THE THREE FOOLS
Psalms 14:1-7
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. The Three Stooges were a comedy act that built on the ignorance of 3 men: Moe, Larry, & Curly. In this episode, Curly’s trying to save a woman’s reputation and displays his fear of mice and penchant for cheese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y6YPjcQJ4g
2. Though the 3 Stooges were foolish, they weren’t “fools” in the Biblical sense. Listen to Ps. 14:1-7, Living Bible.
B. TEXT
“That man is a fool who says to himself, “There is no God!” Anyone who talks like that is warped and evil and cannot really be a good person at all. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who are wise, who want to please God. 3 But no, all have strayed away; all are rotten with sin. Not one is good, not one! 4 They eat my people like bread and wouldn’t think of praying! Don’t they really know any better? 5 Terror shall grip them, for God is with those who love him. 6 He is the refuge of the poor and humble when evildoers are oppressing them. 7 Oh, that the time of their rescue were already here, that God would come from Zion now to save his people. What gladness when the Lord has rescued Israel!”
Ps. 14:1-6, Living Bible.
C. THESIS
1. In Matthew 5:22, the Lord Jesus warned us that calling another person a “fool” puts us in danger of the “fires of hell.”
2. Maybe we need to be a lot more careful of what we say! If the word “fool” holds such consequences, what will other more serious cuss words result in?
3. Paul said, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” Eph. 5:3-4.
4. Yet God describes in Scripture 3 types of “fools.” They are all around us, and we need to check ourselves to see if we fit into any of their descriptions.
I. THE MENTAL FOOL
Ps 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
A. IS NOT MENTAL, BUT RATHER A MORAL PROBLEM
1. Here is an intellectual atheist. The word “fool” doesn’t mean they are dumb, or uneducated, or stupid. It means they are “morally deficient” -- lacking in their moral component.
2. He/she thinks they can cast off fear of God and acts as if he can safely disregard the Person and righteous standard that God has set up.
3. Someone has said, “If there’s no God, then I don’t need to bother about keeping His commandments.”
4. Aldous Huxley said he supported [evolution] because Creationism/ theism “interfered with our sexual freedom” (Ends and Means, 1937).
5. The sceptic doesn’t WANT to believe in God, because his godless creed allows his godless lifestyle!
B. ATHEISM VIOLATES THE EVIDENCE
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1). To say there’s no God is to deny the plainest evidence, to oppose the almost universal testimony of man to the divine, and to stifle the conscience, which bears witness.
1. CREATION proves there is a God. The universe is complex and orderly, giving immense evidence of a Designer. One night in Egypt, Napoleon pointed to the stars and said, “For no other reason than those lights up there I’m convinced there is a God.”
2. HISTORY proves there is a God. God is there controlling, guiding, shaping “all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11). God has intervened in history many times!
3. The LORD JESUS proves there is a God: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9).
C. HUMOR
1. A rabbi was sitting next to an atheist on an airplane. Every few minutes, one of the rabbi’s children or grandchildren would inquire about his needs for food, drink, or comfort.
2. The atheist commented, “The respect your children and grandchildren show you is wonderful. Mine don’t show me that respect.”
3. The rabbi responded, “Think about it. To my children and grandchildren, I am one step closer in a chain of tradition to the time when God spoke to the whole Jewish people on Mount Sinai.”
4. “To your children and grandchildren, you are one step closer to being an ape.” [SOURCE: Laura Schlessinger, The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God’s Laws in Everyday Life, p. 133].
II. THE MOCKING FOOL
1. Pr. 14:9, “Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favor.”
2. The English words “fool,” and “folly,” come from the Latin “follis,” which means “bellows” (blacksmith’s equipment). It describes a person’s puffed up cheeks. Follis indicates that a fool is a windbag.
A. FOOLS TREAT SIN LIGHTLY
Many have never felt the burden, nor seen sin for what it really is!
1. Achan did that, in the Moment of Greed:
“When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and I took them.” (Joshua 7:21) Have you treated the sin of covetous-ness in your life lightly?
2. David did that, in the Moment of Immorality:
“ He saw a woman washing herself…and David sent and took her… and he lay with her” ( 2 Sam. 11:4 ).
3. Belshazzar did that, in the Moment of Idolatry: “For they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver,” Dan 5:4.
4. ARE THERE ANY SINS YOU ARE TREATING LIGHTLY? Words? Actions? Thoughts? Habits?
B. SIN TREATS FOOLS HARSHLY
1. Victor Hugo tells how a man was caught in quicksand. One moment he was walking along in safety, then the sand began to cling to his feet, then he was bogged down to the knees, and then to the waist. Is that not a picture of sin?
2. Do you not believe that sin is deadly and dangerous? Go to the cross. Sin will bring you down physically, spiritually, eternally? Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.”
3. If we don’t take sin seriously, then we’re this second kind of fool in God’s eyes!
III. THE MATERIAL FOOL
1. Jesus “told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Lk. 12:16-21.
2. This sounds like the mentality of most Americans! Now why did God call him a fool? HE WAS MORE CONCERNED WITH:
A. THINGS THAN WITH GOD
1. “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’” Lk. 12:18.
2. You don’t hear him talk about church, giving, the needy, or ‘others.’ All he says centers around himself. It’s a selfish spirit
3. Isn’t it true that you don’t own things, but things own you? You no longer own the business, the farm, the factory -- it owns you! That’s the tyranny of things!
B. HIS BODY THAN WITH HIS SOUL
1. Lk 12:19 “For he said ‘Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.’”
2. The only thing that concerned him was self-indulgence and self-gratification. He was foolish to think that thinks could satisfy the soul.
3. It is true that “there is pleasure in sin, for a season.” But sin always has a bitter end. The Lord Jesus said,
3. Matt 25:46, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
4. “To lose one’s wealth is much, To lose one’s health is more. To lose one’s soul is such a loss, that nothing can restore.”
C. TIME THAN WITH ETERNITY
1. “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” Lk. 12:19. HE WASN’T THINKING OF ETERNITY!
2. What are you living for? Are you living for self rather than God? Are you living for the body rather than your soul? Are you living for time rather than eternity?
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. The evangelist E.L. Hyde was confronted with an atheist during revival meetings in New Jersey.
2. The atheist said, "Didn't you say last night that you could prove to the satisfaction of anyone within 10 minutes that all atheists are fools?"
3. "Yes I did. Are you an atheist? And you say there is no reality in Christianity?"
4. "Yes, I do say that! I have studied all phases of the subject and have traveled and given lectures against Christianity for more than 12 years and I am prepared to say there's nothing in it."
5. "You are certain there is nothing in it?" "Yes, sir; there is nothing in it!"
6. "Would you please tell me," said Mr. Hyde, "if a man who will lecture 12 years against nothing is not a fool, what in your judgment would constitute a fool?"
7. The atheist turned away in a rage. Mr. Hyde, taking out his watch, insisted he still had 6 minutes to go, but the atheist wouldn't hear him! [Knight’s 3000, p. 28.]
B. THE CALL
1. Three Fools: the Mental Fool, the Mocking Fool, and the Material Fool.
2. The most pronounced qualities about a wise man/ woman in Proverbs is that they fear God and shuns evil; they are teachable; they’re humble and “don’t cast their pearls before swine” (don’t push their wisdom on those who won’t honor it).
3. Since fools put undue faith in material things, a wise man or woman should put their major faith in God, His Word, and His provision for their lives. TRUST & OBEY.
4. The Hymn says, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee; let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure.”
5. Prayer.
[This message is a reworked form of Ian Humphrey’s message of the same name]
