The Greatest Fool of All

Twenty-five years ago a musician friend of mine used to take great delight in mocking me with sarcastic remarks about my stand for the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was a non-practicing Roman Catholic who believed himself to be free from all religious restraints.  And although his life-style gave the impression that his belief was true, it was not true.  He had certainly come out of his church, but his church had not come out of him.  In other words, in spite of all his bravado, guilt and fear were continually written all over him.  Chain-smoking, copious alcohol-consumption, ever-restless, he delighted in trying to trap me when questioning about the Lord Jesus and the Bible.

He didn’t want the answers though.  Upon each attempt I made, he would cut me off whilst throwing two or three more questions at a time.  This is the sign of a guilty man under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  It is interesting to observe when someone is under such conviction.  It’s also interesting to observe when someone is not.  One night this questioning went on in between music breaks, in the company of a fellow band member.  When my mocking, but convicted friend asked the other guy for his opinion on what I was saying, he responded with total indifference, “I think it’s all a lot of rubbish.”  There were no signs of bitterness, ridicule or insult in his response whatsoever.

About sixteen years later, both these men developed cancer.  The one who expressed his indifference died.  And so far as I can tell he was indifferent all the way to his death.  My mocking friend has had a couple of operations to remove cancer from his throat, as well as elsewhere, but he still smokes cigarettes and drinks lots of alcohol and he laughs about it.  In recent years, from time to time he’d been phoning me for a quick chat.  Somewhere in these conversations those same old questions came up.  I marveled at the mercy of God upon this man.  Eighteen months ago, however, he phoned in a rather distressed state to inform me that one of the other musicians from that band died suddenly in his sleep just before dawn that day.

I was saddened to hear that.  He and I were great friends all those years ago, but once I stopped working music he distanced himself from me telling me too, in no uncertain terms that he rejected the gospel message.  At one point he was very definitely under the Spirit’s conviction too.  His bitterness towards me softened slightly just a few months before he died but as far as I know he died the way he lived, rejecting Christ. I informed my mocking friend that there were three people who knew him to be a man full of fear about dying; Jesus, himself and myself,  but that out of the three, there were only two who could change that situation; himself and Jesus.

Then I informed him that, “Jesus will not release you from your fear until you cease arguing with Him and simply humble yourself and receive Him.”  I have not heard from him since but I have no evidence that He’s taken that advice.  In the Bible, we see that God has nothing good to say about the fool.  Biblically the word “fool” means: silly, dull, stupid, heedless, blockhead, absurd, ignorant, egotistical, rash, unbelieving and unwise.  I have no problems with any of those meanings.  I can identify myself with every one of them.  But in my opinion based on my experiences with such people as him, the one who argues with God is the greatest fool of all.

Psalm 14:1 tells us that the one who denies God’s existence is a fool, but how foolish must those be in God’s eyes who don’t deny His existence; they simply want to argue with Him.  In other words, in the Bible God has revealed everything we need to know about Himself plus everything we need to know on how to be in right relationship with Him to find mercy, forgiveness, peace, love etc, and all people can say is, “But….  But…. But….”  or “That’s rubbish…..” or “I think…..”  Freedom from guilt and the fear of death is what everybody wants to be released from, yet all they can do is argue with, abuse, mock and insult the only One who can give it.  Astounding!

Although they work very hard at coming across as intellectual and intelligent people, the argumentative do not do so on the basis of any issues intellectual, they are always moral issues.  In other words, they know what they are, they simply do not want to change.  The apostle John is right.  They love darkness better than light, they don’t want to come face to face with their sin  John 3:19-20.  Something I’ve noticed with the argumentative though.  Even though they know what they are, there’s a certain belief within them that they’ll be able to put it right with God just before they die – or – if they do die, they’ll put up a convincing case when they stand before Him.

Then there are those who don’t see themselves to be as bad as the Scriptures reveal them to be and, as well, they don’t believe God will follow through with His judgments to the extent that the Bible reveals them.  Added to this, those of the same religious persuasion as my mocking friend believe they’ll get a second chance in purgatory.  In Roman Catholic theology purgatory is a place that a Christian’s soul goes to after death to be cleansed of the sins that had not been fully cleansed during life.  Biblical Christianity rejects such theology because it conflicts with Jesus’ once and for all sacrifice of which there are many declared Scriptures; but just a couple today from Romans 5:18 and Hebrews 7:27.

In their defense of purgatory doctrine, those theologians are fond of saying we Protestants simply do not understand.  I am fond of saying that the Holy Spirit says to His biblical followers, “You simply do understand, perfectly.”  We do not rely on the witness of any man – we rely solely on the witness of the indwelling Holy Spirit Romans 8:16-17.  My mocking friend, like all the argumentative, loved to justify himself.  One day he said to me, “Anyway, Jesus never said He was God.”  I asked him to show me that from the Bible.  Of course, he couldn’t.  Often he argued against the Bible being God’s revelation to us but still attempted to use it for his own purpose!

I then asked him, “Even if Jesus is not God, so what?  There is a God and you are answerable to Him.  What will be your defense when you stand before Him?”  He laughed, lit a cigarette, gulped a whiskey and then threw another question at me, followed by another…and another.  Will this man respond to the Lord’s mercy?  I don’t know.  What I do know is, I have stopped praying for him.  God has a cut-off point.  He gives people over to their uncleanness and lusts and who change His truths into lies Romans 1:24-25.  Again, he gives them over to a debased or reprobate mind to do the things they should not do Romans 1:28. God does that, not Satan the devil.  Scary!

Jesus also told us not to cast our pearls before swine Matthew 7:6, so He too has a cut-off point.  In my own experience I have prayed for the salvation of people, I have then had the pleasure of witnessing to them and then after a season I no longer feel led to pray for them.  Each person must then be given to God.  Some that I witnessed to and prayed for died rejecting the Lord, others received Him, but the bulk of the people I don’t know about.  It’s important to stay close to the Holy Spirit for each situation, because if not, emotions, opinions or the devil get in the way and you become spiritually, mentally and physically drained by the stress of it all.

A young man once came to me for demonic deliverance.  He prayed a salvation prayer and gave the impression that Jesus was his Lord.  As the years went by he re-developed a preference for his old way of living, whilst still wanting the blessings of God. I reminded him of what he’d been taught about the impossibility of trying to serve two masters.   One very late night he phoned asking for prayer.  I had since learned that Satan’s preference is to work the night shift so I told him I would not pray for him, but to come to the church the following day and we’d do it there.  I’m glad I said that because what then came out of his mouth was energized by his master, not my Master.

He went running off to another church, who’s leadership told him they thought my ministry to him, (or lack of) was, “rather harsh.”  He stayed at that church for a year or two but eventually they too discovered him for what he was.  He left them and went running off to another one, then another one.  Eventually he hanged himself.  Does that mean God handed him over to his uncleanness, lusts and a debased mind?  I don’t know.  Only God knows that, for which I am most grateful.  But the Scriptures are clear, God does not strive with us forever and it is a fool who thinks or believes otherwise.  God does not play games with us, therefore we ought to refrain from trying to do so with Him.

My mocking friend is a sad case in every way.  But what is sad too, is the couple I met up with in recent days who had a sound biblical upbringing and teaching in the church and, who taught the Scriptures to new Christians.  Trouble came so they left.  They went from one church that watered down the Bible to another.  Now they attend a “church” whose leader denies that the Scriptures are the word of God.  They love their new church!  Being content to sit before those who water down the Bible, plus those who deny it as God’s word not only made them fools, but I also experienced them to be argumentative fools.  “Therefore, whoever confesses Me before men, him I will confess before My Father in heaven.  But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:32-33.