recently reported in a paper pre pared for the Smithsonian Insti tute in Washington, D.C., "Man's brain contains a permanent record of his past which is like a single continuous strip of movie film com plete with sound track. This film library records your whole waking life from childhood on. You can live again those scenes from your past one at a time when a surgeon applies a gentle electrical current to a certain point on the temporal cortex of your brain. As you relive the past, you actually feel the same emotions again." This is most inter esting in light of this verse. Romans 2:16 says, "Cod shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." Unless you have had your sins judged on Jesus Christ by faith in Him during this life, all of your sins, every one of them, will be judged upon you before the pres ence of almighty God. There will be no escape. Your eternal destiny will be as is suggested in this verse. "The way of the ungodly shall per ish." So clearly and so aptly does the prophet Isaiah warn, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts." Now, the last verse of Psalm 1 reminds us, "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish." In Hebrew, this first statement would more easily and descriptive ly read, "The Lord is knowing the way." You see the observation is in the ever present tense. The word "knoweth" means far more than just simply that He un derstands the way we are going. It rather suggests that He approves this way. We are all looking for approval. Who does not like to be appreciated? It is nice to be
thanked and congratulated. Here we see that God knows and under stands. He approves the way we take when we follow Him faithfully. The Lord is knowing and approv ing my way. Webster says that a way is that which makes movement in some specific direction possible. You re member that the Lord Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." The antithesis of this is found in Proverbs 16:25 where it reads, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Notice that there are many ways but only one end. Broad are the ways to eternal destruction. As far as the Lord is concerned, there is just one way, and there is just one end. The Lord knoweth the way of the right eous. Isn't it wonderful that we can live with the ever-present knowl edge of that truth? But there is a very dark side to this, too, as we notice the last phrase of this last verse of Psalm 1. "But the way of the ungodly shall perish." Seemingly successful now, there is only one result which will eventually come. Not only shall the ungodly perish, as is suggested here in the fifth verse, but their way shall perish too. Please keep in mind that the word "perish" is not synonomous with the term "annihilate." To perish does not mean to stop existing or to cease to exist. Rather, perish means to no longer exist for the purpose for which it was originally intended. It is the firm belief of science that all matter remains today as it has always. Matter never goes out of existence. Here is a match. I light the match and it burns and is now destroyed. It is no longer of Page 55
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