Aug 10
10
The Fool Hath Said in His Heart, There is No God
There is a spirit of atheism prevailing in the hearts of men; a strange disposition to doubt of the very being of God, and of another world, and of everything which cannot be seen with the bodily eyes. (Psa 14:1 KJV), “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” They do not realize that God sees them when they commit sin, and will call them to an account for it.
If we apply our hearts as Solomon did (Ecc 7:25 KJV) I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness: to search out the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness, these verses will assist us in the search and will show us that sin is exceedingly sinful. Sin is the disease of mankind, and it appears here to be malignant and epidemic.
See how malignant it is (Psa 14:1 KJV) To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. in two things: –
The contempt it puts upon the honour of God: for there is something of practical atheism at the bottom of all sin. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.
(Psa 14:1 KJV) The fool hath said in his heart,…. This is to be understood not of a single individual person, as Nabal, which is the word here used; nor of some Gentile king, as Sennacherib, or Rabshakeh his general, as Theodoret; nor of Nebuchadnezzar, nor of Titus, as some Jewish writers interpret it, making one to be here intended, and the other in the fifty third psalm: the same with this; but of a body, a set of men, who justly bear this character; and design not such who are idiots, persons void of common sense and understanding; but such who are fools in their morals, without understanding in spiritual things; wicked profligate wretches, apostates from God, alienated from the life of God; and whose hearts are full of blindness and ignorance, and whose conversations are vile and impure, and they enemies of righteousness, though full of all wicked subtlety and mischief: these say in their hearts, which are desperately wicked, and out of which evil thoughts proceed, pregnant with atheism and impiety; these endeavor to work themselves into such a belief, and inwardly to conclude, at least to wish, (Psa 14:1 KJV) there is no God; though they do not express it with their mouths, yet they would fain persuade their hearts to deny the being of God; that so having no superior to whom they are accountable, they may go on in sin with impunity; however, to consider him as altogether such an one as themselves, and to remove such perfections from him, as may render him unworthy to be regarded by them; such as omniscience, omnipresence, &c. and to conceive of him as entirely negligent of and unconcerned about affairs of this lower world, having nothing to do with the government of it: and thus to deny his perfections and providence, is all one as to deny his existence, or that there is a God: accordingly the Targum paraphrases it, “there is no שולטנא, “government” of God in the earth;” so Kimchi interprets it, “there is no governor, nor judge in the world, to render to man according to his works;”
We are sometimes tempted to think, “Surely there never was so much atheism and profaneness as there is in our days;” but we see the former days were no better; even in David’s time there were those who had arrived at such a height of impiety as to deny the very being of a God and the first and self-evident principles of religion.
Observe, the sinner here described. He is one that saith in his heart, There is no God; he is an atheist. “There is no Elohim, no Judge or governor of the world, no providence presiding over the affairs of men.” They cannot doubt of the being of God, but will question his dominion. He says this in his heart; it is not his judgment, but his imagination. He cannot satisfy himself that there is none, but he wishes there were none, and pleases himself with the fancy that it is possible there may be none. He cannot be sure there is one, and therefore he is willing to think there is none. He dares not speak it out, lest he be confuted, and so undeceived, but he whispers it secretly in his heart, for the silencing of the clamors of his conscience and the emboldening of himself in his evil ways.
The character of this sinner. He is a fool; he is simple and unwise, and this is an evidence of it; he is wicked and profane, and this is the cause of it. Note, Atheistical thoughts are very foolish wicked thoughts, and they are at the bottom of a great deal of the wickedness that is in this world. The word of God is a discerner of these thoughts, and puts a just brand on him that harbors them. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; for he thinks against the clearest light, against his own knowledge and convictions, and the common sentiments of all the wise and sober part of mankind. No man will say, There is no God till he is so hardened in sin that it has become his interest that there should be none to call him to an account.
The disgrace and debasement it puts upon the nature of man. Sinners are corrupt, quite degenerated from what man was in his innocent estate: They have become filthy, (Psa 14:3 KJV) They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. putrid. All their faculties are so disordered that they have become odious to their Maker and utterly incapable of answering the ends of their creation. They are corrupt indeed; (Psa 14:1 KJV) they are corrupt; that is, everyone of these fools; and it is owing to the corruption of their hearts they say such things: they are corrupt in themselves; they have corrupt natures, they are born in sin, and of the flesh, and must be carnal and corrupt: or “they do corrupt”, or “have corrupted”: they corrupt themselves by their atheistic thoughts and wicked practices; (Jud 1:10 KJV) But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. or their works, as the Chaldee paraphrase adds; or their ways, their manner and course of life; (Gen 6:12 KJV) And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. and they corrupt others with their evil communications, their bad principles and practices, their ill examples and wicked lives; for, they do no good, but are the unprofitable burdens of the earth; they do God no service, bring him no honour, nor do themselves any real kindness. They do a great deal of hurt. They have done abominable works, for such all sinful works are. (Psa 14:1 KJV) they have done abominable works: every sinful action is abominable in the sight of God; but there are some sins more abominable than others; there are abominable idolatries, and abominable lusts, such as were committed in Sodom; and it may be these are pointed at here, and which are usually committed by such who like not to retain God in their knowledge; see; (Rom 1:24 KJV) Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Sin is an abomination to God; it is that abominable thing which he hates, (Jer 44:4 KJV) Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. and, sooner or later, it will be so to the sinner; it will be found to be hateful, (Psa 36:2 KJV) For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. an abomination of desolation, that is, making desolate, (Mat 24:15 KJV) When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
This follows upon their saying, There is no God; for those that profess they know God, but in works deny him, are abominable, and to every good work reprobate, (Tit 1:16 KJV) They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
Upon search, upon his search, it appeared, They have all gone aside, the apostasy is universal, (Psa 14:1 KJV) there is none that doeth good; no, not one, till the free and mighty grace of God has wrought a change. Anyone, good work in a spiritual manner; not in faith, from love, in the name and strength of Christ, and with a view to the glory of God: nor can any man do a good work without the grace of God, and strength from Christ, and the assistance of the Spirit of God: hence, whatsoever a wicked man does, whether in a civil or in a religious way, is sin; see (Pro 21:4 KJV) An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin. Arama takes these to be the words of the fool, or atheist, saying, there is no God that does good, like those in (Zep 1:12 KJV) And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
Whatever good is in any of the children of men, or is done by them, it is not of themselves; it is God’s work in them. When God had made the world he looked upon his own work, and all was very good; (Gen 1:31 KJV) And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. but, some time after, he looked upon man’s work, and, behold, all was very bad, (Gen 6:5 KJV) And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. every operation of the thought of man’s heart was evil, only evil, and that continually. They have gone aside from the right of their duty, the way that leads to happiness, and have turned into the paths of the destroyer.
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