discovered, covering some of the great masses of land around Africa. The unknown cartographer had writ ten in over many of the areas such foreboding statements as, “Here be giants. Here be fiery scorpions. Here be dragons.” Some years later a sci entist and born-again Christian, Sir John Franklin, came into possession of the map. It was later given to the British Museum. F r a n k li n had scratched out those warnings of the earlier cartographer, “Here be drag ons. Here be fiery scorpions. Here be giants.” Instead he wrote across the face of the map the words of con fidence and assurance, “Here be God!” The Lord knoweth the way that we take. But there is a very dark side to this, too, as we notice the last phrase of this last verse of Psalm One. “But the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Seemingly successful now, there is only one result which will eventually come to the unsaved. 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 synony mous with the term annihilate. To perish does not mean to stop existing or to cease existing. Rather, perish means no longer to exist for the pur pose for which it was originally in tended. In Matthew 8:25 we find the disciples on the high seas when a severe storm hit. They cry out five words, “Lord save us. We perish!” By that plea of desperation, did they mean that they were going to be an nihilated, that their bodies would no longer exist? Of course not. They were afraid for their lives; they thought there was a danger of dying. It could be said then that they would no longer exist for the purpose for which originally they had come into this world. Suppose I hold in my hand now a paper or plastic milk carton. It’s one from which we just finished drink ing this morning. I’ll rip open this
Fellowship is one of the enjoyable aspects of the Christian life. Pictured here are members of the Biola Women's Auxiliary at a recent "salad lunch eon." Mrs. Margaret Friesen, manager of the Biola Dining Room, has prepared delectable meals for the women who participate in the semi-annual me t ings held on the Biola Campus.
carton, tearing it apart so that it will never again hold a single drop of anything. It has now no bottom or sides. Has this milk carton ceased to exist? No, it still is here, but with out question, it has perished. It’s been destroyed. It’s useless. That’s why in Matthew 9:17 the Lord Jesus uses these words, “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles.” Those were actually skins, of course, in those days. “Else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish.” Those skins would not necessarily perish in the sense that they would no longer be in exist ence. They weren’t annihilated, but rather no longer would be useful for the purpose for which they were ori ginally intended. We have all of eternity facing us. What kind of a justification have we before God? Do you fully realize what eternity means? The human mind cannot begin to fathom just exactly what it’s like. Perhaps one small illustration would be helpful. Consider an immense glacier, larger than any ice mass man has ever dis covered. We can’t even imagine such a huge mountain of ice. Supposing that the glacier begins to thaw out 17
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker