Really since the beginning of time, the human race has been plagued with questions about life, death, evil, goodness and purpose. I’m convinced that the 2 most important questions every one of us has to ask and ultimately get right or, life is a waste of time:
Is there a God?
If there is a God, has that God spoken and revealed Himself in a way that we can understand and know him?
If the answers are no, then it really doesn’t matter if there is a God!
Now lets say - there is a God, what good is that if I can’t know Him and understand what He communicates to me? This is one of my major arguments with Islam and New Age - to them God is not personal or knowable and this is so defeating and fatalistic!
Today, what I want to do is deal with the fundamental statement of the fool…“There is no God!”
But maybe you’re thinking, Pastor, I’ve never seen this God? I realize this, but this is true with gravity and oxygen and your enjoying both right now! You see, you don’t need to see Him physically to experience Him spiritually!
Do you know what’s amazing about this Psalm? This Psalm begins with people who don’t believe in God. And get this:
- There are 41,173 verses in the Bible and God gives one half of one verse to the atheist!
- There are 774,746 words in the Bible and God gives the atheist 11 words.
There was an atheist who was complaining to his friend that there’s no holiday for the atheist. Christians have Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. Then his friend said, “Then why don’t you take April 1st!”
I’ve come to realize that there are only 3 things we can do with God, and they’re all found right here in Psalm 14.
Let’s look at them…
1. We Can Deny The Reality of God. Vs. 1a
About 7% of America does just that! They say, “There’s no God, so I’m a fool!” What we just read is the only dialogue God has with the atheist - that’s it! 2 sentences: “There’s no God!” And God says, “Fool”! End of conversation!
This reminds me of a little boy who was talking to his atheist dad at dinner and said, “Dad, do you think God knows that we don’t believe in him?”
Even the most educated genius with the highest I.Q. can be a fool! The person in the natural can know what E=MC square is, but in the spiritual knows nothing about the ABC’s of God!
Think about it - the most brilliant scientist who sees a car - has no problem believing there’s a designer. He sees a portrait and has no problem believing there’s an artist. He reads a book and has no problem believing there’s an author! But when he sees creation, he denies there’s a creator! That’s really amazing to me!
In 1916 Albert Einstein was so disturbed that the universe was not eternal but in fact had a beginning that he wrote about this “Irritating fact”, “Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order of nature is repugnant to me…I should like to find a genius loophole.”
But in 1949 he wrote, “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
You know, while there really is only about 7% in America who are atheist, the truth of the matter is that there’s more foolish people in America than we admit! More foolish people who claim to be Christians even!
There are 2 types of atheist in America:
- The intellectual - believes there’s no God.
- The practical - behaves like there’s no God.
And the most foolish person in the world today is not the intellectual fool, but rather the practical fool, the one who believes in God but their lifestyle is godless!
The practical atheist says:
There’s a God, but I’m going to live without him.
There is a Bible, but I’m not going to live by it.
There’s a Lord’s Day, but I’m going to sleep it away or go fishing all day!
The most famous atheist of our day was Madelyn Murray O’Hare. Her son William quotes her as saying…“I’m an atheist, not because I’ve searched behind every star and looked under every rock to prove there’s no God. I’m an atheist because I want to live my life as if there’s no God.”
I can understand why she would say this - but why do people who believe in God say this also?
2. We Can Detest Any Response To God.
Don’t miss what I’m about to say…God doesn’t deal with atheism on an intellectual level - because atheism is not an intellectual issue, it’s a moral issue. It’s not so much a mental problem as it is a moral problem! Atheism is not a head problem - it’s a heart problem! Atheism is not a person who cannot believe in God as much as it’s a person who will not believe in God!
Why? Verse 1
The atheist’s biggest problem is not in the evidence but rather the great threat God is to their lifestyle! Think about it…If there’s no God, then there’s no judgment, no punishment, no standard of what’s right or wrong - why not make it whatever you want?
Why not have a fling without a ring? Why not perous with someone else’s spouse? Why not flirt and pervert your vows - after all, to the atheist there’s no judge or standard!
You maybe thinking, “Pastor, you’re exaggerating!” Think again!
Psalm 10:13 “Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require an account.”
Here’s the basic reason we live a life as a practical atheist or an intellectual atheist - there’s no accountability!
Bin laden, Hamas, Hezbollah and all these terrorizing termites around the world, really believe they will get away with such evil acts - and somehow 70 virgins and flowing wine await them in heaven!
From Corporate America to Capital Hill, from cheating spouses to cheating taxpayers, from the drug pusher to the gangbanger, from the porn king to the drag queen - somehow they really think they’ll get away with it all!
Folks, that’s why the intellectual atheist is hell bent to get God out of the School House, Court House, White House and eventually the Church House! And all long, the practical atheist is silently rooting for the intellectual atheist - because they think this just might smooth over their conscience!
Mr. Newdall the man who was trying to get the words, “In God we trust” out of the pledge last year…inwardly he’s screaming, “Stop reminding me that I just might be accountable to God!”
Why is Christianity under attack today in such a vicious manner? Mark it down, when people begin with intolerance towards God - they end up intolerant with God’s people! You see when atheistic people see you and me more like Christ - it gets under their skin and their conscience begins to itch away at their deepest level.
Folks…the same reason people can’t find God is the same reason a thief can’t find a police man! It’ll mess up their lives!
3. We Can Delight in a Relationship With God. Vs. 5
“Righteous generation”
It’s not about people doing right, but people being right. Huge difference! People who want to see God with their heart and head!
Jeremiah 29:13 “And you shall seek me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Here’s the key…a real relationship with God is through faith. Not just science, not just by touch - and don’t let anyone ever ridicule you because you live your life by faith, because the atheist does also!
Robert Rowe, An atheist professor from Purdue University, educated at Oxford, once read to his students from his new book, “Even as the evangelical Christian accepts God by faith, I reject the idea of God by faith, but I cannot reject God by reason alone for there is too much evidence of His existence. It is by faith I am an atheist.”
LifePoint: We can experience victory and experience His forgiveness and spend eternity with Him - it may start with the head but it’s going to lead to the heart!
You’ve probably never heard of O. W. Saunders, an atheist that spent all of his life without God. He was a popular journalist about a 100 years ago from North Carolina.
At the end of his life he wrote these heart-breaking words…
“I would love to introduce you to the most lonesome individual on earth. I’m talking about the man who doesn’t believe in God. I can introduce you to such a man because I’m that man. By introducing myself, I introduce an atheist or a skeptic that lives in your neighborhood, because he’s everywhere. You’ll be surprised that the atheist envies your faith in God, your subtle belief of heaven after life. He’s jealous of your blessed assurance that you will meet your loved ones in the after life with no sadness or pain.
He would give anything to be able to embrace that faith and be comforted by it, for him, there’s only two things, the grave and the persistence of matter.
The atheist may face life with a smile and a heroic attitude. He may put on a brave front, but he’s not happy. He stands in awe and reverence before the vastness and majesty of the universe, not knowing where he came from or why. He’s appalled by the stupendency of space and the infinity of time, humiliated at the smallness of himself and his own weakness and brevity.
Certainly he yearns for a staff on which to lean, he too carries a cross. For him this earth is but a tricky raft, adrift in the unfathomable waters of eternity with no horizon in site. His heart aches for every precious life upon the raft because he’s always drifting, always drifting, always drifting, where he goes he does not know.”
There may be a Mr. Saunders here today, and I say to you, there is a God who loves you, cares for you and even poured out His life for you and His name is Jesus! And He did all that so you can know for sure that your drifting days are over!
