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.

I'm sorry, Ecclesiastes 10 called the description of the

fool. And when I saw that, I'm like,

oh man, he's going to steal my Thunder because I was going to

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 AI was reading an

article about them and this is this is on their web page.

It says the Flat Earth society man's 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 E Ruth Pasethus, if I could say his

name, in the 3rd century, he actually calculated the

circumference of the Earth round.

Islamic scholars knew that in the early nineteen, 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. OK.

And then there are millions of pictures of Earth.

Ellen 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 3500 years ago. Isaiah 4022 says it is he who

sits above the circle of the earth.

Proverbs 827 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 want you 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 of 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 going to 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, OK. And so tonight we're going to

read not just Psalm 53, but we're going to read Psalm 14.

And I think you'll see why. So turn to me to Psalm 14.

Our Psalm tonight is only 6 verses, but we're going to read

Psalm 14, which is 7 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 evil doers 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 choirmaster.

According to a Mahalath, a masculine 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 1.

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 6 verses. And that's because verse 5 of

Psalm 53 replaces verses 5 and 6 of Psalms 14.

OK, we'll look at that later. OK, so verse 5 of Psalms 53

replaces verse 5 and 6 of Psalm 14.

Now you may not notice that Psalms 14 has seven verses and

the name of God is mentioned 7 times and the name Lord 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 Lord in

Psalms 14 and just God in Psalm 53 for Elohim.

And that makes sense because remember, Psalms is five books.

And in book 1, which is Psalms 1 to 41, the common name or

predominant name for God is Yahweh.

And in book 2, 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

they're 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 this 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 Korra, to

celebrate a great military delivery delivery.

And I'll talk more about that when we get to verse 5, because

verse 5 says, for God scatters the bones of him who encamps

against you. So I, I, I'm going to lean

towards that. OK, 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

Revelation 19:11–21

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 choirmaster

according to a a MA hololith and that ma hololith is apparently a

type of a musical instrument or a tune on musical instrument and

mass skill, as we said last week, is a instruction or why

sing? We have three points on your

outline. If you have an outline tonight,

I hope you do the depravity of fools.

And we have a bunch of characteristics of fools and

then we have .2 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 #1 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 novel, and we'll talk about that.

Or Nabel, 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 a 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. 1 He who begins and and 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 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 destructive behavior.

He lives to as a practical atheist who denies

accountability to God and the judgement of God in the future.

Fools who deny God, persistent living as if there's no God in

his or her daily life. You're all familiar with that

great chapter in Romans one which talks about these people

in Romans one. We read it quite often in this

church, verses 18. I'll read verses 18 to 23 in

Romans one. 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

immortal 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.

Continuing verse one 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 rune or devastate. This is the word that was used

to describe complete corruption of man prior to the flood in

Genesis chapter 6 and Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 and 19.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

The corruption is so bad that it deserves judgment like God did

the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah.

The second declaration in verse one is 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 is of a

fool is there is none who does good and if you notice that the

verse of N1 it says there is no one who does good.

The end of verse 3 again it says there is none who does good.

This is called an inclusio. You see this a lot in the

Psalms, which so that 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 a Mother Teresa where I live in India, we lived in West

Bengal for many years. OK, but they're, they are, 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 1319 says but to turn away from evil is an abomination

to fools. So let's look at see fools don't

seek God. Verse 2 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 and knows everything. So we have a just a figurative

statement here. This is there's a divine search

God is 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 judgement as

in the other times in Scripture when God looked down.

And if you've been with us, Lance has covered this and many

times God looked down and Noah's flood, Genesis 6, God looked

down at the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11 and God looked down

at Sodom and Mora in Genesis 18. And those three times there was

judgement in all three cases. It says that God looks to see if

there 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 Paul, God speaks three times, we really need to pay

attention. So you probably know that

Apostle Paul uses the part of verse 2 and verse 3 to reiterate

it in Romans 310 to 19. So the Holy Spirit records those

verses three times in Psalms 14 verses 2 to 3, Psalms 53, verses

Psalms 14:2–3 Psalms 53:2–3

2 to 3, and Romans 311 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 want to read the

Bible. They don't want to listen to

your gospel presentation. Let's look at Dee.

Fools are defiled. Verse 3 says they've all fallen

away. They have be, they have they

have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not

even one. If you go to the the book of

Proverbs, which I mentioned 65 times, it has verses on fools.

The very first one is Proverbs 17 and it says the fear of the

Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

And if you were to take the next Proverbs one, 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.

OK, Jeremiah 422 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 then E fools persecute the

godly. It says have those who work evil

no knowledge. This verse is at this verse God

is asking a question, a rhetorical question.

OK, 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 323

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 623

that the 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 927 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 400 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, what Seattle, WA 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,

allow her to go in. Now that's Seattle, but what

happens when it's Los Angeles or out there?

Matthew 510 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 St. 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 worshipping him or

acknowledging him. And they can't do that because

they lack spiritual understanding.

So the just a little bit of application in .1.

I just wanted to mention a few of the fools we have in the

Bible. First Samuel 26 verse 21 we have

1 Samuel 26:21

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, first Samuel

2525, you know the story of novel, OK, and you know that

David's David's men protected him.

And then on a feast day, David sent ten of his men to go to

novel and say, can we have some food for the feast?

And novel mock David and said no.

And then when David heard about it, he is 400 men put on their

weapons and they were going to 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 novel, for as his name

is, so is he novel 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

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

1216. OK, 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're 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

of your life. We are no fools.

We may make mistakes, we may send some time and we confess

that sin, but the Bible tells us that it's the unbeliever that's

the fool. Proverbs 14 seven 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 at #2 the destruction of fools.

And 1st off, fools are in terror, OK?

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

5 with the line there they are in great terror.

OK, 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 2 of verse

5 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 as 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 his Syrian 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 the generals go to Jerusalem

wall and they're telling we conquered Lakish, we conquered

this place, we conquered this place.

What that what do you think your God's going to 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's a line of

clothing that said No Fear. Do you remember that?

No Fear. Well, we should change it to

great fear. OK Dave Choppa, 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 4718 says, But this

is love perfected with us so that we may have the confidence

for the day of judgement, 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 5 continues, and it's different from Psalms 14 because

Psalms 53 continues in verse 5. For God scatters the bones of

him who in camps against them. What does that mean?

Well in the story of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, Isaiah

3736 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 for an ancient in ancient Israel or ancient times to leave

a body unburied was very disgraceful.

Even criminals who were executed were buried.

Deuteronomy 2123 talks about that.

You got to give a proper bearing.

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 5.

Fools will be 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 in Second

Kings is 61 verses long. That's why I can't read it

tonight. But one of time, 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 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 going to be put to shame because God has rejected them.

And you remember the last verse in the parable, 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 1020, 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 6. 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 long 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

310 to 19. There is no one righteous, not

even 1. Salvation for Israel did come

out of Zion for 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 Syrian 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 going to destroy them and He will eventually.

In lies Romans 11/26 says save the remnant of Israel and then

see his celebration is in. God 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 this will 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 it

comes to judge the world. And that will be a great day of

rejoicing, a great day of deliverance.

And So what can we learn from this short Psalm, the

application? Well, I I was going to take a

little bit of time 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. OK.

The first type of person Proverb mentions is a called in my

translation simple. The King James may say naive.

It literally means empty head. When that baby is born 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.

OK, 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, OK, that empty head, that

knight 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.

In Proverbs 22, six says, train up a child in the way you should

go. Even when he is old, he will not

depart from it. So way #1 is the godly way.

You take that simple mind, that empty head, and you fill it with

biblical wisdom. OK, 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 mine.

OK, 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 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 her greatest reminder.

OK, I'm not done. I'm sorry.

So the simple minded, then they come 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 wear 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, you

know, 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.

Husbands, 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 our Psalm there's

no one righteous, not even 1/3 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 judgement.

And yes, I'm talking about some of our relatives and it hurts to

say that, but they are fools. But there, 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. OK, 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 are no God. So if you have fools or you

know, fools, we need to do 2 things.

We need to pray for them and when you 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.

Second Timothy 2/24/26 says that that 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 sin, he didn't just get up and decide I'm going to

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 he goes. God is holy.

You need to be continued 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, thinking 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 his hope in him purifies himself as he is

pure. And #5 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,

and thank you for 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 the

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 wanted 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. They're 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 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.