SANDY RIDGE’S THREE BIGGEST FOOLS
1st Samuel 26: 17 – 21 03/28/04
I want to talk with you this morning about some of the fools of Sandy Ridge. There are three in mind that I want to talk about. I hope before the service is over if you have played the fool like Saul, that you will make a life changing decision and will become a wise person.
What are some of the fools of the Bible? Turn to the book of Psalms 14. I want to share with you what God says about 1 of the fools we want to discuss this morning. In Psalm 14: 1.
The first fool is what we will refer to as THE MENTAL FOOL. In many corners of our society today the belief in God is being laid aside. Disbelief has become the popular point of view. The atheist is a person who says intellectually I don’t believe there is a God. The agnostic is a person who says well, I don’t know if there is a God or not. We have a new category today and it is called the ignostic. It is the person who says I don’t really care whether there is a God or not.
There are some people who say that man’s achievements have put him beyond the point of needing a God. Man has achieved many wonderful things. We’ve been able to put a human being on the moon. Man’s skill and man’s knowledge has given us TVs and PCs and we have all kinds of gadgets and gimmicks that man has been able to devise. Because of that many have dethroned God. Man is a mental fool who denies the existence of God. People do not want to admit there is a God because of wrong living. No one is ever born in this world as an atheist. Everybody is born into this world believing that there is a God. If a person says I do not believe there is a God, there was a time when he did believe there was one and then something happened and caused him to disbelieve that there is a God.
There is the fool who says there is no God but notice in your King James Bible that the two words, "there is", in italics. This means that those words are not in the original manuscripts. They were added by the translators. You could read it this way; the fool hath said in his heart, no God. There are some people who are not only mentally atheistic, but there are others who are practical atheistic. They may believe, mentally, that there is a God, but in terms of their practical lifestyle they live as if there were no God.
If you are living your life as if there is no God, then there is no purpose for your life. What is it all about? What is the meaning of your existence?
Sandy Ridge’s first biggest fool, the mental fool. Let’s move to the book of Proverbs and talk about the second fool. You may not be in the category of a mental fool. You may believe that there is a God. You may even believe that Jesus Christ is His Son and is our Savior. But you may fall into this category.
Proverbs 14: 9 says fools make a mock of sin. This is what we will call THE MORAL FOOL. That is certainly characteristic of our culture today the Bible teaches that whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap.
Talk about certain laws in this universe that are unchangeable. There is the physical laws such as gravity. There is spiritual laws such as God’s word. Cause produces effect
You say I think I can sin and get by with it. No! You can’t sin and get by with it. Proverbs says fools makes a mock at sin. It is the fool who plays with sin.
For instance think about beverage alcohol. One out of every 18 people who take a drink become alcoholic. Suppose you are flying in a large airplane. The air attendant says welcome folks please sit down. I want you to know that one out of every 18 seats will fall from the bottom of this plane. Would you get into the airplane?
You say nobody is going to tell me what to do. Okay. God won’t tell you what to do but God says if this is your course of action, here are the consequences that follow.
There’s a third fool I want to share with you. Turn to Luke 12. A familiar parable of the rich man whose crops produced much. It begins in verse 16 through verse 20.
This man is what we will call A MATERIAL FOOL. One mistake is he thinks he is going to live for many years. He had the idea that things was what life was all about. He thought he had many years. God said this night. How much time do you have? Time is running out.
In conclusion there is another kind of fool in the Bible I want to encourage you to become. In first Corinthians 4:10 the Bible says we are fools for Christ. Everybody is a fool for someone or something. So I want to encourage you to become a fool for Jesus. The happiest people I know are people who are living for Jesus.
There was a man walking down busy street one day. He had a sandwich board sign on him. As people approached him he had these words written on his board. "I am a fool for Christ." People looked at the sign and they laughed. Yes, he is one of those Christians. A fanatic. He is a fool for Christ. As they walked by him they looked back and the back sign read whose fool or you?
