we are looking or continuing
to look at psalm 1 this evening but before i commence from verse
3 it's just to i couldn't find it this morning but the verse
which deals with the man that we are talking about that the
blessed man of whom we read about in the psalm the man who has
made a child of grace through Christ Jesus I said it was 2
corinthians 5 7 it's 2 corinthians 5 17 therefore any man if any
man being Christ he is a new creature all things are passed
away behold all things are become new also we have in Galatians
6 verse 15 for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature and i link that
to the passage in John chapter 3 where the Lord said to Nicodemus,
ye must be born again. There is no hope without being
born again. We can follow the religion of
the Jews, we can follow anything, we can follow the Bible literally
word for word, but if there is no new birth, you're still dead
in trespasses and sin. It's not my view, it's what the
Bible says. So as we come to the book of
Psalms, I'll read it again, Psalm 1. I'll read the whole of the
Psalm. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. but his delight is
in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day
and night. I'm not going to recapitulate
over verses one and two but just to sort of underline his delight
we looked at psalm 119 and verses from there about the law of God,
the word of God, the statutes of God, there's eight different
words that all mean the word of God and it's not just the
law as we read it in the ten commandments or the ceremonial
but it seems obvious that it is the whole of God's word, Jesus
Christ being the word incarnate who dwelt amongst us full of
grace and truth and there is a necessity to look at the whole
of God's Word. Now there is something that I
didn't mention this morning which I think is important, where the
Lord when he's talking to the Sadducees in Mark chapter 12 bearing in mind that the Pharisees
were people we might say people of the book of the Old Testament
and he says to them they're bringing something before him and he answers
them in verse 24 Jesus said unto them do you not
therefore err make serious error because you know not the scriptures
neither the power of God it was to do with a woman who had married
a man's brother and he died and then she married the next brother
as they were supposed to do according to the law and they bring it
they try to trick him whose wife is she in the resurrection and
he says the you know you do but basically we must concentrate
on this you do earth because you know not the scriptures then
now they knew the bible but they did not understand the bible
it was a closed book to them even though you know they might
be looking at the pages and we must bear that in mind that as
we come, that the man here that we're talking about is a man
who's indwelt by the Holy Spirit in fact as we should realise
that the book here, the Psalms, in fact the whole of scriptures
is written by the Holy Spirit through men so we then come down
to realise that we are looking at the Bible and that we are
talking about a spiritual book many have heard because they
think that we get to whatsoever he doeth shall prosper we have
what's called the health wealth and prosperity gospel I'm just
not going to go there we need to realize the Bible is a spiritual
book but our spiritual lives have an effect upon ourselves
the spiritual lives or the lack of a spiritual life of the world
produces what we see round about us hatred, variance, emulation,
the works of the flesh, as we looked at in Galatians this morning. But we are a people, elect to
salvation, and we are to live as a testimony, to bear in mind
what the scriptures say about us, and about the carnal man
as well. The carnal mind is enmity against
God, and therefore he has no time for God. whereas this man
here his delight is in the law and of the Lord and then his
law doth he meditate day and night but he shall be like a
tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper now i'm not going to read read from hebrews
chapter 11 it's that chapter where we call it the the here
the chapter on the heroes of the faith but you know we see
some who have done as it well well as the lord's people but
we also see that though there are those who didn't do so well
as the world looks at them and we might consider i'll just briefly
pick out some of some of them the first one is concerned with
Abel By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and buying it,
he being dead, yet speaketh." Now remember, Abel's sacrifice
was offered. Why? Because he brought a lamb.
Whereas Cain brought the fruit of the earth. But you see, the
earth was cursed. the earth was cursed so in that
sacrifice that they were asked to bring Cain did what was right
and Abel did what was wrong so Abel obtained a witness that
he was righteous but he died for it he was murdered by his
brother the world may say well what a loser well we can go through
we can look at Enoch who the Lord preserved and Abraham but
I'll come down to verse 32 what shall I more say for the time
would fail me to tell of Gedeon and Barak and Samson of Jetha
David also and Samuel of the prophets who through faith subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the
edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in the fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens and
there we have reference to those three young Israelites and Daniel,
Daniel in the lion's den and the three Israelites before Nebuchadnezzar
who would not bow down and worship him and were thrown into the
fiery furnace then it goes on, women received their dead raised
to life again and others were tortured not accepting deliverance
that they may obtain a better resurrection and others had a
trial of cruel mockings and scourgings and it carries on there was stone
sawn asunder the tempted were slain with the sword wandered
about and we think of john the baptist we think of the lord
jesus christ the world looks at success in a different way
to what we should be looking at it we should consider that
to gain the world and to lose our souls is great loss we do
pray for that grace that we might do so our lives then are not
always going to be trouble-free so what is it that we are going
to prosper at we'll shortly look at King Josiah but the point
is about the believer that he should be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit. Rivers of water
and this afternoon at Hedgen Cliff was speaking from Isaiah
12 if you remember verse 3 about the wells of salvation but we're
not just talking about wells here we're talking about rivers. I live by a river in the South
Wales and we have had times of drought when we're down there
and when there is a time of drought all the other trees away from
the river are distressed and you can see it the leaves start
to go yellow and they start dropping early but the older trees the
willows and all those that are by the river they all maintain
that green lushness They all bring forth their fruit, well
the oldest, you wouldn't recognize them as fruit probably, but it
is their fruit, their cones, their seed, the willow also. They all bring these things and
we can see how even in times of distress, drought, that nonetheless
they are kept healthy and supplied with what they need. As far as
I'm aware, all life on the face of this earth depends upon water
and we depend upon water too as the Lord's people. i'm thinking
of john chapter 7 verse 37 and 38 in the last days in sorry
in the last day that great day of the feast jesus stood and
cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink
he that believeth on me as a scripture hath said out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water, rivers. There's a reference to
water again, Cliff mentioned from the woman at the well, woman
in Samaria, who, I shall read it, it is relevant,
even if talking reference the well. Art thou greater than our
father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself
and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst. but the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. Well we have wells here spoken
of and that we also have rivers and that's this afternoon just
coming back from Hajar in Southampton. I was thinking about that other
instance in the Old Testament where the Israelites in the wilderness
were thirsting and Moses was commanded to strike the rock
and the rock brought forth water and he commanded the second time
to speak to the rock he was disobedient he struck it again in his anger
and he suffered for that because it was disobedience to the Lord's
work but in the New Testament it speaks of that spiritual rock
being Christ we have in psalm 23 and the psalmist
saying leadeth me beside still waters well it's interesting
thing um i don't think it's from the the bible but there's a a
short proverb still waters run deep lot of water and it's interesting
with our river sometimes it's shallow and sometimes it's quite
deep you can see that with the same amount of water going past
a certain place but some place I think you know what I mean
you can see the rapids in places the stones are close to the surface
the river is wide and the water is rushing over there and in
other places it's almost still but it's very very deep there's
an almost inexhaustible supply I've never seen that river run
dry low maybe but never never dry and this is picture the Holy
Spirit it's pictures Christ this is God in us working in us to
sustain us to refresh us and to make us fruitful as his people
but notice planted he should be like a tree planted by the
rivers of water Matthew chapter 15 verse 13 but he answered and said every
plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be uprooted every plant which my heavenly
father hath not planted shall be uprooted there are many who
the father has not planted but for those who are planted let
us remember that we have access unto the Lord we have access
unto the Lord by the Holy Spirit and that we should indeed be
bringing forth fruit in our season and that our leaves should not
wither in the parable of the sower we
have the parable of the seed that was planted in the good
ground and it brought fruit some 30 fold some 60 fold and some
100 fold as against those that sprang up and they looked like
the wheat they looked very much like the wheat but they had no
root in them and whatever they brought forth it dried up it
fizzled away they were as it were come here today and then
gone tomorrow they departed from the faith because there was no
faith in them they held to it they might testify to the fact
that they are the Lord's people but there's no fruit in them
but for the young believer let us remember that fruit comes
after the flower we might liken the flower I don't know if I'm
right to say so but we might liken the flower to the new birth
and then the fruit comes and as I know as a young believer
when the fruit comes and I've got an apple tree in the back
garden I'm looking at the apples on it now the apples are small
you don't want to eat those apples because they are bitter they
are dry and sometimes that's what we like It takes time for
the fruit to grow. Those apples will not be ready
to eat till back end of September. I know different fruit comes
at different times. We've got strawberries coming. But they
all start in the same way. Little. Unpalatable, almost. But it's
still fruit. And young believer, don't be
distressed by your trials. by the fact that you may feel
that you're far away from the river to pray for grace pray
that the lord will have his hand upon you and to supply you with
those rivers of water which he has promised which they are in
the believer anyway but by seeking to walk in the lord's way that's
how we grow in grace and knowledge of christ how we as it were learn
to look into the word of god to hold to his promises and to
ask him for grace what does it say in James the Holy Spirit
in James says if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who
upbraideth not he does not upbraid you don't question God about
God's motives we might ask of the Lord why am I going through
this and we each have our troubles and they're all different but there's a common theme of
those troubles that they are there for a purpose to send us
to the Lord to cry to Him and there's so many instances as
we might even look in the Psalms so we look for fruit we should
look for fruit in our own lives but that fruit does grow again
but it's the fruit of the Spirit Galatians chapter 5 the fruit
that we looked at the works of the flesh and i trust that we
can i learning to put those things off and now i have great difficulty
uh sometimes in my my own life my my own attitude to what i
consider which is wrong I saw something happen in the
streets in Abergavenny and before I knew it I was sticking my nose
in but I was right to do so because the person who was being picked
up on I didn't get into a fight but there we are the person couldn't
defend themselves i have to be careful about what
i do it's how i've been trained and but i must remember that
i um i call myself a christian and people look at me people
know me in Abergavenny a lot of people as a believer so i
must be careful about the old work the old man and his evil
deeds but we look The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live
in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. We have the supply
of the Holy Spirit. Let us use it. Let's pray for
the grace of the Spirit to be upon us. And that we don't grieve
the Spirit. That's more to the point. We
don't grieve the Spirit by walking in the pathways of the world. Let us not be desirous of vainglory,
provoking one another and envying one another. how important it is if we live
in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit we need prayer we need prayer
and submission we need to understand God's word that we are led by
it and not by ourselves not by our understanding as we looked
at this morning it appears to me that for many that have heard
and certainly I mention I'm not going to mention them again but
what happened recently for us but obviously the person that
I heard really did not understand God's holy word didn't understand
the covenant of sovereign grace and I made a a note to say well
maybe these people don't know the word and you know it's also
a problem if they haven't got the right and I use the phrase
advisedly the right bible there was only one word of God and
that is the authorized as far as we are concerned it was interesting
that we met a young lad in Bidiford which is a different congregation
to where we were speaking about came from Bristol and he was
using the AV himself but the chapel he goes to uses the new
King James. I said well do you realise that
they have a problem with that and that they consider that the
righteousness of Christ, the robe of righteousness that adorns
the elect, the saints in heaven, that as the AV said in Revelation
19, he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. where as the New King James says
he that does righteous acts or righteous deeds is righteous
well that's Roman Catholicism and that is justification by
works I am not righteous because of anything I've done not even
a profession of faith I am made righteous through the righteousness
of Christ given to me it's not I don't believe it's imparted
in any shape or form it's imputed to me Now I may be wrong on imparted
but Cliff can pick me up if or you can afterwards. But it is
given to me as a robe. Now a robe doesn't become, it's
interesting they use the term a robe of righteousness because
a robe doesn't become part of you, it's a covering. It covers
what you were. so you're made acceptable and
it's a robe that is made by the Lord. I'm trying to think now
as I say it my mind is so poor but I think it's I can't remember it's to do with
the bride of Christ or made beautiful what i can think of Zechariah
chapter 3 where Joshua the high priest has his filthy garments
taken away and a robe is given to him and that's the picture
of Christ's righteousness what a great blessing that we have
that righteousness but that you know but as we live in righteousness
doing righteous the principle of our lives being righteousness
God's word we our fruit grows and we become more productive
and fruitful and what a great blessing that
that fruit is to others they see our fruit I hear the comments
of others and I'm thankful for it that when we are able to help
others people speak of other believers and it's good it reminds
us to look at our own lives too and think carefully about what
we've got to put right what I have to put right I'll speak for myself
the things I need to put right in my own life I don't think we're going to
get to Josiah well no we will I'm going to short circuit myself
a bit but we'll see this with Josiah but i try to be brief
but we see the king well you probably can remember some of
it as we read it he was eight years old when he began to reign
and he sees much that is wrong and because he's got a tender
heart we read of that later on he seeks to put everything right
when he's made aware that the book of the law which is, you
know, the priests, the Levites have neglected to teach the congregation
the word of God, that's obvious because all of a sudden they
find the book of the Lord that Moses, the Lord had given through
Moses as it says in verse 14 and what do we see? It came to
pass in verse 19 of 2 Chronicles 34 when the king had heard these
words of the law that he rent his clothes he was troubled he
wasn't just to take commandments it was everything that was written
that this will be thy righteousness to do what is contained in the
book of the law I think it's in Deuteronomy 6 or Deuteronomy
7 where it says that but they've broken the law they're
really up against it and he sees it what condemnation of the religious
people of the Levites who entrusted with this that's his first reaction
his second reaction we see in verse 21 go and inquire of the
Lord for me he didn't just read it he did something about it
he was troubled in his soul go and inquire of the Lord for me
and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah this is the
fruitfulness of one of the Lord's people yeah he was in the Old
Testament but the Lord testified to him testifies of him that
he had a tender heart we see that from the words of the Lord
through the prophetess and he didn't just stop at the enquiring he listened to the answer and
then we move on to verse 29 then the king sent and gathered together
all the elders of judah and jerusalem and the king went up into the
house of the lord and all the men of judah and all the inhabitants
of jerusalem the whole congregation everybody and he read in their
ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found
in the house of the lord now if i'm correct the book was to
be read every seven years i think it was to the congregation and
that was the job of the priests the Levites to instruct as I
mentioned before to instruct them to walk after the Lord and
to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes
with all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words
of the covenant which are written in this book and he caused all
that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand for it
then he carry on in verse 33 took away the abominations out
of all the countries that pertain to the children of Israel and
then we come into chapter 35 moreover Josiah kept a Passover
unto the Lord and they killed the Passover on the 14th day
of the first month sounds like Hezekiah who also instituted
a Passover that had never been kept before and it seems was
never kept like it again afterwards and that was a month late not
according to the law but Hezekiah found grace in God's sight because
his heart was tender that was the fruit of his and I'll call
it a Christian life a pre-Christ Christian life is to serve the
Lord with gladness to understand his word to understand his law
and to keep it and to put the Holy Ark back in the house in
the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build
apparently it might have been taken out for a period while
they were doing the renovation which we read about earlier but
it was put back and prepare yourselves by the
houses of your fathers after your courses to make the Passover
to kill the Passover and he didn't just give a commandment
Josiah gave to the people of the flock Josiah gave to the
people of the flock lambs and kids all for the Passover of
his own so they might all celebrate the Passover according to God's
holy word and not just him he had an effect on others around
him in verse 8 and his princes gave willingly unto the people
to the priests and to the Levites what a man but a man raised up
by the Holy Spirit by the Lord by the Lord Jesus Christ and
though he's not mentioned I don't think in the heroes of faith
he stands with them in Christ what a great blessing for us
to read and we might examine ourselves according to what Josiah
did as members of this congregation or members of other congregations
how do we look to one another to help those who need help be
whatever that may be to help them to to be as brethren, brethren
together in Christ. I'm going to have to finish there
but there is something I do want to mention briefly and that is
somebody was talking about it this afternoon in Hegen, Psalm
73. It's a psalm which has taught
me much. Truly God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet
were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. We can all,
I believe, all the Lord's people identify with this statement. For I was envious at the foolish
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked Psalm 1 speaks about
the prosperity of the saint but as we looked it's not the world's
prosperity it's a spiritual prosperity an inheritance in heaven above
where neither moth nor rust corrupts but we come down to verse 17
where we see the psalmist Asaph lamenting the death of the wicked
and he's not troubled at all but then until I went into the
sanctuary of God then understood I therein he went into the sanctuary
that's pictured in the old testament by the holy of holies and the
most holy place and where the word of God was read and the
priests and the Levites were there to instruct the people
and for us we have the sanctuary of God it's not here this place
is not the sanctuary of God it's the church it's represented here
by the congregation the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple
of God is the church, it's people not buildings but we thank the
Lord that there is these buildings where we can come together and
hear God's word proclaimed and we should keep them as precious
as best we can but that's where he went he didn't carry on lamenting
the death of the wicked but he came to God's word he came for
instruction and he was instructed until I went into the sanctuary
of God then understood I their end surely thou hast set them
in slippery places thou castest them down into destruction somber
words thou oh Lord the God of love as some people will tell
you loves everybody no he don't he castes them to destruction
and we should be mindful to pray to pray for people who we feel
they're so ungodless I can think of many, I won't
mention them by name leaders of countries but I can think
of other people too people who I used to be in the army with
people I knew when I had a taxi company and they are ungodless
and I pray for them I try to remember to pray more because such was i till the lord
brought me to the place beside rivers of water what a great blessing i'll finish by reading matthew
25 and i want it to reinforce what I have just said about those
who are planted beside still waters and those who are rooted
up as the parable of the tares also where there was a field
it's a parable but the field and the enemy had sown tares
in the field and the workers the labourers said to the lord
of the field oh well shall we root them up he said no because
we don't know what's what wait till the harvest when the fruit
is there upon the ears of the corn and then we'll see what
the tares are I'm paraphrasing it and then when we pick it all
up tares will go into the fire to be burnt but the wheat will
go into the barns for harvesting and also the chaff will get burnt
the chaff which is on the outside that's mentioned in psalm 1 as
well but some Matthew chapter 25 verse 31 to 33. When the Son of Man shall come
in his glory and all the holy angels with him then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered
all nations and it shall separate them one from another as a shepherd
divided his sheep from the goats. and he shall set the sheep on
his right hand but the goats on the left i'll carry on then
shall the king say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed
of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world for i was an hungered i i'm going to miss that a little
bit then the right uh does he come down to verse 41 then shall he say also unto them
on the left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels and linked to those
verses to the sheep and to the goat is the good works the works of obedience the they are works of the fruit of
the spirit naked he clothed me I was sick he visited me in prison
he came unto me and the righteous shall say Lord when we saw did
we see thee hungered you read it for yourself I'm trying to
speed up a little bit but those who show the works of the flesh
they are those who ignore the plight of others Just one thing,
because they have no desire to help others, they're selfish,
but most of all, they have no desire for Christ. And that's
the long and the short of it. They have no desire for Christ.
They have no desire for righteousness. They have no desire for peace
with God. Their lives are lived for themselves.
And then shall come the end when the Lord says, depart from me
ye cursed the breakers of the law the cursed for breaking the
law and go into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels the way of the righteous is the way of faith living in
Christ he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he that
is Christ is righteous because their righteousness is of Christ
and their lives are lived in Christ and it's only the saved
that can live in Christ. Those who are outside of Christ,
who are at this time under condemnation and wrath. May it make us mindful
to pray for those who are still in their sins, for their salvation,
if it pleases the Lord. May the Lord grant to us that
we understand that these things may seem harsh and yet these
are the reality of Christ's words from cover to cover in the holy
scriptures and may we be given grace to live to produce fruit,
to pray to produce fruit and not to worry about chastisement.
I was going to mention about chastisement, about the fruitful
tree. He purges as well, he prunes
it. Those who do gardening, I'm not
trusted in the garden by my dear wife. But they know about pruning
trees. You prune, they purge it, they
prune the tree, then they bring forth more fruit. And those chastisings,
I link to that. That sometimes, you know, we
do wrong. And we need that purging, that
cutting off of those bits that are just not right about us,
that we might bring forth more fruit for the Lord's glory. And we must always remember to
give the Lord glory for that. I've missed out so much but I
pray that the Lord will use this for yourselves and for me also.
It's not just I'm not here standing here in this pulpit to share
it with you without taking note of these things for myself and
I pray that the Lord will grant us grace to listen and do as
we heard this morning not just to observe his commandments but
to do them not that we live as Christians in a legalistic fashion
but knowing that the Lord's commandments are there as lap to our feet
to show us the way of righteousness that we might live to his glory
and to his praise be then all the glory to him because all
the mistakes are mine and mine alone. Thanks be unto the Lord
then for his word which we can read for ourselves as we pray
for the Spirit for grace and understanding. Amen.