LIVING LIKE A FOOL!

Believers may naively assume that because people around us mention “god” 

they are believers in the God of the Bible.

Psalm 14:1

            The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

                        They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,

                        there is none who does good.

Do you ever get frustrated with the behavior of the unbelievers? Do you wonder why terrible things happen in the world? When a person says that there is no God, not only is he a fool, but he is also on the highway to corruption, abominable actions. No one who does not believe in God does good.

Believers may naively assume that because people around us mention “god” they are believers in the God of the Bible. But every god created by all false religions is merely man-made, and has no ability to change the status of men. Not believing in the only true God Who has revealed Himself in the Scriptures leaves the individual in his foolish state, driven to ungodliness by his fallen nature.

The god of the Muslims, of the Buddhist, of the Mormons, of the Jehovah’s witnesses, of the true Roman Catholics, or of any other man-made religions is not God. Rather it is a creation of man that produces wrath from the Lord.

Even those people who hold a syncretistic view of religion, where all beliefs, or at least some beliefs are acceptable, cannot, at the same time, believe in the God Who revealed himself through the Scriptures.

John 14:6

            Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

1 Timothy 2:5-6

            For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

           

Therefore, any person who does not believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to God and that one can have peace with God only on His terms, believes in another Gospel, another god.

When we make statements with this kind of doctrinal clarity, the reaction of many is to say that we are judgmental and unloving. My reaction is to say that we are faithful to the Bible.

Psalm 14:2-3

            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.

This is not the observation of a man, but a judgment from God. In his moral foolishness, man has not only declared that there is no God, and his behavior proven his inability to please God, but worse of all, he has not even looked for God! He has turned to alternative gods to replace the true, Self-revealed God.

Romans 1:21-23

            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, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Nature and the conscience of man condemn man for his state of rebellion.

Lest we think that these were evaluations of God for the people during Old Testament times, see how Paul reasserts them in the New Testament:

Romans 3:9-12

            What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 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.”

So, how should believers in God react to such evil around them?

Psalm 14:4-7

            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 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.

Although the majority of the world’s people seem intentionally oblivious about the true God, the LORD is “with the …righteous”. He will protect His own, for the LORD is their refuge.

As believers we need to stop hoping that the world will get better through human reform. Even believers sometimes place hope in political or moral reform. But we need to stop expecting unbelievers to live against their nature. They are sinners, and thus they are bound to sin. We should be grateful to God that He restrains the actions of men. Things are not as bad as they would be, if God was not active in restricting evil and showing common grace to men.

As believers we should not be arrogant or proud in our faith. We have believed because, in His grace, God has reveled Himself to us. We did not seek Him. He called us to Him, as Paul states so clearly. We know these facts, but many times our actions and attitudes show no compassion for the lost.

Ephesians 2:1-10

            And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

           

As believers we should rest and trust in God. We should not live in fear, but in total dependence of our great God. Jesus reminds us of this:

John 16:33

            I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

As believers we must be ambassadors for God. This is not a passive attitude, but truly an active goal of our lives. Those who do not know God are our mission field, they are our mission, our “raison d’etre”, the reason we have been left on this world.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20

            Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

As believers, we are fooling ourselves if we believe this world is going to get better. We, too, act foolishly, if we forget that God is in total control. We, too, behave foolishly if we become arrogant in our ways. We, too, live foolishly, if we do not live for the progress of the Gospel!