Psalm 14 The Fool

Intro:

Review from last week:

Psalm 53 is almost identical to this Psalm.

Outline:

Life Without God: “None Who Does Good” (vs.1-3)

Life With God: “The LORD is His Refuge” (vs. 4-7)

Summary: a fool’s folly is found in the self-centered forgetfulness of God

Illustration:

Prayer:

Life Without God: “None Who Does Good” (vs. 1-3)

The Fool: the diagnosis (v. 1)

the fool- “A fool is not one who lacks raw intelligence, but rather one who ‘decides and acts on the basis of the wrong assumption’” (The New International Commentary, 166).

“In the Bible foolishness means a destructive self-centerdness”- Timothy Keller in “The Songs of Jesus”

says in his heart- not necessarily out loud, but this is his or her belief

There is no God- What would life be like without God?

Psalm 10:4 “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.””

No creator or author of life

No absolutes: right and wrong, rules, laws or consequences

The individual or community of shared beliefs become god.

They

are corrupt- same word used in Genesis 6:5, 11, 12 , he or she spoils everything they do. Who they are.

do abominable deeds- What they do

There is none who does good- What their reputation is

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.””

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

According to the Word of God, faith has to be involved in pleasing God, in doing “what is good”.

We may say that someone is acting or has done an action that we deem “good” but our standard is not God’s standard. Someone can do wonderful words of philanthropy, kindness, and unselfish work and yet not be pleasing to God. This is hard to understand.

The LORD: the search (v. 2)

The LORD- in contrast to the fool we have the LORD

looks down from heaven- this contradict the notion of the fool that there is no God or that he is not present.

on the children of man

to see if there are any who understand- or “acts wisely”

who seek after god- Not only is the fool’s doing corrupted, but also his understanding.

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.””

They: the conclusion (v. 3)

They have all turned aside- the motion of looking and seeing, then turning a different direction

The progression of Romans 1

together they have become corrupt- “sour” like milk. different word than in verse 1. This is used in a moral sense.

there is none who does good

not even one

This is pretty bleak, there is no hope in and of the human race itself. As David looks out over humanity he comes to this conclusion.

There is a lot of self-centered destruction out there. But the scariest part is that there is a log of self-centered destruction in here, in the heart of everyone including himself.

Application/Implications:

Renew the Mind (the Scriptures):

What caught your attention in this section?

Which verses or words would you like to study a little more this week?

Engage the Heart (humility vs. pride):

What is the diagnosis of your heart today? You may not say in with your works that there is not God, but what about your belief? Do you seek to live life without the need for God or faith in a relationship with Him?

What areas of your life has become corrupt thinking that God is not part of that or that you don’t need God in that area, or His Word does not address? For example, you trust God for a place in heaven, but we rarely inquire of Him about:

close relationships

Parenting

Finances

Mental Health

Career priorities

Marriage conflict

God’s will regarding sex

This is what makes the parable of the 2 sons so scary to me! You can have a son that makes foolish/sinful decisions and does everything he is not supposed to that then repents and is closer to the father than the son that was obedient to everything that we expected of him but would not celebrate with his father.

Enlist the Body (Words, actions, emotions):

“Presently qualified”- What does this mean. As we have been studying 1-2 Timothy, and Titus over the last couple of years, we have been asking what does it mean to be presently qualified to be a deacon. What does it mean to be a man that has a humble and contrite Spirit and trembles at the Word of God, one that is not perfect but is penitent, one that displayes the character of 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1. There has only been one question about the qualifications and it surronds the phrase, “he must be the husband of one wife”, a “one woman man, “one woman at a time”. For years, it has been taught and held to that if a man is divourced he is immediately disqualified from being a deacon or elder/pastor (leadership in the Church). This is how many believers over the years have taken this, and you are not going against Scripture. What we have come to in our study is that in light of progressive sanctification and maturing in Christ, we don’t see divoure as a guarentee for disqualification. In other words, if you were divourced 20, 30, 40 years ago that doesn’t immediately mean you are disqualified. We want to look at how the man and his wife have proven their character over time. This is very mych a case by case kind of thing. Just because you are married and have been attending this church and serving faithfully does not guarantee that you are seeking God anymore than having divource in your past disqualifies you from serving God today.

A couple of weeks ago, I said the phrase, “don’t be suprised if you see men’s names on the ballot that have not been there in previous years”. To be clear, what I was saying is, don’t be suprised if you see men on the list that have been divourced in their past.

Transitional phrase:

Life With God: “The LORD is His Refuge” (vs. 4-7)

Regret for evildoers (v. 4)

have they no knowledge- This is a good question, can people be held accountable that have not had the chance to read the Bible?

all the evildoers

who eat up my people as they eat bread

and do not call upon the LORD?- Do they think they can get away with what they are doing to God’s people? To attack God’s people is to attack God. See how a belief becomes a course of action?

This is the deadly conclusion of believing that there is no God! They think they can get away with what they want.

David is saying that those who think they can live life without God because they do no see the immediate consequences for their actions will regret it. Where does it say that…keep reading

Refuge from shame (vs. 5-6)

There they are in great terror- to live life without God leads to a life dominated by fear and isolation because the only person that you trust is yourself.

for God is with the generation of the righteous.

You would shame the plans of the poor

but the LORD is his refuge- “I cannot believe they would trust in God…why do you give money to the church…you cannot come to the tournament this weekend because you have to go to church…why don’t you just sleep with the person and find out if you are compatible…” But what they are not thinking about is that God and His wisdom is my safeplace.

Restored fortunes (v. 7)

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.- after the time of David, during the reign of Solomon the people of Israel are going to experience a piece of this, but nothing like when Jesus is king!

Application/Implications:

Renew the Mind (the Scriptures):

What caught your attention in this section?

Which verses or words would you like to study a little more this week?

Engage the Heart (humility vs. pride):

If we choose to live without God, there will be regret in our lives.

Here is the scariest part about this, as I have been studying and preaching through this, the biggest temptation of thought is to think that the fools are out there! It is so and so at work, my cousin, neighbour, friend, or polititicians. But this text points out that the fools are in here too. I

Enlist the Body (Words, actions, emotions):

Transitional phrase:

Summary: a fool’s folly is found in the self-centered forgetfulness of God

Discussion Starters:

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b

c

Song: Hymn of Heaven

Benediction/Looking ahead: INVITE PEOPLE TO THE CAFE