Digging Deep No. 6 Topic: The Chaff Text: Psalms 1:4

INTRODUCTION: In the last study we learnt that a saint could be compared to a tree planted by the riverside. What a wonderful comparison. On the other hand, in our study today, the sinners are compared to the chaff. What a terrible comparison. So you know what the chaff is?

1. By what other names are the ungodly compared?
a. Children of the wicked one or tares – Matthew 13:38
b. Children of the devil – John 8:44
c. Enemy of all righteousness – Acts 13:10
d. Whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, boasters, covenant breakers, - Romans 1:28-31. Can you think of some other names for sinners?

2. To what else are the ungodly compared?
a) Job 21:17-20 – Weak candle light, stubble, chaff
b) Isaiah 17:12-24 – Chaff, a rolling thing before the whirlwind
c) Hosea 13:1-3 – Morning cloud, early dew that passes away, smoke out of the chimney
d) Matthew 3:11-12 – Chaff to be burnt with unquenchable fire.

3. Why are sinners compared to chaff, stubble, morning cloud, early dew, smoke etc? Because they always die before their time.
a) Job 22:15-16 – Sinners are cut down before their time
b) Ps. 37:37-38 – Sinners are destroyed, they are cut off
c) Ps. 55:23 – Sinners don’t live out half their days
d) Prov. 10:27 – The years of sinners are shortened
e) Eccl. 7:17 – The wicked and the foolish always die before their time.

4. What happens when sinners dies in the prime of their life?
a) II Chron. 21:16-20 – They die in disgrace and despised.
b) Jere. 22:18-19 – Sinners die unlamented
c) Ezek. 7:9-10 – When sinners die there are no genuine mourners, no genuine sorrow.

5. Why is it that sinners die unmourned?
a) Deut. 29:24-28 – Because it is God who got annoyed with them so that their death is more of surprise than sorrow.
b) II Chron. 7:19-22 – Because it is God who plucked them out by the root. Their destruction is always so completed that they become an astonishment.
c) Ps. 52:3-7 – When the righteous sees the complete destruction of the seemingly indestructible sinner he cannot really mourn.
d) Since their roots are also destroyed who shall remain to mourn? Prov. 2:22, Matt. 15:13.

6. But God is love. Can such a gentle Father destroy so completely? II Peter 3:3-10, Romans 1:18.

CONCLUSION:God is love, no doubt about it at all. But He is a holy God and He does not tolerate sin. Also He has made adequate provision for freedom from sin and destruction through Jesus Christ. The question now is what are you? The tree by the riverside or the chaff? Which will you like to be? It is time to pray