The Wall Street Journal carried a little sentence some years ago which has since become a classic. It’s a lit tle sentence which declares, “Money is an article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere ex cept heaven, and the universal pro vider of everything, except happi ness!” Take note of the fact that this verse states, “Shall prosper.” It’s not that this one has, or that he is pros pering; it’s all in the future tense. The only thing you can invest in with your money so that you can take it with you is that which is going to heaven. Quite frankly, the only thing going to heaven are souls redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ If you can invest in souls, my friend, you’ve got something the New York Stock Exchange can never give you! C hapter F our The things we’ve talked about thus far have been in a very positive sense. Now we come to a very dark verse. The declaration comes, “The ungodly are not so.” They don’t meditate in the law of the Lord. They are not like the tree that is planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth fru it in his season. They aren’t really prosperous. “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away,” In the Hebrew the original would be translated in this way, “Not so the ungodly, not so, no, not at all.” You see the double negative to that? It may not come out in the Authorized Version, but it’s there in the original. It’s inter esting also to see that the reference is not to the wicked, or the sinners, or the scoffers. It tells us that the un godly are not so. This definition should be totally demoralizing to any individual who has never by faith received Jesus Christ as his per sonal Saviour. The ungodly are the least offensive, if we might put it that way. They are the nicest people in society. The only problem is that 14
they are not justified in the sight of God. As such they have condemned themselves to e te rn a l perdition. Now, if that’s their sad state, what must be the end result of the sinners, the wicked, the unrighteous, and the scoffers ? I have some chaff that was sent to me by a friend who is a farmer in Denver, Colorado. It has no weight at all. It’s all that’s left over from the wheat harvest. The precious ker nels are gone. Webster says that chaff is that which is dead, dry and worth less. It has been interesting to hear how that many years ago when the Pharaohs of Egypt died, the practice of the people was to bury their lead ers with a supply of wheat and corn. There was the religious superstition that the dead Pharaoh would natural ly get hungry. So, in with the mummy were piles of wheat and corn. As the big Aswan Dam was being construct ed in these last years, many tombs have been uncovered. Those kernels have been taken out and planted al though they are three or four thou sand years old. Did you know that they still bring forth a bumper crop ? There is that life from within. But, have you ever heard of anyone’s tak ing chaff, even chaff as recent as this past year’s harvest, and placing it out in the fields, got a crop from it? This wheat chaff won’t produce wheat; it won’t even grow more chaff. It’s worthless. It’s dead. It’s without substance. So the Bible is saying that this is the picture of the ungodly. Here is the person who has not been justified before God. He’s dead, spiritually speaking. He’s worthless. There is no life or no sub stance. Wind in Scripture we know to be a picture of the Holy Spirit. He who gently calls you today in the blessed invitation of God, “Whosoever will may come,” some day, in the judg ment, will drive away all those who have not by faith received Jesus Christ as Saviour.
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