sacrifices and through the furniture of the tabernacle and through
the atoning work of the high priest And through all of the
things in the Old Testament scriptures that this sacrifice, this Savior,
this Redeemer would come, this plan of mercy would be fulfilled. In the fullness of time, after
4,000 years of human history had gone by, in the darkness
of superstition, idolatry, and false religion, God sent his
Son into the world. But he didn't come in the silk
and satin of riches and wealth. He didn't come to the ceremonies
and rituals of religious temples and tabernacles. He didn't come
as a powerful political leader. He came as the virgin son virgin-born
son of a poor Jewish maiden, and was laid in the hay of a
manger surrounded by cattle and shepherds. He was in this world. He was tempted in all points.
He took on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. He was despised
and rejected He was tested in all points as we are, yet without
sin. He was identified with publicans
and sinners and harlots. He was rejected by everybody
who was anybody. He was refused and turned down
by all of the theologians, all of the doctors, lawyers, scribes,
Pharisees, Sadducees, and rulers of this world. He was even denied,
betrayed, and forsaken by his closest friends. And finally
he was taken outside of the walls of the holy city and nailed to
a cross between two thieves. And he was taken down from that
cross after six hours of agony and laid in a barred tomb. He
was so poor that he couldn't afford a place for his body to
rest. His disciples say he rose again. that on the third day the stone
was rolled away and the seal was broken. And he came forth
from that too. And this son of the Virgin, this
man who made his birthplace a manger, who was accepted by no one who
was anyone, who died on a cross between two things, who never
owned a piece of property, and when he died had not a friend,
this man, they say, is at the right hand of God. as the great
high priest and savior of sinners, and that this man is God Almighty, the priest is a fool. Any man
who would say that that one, that friend of sinners and publicans
who died as an outcast between two thieves is God Almighty has
got to be a fool. And then the preacher preaches
that men must be born again. In 1 Corinthians 2, a preacher
by the name of Paul said in verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 2, that I
have not seen, the natural eye can't see, can't see the beauties
of this man Jesus. The natural eye cannot see the
glories of this man who died on the cross. The natural eye
cannot see the creative power and wisdom of God. The natural
eye cannot see the glory and holiness of this book. The natural
eye cannot see God's plan of mercy, God's way of salvation.
The natural eye cannot see Christ fulfilling all these types and
symbols and shadows and sacrifices. The natural eye cannot see how
that God can be just and justify the ungodly only through the
sacrifice of His perfect Son. The natural eye cannot see how
that God can be man and man can be God and the two natures joined
as one. Man cannot see nor hear, neither
hath it entered into his heart. The things that God has prepared
from all eternity in his all-wise counsel, in his covenant of mercy,
what God has prepared for them that are called according to
his purpose, who love him. He can't see it. He can't hear
it. He can't understand it. That's
what the preacher says. No way! The natural man receiveth
not, verse 14, the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness! That foolishness, that's what
that is, that foolishness to him. And the only way he can understand
it is to be born again. That's what the preacher says.
He says that this man, this son of Adam, who because of Adam's
sin and because of Adam's rebellion, because of the condition of death
and spiritual separation from God, because of that fall that
man is so dumb and dead and diseased that he can't even see anything
spiritually, or hear anything spiritually, or understand anything
spiritually, that he has to be born again, that he has to have
what Adam lost put back in him alive, that he has to have what
Adam forfeited, put back in him by the power of the Holy Spirit,
that he has to be quickened from a grave, that he has to be raised
from the dead, that he has to have his blind eyes open supernaturally
and his deaf ears unstopped and his darkened understanding enlightened
and illuminated. And apart from that powerful,
sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, he'll remain dead. That's what
the preacher said. That's what he said. He says
that as smart as I am, I can't understand God without the Holy
Spirit's supernatural work. He says as well as I can see,
that I cannot see anything spiritual unless the Holy Spirit opens
my eyes. That's what he says. He says as well as I can hear
the sounds of this world, as well as I can hear the music
of this world, I cannot hear that sweet, comforting, peaceful
refrain that comes from the throne of glory unless my ears have
been opened by the Holy Spirit. I can understand earthly things,
but I cannot understand heavenly things unless I am born again."
That's what he says. And this birth is from above. This birth is not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. who shows
mercy to whom he will show mercy, and who has compassion on whom
he will have compassion. And this preacher says, If God
leaves me alone in my darkness, I'll perish, and my darkness
will become more dark. And this preacher said, If God
leaves me alone in my rebellion and in my sin, my deceitful heart
will be so deceived and so confused that I'll believe a lie and be
damned for believing it. That's what Unless God has mercy
on me, unless God quickens and enlightens me, I'll die unworn
and unawakened. The preacher's a fool. He's a
fool. That's the reason the world persecuted
them and ridiculed them and held them up for contempt, because
they preached salvation to all of God and not of man. And the
preacher says that same Jesus who died on that cross and whom
we saw buried in Joseph's tomb, that same Jesus, the preacher
says he's coming back again. But this time he's not coming
back as a lamb, he's coming back as a lion. This time he's coming
back not as a savior, but as a judge. This time he's coming
back, and all the world shall be gathered before him, and they
shall be separated as sheep from goats. And he shall say unto
those on his right hand, Redeemed by his mercy, enter into a kingdom
prepared for you from the foundations of this world. And those people
shall go into an everlasting state of glory and grace and
mercy and bliss and live there eternally and join the presence
of their Lord. And they're going to be just
like him, just like him. They're going to have perfect
knowledge and perfect love and perfect holiness and perfect
beauty. And all who didn't believe and
all who rejected his mercy shall be cast into hell, and there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth forever and forever. The preacher's a fool. The man's
crazy. He's mad. This prophet Paul said,
the preaching of the gospel to them who are perishing is foolishness. Foolishness. I believe in morality, preacher.
I believe in God, and I believe in religion. I believe in treating
your neighbor right, but I don't believe that foolishness. And then my second point is,
the believer is insane. That's what says. He says, the
prophet is a fool. And the man who believes him,
the spiritual man, the man who's been quickened, he's insane. Now that's the language of the
world. You're crazy. You're crazy. I got a letter
from a young woman just this past week who's been converted.
She had religion before she was converted, but that religion
had no life and no beauty, and it had no saving interest in
Christ, and the Lord was pleased to save her. And now her husband
says she's crazy. And her mother and father have
all but disowned her because she's crazy. Her religion has
driven her crazy, they say. A person who carries his principles
into practice is crazy. A person whose faith leads them
to an obedience of the truth is crazy. It's all right to have
faith. but don't put it into practice.
It's all right to have principles, but don't act on them. It's all
right to have a faith in God, but a life-changing relationship
with Christ. Well, that person's crazy. You know, the believer is not
usually from among the wise, The believer is not usually from
among the famous and the important. Now the religious people are,
but not the believer. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, the
apostle Paul said this, this preacher, this full preacher
said this, God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things, of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and
the base things of the world, and the things which are despised,
hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught the things that are. When God picked out
the place for his Son to be born, he picked out an angel. When
God picked out disciples to preach the gospel of his Son, he picked
out fishermen and shepherds. When God picked out a place for
his son to die, he picked out a cross. When God picked out
company in which his son was to suffer, he picked two thieves.
When the Lord Jesus Christ picked out a woman to give him a drink
of water, he picked out a harlot. When God Almighty picked the
lineage through which his Son would come, he picked the despised
of this world, that no flesh should glory in his presence. The believers, not usually from
among the wise, He's not usually from among the famous, he's not
usually from among the important. Churches of this present day
get real excited when some movie star professes to be saved. They get real excited when some
entertainer professes to believe on Jesus. They get real excited
when some local powerful political figure comes down and sits with
them in the church. But the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
keep company with those people. He kept company with sinners
and publicans and harlots. The believer knows he's a sinner
and he seeks forgiveness through the merits of Christ. Not by
his own works, but through the merits of Christ. He's a fool,
he's insane, he's mad. The believer knows that to be
full he has to be empty. When I'm weak, then am I strong.
The believer knows to be rich, He must become poor, for blessed
are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God. The believer
knows to be clothed, he has to be naked, that I might be stripped
of my own righteousness and clothed with the holy righteousness of
his Son. The believer knows to be exalted,
he's got to be humbled. He spends time in prayer. I'm
not talking about the religious man now. He's not a fool. He's
respected. He's admired. He's cultured. He's tactful. He's respected. He's looked up to. But the believer,
I'm talking about the man who's a fool. I'm talking about the
crazy fellow. That crazy fellow. That fellow that's let his religion
run away with him. That fellow that spends time
in prayer. That fellow spends time reading the scriptures,
searching the scriptures to see if these things be so. I'm talking
about that fellow who has a time of secret devotion. I'm talking
about that man that loves the preaching of the gospel. I'm
talking about that man that goes where he can hear Christ exalted. He doesn't go to a place because
it's the old home church. He doesn't go to a place because
they have the biggest building. He doesn't go to a place to worship
because they have the most educated preacher. He doesn't go to a
place to worship because so-and-so goes there. He doesn't go to
a place to worship because they have a good young people's program.
He goes to hear Christ preach. Christ preach the gospel. He's fooled. While he drives
all the way across town, he passes a half a dozen different churches
and goes all the way across the country in order to hear the
gospel preached. He believes the promises of God,
he pleads them in prayer. He knows he's facing death and
facing judgment and facing eternity, and he weeps before God and he
pleads for mercy. And Paul said in 1 Corinthians
2, folks don't understand him. I just can't understand my wife. I can't understand her. What's
wrong with her? She's a fool. She's insane. She's mad. He says in verse 14 of 1 Corinthians
2, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, they're foolishness to him. He can't understand them,
they're spiritually understood. But he that is spiritual, he
that's a believer, he understands these things. He knows what that
fellow's talking about. When that fellow talks about
being empty in order to be full, dying if you want to live, becoming
a fool if you want to be wise, being humble if you want to be
exalted, mourning over sin, being born of the Spirit, looking to
the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, reveling in, rejoicing
in, finding his joy in a crucified Savior. He understands that. But this worldly man doesn't
understand that. That's like foolishness to him.
And he doesn't understand the man who understands it. Crazy. He that is spiritual, he that's
a believer, he that's born again, he understands all things. And yet, listen, he himself is
understood by no man. He's not understood crazy. The
man's crazy. He speaks a language the world
doesn't speak. His friends begin to avoid him.
He's crazy. Those with whom he used to have
close fellowship don't enjoy his presence anymore. He doesn't
enjoy theirs. He's crazy. He's deserted his
family heritage. He's forsaken his upbringing. The religion of his parents is
not good enough for him. He's crazy. The prophet is a
fool, and the believer is insane. But let me bring my third point
to you in the form of a question. Who is the real fool? Let's look
at the character and conduct of that man who calls the preacher
a fool. Let's look at him just a moment.
This man who says that fellow preaching God's eternal existence
and the creation of the world by the word of God, that man
preaching that man fell in sin, and God in mercy sent his Son
down here in the form of human flesh to redeem that man from
his sins, who died on the cross, was buried and rose again, who
is the mediator at the right hand of God. That fellow preaching
that is a fool! and anybody that believes it
and puts those principles into practice and gives his income
and his life and his body and his time and his family to that
doctrine, that man's crazy. All right, let's look at the
character of the man that calls him crazy. This worldly man may be intelligent. He may be even moral, as much
as a human being can be. He may be a talented man. He
may be an honorable man. He may be a benevolent man. He
may even be a religious man. He may have climbed a high rank
in his profession. He may be wealthy and famous,
but there's a life after death. Everybody's going to lie down
and die. And after death, the judgment. And after the judgment,
another world in which this man's going to live eternally. But
he's made no preparation for death. He's made no preparation
for judgment. He's made no preparation for
eternity. He's standing back calling the
preacher a fool and the believer insane. But he's got no preparation
for death at all. Who is the fool? And then there is a God, but
he ignores that God except maybe to swear by his holy name. Once
in a while he'll say, Or once in a while do you take
God's name in vain? Who is the fool? And then he
professes to believe the Bible, but he doesn't read it. He professes
to believe Jesus Christ lived on this earth, but he doesn't
study his life. He professes to believe that
there is mercy, but he never seeks it. He says he knows he's
sinning, but he never repents. He says he knows he'll die, but
he acts like he's immortal. He says there's a heaven, but
he makes no effort to enter it. He says there's a hell, but he
makes no effort to escape it. Who's the fool, huh? Let every man here who has any
common sense at all tell me who is the real fool. Well, God calls
men fools. Did you know that? in his word. I want you to turn to several
scriptures with me for just a moment, and then I'll close. First of
all, who is the fool? It's not the prophet. It's not the prophet. It's not
the believer in whose heart the Son of God lives. He knows what
he believes. God's revealed it to him. But
God says in Psalm 14, verse 1, the fool hath said in his heart,
no God for me. No God for me. That man's a fool. And then in Ecclesiastes, over
in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 5, verse 4 and 5, God
says the man who makes a vow and does not keep it. is a fool. In Ecclesiastes 5
verse 4, When thou vowest to vow unto God, defer not to pay
it. God has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldst
not vow, than that thou shouldst vow and not pay. And then God
says in Jeremiah 17, let's see who the fool really is now. In
Jeremiah chapter 17, God says in verse 11, Jeremiah 17, 11,
he says, The man who gets riches dishonestly is a fool. The world says get it any way
you can. God says you're a fool. He says,
as the partridge sitteth on eggs, Jeremiah 17, 11, and hatcheth
them not, so he that getteth riches, and not honestly, not
by right, he's going to leave them in the midst of his days,
and at the end shall be a fool. And then in Proverbs 10, God
calls another man a fool. He says in Proverbs 10, verse
18, that the person who gossips and repeats a slander on the
character of someone else is a fool. In Proverbs 10, verse
18, he that hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth
a slander is a fool. And then God says in Proverbs
28, verse 26, Proverbs 28, verse 26, that the
man who trusts in his own heart, in his own wisdom, in his own
righteousness, who leans not upon Christ with all his soul,
is a fool. Verse 26, Proverbs 28, he that
trusteth in his own heart, that's his own righteousness, his own
holiness, his own worth, is a fool. And then in Luke chapter 12,
and in closing, our Lord says that the man who spends his time
and his effort and his money and his strength to lay up on
this earth possessions and wealth and treasures and makes no preparation
for death and his meeting with God is a fool. He says here in
verse 19 of Luke 12, the rich young man lay upon his bed and
he said, I will, this will I do, verse 18, I'll pull down my barns
and I'll build bigger barns in which to bestow my fruits and
my goods. And I'll say to my soul, soul,
thou hast much good laid up for many years, take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, thy fool. Nobody likes to be called a fool.
Nobody likes to be held up for ridicule and held in contempt. But I'd lot rather the people
of this world call me a fool than the God of glory. And nobody
likes to be thought crazy and insane and having lost his mind. But I'd rather the people of
this world look at me and say he's lost his mind than to have
God Almighty say he's not only a fool, but he's lost his soul.
Thy fool, thy fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee. Thy soul. thy soul." Preacher's a fool, and the believer
is mad. But who is the real fool? Our Father take the word and
make it a sharp, piercing, two-edged sword that goes deep into the
motive