If you’re a godly person, you have a favored position because of your delight in the Lord.
I’m reminded of the words of Jesus in John 14:23. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.” There’s no greater joy than having the presence of God Almighty living within you.
The True and Living God, the God of the Bible, is holy. Because He is holy He cannot stand sin. Sin is an offense to Him and it must be punished. His anger and His wrath against sin were satisfied at Calvary when Jesus died on the cross. He is a God who loves you so much that he sent His son Jesus to die in your place. Jesus took the punishment that you deserve!
Now, when you accept, by faith, the sacrifice Jesus made for you, you can be accepted into God’s family. You can belong to him in a personal way. He forgives your sin, you become His child, and He becomes your Lord and Master. Your life will be fruitful and worthwhile; it will have meaning and purpose. It will count for something. That’s the development of the righteous.
But what about the wicked? Our text says they’re like chaff. Chaff! What is chaff? It’s the outer husks that cover the kernel of grain. What’s it good for? Nothing! It’s waste. Worthless! Blown away by the wind when the grain is winnowed. Dusty, irritating, something to be discarded. That’s the description of the wicked. That’s what they have to look forward to. That’s the development from delighting in wickedness.
Not only that, but the Bible tells us that the chaff will be burnt with fire. “Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.” That’s Isaiah 5:24.
All the pleasure, all the fun, all the excitement, all the thrill of the forbidden; all gone in a moment. No lasting fruit. And then what? We move to our final difference now.
The Final Difference is:
Accept a Different Destiny
Look at verses five and six. Oh, the tragedy of foolish choices, of identifying with the wicked for a moment of pleasure. The tragedy of thinking there is safety in numbers. It all comes to nothing in the judgment. And make no mistake my friend, judgment will come. Hebrews 9:27 and 28 tell us, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment: so, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
That’s the contrast, my friend. The Psalm writer says the ungodly shall perish. Not maybe, not perhaps; THEY SHALL PERISH! They will stand condemned by their own choices. “… these shall go away into everlasting punishment:” And, John the Baptist spoke these words at the baptism of Jesus. Listen, “[His] fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.”
But the righteous, what about them? Verse six says the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Second Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” I pray you’re one of those whose heart is loyal to the Lord.
Because the righteous refused to delight in the way of the wicked, God now delights in them. He knows them as His very own. Because they were grieved by the blasphemy of ungodly men, they now rejoice in the commendation of their Fath...
