1. The fool.
The atheist is the fool preeminently, and a fool universally. He would
not deny God if he were not a fool by nature, and having denied God it is no
marvel that he becomes a fool in practice. Sin is always folly, and as it is
the height of sin to attack the very existence of the Most High, so is it also
the greatest imaginable folly. To say there is no God is to belie the plainest
evidence, which is obstinacy; to oppose the common consent of mankind, which is
stupidity; to stifle consciousness, which is madness. If the sinner could by
his atheism destroy the God whom he hates there were some sense, although much
wickedness, in his infidelity; but as denying the existence of fire does not
prevent its burning a man who is in it, so doubting the existence of God will
not stop the Judge of all the earth from destroying the rebel who breaks his
laws; nay, this atheism is a crime which much provokes heaven, and will bring
down terrible vengeance on the fool who indulges it. The proverb says, “A fool
cuts his own throat,” and in this instance it kills both soul and body
forever: would to God the mischief stopped even there, but alas, one fool makes
hundreds, and a noisy blasphemer spreads his horrible doctrines as lepers
spread the plague. Ainsworth tells us that the word here used is Nabal,
which has the signification of fading, dying, or falling away, as a withered
leaf or flower; it is a title given to the foolish man as having the last sap
of wisdom, reason, honesty, and godliness. Some translate it “the apostate,”
and others “the wretch.” With what earnestness should we shun the appearance
of doubt as to the presence, activity, power and love of God, for all such
mistrust is of the nature of folly, and who among us would wish to be ranked
with the fool in the text? Yet let us never forget that all unregenerate men
are more or less such fools.
Hath said in his heart.
When a man talks atheistically, is it a foolish heart speaking, and endeavoring
to clamor down the voice of conscience? We think so. If the affections were set
upon truth and righteousness, the understanding would have no difficulty in
settling the question of a present personal Deity, but as the heart dislikes
the good and the right, it is no wonder that it desires to be rid of that great
moral Elohim, who is the Governor, the Patron of rectitude and the Punisher of
iniquity. While men’s hearts remain what they are, we must not be surprised at
the prevalence of skepticism; a corrupt tree will bring forth corrupt fruit.
Such fools are common to all time, and all countries. The spread of mere
intellectual enlightenment will not diminish their number, for since it is an
affair of the heart this folly and great learning will often dwell together. To
answer skeptical cavilings will be labor lost until grace enters to make the
mind willing to believe; fools can raise more objections in an hour than wise
men can answer in seven years, indeed it is their mirth to set stools for wise
men to stumble over. Let the preacher aim at the heart, and preach the
all-conquering love of Jesus, and he will by God’s grace win more doubters to
the faith of the Gospel than any hundred of the best reasoners who only direct
their arguments to the head.
No God. It is not
merely the wish of the sinner’s corrupt nature, and the hope of his rebellious
heart, but he manages after a fashion to bring himself to assert it, and at
certain seasons he thinks that he believes it. It is a solemn reflection that
some who worship God with their lips may in their hearts be saying, no God.
They are corrupt. This refers to all men, and we have the warrant of the
Holy Spirit for saying so (Romans 3). Where there is enmity to God, there is
deep, inward depravity of mind. The words are rendered by eminent critics in an
active sense, “they have done corruptly.” This may serve to remind us that
sin is not only in our nature passively as the source of evil, but we ourselves
actively fan the flame and corrupt ourselves, making that blacker still which
was black as darkness itself already. We rivet our own chains by habit and
continuance. They have done abominable works. When men begin with
renouncing the Most High God, who shall tell where they will end? Observe the
state of the world before the Flood, as portrayed in Genesis 6:12, and
remember that human nature is unchanged. He who would see a terrible photograph
of the world without God must read Romans 1, that most painful of all inspired
Scriptures. Things loathsome to God and man are sweet to some palates. There
is none that doeth good. Sins of omission must abound where transgressions
are fife. Those who do the things which they ought not to have done are sure to
leave undone those things which they ought to have done. What a picture of our
race is this! Save only where grace reigns, there is none that doeth good; humanity,
fallen and debased, is a desert without an oasis.
2. As from a
watchtower, the Lord is represented as gazing intently upon men. He will not
punish blindly, nor like a tyrant command an indiscriminate massacre because a
rumor of rebellion has come up to his ears. The objects of the Lord’s search
are not wealthy men, great men, or learned men; these, with all they can offer,
cannot meet the demands of the great Governor. At the same time, he is not
looking for superlative eminence in virtue; he seeks for any that understand
themselves, their destiny, their happiness; he looks for any that seek
God, who, if there be a God, are willing and anxious to find him out. Surely
this is not too great a matter to expect; for if men have not yet known God, if
they have any fight understanding, they will seek him. Alas, even this low
degree of good is not to be found even by him who sees all things; but men love
the hideous negation of “no God,” and with their backs to their Creator, who
is the sun of their life, they journey into the dreary region of unbelief and
alienation, which is a land of darkness, and of the shadow of death without any
order and where the light is as darkness.
3. They are all gone aside. Without exception, all have apostatized from the Lord their
Maker, from his laws, and from the eternal principles of fight. Like stubborn
heifers they have sturdily refused to receive the yoke; like errant sheep they
have found a gap and left the right field. They have altogether become
filthy. They are spoiled and soured like corrupt leaven, or, as some put
it, they have become putrid and even stinking. The only reason why we do not
more clearly see this foulness is because we are accustomed to it. But are
there no special cases; are all sinful? Yes, says the psalmist. He has put it
positively; he repeats it negatively: there is none that doeth good, no, not
one. The Hebrew phrase is an utter denial concerning any mere man that he
of himself does good. This is the verdict of the all-seeing Jehovah, who cannot
exaggerate or mistake. As if no hope of finding a solitary specimen of a good
man among the unrenewed human family might be harbored for an instant. The Holy
Spirit adds the crushing threefold negative none … no, not one. What say
the opponents of the doctrine of natural depravity to this? Rather what do we feel
concerning it? Do we not confess that we by nature are corrupt, and do we not
bless the sovereign grace which has renewed us in the spirit of our minds, that
sin may no more have dominion over us, but that grace may rule and reign?
4. Hatred of
God and corruptness of life are the motive forces which produce persecution. It
is hard bondage to be a “worker of iniquity”; those who have no knowledge
choose such slavery, but those who are taught of God cry to be rescued from it.
The same ignorance which keeps men bondsmen to evil, makes them hate the
freeborn sons of God; hence they seek to eat them up as they eat bread—daily,
ravenously, as though it were an everyday matter to oppress the saints of God.
While thus preying, they forswear all praying, and in this act consistently,
for how could they hope to be heard while their hands are full of blood?
5.
Oppressors have it not all their own way; they have their fits of trembling and
their appointed seasons of overthrow. There—where they denied God and
hectored against his people; where they thought of peace and safety, they were
made to quail. A panic terror seized them: “they feared a fear,” as the
Hebrew puts it; an undefinable, horrible, mysterious dread crept over them. The
most hardened have their periods when conscience casts them into a cold sweat
of alarm. As cowards are cruel, so all the cruel are at heart cowards. For
God is in the generation of the righteous. This makes the company of the
godly so irksome to the wicked because they perceive that God is with them.
Shut their eyes as they may, they cannot fail to see that he works for their
deliverance. Even though the saint may be in a mean position, mourning at the
gate where the persecutor rejoices in state, the sinner feels the influence of
the believer’s true nobility and quails before it, for God is there. Let
scoffers beware, for they persecute the Lord Jesus when they molest his people;
the union is very close between God and his people, it amounts to a mysterious
indwelling, for God is in the generation of the righteous.
6.
Notwithstanding their real cowardice, the wicked put on the lion’s skin and
lord it over the Lord’s poor ones. The special points and butt of their jest
seem to be the confidence of the godly in their Lord. What can your God do for
you now? Where is the reward of all your praying and beseeching? Taunting
questions of this sort they thrust into the faces of weak but gracious souls,
and tempt them to feel ashamed of their refuge. The Lord our refuge will avenge
his own elect, and ease himself of his adversaries, who once made so light of
him and of his people.
7. Natural
enough is this closing prayer, for what would so effectually convince atheists,
overthrow persecutors, stay sin and secure the godly, as the manifest
appearance of Israel’s great Salvation? The coming of Messiah was the desire of
the godly in all ages, and though he has already come with a sin-offering to
purge away iniquity, we look for him to come a second time, to come without a
sin-offering unto salvation. O that these weary years would have an end! Why
tarries he so long? He knows that sin abounds and that his people are
down-trodden; why does he not come to the rescue? His glorious advent will restore
his ancient people from literal captivity, and his spiritual seed from
spiritual sorrow. Wrestling Jacob and prevailing Israel shall alike rejoice
before him when he is revealed as their salvation. O that he were come! What
happy, holy, halcyon, heavenly days should we then see! Blessed are all they
that wait for him.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
