Psalm 36:1-4 (NIV)
I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin. The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good. Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong.
Why do the wicked do what they do? If you became a Christian as an adult, an honest consideration of these verses should ring true as you reflect on who you used to be without Christ. You were spiritually dead in your sin (Eph. 2:1) as well as a slave to its commands (Jn. 8:34). Those are the simple facts of God’s witness regarding man’s sin, but what lies behind the thoughts and deeds of a sinner is the focus of today’s passage…which brings with it a sobering warning if the pathology it reveals is still largely true about your own life today.
There is no fear of God in lost people. They have dismissed his existence as a fairytale or redefined it to the point where God’s authority brings with it no conviction of sin and no call to change anything about themselves, other than a general knowledge that they should try to “live by the golden rule.” They choose to reject the God that they know exists (Rom. 1:18-20), making them fools by definition (Ps. 14:1). Because of these things, they have no fear of God at all, and that lack of fear causes them to lack true wisdom (Pr. 9:10) and then…to live accordingly.
Lost people flatter themselves by thinking that they are pretty good people. Virtuous, even. The lost sinner lowers his opinion of God and raises his opinion of himself. Spurgeon’s description of the self-flattering sinner is particularly poignant:
“He counts himself a fine fellow, worthy of great respect. He quiets his conscience, and so deceives his own judgment as to reckon himself a pattern of excellence; if not for morality, yet for having sense enough not to be enslaved by rules which are bonds to others. He is the free thinker, the man of strong mind, the hater of ‘can’t’, the philosopher; and the servants of God are, in his esteem, mean spirited and narrow minded. To smooth over one’s own conduct to one’s conscience (which is the meaning of the Hebrew) is to smooth one’s own path to hell.”
This is perhaps the most common trait of the lost sinner. As David says, they flatter themselves to the point where they can’t even detect their sin, let alone have any conviction about it. Most of them actually believe in God’s existence and view him as loving in a general sense, but not as just and righteous. As a result, he will be lenient on judgment day. This is verified by poll after poll which show that most Americans think that they will probably go to heaven when they die. They will flatter themselves right into hell.
Finally, lost people have no compunction as they plan their next sinful excursion. Recently, there was a “Drag Queen Story Hour” hosted by a local retail establishment in the city that I live in. They advertised widely and proudly, and a local mom was behind the effort to host them. “The national movement aims to capture the ‘imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models,’ according to its website. “In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.” I could not provide a clearer example of what David was writing about over two thousand years ago.
Since sin is so deceitful through its flattery, how can we know whether we are being deceived by it? Here are some questions to ask yourself: Do I fear God, before whom all things are open and laid bare (Heb. 4:13)? Since God knows the very thoughts and intentions of my heart, am I in the habit of judging my own sin quickly and honestly? When I read the standards of God’s Word, do I apply them to my own heart, or do I just skim over them or apply them to others? Am I growing to identify and hate my own sins more and more through God’s Word? Sobering and important questions, to say the least.
