Religion Is For Fools
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Fools make a mock at sin:
But among the righteous there is favour.
There are two translations of this verse.
The first one is, “Fools make a mock at sin;”
The second is, “Fools make a mock at the sin offering.”
Let us notice these statements one at a time.
1. Fools make a mock at sin.
(1) Fools have no fear of sin’s power.
They invite its ravages, they leap into the waves of its roarings, they approach its pit-falls, play over its abysms, and mock its intrigue.
(2) Fools take no warning of sin’s slaughter.
They see many strong men wounded, they behold the earth made a wilderness and yet they rush in, thinking that they, with the arm of flesh, can meet the enemy.
(3) Fools sing and laugh while sin robs them of every vestige of honor and life and peace.
They fiddle while Rome burns.
Around them the pathway lies strewn with human wreckage.
On every hand there is sorrow and suffering, madness and murder, sickness and suicides, broken hearts and blasted homes, divorce and despair, yet they mock and laugh and sing.
Fools shout with glee while their coffins are being builded, while death’s “Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” is being written over their heads.
2. “Fools make a mock at the sin-offering.”
(1) The sin-offering is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He suffered the “Just for the unjust,” He “was made a curse for us.”
So also “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.”
(2) Fools mock at Christ.
They refuse His mercy and will none of His grace.
They despise and reject the only One Who can save them.
Illustration:
Some one saw a man rushing toward East River in New York city, intent on suicide. The man threw himself from the bridge into the river. Quickly a rope was thrown him. But, the man grasped the rope, and throwing it away from him cried: “I’m done.” Thus he died.
(3) Cain is a Bible example of this fool. He cried to God, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”
And yet God had said to Cain: “A sin-offering coucheth at thy door” (marg.).
Cain was cursed because he refused, in the first place to offer upon his altar a true token.
He brought of the fruits of the field, and refused the offering of blood. After his murder of Abel he still refused the sin-offering.
Before every unsaved sinner, God has placed salvation through the Blood of the Cross. Every one who refuses the shed Blood is lost.
Let those who deny God, and defame the Word of God, beware lest they set at naught the Blood of Christ. Let them remember that God says, “Fools make a mock of the sin-offering.”
The Fool Who Builds Upon the Sand
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
1. The first consideration in any building, is a firm foundation.
An architect explained to us, once, the care that prevailed as to the foundations of the great sky scrapers that abound in New York city.
He went into some details as to their constructions, and we were amazed as we beheld the solidity of base that marked man’s genius in making secure what he builded thereupon.
Yet, too often the very men who go down and down for solid rock, and who build with utmost caution the concrete foundation work of earthly buildings, are building their hopes of Heaven on the shifting sands.
2. Let us note some of the “sandy foundations upon which men build their hope of eternal life.
(1) Some build upon their own righteousness.
They think that human goodness can be achieved and that, when achieved, it will suffice all demands for an entrance into life eternal.
The Word of God, however, says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done.”
How can our righteousness save, when our righteousness is no more than filthy rags?
(2) Some build upon some great and noble deed.
They make a beneficent and bountiful gift to some worthy cause, and think they have thereby bought their way to Heaven’s bliss.
They do some humanitarian work, they build an orphanage, or a college, or a city hospital, and think themselves entitled, thereby, to a full salvation.
They go to the front in time of war and pay the “supreme sacrifice” for their fatherland, and therefore suppose atonement has been made for their sins.
But all of these are building on the sands. For, “other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
(3) Some build upon church-membership and upon church ordinances.
But no man can safely build upon the church, for the church is no more than a superstructure, and is, itself, a building and not a foundation for the building.
The church is an assembly of the saved, and not an assembly of the unsaved.
The unsaved, by practicing those things which belong to the saved, cannot thereby become saved.
We need to get back to the impregnable rock of the Scriptures, and remember Christ is the Word.
“My hope is built on nothing less,
Than Jesus’ Blood and righteousness,
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
3. Let us note the end of the one who builds upon the sand. “The rain descended, and the floods came and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
God will sweep away every refuge of lies. Every false hope, every false trust will prove futile in the day of His judgments.
Only those who have builded upon Christ will stand.
The others will go down in the storm.
Imagine the cyclone of God’s wrath as it breaks against a world of sin; imagine the great white throne and Him Who sits upon it: He will judge righteously.
In that day there will be but one hope and that is Jesus Christ.
The Fool Who Does Not Redeem the Time
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
1. We want to place before you one who has fully been awakened to his lost estate.
He has realized that he is building on the sands; he knows that he has no assurance of eternal life; he concedes the need of a Saviour and believes that Jesus Christ is that Saviour,
2. We want to show satan’s tactics toward such a soul, toward the one who is awakened.
The enemy sees the sinner under deep conviction; he hears the man of God as he presses home upon the sinner, the plan of salvation in Christ alone.
Then it is that satan urges that there is “plenty of time yet.”
But is there plenty of time?
Does it pay to procrastinate? Is it wise to delay?
We remember reading a sign once on a business man’s desk.
It ran: “Do It Now.” Certainly that is the only wise course for the lost sinner.
Now, is the only time he has. Christ says: “Behold, now is the accepted time.”
There is always danger in delay.
The heart may get hardened against God, the life may become more and more entangled in sin; the devil will certainly not become less active in his efforts to wreck your hopes.
Now, is the only safe time.
The one who postpones the day of his decision for God, is a fool.
No one knows what a day may bring forth. If you are ever coming to Christ come now.
Besides there is a waste of time in delay.
Suppose that you do defer your acceptance of Christ, and then in after years you are saved.
Still you have played the fool, because you have wasted many precious days that might have been used for service, and for “laying up treasures in Heaven.”
There is but one wise course, Come now.
3. We want to press upon believers the need of redeeming the time. They, too, may play the fool, by wasting their opportunities.
If the sinner should come now, the saint should go now and preach.
When God spoke to Philip, we read, “And he arose and went.”
There is every suggestion of prompt obedience.
God’s commands do not brook delay. Matters which concern eternal issues are too often at stake.
Obedience postponed, is only half obedience. Besides this, we need to get the present duty done, so we will be ready for a further call.
The days are evil, there is much that needs to be done, and there is much that needs to be done right now.
Let us be wise, not as fools, redeeming the time.
The Fool Who Lays Up Treasures for Himself
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
We have before us a most common fool.
All around us there are those who are doing just what this fool did. Let us notice the marks of his folly.
1. He had a wrong conception of life. His idea of living was “Eat, drink and be merry.”
Ecclesiastes concludes that this is all there is for a man in this life. And, since Ecclesiastes is viewing the man under the sun, who has no Christ and knows nothing of another and a better world; of course, Ecclesiastes is right.
The man of the world can find nothing better than to eat and to drink and to be merry; than to anoint his body with oil; than to live happily with the wife of his youth; than to enjoy good in his labor.
What else has he? That alone is his portion. And yet, to such an one, God says: “Thou fool.”
We need to see that the world is “vanity,” a mere glittering soap bubble. We need to count all these earthly things as refuse. We need to “lay up treasures in Heaven.” We need to look “at the things which are above.” We need to “love not the world.”
2. He lived altogether for himself. It was all “I,” and “my.” He said “I have much goods,” “What shall I do?” “I have no room,” “my fruits,” “my barn,” “my goods,” “my soul.” This man could never get beyond the personal pronoun of his own things. God said he was a fool; God said: “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
And are there not many such people? “They look every one on their own things.” They luxuriate and live wantonly, “pride compasseth them about as a chain,” “their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.”
3. He received his just condemnation. “This night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast acquired?”
Before one judges the lot of the wicked, the wicked who appear so prosperous, and who live for themselves, he should consider their latter end. Surely God didst set them in slippery places: he catchedst them down to destruction. “How are they brought into desolation as in a moment, they are utterly consumed with terrors.”
Men of the world, ye who are rich toward yourselves and poor toward God, beware! Soon, full soon, you will hear His voice: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”
The Fool Who Dies Outside the City of Refuge
And the king lamented over Abner, and said,
Died Abner as a fool dieth?
The story of the death of Abner is familiar to most of us. Abner was housed in one of Israel’s cities of refuge.
While there he was safe. Joab, who was the leader of David’s armies, came along, and, feigning friendship for Abner, called him forth outside the city.
Abner stepped out to speak with Joab, and Joab slew him there with a sword.
The lesson for us is this:
1. There is a refuge for us in Christ Jesus.
The cities of refuge all typed our Lord Jesus, as a Saviour of men.
Just as the city of refuge gave shelter and succor to those who entered them, against any pursuer; just as the ark gave Noah and his household refuge from the ravages of the flood; so does Christ give refuge to those who fly to Him for help.
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee, Let the water and the Blood, From Thy riven side which flowed, Be of sin a double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure.”
2. No matter how many cities of refuge there were, one outside the city gates was wholly unsafe.
And what good is the salvation that there is in Christ, unless one receives Him.
“I am the Door, by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” But, we must enter in.
3. The one who is pursued, the one who has an enemy and refuses or neglects to enter into the refuge is a fool.
Abner stood without, and died. How many there are who die, as fools die.
They knew that satan was close upon them, they knew that Jesus Christ was a shelter from satan’s wrath, and yet they entered not.
The storm is raging, and just at hand is a shelter from the storm, then why not enter in?
“There is a gate that stands ajar,
And, through its portals gleaming,
A radiance from the land afar,
A Saviour’s love revealing.
Oh, depths of mercy can it be,
That gate was left ajar for me.”