The source of the wicked
❖ Is the counsel of men
We see in the first verse that the godly do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. But the ungodly follow the counsel of the ungodly. And we find the counsel or the philosophy or thoughts and intentions of the ungodly everywhere. We find the counsel of the wicked in the newspapers and sometimes in church counsels, in liberal theologian publications, in curricula of state education, in textbooks of psychology in bookstores and on the radio and the Television and many times in news reports. We find their counsel in the sophisticated and crude language of Kempton Park streets. We find the counsel of the ungodly between some family members and sometimes from State Presidents. If any person’s mind is not controlled by the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ, we find ungodly counsel. Ungodly counsel means, by definition, where God’s counsel is rejected or ignored. Where homosexual unions or marriages are condoned, where abortion on demand and sexual deviancy and immorality and idolatry and gambling is approved, there we find the counsel of the ungodly. The source of the ungodly is the system of the world.
❖Is his own sinful inclinations and heart
The human heart is deceitful above all else (Jeremiah 17:9), and it is desperately wicked. Even if you take all the magazines and newspapers and Televisions and Radios and the Internet and books and human philosophy away, you will still have your own ungodly thoughts to contend with. The mind of the flesh is in direct opposition to the mind of the Spirit. As Genesis 6:5 and 8:21 said: the inclinations of the human heart are only evil continually from its youth. We counsel ourselves in the wrong direction. We are, by nature, self-centred and preoccupied with our own interests and desires. By birth and by nature, we are ungodly, and if we listen to the world or if we listen to our own hearts or follow our own hearts, we are doomed! So please, I plead with you in the new year: don’t listen to your heart if you don’t have a new heart in Christ! But even if you have a new heart, be aware of your old self. It still needs to be put to death daily!
❖Is the way of the world
The source of the ungodly is the counsel of worldly men, men devoid of the wisdom and knowledge of God. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:13,14, “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go that way..” The wisdom of this world will not lead you to salvation and blessedness. It may make you rich in earthly goods. It may lead you to success in business or on the corporate ladder. It may lead you to have a big family and to be a well-adjusted individual in society, or it may not; nevertheless, it will not lead you to lasting blessings. You may end up doing Yoga and in some spiritual form of religion like Buddhism or New Ageism or whatever form of asceticism, but it will not lead you to lasting blessing and holiness. Hedonism, asceticism and atheism, consumerism or adventurism or all the “isms” that the world puts forth as the way to happiness cannot lead you to blessing because it rejects God and righteousness and leaves Christ out of the equation.
INTERETHNICMISSIONS 