A Study in Psalms - Psalm 53

It was just a couple weeks ago, it seems like, that Lance was preaching in Ecclesiastes, right? And if you remember, he had a message in Ecclesiastes 11, sorry, Ecclesiastes 10, called The Description of the Fool And when I saw that, I'm like, oh man, he's gonna steal my thunder, because I was gonna preach Psalm 53, all about fools But I decided to go ahead and do it, because I'm excited about this tonight But let me ask you tonight a question

Have you heard about this group of people called the Flat Earth Society? Anybody heard of those people? They got a lot of recognition a few years ago, because Kyrie Irving, who's a basketball player for the Dallas, is it Mavericks? Joined them, and came out saying he believed the earth was flat So I did a, I was reading an article about them, and this is on their webpage It says, the Flat Earth Society mans the guns against oppression of thought, and the globalist lies of a new age

Standing with reason, we offer a home for those wayward thinkers, that march bravely on with reason and truth, in recognizing the true shape of the earth, flat Come join us in our forums, and get started learning about the greatest lie ever told You know, I read that, and I was preparing this message about fools And, because the earth was all settled, that it was round, by Greek philosophers, Aristotle, you know, in the 384 BC, knew it was round And, there's a guy named Eru Pasothus, if I could say his name, in the third century He actually calculated the circumference of the earth round

Islamic scholars knew that in the early, ninth and 10th centuries, knew the earth was round And of course, European navigators sailed the earth, knew it was round in the 16th century If you've ever been to Russia with us, and you fly the plane way up, you can actually see the curvature sometimes at night, in the airplane, okay? And then, there are millions of pictures of earth

Elon Musk must send a rocket ship every week up north, up the skies, and they always shoot back pictures of earth, and guess what? It's round, right? So, you look at the sky, and you see the moon, the planets are all round But, what's really strange, is there's even some Christians, that have joined this society But, what does the Bible say? It had it right 3,500 years ago Isaiah 40, 22 says, it is he who sits above the circle of the earth Proverbs 8, 27 says, when he established the heavens, I was there When he drew a circle on the face of the deep God had it right thousands of years ago

So, I think these flat earth society are a bunch of fools Now, I would call them stupid, but my wife says I'm not allowed to use the word stupid anymore Apparently, it's not politically correct But, I always tell her, well, Proverbs 12, 1 says, whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid But then, the new legacy standard Bible, just changed it They changed it to whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is senseless So, maybe that's a better word. I won't use stupid So, at least I can call them fools and senseless

We've had incredible advances in education, science, medicine, and especially technology We can send spaceships to Mars, cure diseases, all the incredible advancements in society, yet we have more fools than ever The Bible has a lot to say about fools, especially in the wisdom books or the poetry books, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and not so much Song of Solomon But it mentions fools 95 times in those five books out of the 117 times in the entire Bible And if I had time tonight, we're gonna have a baptism tonight, so I'll go a little quicker, but next time, write down Proverbs 26

Proverbs 26 is the fool and sluggard chapter of Proverbs And if you read the first 12 verses of Proverbs 26, you will notice that 11 of the 12 verses talk about fools So I won't read it tonight, but I'll let you do it Okay? And so tonight, we're gonna read not just Psalm 53, but we're gonna read Psalm 14, and I think you'll see why So turn with me to Psalm 14 Our Psalm tonight is only six verses, but we're gonna read Psalm 14, which is seven verses, and we'll talk about why did the Holy Spirit put these two almost alike Psalms in our Bible

So first off, Psalm 14 says to the choir master of David, the fool says in his heart, there is no God They are corrupt They do abominable deeds There is none who does good The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God They have all turned aside Together, they have become corrupt There is none who does good, not even one Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord? There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous

You would put to shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people Let Jacob rejoice Let Israel be glad Psalms 14 Now turn to Psalms 53 And I know it's hard just reading it to see the differences Psalms 53 says to the choir master, according to Amaskel of David, the fool says in his heart, there is no God They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity There is none who does good God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God

They have all fallen away Together they have become corrupt There is none who does good, not even one Have those who work evil no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon God? There they are in great terror, where there is no terror, for God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you You put them to shame for God has rejected them Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when God restores the fortunes of his people Let Jacob rejoice Let Israel be glad Father in heaven, we thank you that we can read these two short Psalms tonight

May your Holy Spirit speak to us tonight that everyone here would not be a fool, would not be foolish, but they'd have wisdom and that they would follow Jesus Christ and be born again In Jesus name, amen So did anybody notice any differences between Psalm 14 and Psalm 53? Anybody have a legacy standard Bible? It probably pops out there more. I'm not reading out of that tonight Well, first off, Psalms 14 has seven verses, right? And Psalm 53 has six verses And that's because verse five of Psalm 53 replaces verses five and six of Psalms 14

Okay, we'll look at that later, okay? So verse five of Psalms 53 replaces verses five and six of Psalm 14 Now you may not notice that Psalms 14 has seven verses and the name of God is mentioned seven times And the name L-O-R-D capital Yahweh or Jehovah is used four of those seven times in Psalms 14 Yet when we read Psalms 53, it also mentions God seven times, but it does not use the name Yahweh It uses the Hebrew name Elohim

So in the legacy standard Bible, you would notice it because as Yahweh in your English Bible, you would have to see the L-O-R-D in Psalms 14 and just God in Psalm 53 for Elohim And that makes sense because remember Psalms is five books And in book one, which is Psalms one to 41, the common name or predominant name for God is Yahweh And in book two, Psalms 42 to 72, Elohim is the prominent name for God You can see that as you study it closer and closer And then what's the difference? Well, most commentators believe that Psalms 14 seems to address Israelite fools who ignore God

While Psalms 53 addresses Israel's enemies, foreigners who think they can attack and destroy God's people And another reason is why are there two Psalms? Well, what's the Holy Spirit telling us through David? Some commentators believe David wrote Psalms 14 as a boy and Psalms 53 late in his life as an older man Spurgeon said, David after a long life found men no better than they were in his youth If our age has advanced from 14 to 53, we shall find the doctrine of the Psalm more evident than in our youth

And next, some have tried to make the claim that Psalm 53, even though it says it's ascribed to David, was rewritten by the worship leaders in the temple, the sons of Korah to celebrate a great military delivery And I'll talk more about that when we get to verse five Because verse five says, for God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you So I'm gonna lean towards that, okay? What type of Psalm is this? Well, some would say it's a lament Others would say it's a wisdom Psalm But it's really a unique Psalm that just draws different genres

It's kind of wisdom, it's kind of lament, but it does teach us that God will eventually destroy all the enemies of Israel And you have to go to Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 to 21, to see where God does destroy all the enemies of Israel We have a superscription in Psalm 53 It says to the choir master, according to a mahaleth, and that mahaleth is apparently a type of a musical instrument or a tune on a musical instrument And maskil, as we said last week, is a instruction or wise saying We have three points on your outline If you have an outline tonight, I hope you do

The depravity of fools, and then we have a bunch of characteristics of fools And then we have point two, the destruction of fools, which is just one verse And then we have in the last verse, the faithful are delivered, real simple outline Let's look at point number one, the depravity of fools, verses one to four And these are just simply characteristics of the fools And A, sub point A, fools deny God The Psalm begins with the observation, the fool says in his heart, there is no God It just says the fool Now, you know, the Hebrew word for fool is nabal

And we'll talk about that or nabal, we'll talk about that Because you remember he was married to Abigail and in first Samuel 25, David went to get some food from him and he refused Spurgeon said, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God And this he does because he's a fool Being a fool, he speaks according to his nature Being a great fool, he meddles with the great subject and comes to a wild conclusion The atheist is morally as well mentally a fool, a fool in the heart, as well as a fool in the head, a fool in morals, as well in philosophy

With the denial of God as a starting point, we may well conclude that a fool's progress is a rapid, riotous, raving, ruinous one He who begins an impiety is ready for anything No God being interpreted means no law, no order, no restraint to lust, no limit to passions Now, it's not just a reference to a particular person, but to every person in the human race who denies God, including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus They also are, in a way, atheists The chief characteristic of a fool is one who decides to live a godless life as if there is no God Today, we call these people practical atheists

When we hear the word fool, we think of a stupid person, right, or a senseless person But this person makes a conscious choice to engage in disruptive behavior He lives as a practical atheist who denies accountability to God and the judgment of God in the future Fools who deny God persist in living as if there's no God in his or her daily life You're all familiar with that great chapter in Romans 1, which talks about these people In Romans 1, we read it quite often in this church, verses 18, I'll read verses 18 to 23 in Romans 1

It says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them For his invisible attributes, namely his internal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made So they are without excuse

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God nor give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened And then verse 22 says, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of a mortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds, animals and creeping things You have famous atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, the science guy, Bill Nye, and very clear that God sees atheism as absolute foolishness If you deny the existence of God, God says you are a fool. B, fools do iniquity, continue in verse one

It says they are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity There is none who do good Here we have one of the strongest statements in the entire Bible in the passages about the corruption of the human race The first declaration is they are corrupt And the Hebrew words here mean ruin or devastate This is a word that was used to describe complete corruption of man prior to the flood in Genesis chapter six and Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 and 19 The corruption is so bad that it deserves judgment like God did the flood in Sodom and Gomorrah

The second declaration in verse one of the fool is that they doing abominable iniquity We don't use that word today, but it means abhorrent, it means appalling, it means awful, it means disgusting The third declaration of a fool is there is none who does good And if you notice at the verse of in one, it says there is no one who does good The end of verse three, again, it says there is none who does good This is called an inclusio You see this a lot in the Psalms So you have an inclusio, which frames the description of the wicked

Yes, there are some believers who do good in their life, right? We all know them, but not in God's sight. I think of Mother Teresa, where I lived in India We lived in West Bengal for many years, okay? But they may do good deeds, but they're not doing it for the glory of God Their good is not pleasing to God This statement is at the heart of what we call the total depravity of man Proverbs 10.23 says, doing wrong is like a joke to a fool Proverbs 13.19 says, but to turn away from evil is an abomination to fools So let's look at C, fools don't seek God

Verse two says, God looks down from heaven on the children of man Our text says that God looks down from heaven, and God really doesn't need to look down from heaven We all know that he's omniscient and knows everything So we have just a figurative statement here There's a divine search God is having among the unbelieving world to see who might be seeking God or attempting to please him But it's a vain search, a search that will lead to judgment as in the other times in scripture when God looked down And if you've been with us, Lance has covered this many times

God looked down in Noah's flood, Genesis six God looked down at the tower of Babel, Genesis 11 And God looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 And those three times, there was judgment in all three cases It says that God looks to see if there are any who understand who seek after God You know, when God speaks, we should listen, right? When God speaks twice, we should really pay attention So when God speaks three times, we really need to pay attention So you probably know that Apostle Paul uses the part of verse two and verse three to reiterate it in Romans three, 10 to 19

So the Holy Spirit records those verses three times in Psalms 14, verses two to three, Psalms 53, verses two to three, and Romans three, 11 to 12 No one understands, no one seeks God All have turned aside together They have become worthless No one does good, not even one So the Holy Spirit is saying three times, no one understands, no one seeks God, no one is holy, and no one does good The fool who is the unbeliever does not seek God The human race apart from God is universally corrupt and depraved Unbelievers don't like to hear about their sin, but the Bible is clear on the subject

Proverbs 18, two says, a fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinions Fools don't seek God They don't wanna read the Bible They don't wanna listen to your gospel presentation Let's look at D, fools are defiled Verse three says, they've all fallen away They have become corrupt There is none who does good, not even one If you go to the book of Proverbs, which I mentioned 65 times, it has verses on fools The very first one is Proverbs 1, seven And it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge Fools despise wisdom and instruction

And if you're to take the next Proverbs 1, if you go to the next paragraph, verses 10 to 18, you will see that those fools will go down into a path of violence, okay? Jeremiah 4, 22 says, for my people are ignorant fools They know me not They are simple-minded children who have no understanding They are wise to do evil, but to do good, they do not know how And in E, fools persecute the godly It says, have those who work evil no knowledge

This verse, God is asking a question, a rhetorical question, okay? God is saying, have they no knowledge? He's saying, don't they know what they're doing? The fool is spiritually ignorant of the evil they do, and of course, its consequences You know, we preach or share the good news of the gospel, but we always begin with the bad news, right? I always begin with Romans 3, 23, and tell a person that all have sinned Every man, woman ever born in the world, exception of Jesus Christ, has sinned

And then I tell him Romans 6, 23, that the penalty, the consequences for that sin is the wages of sin is death God is a righteous and just judge, and he must punish sin, and he will And then I take him to Hebrews 9, 27 that says, when we die, you will face judgment The unbeliever may know what sin is, but they deny its consequences or block them out of their mind Only when the Holy Spirit opens their heart to understand can they have knowledge Then has the line, who eat up my people as they eat bread

When it says they eat up my people as they eat bread, it's an analogy meaning fools devour God's people, as it's as natural for us to eat bread in the morning when you have your toast These fools persecute the godly Roman, Psalm 14 was about Israeli fools who ignored God If Psalms 53 is about foreign armies that ignored God, they would persecute Israel They thought they could come and conquer They thought their gods were greater than the ones you're living God But you know, they hate the ungodly You know, I think of the violence that is out there with the LBGQ committee

Often, not always, but quite often, they target churches, they target Christian schools, and it has to be from Satan. I watched a video last night, and I don't know what was going on, but there was some type of Christian service in Seattle, Washington, and Antifa was there blocking people to get in the service And they actually surrounded a mom with a baby, and that was what the video was She's trying to go to this Christian service, and they were blocking her, refusing her, to allow her to go in

Now, that's Seattle, but what happens when it's Los Angeles or out there? Matthew 5.10 says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God It's happening in Seattle, and it could happen elsewhere Thomas Watson said 300 years ago, this is a Christ-hating world and a saint-eating world And lastly, it says, and do not call upon God This sounds like it might mean to pray, but it's probably more having to do with calling upon God by worshiping Him or acknowledging Him And they can't do that because they lack spiritual understanding

So just a little bit of application in point one. I just wanted to mention a few of the fools we have in the Bible. 1 Samuel 26, verse 21, we have the fool of Saul Saul says, I have sinned Return my son David, for I will not harm you again, because my life was precious in your sight Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error So not only did Saul disobey Samuel in God, but he was a fool And then of course, 1 Samuel 25, you know the story of Nabal, okay? And you know that David's men protected him

And then on a feast day, David sent 10 of his men to go to Nabal and say, can we have some food for the feast? And Nabal mocked David and said, no And then when David heard about it, he has 400 men put on their weapons and they were gonna go kill every person there But Abigail, a servant came to Abigail and Abigail went and bowed before David And she said, let not my Lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he Nabal is his name and folly or foolishness is with him And you know, God would strike him down later

And of course, in Matthew 23, Jesus calls the Pharisees blind fools for their hypocritical act of, you know, ceremony cleaning the inside of the cup, but being filthy, cleaning the outside of the cup, but being filthy on the inside And of course, we all know the parable of the rich man in Luke 12, 16, okay? I think it was 30 years ago that Lance said, you know, this was the only place in the Bible where God directly calls somebody a fool And Jesus said in a parable, the land of a rich man produced plenty And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops

And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones And there I will store all my grain and my goods And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years Relax, eat, drink, be merry Verse 20, but God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God So there's four fools we have in the Bible You know, there's joy in knowing Jesus Christ and having the Lord in your life We are no fools We may make mistakes

We may sin sometime and we confess that sin, but the Bible tells us that it's the unbeliever That's the fool Proverbs 14.7 says, leave the presence of a fool for there you do not need words of knowledge Have you ever talked to a fool? And after a few minutes, you just want to get out of there, right? So fools deny God, fools don't see God, fools are defiled and fools persecute the godly Let's look at number two, the destruction of fools And first off, fools are in terror It says, there they are in great terror where there is no terror

So if you compare Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, they both begin verse five with the line, there they are in great terror, okay? But this is where the Psalms differ Because Psalms 14 continues with the line, for God is with the generation of the righteous But Psalms 53 on line two of verse five says, where there is no terror, there they are in great terror where there is no terror So this verse says, there's a place where there was no terror, where the wicked had no fear of God And most commentators believe that Psalm 53 was rewritten after a great victory

And that victory would be the victory of Sennacherib when he surrounded Jerusalem with 185,000 Assyrian soldiers This is one of the great stories in the Bible How great is it? It's mentioned three times Second Kings 18 and 19, Second Chronicles 32, and then Isaiah, right in the middle of Isaiah 36, it tells the story And I won't take time tonight to read it, but it says the Assyrian army was encamped around Jerusalem, they're waiting to attack They're not in terror They have wiped out every army, every country

And if you read the story, the generals go to Jerusalem Wall and they're telling, we conquered Lachish, we conquered this place, we conquered this place What do you think your God's gonna stop us? They're mocking the living God of the universe And you know what happened So there was no terror, but suddenly there was terror The angel of the Lord came out and killed 185,000 of them So many people believe that is what this verse is talking about Years ago, I think when I was in high school, there was a line of clothing that said, no fear Do you remember that? No fear

Well, we should change it to great fear, okay? Dave Chapa, we need a T-shirt like that says great fear But if you have Jesus Christ as your savior, we are not fools and we're not in fear First John 4, 7 to 18 says, but this is love perfected with us so that we may have the confidence for the day of judgment because he is so also as we are in this world There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whosoever fears has not been perfected in love. B, fools will be destroyed by God

So verse five continues and it's different from Psalms 14 because Psalms 53 continues in verse five for God scatters the bones of him who encamps against them What does that mean? Well, in the story of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, Isaiah 37, 36 says the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians And when the people arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead bodies So in ancient Israel or ancient times to leave a body unburied was very disgraceful Even criminals who were executed were buried Deuteronomy 21, 23 talks about that

You got to give a proper burial So for bones to be scattered, you can imagine 185,000 dead bodies, the birds of the air and the animals would eat them That would be very shameful Let's look at the rest of verse or the next part of verse five, fools will be shamed And it says, you put them to shame and did God put them to shame? So when you read the story, 185,000 troops were killed, but it also says that I mentioned the envoys went to the wall of Jerusalem and they had a lot of mocking The story actually in second Kings is 61 verses long That's why I can't read it tonight

But one of the times, one of the taunts was this They came to the walls of Jerusalem and they said, don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria And second Chronicles says they even wrote letters of contempt to Hezekiah God did deliver Hezekiah and Jerusalem and Sennacherib departed He returned to shame into Nineveh and he was murdered by his own sons So God put the entire Assyrian army, including the King Sennacherib to shame Fools will be put to shame

There will be judgment on fools. A Christian though will never be put to shame, but God will shame the fools or the unbeliever And I mentioned this verse makes me think of all the big shot atheists in our society And I mentioned the three of them who they think the unbelieving world is so intellectual They think they are so smart with their many books and their anti-God speeches, but they will be put to shame someday And we believers will be vindicated Next fools will be rejected It says for God has rejected them They're gonna be put to shame because God has rejected them

And you remember the last verse in the parable of the rich fool It says, God said this night, your soul has been required of you You know, it's just a warning for all people who deny or oppose God Hebrews 10, 31 says, it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God And all fools someday will fall in the hands of God unless they repent and believe And let's look at the last verse Verse six, the faithful will be delivered And it says, his salvation is by God The Psalmist says, oh, that salvation for Israel will come out of Zion

The Psalmist was longing for deliverance and restoration to come from the Lord The Psalmist knows that God dwells among his people and that his presence is in the temple in Zion, which is Jerusalem In fact, if this Psalm was rewritten, you know, changing, slightly changing Psalm 14 about the destruction of the Syrian army, it was a great deliverance And it was so great that the Holy Spirit records it three times in our Bible But it also speaks of a future spiritual salvation Psalms 14 and Psalms 53 may be the strongest verses in the Bible on the depravity of man

And then match that with Romans 3, 10 to 19 There is no one righteous, not even one Salvation for Israel did come out of Zion for them at that battle And it will come out for Israel in the future Romans 11, 26 says, and in this way, all Israel will be saved As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion He will banish ungodliness from Jacob And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins Salvation came out of Zion when Jesus died on the cross, making a way of salvation, not just for Gentiles, but for Jews and Gentiles And then B, his restoration is by God

It says when God restores the fortunes of his people God destroyed the Assyrian army, wiped them completely out And he gave Judah and Jerusalem a time of peace Hezekiah would have a few more years, maybe 15 more years to live So the fools in Psalms 14 are Jewish and the fools in Psalm 53 are the enemies of God God is gonna destroy them and he will eventually, as Romans 11, 26 says, save the remnant of Israel And then C, his celebration is in God It says let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad The rejoicing and the celebrations would be brief because Hezekiah's reign didn't last too much longer

And then fools would take over, the kings would be And fools would lead Israel and Israel would be a downfall and God would judge Israel and they would be destroyed and taken to Babylon But ultimately the salvation will come from the Lord when he comes to judge the world And that will be a great day of rejoicing, a great day of deliverance and that So what can we learn from this short Psalm, the application? Well, I was gonna take a little bit of time to talk about Proverbs. I mentioned in Proverbs 65 of the 117 times in our Bible, we have the word fool

But there's actually four kinds of people in Proverbs. I think I've shared with this before, but I'll do it again, okay? The first type of person Proverbs mentions is called, in my translation, simple The King James may say naive It literally means empty head When that baby is born, it is literally an empty head There's no knowledge in there So that's the word simple It's used 15 times in Proverbs They're born simple The second type of person in Proverbs is wise And that's used over 60 times, okay? The third type is what we're talking about tonight, fools And it's mentioned 65 times

And the fourth type of person in Proverbs is what we call a scoffer And that's mentioned 13 times So, you know, Psalms one, the very first Psalm says there are two paths There's a godly path and there's an ungodly path So the godly way, that simple mind, okay, that empty head, that naive head, mothers and fathers have a responsibility to fill it with knowledge, with biblical wisdom And that child should become wise And if they do, it says in Proverbs 1.4, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth And Proverbs 22.6 says, train up a child in the way he should go

Even when he is old, he will not depart from it So way number one is the godly way You take that simple mind, that empty head, and you fill it with biblical wisdom, okay? One of my favorite preachers I like to follow is Bodhi Bachman And he says that if you send your children to Caesar to be educated, you should not be surprised when they come back as Romans So too many parents are having their kids educated and not filling that mind, okay? Let's talk about the ungodly way that Proverbs mentions Same thing, you have that simple, empty head with no knowledge

But if you don't fill it with biblical wisdom, or you let the Caesar or the Romans fill it, or the school districts or whatever, they will become fools Bodhi Bachman says that almost 80% of children who grew up in churches, when they become teenagers and run off to college, they walk away from the faith They may have made a profession at VBS or something, but they're fools, they're not walking with the Lord And so this is a greatest reminder, okay, I'm not done, I'm sorry So they're simple-minded, then they become fools, and lastly, they could become scoffers

Have you talked to some of them? I was with the youth group 30 years ago And so we just had Easter, we just had Mother's Day, and some of the children that I were in my youth group came to church those Sundays And they're not walking with the Lord now And there's hope for fools, there's hope for fools God will run after them But scoffers, not so much hope, but there's some out there So this psalm is a reminder to us that the greatest disciples you mom and dads have are your children You may never be a missionary, but actually we're all missionaries

The question is what kind of missionaries you are Husband, your greatest disciple is your wife Mothers and fathers, your greatest disciple is your children And you only have 18 or so years to fill that little precious mind with wisdom so they don't become fools If you don't, they will go the way of the unbeliever Let's talk now about unbelievers and believers First off, let's talk about unbelievers It says in our psalm, there is no one righteous, not even one Three times, Psalm 14, Psalm 53, and Romans 10 The whole world has become corrupt and chooses to live in defiance of God

When people ignore God or the idea that God exists, they ignore distinctions between good and evil They are fools and they will face judgment And yes, I'm talking about some of our relatives And it hurts to say that, but they are fools But as I said, there's still hope for fools Hopefully they haven't gotten to the next step in Proverbs, which is the scoffer where there's little hope, okay? One commentator said, This psalm gives a powerful description of the sinfulness and spiritual ignorance of the world in which the righteous must live

The destruction is not limited to a few enemies, but to the whole human race who persist in living as if there were no God So if you have fools or you know fools, we need to do two things We need to pray for them and we need to share the gospel with them again and again We all know someone who's rejected God, the Bible, and the way of salvation But Psalm 53 is a warning to them that they need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ before it's too late

We need to share with them. 2 Timothy 2, 24 to 26 says that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will They're not following God, they're following the devil right now What about believers? You may think that this psalm has nothing to do with me because I'm a believer. I'm not a fool. I am wise to salvation And I'm certainly, I'm not a fool who doesn't believe in God or reject God. I believe in Jesus Christ He died on the cross for me

He was buried and he rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of God and will come a second time to take me home to be with him Psalms 53 reminds us that Christians can act like atheists and fools sometimes One commentator said, every deliberate sin presupposes a functional atheist When David sinned, he didn't just get up and decide, I'm gonna commit adultery today In the heat of the moment, he pushed all thoughts of God away to the back of his mind so he could have Bathsheba, his neighbor's wife He was acting like an atheist But we can do the same thing

We are deliberately, when we push God to the back of our minds so we can do what we want So just five quick things, need to remain in fellowship with other believers You know, I'm talking to the choir tonight You come out on Sundays, you come out on Wednesday nights Our pastor is not here to tickle our ears on Sunday He preaches Christ in all his holiness and we need to be holy as God is holy You need to continue to read your Bible daily You know, you heard that saying, the Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible, right? God speaks to us through scripture

Third, we need to sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs in our heart throughout the day, keeping our minds on Jesus Christ, on his majesty and his grandeur Fourthly, think of heaven And if you've been with us with Pastor Lance and Thessalonians and almost every book of the Bible, you know, Lance said, the clearer you see the future, the cleaner you live in the present First John 3 says, beloved, we are God's children now and what will be has not yet appeared

But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure And number five, you need to run from anything that deadens your soul to Christ and blinds your eyes to his beauty Sin can cover your eyes like cataracts and cloud your vision of God, but you need to keep your eyes on Jesus Let's pray Father in heaven, thank you that we can look at this short psalm tonight And Father, I pray that every person in this room tonight would know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in their lives

Father, I pray that if there's anybody that's not sure, anybody who's not following you tonight, that tonight would be the day of salvation and that they would obey you and follow you and they'd not be fools And Father, I pray for my relatives, my nieces, my nephews, my relatives and all the relatives we have here tonight that aren't following Christ, that perhaps grew up in church, that have wandered from the faith On the CCC prayer letter, there's over 25 people asking for prayer for relatives who don't know Jesus Christ Follow their fools They're denying God

They may know of him, but they put him in the back of his mind and they need to repent and believe Give us more chances to share the gospel with them Help us to share Psalm 53, that that judgment will come and they can't escape that judgment to come So we do pray for all of our relatives that they would come to Christ Father, we now pray for the baptisms that we're about to partake in Jesus' name, amen.