God rules; fools don’t believe

D.L. Moody, the great evangelist of the 19th century, was preaching to a large gathering of people, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. In the crowd was a fanatical atheist who decided to disrupt the meeting. This unbeliever wrote one word on a piece of paper — Fool — folded it and handed it to the usher saying he had an urgent message for Moody. The usher carried it to the platform in the middle of the sermon and placed it on the pulpit.

Assuming an emergency, the evangelist stopped the message and read the note. It was only one word — Fool. Moody looked up and saw the atheist waving at him. Without hesitating, Moody announced, “A most interesting thing has just occurred. Many times I have received a letter in which the sender has forgotten to sign his name. But this is the first time anyone has signed his name but forgotten to write the letter.”

The word fool is God’s evaluation of any person who tries to live without him. It is spiritual insanity to attempt to live apart from God. Yet so many people around the world live without God and depend on themselves for all their needs. The person who abandons the truth of God’s Word is a fool. Unbelief makes a person a fool — not someone who is mentally deficient but one who is morally depraved and spiritually destitute.

This was David’s appraisal of the human race in Psalm 53. Joseph Addison said, “To be an atheist requires an infinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny.” Psalm 53:1-6 lists four characteristics of the fool.

The first characteristic is the fool described in verse 1. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.”’ (verse 1a) The fool does not mean a person of mental incompetence but a person of moral insensitivity and spiritual ignorance. He rejects and ignores what God says. The problem is in “his heart.” At the very center of his being, in the depths of his soul, he rejects the knowledge of God. He is a practical atheist — not an intellectual one. He lives as if there were no God with whom he has to deal. He orders his life as if there is no heaven, no hell, no final judgment and no eternal punishment.

The result of this rejection of God is a corrupt life. Lumping together all unbelievers David says, “They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity …” (verse 1b) The result is, “There is none who does good.” (verse 1c) All their righteous deeds are as “filthy rags” in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6).

The second characteristic is the fool described in verses 2-4. Verse 2 reads, “God looks down from heaven upon the children of men …” God is investigating the human race, judging lives, scrutinizing hearts and weighing motives. God looks “… to see if there are any who understand, who seek God” (verse 2). The implied answer is no. Lost sinners do not understand what awaits them as they continue in their evil ways.

In verse 3, rather than seeking God, the opposite occurs. Left to themselves lost people will always run away from God, never to him. “Everyone of them has turned aside; they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one” (verse 3).

The third characteristic is the fool destroyed in verse 5. David anticipated the judgment of the wicked. This devastation is so certain that the verbs are recorded in the past tense as if it has already occurred. David foresees this outpouring of God’s wrath. “For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you; you have put them to shame, because God has despised them” (verse 5). The scene pictures a battlefield in which God defeated his enemy’s advance.

The fourth characteristic is the faithful delivered (verse 6). David concludes by asking God to rescue His people from all their enemies. “Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.”

It has been said, “The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.” Man’s problems are not external, such as a need to change his environment. The problem is internal. The problem is his heart. That is why all people must be born again. They need a new heart, a new nature that loves God and seeks to pursue holiness.

C.S. Lewis once said, “No clever arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet.” The same can be said about the total depravity of mankind. No matter how cleverly a person may arrange his life, he is incapable of being good on his own. There is only one cure for the deadly plague of sin and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone redeems through his death upon the cross. Your sins were placed upon him at the cross. He offers forgiveness of sin to all who turn to him with repentance and faith.

Ethan Hansen (ethanchansen-@gci.net) is pastor of Faith Bible Fellowship in Big Lake.