“4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
”
I want you to imagine two scenarios. The first takes place in a hospital room. A man is sitting on a bed. His breathing is incredibly labored. His wife is sitting in a chair next to him holding his hand. The doctor enters the room and says, ‘the good news is you can enjoy great quality of life with this oxygen mask.’ ‘Well, I’m not wearing it,’ says the man. His wife starts to cry. ‘Didn’t you hear me?’ the doctor asks. ‘If you don’t wear it, you are going to die.’ ‘Well, I’m not wearing it.’ That’s scenario one.
Scenario two takes place in a family room. Dad and mom are sitting on one couch and the kids are sitting on another. Mom is hiding something under a throw pillow. ‘Now kids,’ says dad, ‘I think you are going to be excited about what we get to do next month. My boss gave me tickets to, drumroll please…’ Mom pulls out brochures and shouts, ‘Six Flags in St. Louis! They’ve got Batman: The Ride, the Skyscreamer, Spinsanity.’ ‘Well, I’m not going,’ says their oldest son Billy. ‘But Billy,’ says Mom, ‘They’ve got Superman: Tower of Power, the Bonzai Pipeline, and Typhoon Twister.’ ‘Well, I’m not going,’ says Billy. ‘Then you will miss out on the fun,’ says Dad.
Those are two scenarios of people opting out. In scenario one, opting out will lead to death. In scenario two, opting out will lead to missing out.
We have been studying the blessed life for three weeks. “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
Is opting out of the blessed life akin to scenario one—‘didn’t you hear me? If you don’t wear it, you are going to die.’ Or is opting out of the blessed life akin to scenario two—‘Then you will miss out on the fun.’
God says that man who rejects this blessed life chooses death. Don’t water that down to just missing out. The man who rejects grace rejects life, meaning he chooses death.
You do not want to live the unblessed life. That’s the claim of this sermon: you do not want to live the unblessed life.
We will see this in two points. First: malnourished, withering, failing and full of rotten fruit. Second: chaff that the wind blows away. In the first half of verse 4, we see malnourished, withering, failing and full of rotten fruit. In the second half of verse 4 and all of verse 5 we see chaff that the wind blows away.
First: malnourished, withering, failing and full of rotten fruit. In our last study, David painted us a picture of a fruitful tree planted by streams of water. It was a wholesome picture. This wholesomeness is not for everyone; verse 4, “Not so the wicked.”
This tree is well nourished. Not so the wicked. This tree bears good fruit. Not so the wicked. This tree remains green and leafy. Not so the wicked. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked. They are malnourished, withering, failing and full of rotten fruit. They are dry husks. They are chaff that the wind blows away.
This is the trajectory of the great mass of humanity today. If you care about people, this should alarm you. Most people are well on their way to becoming irredeemably malnourished, withering, failing and full of rotten fruit. They are well on their way to becoming chaff that the wind has long since blown away.
You can see that people’s souls are malnourished. You see it in their relationships. They are not nourished by God and so they demand nourishment from others. Husbands expect wives to provide what only God can give. Children expect parents to supply what only God the Father can offer.
You see this malnourishment in the way the world demands too much from too little. They don’t drink in an infinite God for substantial satisfaction. They expect to find it in sports. They expected to find it at work. They expect to find it in a hobby. These can’t deliver not because they are worthless but because they insufficient. You know this if you know Christ. If you think baseball can nourish your soul the way Christ can, you don’t know Christ. You are stuck in the pattern of this world and are expecting too much from too little. You are malnourished. You need to be planted by streams of living water. That’s the blessed life.
The blessed life bears good fruit. Not so the wicked. The man who is planted in grace bears the fruit of, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” The man who isn’t planted in grace bears rotten fruit. He is malnourished, and he bears rotten fruit. The apostle Paul catalogued this fruit –sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, hatred, discord, fits of rage, selfish ambition, factions, envy, and drunkenness.
The abhorrent rancor in this nation is exactly what you should expect. The opioid epidemic raging in this nation is exactly what you should expect. The attempt to redefine sexuality in this nation is exactly what you should expect. The incarceration rates in this nation are exactly what you should expect with so many people planted outside of grace. Trees will bear fruit.
Young people, keep this in mind when dating. If you marry a born again man who loves God’s word, you are going to enjoy good fruit. If you marry a man who is indifferent to God, you are going to taste a lot of bad fruit. If you marry a woman justified by Christ’s blood and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you are going to be on the receiving end of love, joy, peace, and patience. If you marry a woman without God you will receive envy, discord, and fits of rage. The tree planted by streams of water bears good fruit. Not so the wicked.
The tree planted by streams of water stays green and leafy. Not so the wicked. He withers with time, and he withers with suffering.
The man of this world withers with time. As he ages, he realized his reasons for joy are quickly diminishing. If his prize is his looks, they are withering. If his prize is his health, he knows that statistically he is on the downward slope. If his prize is his wealth, he knows on some level that money can’t satisfy and it certainty can’t prevent death. If his prize is his reputation, he has learned that no one spends much time thinking about him anyway. He is withering. His feeble attempts to compensate fool no one, including himself.
If this is your life, repent. Stop living for yourself. Live for God. His kindnesses don’t wither. They don’t perish, spoil, or fade. Listen to Peter, “In His great mercy [God] has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” You can have delights that will never wither, but such delights are only be given by God. Are you willing to explore what He offers or are you content to wither?
The blessed man doesn’t wither with time. As Psalm 92 says, “[the righteous] will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no crookedness in Him.’”
The blessed man doesn’t wither with time and neither does he wither with suffering. Paul painted a picture of the righteous in pain. “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
Not so the wicked. She is crushed. She is in despair. She is abandoned. She is destroyed. She becomes bitter. She becomes cynical. She has no hope beyond this life and, for her, this life has become a disaster. She withers.
You and I will both encounter pain and suffering in this life. We will not avoid it. Our response has everything to do with where we are planted. Are you planted in grace? Are you drinking in Christ? Is he speaking tenderly upon your heart in this word? Or are you without hope and without God in the universe? If you aren’t nourished by God, you will wither when suffering comes. I don’t want that for you. I want you to be assured with every fiber of your being that no matter what you suffer in this life, you will be resurrected with even more glory than you’ve lost because you will become even more like Jesus. The blessed man will not wither.
God also prospers the obedience of the blessed man. “Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked.” God promises to underwrite the success of what He commands. There is no such promise for your own dreams.
You see failed dreams all around you. Billy Joel wrote about that in his song Piano Man. Talking about the bartender, he said, ‘there’s someplace that he’d rather be. He says, “Bill, I believe this is killing me,” as the smile ran away from his face. “Well I’m sure that I could be a movie star if I could get out of this place.”’
That’s the world. There is some place that they’d rather be, but why aren’t they there? They aren’t there either because they’ve missed their chance, or they aren’t there because in their heart of hearts they know they can’t catch their dreams. That bartender probably knows he couldn’t be a movie star, but it at least he can pretend he could. That bartender knows that life doesn’t guarantee success. “Whatever he does prospers,” is not a promise in this world.
It is a promise of God. He empowers whatever He commands. The question is do you want to do what God wants you to do? The man planted by streams of water does and so he prospers. The man outside of grace doesn’t and so he dreams. If on the off chance he catches his dream, he realizes that Jim Carrey is right. “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” The blessed man knows the satisfaction of success because he wants God’s will to be done and God’s will, will be done. “Not so the wicked.”
I hope you have compassion for these people. They are malnourished. They bear rotten fruit. They are withering. They are failing at life. I don’t want to look down on men and women who are malnourished, withering, failing, and full of rotten fruit. I want to help them and the only thing that helps is this word. Nothing else will help. If you think something else will help, you don’t see the desperate condition of humanity. We need a miracle and that is the miracle of re-birth. We can be reborn and planted in grace. “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
So far David has told us what the wicked are not. Now David paints a picture of what they are. That picture is our second point: chaff that the wind blows away.
Chaff is the leftover waste from grain. At winnowing time, the farmers threw the grain in the air to allow the wind to separate the grain from its chaff. The wind would blow the light chaff away while the grain would fall to the ground to be collected. The farmers never attempted to collect the chaff because it is worthless.
Let’s ponder that for a minute. Farmers are not averse to collecting anything that might prove valuable. I think manure is example enough. Farmers are savvy enough to monetize animal droppings. They are industrious enough to turn excrement into a valuable resource. If there was any value in chaff, they would have found it. Yet no farmer collects chaff because it is worthless.
There is no use for chaff and that’s God’s word on what becomes of the wicked. They become worthless. “They are like chaff that the wind blows away.”
There has never been a man who has longed to be compared with chaff. ‘I want to be useless and generally judged as worthless.’ We want meaningful lives. We want consequential lives. We want worthwhile lives.
That is not what is in store for those who walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of mockers. That’s not what is in store for those who find no delight in God’s word. That’s not what is in store for those who refuse to drink of God’s grace. That’s not what’s in store for those who fail to bear the fruit of obedience. They are like chaff and the wind will blow them away.
This wind is the final judgment. Verse 5, “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment.”
There is a judgment coming. Daniel spoke of it, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” Isaiah spoke of it. Joel spoke of it. Zephaniah spoke of it. Malachi spoke of it. John the Baptist spoke of it. Jesus spoke of it more than anyone. Peter spoke of it. Paul spoke of it. The author of Hebrews spoke of it. Jude spoke of it. John spoke of it regularly in the book of Revelation. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of God,” is the consistent message of Scripture.
The man without God or hope in the world will not entertain this thought. The chaff never considers the coming wind. He dismisses it as an antiquated fable. He dismisses it, so he says, because he has outgrown the need for superstitions. He is modern.
Isn’t that the common view? Years ago, people believed in a coming judgment, but they also believed the earth was flat and you could sail right off the edge. Years ago, people believed God would judge the living and the dead, but they also believed the sun rotated around the earth. ‘We’ve grown past that final judgment business.’ They say they don’t believe in the final judgment because they are modern, and Christians are just clinging to outdated ideas.
The fact is that there is nothing modern about denying the final judgment. Denying the final judgment is as old as the truth of the final judgment. Listen to Psalm 94, “how long will the wicked be jubilant? They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush your people, O Lord; they oppress your inheritance. They slay the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless. They say, ‘The Lord does not see…’” In other words, they say, ‘God won’t hold me accountable.’ Listen to Peter, “in the last days, scoffers will come, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?’” In other words, ‘where is this final judgment?’
There is nothing modern about denying the final judgment. It is as old as the truth of the final judgment because it is as old as sin itself. In both the Scriptures I read sin comes before the denial of judgment. “They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting… they murder the fatherless. They say, ‘The Lord does not see.’ “In the last days, scoffers will come, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?’”
They thought they were modern. They thought they were beyond superstition. Scripture has a much better explanation. They were in sin and sinners refuse to believe in the coming judgment. Chaff refuses to consider that the wind might blow.
They refuse to consider the final judgment because it makes them uncomfortable. Now, it takes no great intellect to deny what is uncomfortable. People do it every day. People do it every day with death. The reality of a man’s own death rarely finds a home in his brain. Leo Tolstoy wrote about that in his novel The Death of Ivan Ilyich. When Ivan received his terminal diagnosis, he realized that for his whole life he had thought that death only happened to other people. ‘Yes, every human being dies, but what does that have to do with me?’ Most of that novel is about Ivan’s struggle to accept what should have been obvious long before his diagnosis—one day he would die. We humans are incredibly skilled at denying what we find uncomfortable so don’t take the widespread denial of the final judgment with much weight.
Don’t give much weight to a malnourished soul who says, ‘I will continue forever.’ Don’t give much weight to a tree filled with rotten fruit who says, ‘I will never be cut down.’ Don’t give much weight to a withering tree covered who says, ‘there is nothing wrong with me.’ Don’t give much weight to a man who is failing at life and yet says, ‘God can’t judge me.’ Don’t give much weight to chaff when the wind blows. God doesn’t. “They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment.”
Do you think there will be a final judgment? If not, why not? Because everyone would know about it? You have prophet after prophet and apostle after apostle telling you about it. You have the judge himself taking on flesh and living telling you how the judgment will go. You have heard about it. You have just chosen not to believe.
Do you think there will be a final judgment? If not, why not? Because you don’t believe anyone can judge you? Jesus claims to have the authority to judge you. “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.” Jesus claimed the right to judge you comprehensively and perfectly.
The man of this world likes to pretend that he is beyond judging. He twists, “judge not lest thee be judged,” just like Satan twists Scripture. He says he abhors judgments, but he isn’t consistent. He himself is quick to judge. If you want to deny that there is a judgment, at least have the decency to be consistent. Stop pretending any offense against you matters because who is anyone to judge including you? Stop pretending that you have any basis for distinguishing between good and evil because, according to you, neither will matter in the end. Come to terms with the fact that you pushing your daughter on a swing is no better or worse than pushing her in front of a car. If you want to live in a world without judgment and with no divine basis for judgment, be consistent. Stop borrowing what you like about God’s ethical universe and ignoring what makes you uncomfortable.
If the idea of a final judgment makes you uncomfortable, the answer is not to deny it. The answer is to join the assembly of the righteous. “The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” How do you leave the assembly of the wicked, the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, and the seat of mockers and join the assembly of the righteous?
David tells you, you need to be planted by streams of living water. You need to be transplanted from sin to grace. You need to be transplanted from what your life can get you to what Christ’s life can get you. You need to confess, ‘God, I am guilty. I am worthy of being judged. I have no defense to make for myself, but I trust the defense You’ve offerede. I trust that Christ’s cross can be counted as my judgment and Christ’s resurrection can be counted as my new life. I’m not worthy of this but that’s not my judgment to make. It was Yours and You are far more merciful than me.’ If that is your confession, you do not need to fear this coming judgment. You have every reason for confidence that you will stand in the assembly of the righteous.
If that is your confession, I want you to have confidence that the assembly of the righteous includes you. You do Christ no honor by being modest about what will happen to you at the final judgment. I can’t imagine Christ saying, ‘I died so you could be uncertain about what will happen when you do.’ If you are planted in grace, if you are bearing the fruit of obedience, you should be confident about the final judgment.
The Son of God didn’t take on flesh so that people could just not ‘miss out.’ He came so people might stand in the final judgment. He came so that people might be trees planted by streams of water rather than chaff that the wind blows away.
You are either a tree or you are chaff. You are either walking the way of life or you are on the way of death. Which is it? Tell Christ. He is the judge. Amen.