I N D E X
2
Yet this is not all. He who mocks at sin, mocks at the sacrifice for sin. He joins the crowd who mocked the
dying Saviour as He gave His life a ransom for many. Surely he is a fool beyond parallel who can mock at either sin
or the Saviour. Yet, alas! the reader knows only too well that such mockers may be met in every walk of life.
(3)
THERE IS A THIRD KIND OF FOOL, THE FOOL WHOSE GOD IS HIS BANK BALANCE.
This man's idea of life is an accumulation of `things', who says, in effect - like one of old - `I will pull down my
barns, and build greater'; who says, `I will say to my soul ... Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry'. To such, God
has a word to say. He says: `Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things
be, which thou hast provided?' (Luke 12:18-20).
When the apostle Paul visualised a life that ended in the grave, because the man had no hope of resurrection, he
said, in the language of hopeless despair: `Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die' (1 Corinthians 15:32). Paul
could not use the words `be merry', for in a life without hope, such a word is a mockery: he, however, added what
the fool forgot - for tomorrow we die!
What greater folly can be exhibited than is shown by men, who have stood by the open grave of loved ones, who
know that their own days are numbered, who know that whatever their possessions (great or small) may be, that they
will have to leave all behind when their hour arrives, and that they are journeying to an unknown destination,
without preparation and without hope, and who yet spend their mortal strength in accumulating things that perish,
while they turn aside from things that are immortal. As business men, are they not fools? Did ever wise men miss
such treasures for the sake of such tinsel?
Here, then, are three outstanding fools. The fool who denies his Maker; who mocks at sin, and who though he
gains the whole world loses his own soul.
(4)
THERE IS ONE FURTHER KIND OF FOOL; THE MAN WHO HAS BECOME A FOOL
`FOR CHRIST'S
SAKE'
(1 Corinthians 4:10).
Such a man was the apostle Paul. He had been a man of culture, a man of the highest moral character, yet, for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, he had gladly flung aside prospect and position, lost caste,
and become a persecuted, hated, homeless outcast, `a fool for Christ's sake'! Yet this `fool' had exchanged the filthy
rags of his own righteousness, for the spotless robe of Christ's providing; he had exchanged a guilty conscience, for
the joy of sins forgiven; he had exchanged a position of condemnation, for one of justification, life, and peace; he
had exchanged bondage, for glorious liberty.
Will you allow these four Bible `fools' once more to pass before your mind? and will you give an honest answer
to the question: Which of these four fools am I?
Charles H. Welch.
The Berean Publishing Trust,
52A Wilson Street, LONDON EC2A 2ER