They do not concern themselves with thoughts of God, but with the thinking of men.
Psalm 53: 1
“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity; There is none who does good.”
In Scripture the term “fool” does not indicate a mental incapacity but rather moral and spiritual insensitivity. This “fool” says there is no God because he doesn’t want there to be a God. Because if there is no God, he can do whatever he wants (at least what he thinks society will let him away with). He denies the existence of God despite the evidence of creation.
Of course, to hold the intellectual position of an Atheist is entirely irrational. To know that there is no God a person would have to be omniscient and the power to be omnipresent (to check out the universe and beyond). Such powers are way beyond human capabilities.
This “fool” may be intellectually quite brilliant but the essential fact is that he does not to face the evidence of the person, power and judgment of God. If he convinces himself that there is no judgment, how easily he can sink into depravity and degradation.
God does not give up on humanity in general but He allows the sinful to go deeper and deeper into their sin. He gives them the opportunity to see how evil sin is and how desperately wicked people can become.
Romans 1: 24 and 25.
“Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.” They have no spiritual light, but are blinded by Satan to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4: 3 and 4
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
Satan has succeeded in putting a veil over the minds of the unbelievers. He would keep them in perpetual darkness lest the light of Yeshua should shine on them and they be saved. The light of the gospel is always shining but Satan puts up various barriers between the unbelievers and God. It may be pride or rebellion or self-righteousness. Satan simply does not want people to be saved.
Satan is described above as “the god of this age.” This refers to the current mind-set expressed by ideas, aspirations, goals, hopes and views held by the unbelieving majority of people. Without Godly influence man left to himself will follow that system which panders to the depravity of the unbelieve and deepens their moral darkness.
Proverbs 14: 12
“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”
They are not wise but foolish.
Isaiah 32: 6
“For the foolish person will speak foolishness, and his heart will work iniquity.”
As we saw before the “fool” in Scripture can be quite brilliant and eloquent but ultimately, he lacks moral and spiritual sensitivity. The “fool” does not wish there to be a God, so he denies the existence of God. This allows him licence in his life, but in reality, this is not freedom but slavery to sin.
Psalm 10: 4
“The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.”
These people turn reality upside down by praising evil and spurning God. They eventually degenerate into greater and greater evil. They feel they are free but God’s verdict on them is that they are corrupt and act abominably. There is a close connection between a person’s creed and their conduct. The lower the place for God a person allows in their thinking, the lower that person’s moral standing tends to be.
God finds no good in these people; “none does good.” If they knew the goodness and the severity of God, they would not go through life without confession of sin and seeking forgiveness.
God wants no-one to be lost. Bur sin is in every one of us and we must seek forgiveness. Those who don’t have sealed their own terrible fate. That is their own fault. There is no fault with God.
They are not alive to God, but rather dead in their sin.
Romans 8: 5 – 11
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity with God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Setting their minds “on the things of the flesh” means being oriented to or governed by these things as the things on which they focus. To “set their minds” refers to what interests a person, their will, assumptions, values and purposes. Being “in the flesh” means being unregenerated or sinful. People in this state are hostile to God and can never submit themselves the law of God. They live apart from God. Those who live thus live to gratify the desires of their corrupt nature; obsessed with a body which after a few years will return to dust.
Those who live according to the flesh do things their way, not God’s way. The flesh is dead towards God. Nothing such a person may do, no matter how noble it may seem, can please God.
A determined effort to live without God, merely results in spending eternity apart from God.
They have not set their affections on things above, but on things of the earth.
Colossians 3: 1 and 2
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
Believers can concentrate on the eternal realities of heaven and the blessings which God showers on us. We can focus on spiritual truths, spiritual warfare, God’s blessings and the will of God.
The unsaved have no chance of being able to focus there. They can only aim for more money, more pleasure and more possessions. This is a life dictated by this world. The unbeliever cannot disconnect from this world.
They do not walk in the light but rather in darkness.
John 12: 35, 36 and 46
Then Jesus said to them, ”A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light … I have come as a light into the world, that anyone who believes in Me should not abide in darkness.”
Believers in Yeshua have the “light of the world”. They do not have to grope around for truth and illumination. They have found the truth in Him.
Those who reject Him “walk in darkness” and do not know where they are going. They lack divine guidance and stumble their way through life unsure of their direction in their ignorance. Apart from Yeshua people are in deepest darkness. They lack a right understanding of life, death and eternity.
They do not possess eternal life. But face spiritual death in eternity separated from God.
2 Thessalonians 1: 9
“These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power …”
This is the fate of those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord. A holy God must do what is right and punish sin for which there is no repentance. “Destruction” here means “ruin” or “loss of well-being”, not annihilation. But it is a non-reversible experience.
Their punishment is a conscious state but banishment from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. Believers have the promise of everlasting rest but an awful fate awaits unbelievers of eternal separation from God.
Philippians 3: 18
“For many walk … that are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame –who set their mind on earthly things.” They do not live in the realm of the Spirit, but rather in the flesh.
Romans 8: 1 – 5
“There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
Believers have the freedom of living in the Spirit, freed from the sentence of condemnation of the law. The characteristic principal of the Holy Spirit is to empower believers for holy living. The characteristic principal of indwelling sin (walking according to the flesh) is to drag a person down to death.
A person’s “walk” refers to his lifestyle, habits of living and the thinking which characterises their life. Those who live according to the flesh are concerned things of the flesh. They live to satisfy the desires of their corrupt nature. Spiritual matters are simply not part of their moral compass.
A life without God earns you an eternity without God.
Amen.