The Fool and His Heart
Notes
Transcript
The Heart of the Atheist
The Heart of the Atheist
The Biblical Fool
Romans 1:20–22 “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal 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 or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,”
The biblical definition of a fool had virtually nothing to do with intelligence.
It doesn’t take much observation to see that there is a major difference between intelligence and wisdom.
Many atheists are very intelligent. However, with that intelligence comes pride. Psalm 10:4 “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.””
For
The Root Cause of Atheism
Romans 1:22–24 “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,”
Worship of Self
Freedom from an external morality
Professor Paul C. Vitz (University of New York) - wrote a book about the psychology of atheism
He didn’t like his background
Social Influence (Academia)
Personal Convenience
Time
Pleasure
Aldous Huxley (British Novelist): ‘I had motive for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves. … For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political.’
"Religion is not the belief there is a god. Religion is the belief god tells you what to do." ~ Christopher Hitchens
The root cause of atheism is clearly pride and the worship of self.
The Results of Atheism
Corruption
Abominations
Unrighteousness
The Identity of the Atheist
The Identity of the Atheist
Searching for Seekers
The Lord is searching the earth for anyone who is searching for Him.
We might call these individuals “seekers”
There was a whole movement within the church that was call the “seeker sensitive” movement.
On the surface this movement did some good things. It pushed churches to be more welcoming to visitors and to a wider demographic of people.
However, what it gave up to get there was not worth the cost.
Theologically, it had a problem. The church was primarily established by God for the edification of believers, not as an evangelistic tool. The biblical idea is that believers come to church to be equipped to go out into the world and share the gospel.
Many of these churches abandoned true biblical preaching for for watered down and inclusive messages. In many instances they stopped preaching the gospel entirely.
However, I would like to propose an even more fundamental problem with this movement. I don’t believe that there really is such a thing as a “seeker”. No one seeks after God on their own. If someone is seeking after God then it is because the Holy Spirit is convicting them of their sin. Now that group of people we might call “seekers”.
Romans 3:10–11 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.”
In our Psalm we find the same result. God searches the world for someone who is, on their own, searching for Him and what does He find, no one. They have all turned away; they have been corrupted and there is none who does good, not even one.
Romans 3:10–12 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””
The theology of Romans 3 is built in part on Psalm 14.
Psalm 53 “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.”
Humanity’s Reality
Humanity’s reality is this, that if not for the sovereign work of God through Christ and the Spirit we would all reject God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
Theology
What do we believe about sin?
Inherited - you were born a sinner
Committed - are you a sinner because you sin or do you sin because your a sinner? - yes
Total - you might say that it is universal. Everyone is a sinner, and no one can save themselves.
This one reason why the O.T is so important. Without it our understanding of sin would be greatly impeded.
The Walk of the Atheist
The Walk of the Atheist
Willful Ignorance
“Have they no knowledge…?”
I believe the Psalmist is essentially saying, “can’t they see the consequences of their actions?”
In some respects the answer is no. They do not understand because they are spiritually blind. We must understand, however, that this blindess is willful because it stems from a rejection of Christ. So whether we call it willful ignorance or willful blindness the result is the same.
2 Corinthians 4:4 “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Corrupted Morality
“all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?”
This is a graphic illustration when you think about it. They see no difference between eating a piece of bread and eating a person. The Psalmist probably didn’t have literal canibalism in mind so much as the explotation of the poor by the ruling classes and thereby “devouring” them.
The point of the illustraiton is the casualness with which they take advantage of people.
There is no doubt that abortion is greatest example of this corrupted morality.
The willful ignorance that stems from their rejection of Christ leads to a serverly corrupted morality.
Unacknowledged Fear
What if I am wrong?
For the Christian who has lived an actively Christ-like life this question may also be asked. What if I am wrong? Then the worst case scenario is that my religion cause me to live a moral, compassionate and selfless life.
For the atheist, if I am wrong well then, eternity in hell is a long time.
In other words their risk is much much greater.
Whether they acknowledge it or not there is always that base level fear.
As the Psalmist here puts it, “they are in great terror...” ultimately because God is not with them. He is with the righteous.
Either a few moments after their death or at Christ’s return they will know fear.
The Hope for the Atheist
The Hope for the Atheist
Hints of Hope
v. 4 acknowledges that God has a people that He has drawn to Himself. He calls them “my people”
v. 6 Points out that even though the fool would shame the plans of the poor the Lord is their refuge.
So even though none of us are righteous, none of us seek after God on our own, we know that we may be one of His people that take refuge in Him.
How do we get their?
Source of Salvation
David didn’t understand God’s plan of salvation completely. Unlike us he did not have the completed Word of God.
He did have enought to place his faith in the one who would come out of Zion. The one who David himself is an imperfect picture of in many places in the OT.
Isaiah 59:20 ““And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.”
King David knew beyond a shadow of doubt that what he, Israel and the world needed was a Messiah, a Savior. We need God to intercede on our behalf to save us from ourselves.