Vintage of the Wicked When Sinners Are Shelled Down Like Corn

It was said of George Whitefield, the great British evangelist, that on an occasion, while he was preaching in a London drawing room to some illustrious and privileged people, Lord Chesterfield was in attendance, and as Whitefield described the desperate condition of the poor lost sinner, he was using for his illustration a blind, poor, old beggar walking along a dangerous premises. There was, he was going with his little dog beside him. He's leaning on his cane for support as he gropes along the treacherous path, but when he comes to the edge of the cliff, his little dog leaves him, and his grip on his cane is loosed, and the cane drops down into the chasm of darkness.

As he totters back and forth on that high premises, his doom is certain, and Whitefield's oratory was so vivid in his description of the old blind beggar walking aimlessly to his destruction. As he described him standing on shaky legs over that precipice, tottering back and forth over that black void of a chasm, his words carried such imagery and force that suddenly Lord Chesterfield jumped up from his chair and cried out, My God, he's gone! Well, I believe Whitefield was right when he chose a blind beggar as his illustration for the lost sinner. Men without Christ are in darkness.

They are blind to spiritual things because they are dead in sin from a ruined nature that makes them alienated from God, makes them a rebel to God. Well, you look like a nice, civilized bunch of people here, but there may be some of you who are rebels just the same. I've got a special message for us tonight, friends.

Let's all gather up closely and listen to this striking sermon that I feel is burning in my soul for you. I've got unburdened from my heart. I kind of feel like a volcano that's ready to erupt at any minute with this message, friend.

I must bring it to you. Listen to me. In this world, man is a hopeless lost sinner.

He's unreconciled to God. He's standing on a dangerous precipice facing utter ruin and destruction. He's in desperate need of a remedy for sin because there is a poison in his blood.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is Vintage of the Wicked, When Sinners Are Shelled Down Like Corn. My text can be found in the book of Job. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 4 and verse 6, which declares, They reap everyone his corn in the field, and they gather the vintage of the wicked. Oh, what terrible words those are, friends. Corn in the field on reaping day when a harvest for the wicked.

This speaks of a coming day of judgment when every mother's son will stand naked before God. There, each man's work will pass under the eye of the judge of all the earth, and books will be opened where each life is revealed and reviewed beneath his intense scrutiny. A harvest day is judgment day where men like stalks of corn will be shucked in death by angels, angels taking some to heaven, angels taking others down to hell to be reserved to a day of judgment.

Judgment day is a shelling day where the corn is inspected, separated, and shelled. I've got four heads to my sermon. I will first list them and then elaborate on each head.

Number one, man's condition, rune. Number two, man's course of darkness. Number three, man's certain death.

Number four, man's coming judgment. We read in Hebrews, and it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. Harvest time is reaping time, friends.

In Galatians, we read, be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.

But he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Our text in Job states they reap everyone his corn in the field. Let me pause here to say, friends, in the South, in farm operations, shucking or picking usually refers to harvesting the whole ear of corn for storage in the year.

Old grandpappy shucked the corn when he harvested by hand with horses pulling the wagon. It took two rows at a time going through the field. Two people shucking at a time got four rows, and one closest to the wagon might get hit in the head with an ear of corn from time to time, but that's how it was done.

The shucking was one thing, shelling the corn was another. Shelling meant threshing, separating, and cleaning the corn with a combine or a stationary corn sheller. The shelling process leaves only clean kernels of corn grain.

The chaff, the useless part, was burned. So here, my friends, is a picture of a harvest, and in Job 24, 24, we read a vivid illustration of this very thing. They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low.

They are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. Here, God is speaking of the brevity of life and how every man will one day taste death and be cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. How about you, friend? Do you ever think of dying? Do you ever give much thought as to where you will spend eternity? Every man has an earthly body that will deteriorate and die, and every man has an immortal soul that will never die.

When you die, your body goes in the grave, but your soul goes into eternity, either to heaven or to hell. Some of you spend more time detailing your automobile than you spend on the details of your final destiny. Tonight, friends, you will be confronted with the reality of eternity and the God of that eternity who holds your life in His hands.

He can make your heart stop beating any time He wants to, and pull you out of this world, and throw you right into eternity. The first aspect of my message tonight, friends, is man's condition. Man's condition is ruined.

When Adam fell, we fell. We each entered this world with a poison in our blood, and that's a ruined condition with a bent toward sin. Man is a sinner.

His heart is prone to sin. In Jeremiah, we read, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Oh, friends, you who have a good opinion of yourself, you are a sinner.

That's not me saying it. God is saying it. You are a sinner.

In Romans, God declares there is none righteous. No, not one. Not one of you here tonight, by your own merits, is righteous.

No, not one. You are a sinner. I am a sinner.

And there is a coming day, friends, where every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. God says to you, friend, here tonight, sir, you are a sinner. Young lady, you are a sinner.

For in Romans 3.23, the word of God states clearly, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Some of you may remember the old dictionary where you'd open it up and you'd go looking for a word. And beside the definition of that word, you'd find a picture or a drawn.

If the word was an eagle, there'd be a drawn or a photo of an eagle alongside of it. Listen to me, friend. In God's dictionary is a description of a sinner.

And beside that definition is your very photo. Your picture stands right alongside Job 15.16, which states, how much more abominable and filthy is man? Oh, which drinketh iniquity like water? That means you can't get enough of sin. You drink it like water.

You're never satisfied. You can't get enough of sin. Listen to me.

You are a sinner. We see this to be true in our passage from Job 24.13. They are of those that rebel against the light. They know not the ways thereof, nor about in the past thereof.

Listen, friend, man is like George Whitefield's poor blind beggar, ambling along a winding road fraught with danger. Devils are all around him. The unseen world tries to waylay him into sin.

The devil goes about, my Bible says, as a roaring lion. The apostle Peter warns us, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He wants to devour you, friend.

Satan wants to keep his goods in peace so they won't be disturbed. Satan has so many false teachers standing in pulpits today all across this country who are comedians and entertainers who just tell you funny stories and give you soothing messages that don't disturb anybody. The trouble is they don't save anybody either.

The devil's got his goods. He will keep them in peace. Well, tonight, friends, you're gonna hear a disturbing message.

I promise you that as I face you with certain unavoidable truths. Listen, friends, I know I am a sinner and I need a substitute for sin in the person of Christ Jesus. And so do you, friend.

So do you. So man's condition is one of ruin and sin. Secondly, man's course is one of darkness continually.

Our text in Job says a lost sinner rebels against the light. Look at the mischief and mayhem a sinner gets himself into is seen in verses 14-16 in a passage from Job 24. The murderer, rising with the light, killeth the poor and needy.

And in the night, as a thief, the eye also of the adulterer waited for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, and disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through houses which they had marked for themselves. In the daytime they know not the light.

Well, man's course is one of darkness. The course of a sinner's life is one of a heart full of malice, murder, eyes full of adultery, and perversion, and lust. Nature's corrupt like thieves taking what doesn't belong to them.

How many items have you stolen in your life, friend, where you never made restitution for? Thirdly, man's certain death we see in verse 17. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death. If one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

And Job 18.14 calls death the king of terrors. His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring to him the king of terrors. Yes, friends, death is a terrible thing to face, especially if you're not saved.

A dying person is a pitiful sight to behold, their pain, their squirming, their cries. It takes a long time to die. The folks in hospitals that are terminally ill are so doped up on drugs they feel little pain today.

But if you were to go to every hospital in the city tonight and take all the patients off their pain medications and throw open the windows, their cries and shrieks would keep this town awake tonight. Dying is a terrible thing. Just look at our passage in verse 22.

He that draweth also the mighty with his power, he rises up and no man is sure of life. You've got no guarantee of tomorrow, friend. Just because you're young, feeling good, you're in good health, you're fit as you can be, there's no promise of tomorrow.

You could die in a car wreck on the way home from this meeting. You could be standing in line at a grocery store tomorrow when a madman guns you down. A sudden death is all around us.

People die suddenly and unexpectedly. Planes drop out of the sky. People die by accidents.

Proverbs 29.1 declares, he that is often reproved hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy suddenly be destroyed. I said goodbye to a co-worker in a hallway one afternoon. He was a young man in his 40s and that evening he got up out of bed at midnight, took two steps and dropped to the floor dead like a block of cement.

He died of a sudden heart attack. Well, I kissed my wife goodbye one morning and went on my early morning walk in the park and when I got home I found her dead on the floor. A sudden death, unexpected death, in Ecclesiastes we read, for man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of man snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them.

So we see, friends, the brevity of life and man's certain death which at times is sudden and unexpected. Lastly, my last point, we're confronted with man's common judgment. Verse 24 tells us, they are exalted for a little while but they are gone and brought low.

They're taken out of the way as all other and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. Men are shucked like ears of corn, rows and rows of them from every walk of life and from every nation. They stand in rows, they stand in rows like corn in Africa, in South America, in Russia and in China, in Indonesia, in India, in America and Canada, in England and Scotland and Wales and Ireland.

Men are lined up rows and rows like corn, represent mankind ready to be shucked for what purpose? For a common judgment day. They reap every one as corn in the field and they gather the vintage of the wicked, the vintage of the wicked, friends, where they'll be shelled down by the vine dresser, the judge of all the earth, where the goats will be separated from the sheep, the grain separated from the shaft, where every man will be tried and tested by the strictness and severity of God's unbending law. King Solomon warned of it.

For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. The apostle Paul spoke of it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.

The apostle Peter warned of it. For if ye call on the father who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. And the Lord Jesus Christ predicted it.

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

So man's common judgment is fast approaching. Friend, aren't you concerned that you may be part of the vintage of the wicked, where the corner be shelled down, separated, and review occurs. Your only hope is Christ Jesus, but you must get your sins under his blood.

Jesus came into this world doing good. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus fed the hungry.

Jesus gave sight to the blind. He even raised the dead to life. Yet what happened, men cried away with him, and they nailed him to a cross.

It breaks me up to even tell you about it, friend. Look, look at that man on the cross, friend. Look at that blessed man on the cross.

See him there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that bloodstained savior for sin. Hear him.

Look unto me. Be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. The cross is the place where men sought to get rid of him, but by his death, it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own him as savior and lord.

Listen, friend. If you've not trusted this blessed savior, receive him now before it's too late. Soon he will come in judgment on this world, when his anger shall burn as an oven, and then you shall meet him as your judge.

Hear in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Come to Jesus. Come.

What are you waiting for, mister? Come. Don't wait until you better. Bring to him your heartache.

Bring to him your fears. Lay your hands down at his nail-pierced feet. Oh, friends, the gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty.

Let me ask you, friend. Are you hungry for God? Are you sick and tired of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come. Come to him and believe on him.

Listen to this gospel plea. In the last day, that great day, the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.