Good morning, good to be back
here, good to see you all. Let's turn to the book of Psalms,
Psalm 1. Psalm 1. Now it's without question
that the Psalms, the book of Psalms are holy of Christ. Every
single Psalm is about Christ. David and others have penned
them. The Holy Spirit has inspired them. God's saints are benefited
by them. But every single psalm's subject
is of Christ through and through. And this is evident from what
our Lord said in Luke 24. when he told those two disciples
that all things must be fulfilled that were written in the Law
of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning me. the Psalms most definitely concern
Christ. And if this whole book is a revelation
of Christ, then you can be sure that the Psalms also are a revelation
of Christ. And in this first Psalm, this
introductory Psalm to the Psalms, we have introduced to us the
character of Christ. This Psalm is a messianic Psalm,
as they all are. And it begins with the pronouncement
of blessing. How appropriately do the Psalms
begin with, blessed is the man. You can be sure that a blessed
man dwells within these pages. Christ is the blessed man. And
this word, blessed, in the original is plural. In Christ are many
blessings, yea, all blessings are in Christ. Is it possible
to find a blessing outside of Christ? No. If all your salvation
is to be found in Him, then all blessings are to be found in
Him. Now, the way verse one describes this Blessed man is a little
it's a little peculiar. It doesn't say what he does do
It doesn't say what he's like it says what he does not do it
says how he is not like The very first thing the Psalms teach
us is from the very first verse, from the opening verse, is that
Christ is holy. And I can't think of a better
way to describe a holy God to sinful man than to contrast God's
holy nature from our unholy nature. Everything we are, God is not. Everything God is, we're not
by nature. Blessed is the man that walketh
not after the counsel of the ungodly. He has no need to seek
the counsel of ungodly men, nor to consult the wise of this world. The wisdom of this world is foolishness
to God, who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct
him. The scriptures say that God works
all things after the counsel of what? His own will, not after
the counsel of man's will. He does not look to man's opinion
or suggestion on how to conduct himself or anything that he does.
Job said that he is in one mind who can turn him and whatsoever
his soul desireth, that he doeth. He's going to do whatever He
wants to do. And He's in one mind. He does
not need the collective minds of many to assist Him. Most people think that through
their prayers or their good intentions that they can change God's mind,
but His mind is one mind that can't be changed, and I'm thankful
for that. I'm thankful that He's a God
that does not change. I change not, therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed." I'm thankful that he's a God that
does not change. He's one ruler who does not require
the aid of counselors to give him advice. God alone is good
and man is evil. What can man counsel God on? He does not walk after the counsel
of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners. He doesn't
stand in the way of sinners. While Christ was in this world,
He ate with sinners and He drank with sinners. He spoke with sinners. He healed sinners. He came into
this world to save sinners. He was the friend of sinners.
And He endured much contradiction of sinners against Himself. He lived his whole earthly life
among sinners, and yet he did not stand in the way of sinners.
He was separate from sinners, and not by keeping himself from
sinners in a physical sense as the Pharisees did. The Pharisees
thought, well, if I stay away from these people, then that's
the grounds for my holiness. They tried to separate themselves
from others. But Christ's thoughts are different
from our thoughts. His thoughts are on things above.
He was devoted to bringing God all the glory. He was a Jew,
yet he did not engage in their vain religious traditions. He
said, that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination to God. And he had a different nature
from sinners. He was the only man who ever
lived who had only a divine nature. The unbeliever has only a corrupt
nature. You and me, we have a divine
nature and we have a human nature. We have the sinful nature and
we have a holy nature. Though he was in the likeness
of sinful flesh, he did not possess that corrupt, sinful human nature
that you and I do. He did not stand in the way of
sinners, nor did he sit, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
Now, what does this mean, sitting in the seat of the scornful?
Well, did Christ ever profane that which is good? We profane
that which is holy. And God is mocked by our idols,
whether they're the idols of our hands or of our minds, those
things scorn God. And Christ being God himself,
he was the humblest man to ever walk the face of this earth.
And he perfectly revered the father. How reverently did he
speak of his father in that perfect prayer in John 17. He said, Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given
me that they may be one as we are. Now, what I find interesting
is that whenever the Pharisees scorned Christ, which was often,
he did not respond in kind. He was quick to point out their
hypocrisy, but while they were speaking lies about him, he was
only telling the truth about them. No one could ever accuse
him of any unwholesome sayings. Harsh sayings, yes, but no profane
words ever fell from his lips. Now whatever the scriptures say
about Christ, It's also true for His people. Is Christ faithful? So are we. Is Christ without
sin? So are we in Him. Is Christ blessed? Is He the blessed man? Well,
then so are we also blessed in Him. Just as Christ did not walk
in the counsel of the ungodly, well, neither do we. There was
a time when we did, but we don't anymore. Now what is this counsel
of the ungodly? If you look at Psalm 2, we can
see it pretty clearly. Psalm 2 says in verse 1 says,
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us." The counsel of the ungodly is
to dethrone God. They would make void His sovereignty
if they could. They would tell you that you've
got a free will, and you're really the one who's in control. And
God's hands are tied unless you let Him have His way with you
in your life. That's the counsel of the ungodly.
Christ did not stand in the way of sinners, and neither do we.
And this isn't referring to Just don't do what they do and be
a moral person and don't engage in their immoral acts. Although
we do want to be careful about how we act and with whom we associate. But this doesn't mean that we're
better than sinners because we're sinners ourselves. The believer
is just as immoral as the unbeliever. But what the way of sinners is,
is salvation by works. And we don't stand in that way.
The unbeliever stands condemned before God. The believer stands
justified in Christ before God. Christ didn't sit in the seat
of the scornful and neither do we. Neither do we scorn of God's
grace. There was a time when we did
and we thought it was unfair of God to save some and not others. We mocked his grace and we trivialized
his mercy. Have you ever heard someone say,
Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy. Have you ever said it
yourself? I know I have. But that kind
of thing just makes light of His mercy. And when you make
fun of something, you belittle it. The Roman soldiers mocked
Jesus, and He meant nothing to them. But oh, how much does Jesus
mean to us now? Once grace came, we began to
love and revere that which we once hated and scorned. Now, whereas, verse 1, states
what the blessed man does not do, how he is not like. Verse
2 in Psalm 1 says what he does do. But his delight is in the
law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Now Christ's mission in this
world was to save sinners. from their sins. But if he had
transgressed the law at any time, he would have been an unfit Savior. He had to perfectly keep the
law. You see, to man, trying to keep
the law is a burden. It's a burden. We don't have
any ability to keep the law. And man resents trying to keep
the law when he doesn't even realize he can't. He can't even
do it. But to Christ, who had all ability
He had the Spirit of God without measure. Not only was it not a burden
to him to keep the law, but it was his delight. And you know
who also delights in the law? You and me. The Apostle Paul said, I delight
in the law after the inward man, this keeping of the law, this
delighting in the law, is an inward thing. It's not outward.
It's not the vain trying to keep the law by our own actions. Paul
described the true Jew as one who is inwardly, one whose circumcision
is of the heart, not of the flesh, and of the spirit, not in the
letter. It's inward, because we believe
that Christ obeyed the law for us. His obedience is my obedience. You see, again, it's not our
outward, vain attempts to keep the law, at obeying the law,
but it's inwardly trusting in Christ that proves one to be
a child of God. John the Baptist told those Pharisees
who were trusting in their own keeping of the law as their own
righteousness before God. He said, don't think that you
have Abraham as your father, but God is able of these very
stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Those who delight in
the law of God after the inward man have this as their commandment. This is 1 John 1.23. And this is His commandment,
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as He gave us commandment. That's the law
after the inward man, trusting in Christ and loving God's people. Is this commandment a burden
to you? Do you resent trusting in Christ
and loving His people as the Pharisees resented trying to
keep the law? Of course not. You love trusting
in Christ because you know He's your only hope of salvation.
And you don't trust Him to gain anything. And you love loving
God's people because, like you, they trust in and love the Savior,
Jesus Christ. This is the law after the N-word
man. This is the law we delight in. Now, here's another description
of the blessed man, verse 3. And 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. Both in the book of Genesis and
in the book of Revelation, it speaks of the tree of life. And
that tree of life represents Christ. He is a life-giving tree. And his preserving power is such
that not one of his leaves will fade. Not one of his leaves will
fall away. You think about how easily a
leaf can fall off a tree, especially at this time of year But he said,
I'm the vine, and you are the branches. And not one branch
will be removed. Not one leaf will fall off that
tree. The scripture often represents
all people as trees. Jesus said, a good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A man whom Jesus healed of blindness said, I see the people walking
as trees. And Jude describes false prophets
as those whose fruit has withered away and they've been plucked
up by their roots. And believers themselves are
described as trees. God calls them trees of righteousness
planted by the Lord. God told Jeremiah regarding Israel
that he was going to root them out, throw them down, destroy
and pull down, but also that he was going to build up and
plant them again. And I want to be built up in
grace and I want to be planted in Christ. That's the only way
to be planted. Turn with me to Romans 6. Romans 6 verse 5, For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of His death, Christ's death, we shall also
be in the likeness of His resurrection. I want to be planted in Christ
such that when the Father sees me, He sees me as being dead
in Christ, having died to myself and died in Christ. I want to
be planted in Christ so that when the Father sees me, He just
sees the blood. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And He says, He's dead. There's
no more sin in Him. There's nothing to punish Him
for. Back to Psalm 1. Verse 3, it says, He will be
planted by the rivers of water. And those rivers of water is
also Christ. Christ is all. He's the tree.
He's the tree of life. He's the rivers of water that
give life to His trees. And I want, I need the life of
Christ. I need to be nourished by His
life and receive all my life from Him. This is the happy state
of the blessed man. He obtains all his counsel from
God. He stands in the way of Christ. He doesn't stand in the
way of sinners. And where he once scorned of
grace, he now thanks God for his grace. He delights that Christ
has fulfilled the law and obeyed it in his stead. He's a tree
of righteousness planted in Christ. This is the description of the
godly man. Now here's the description of
the ungodly man. Verse four. The ungodly are not
so. That's it. That's how it describes
the ungodly. However, the godly man is, the
ungodly are not like them. And I love, I love the nots of
scripture. They're as equally as instructive
as the even sos and the amens. The ungodly are not so. Now,
throughout the scripture, the Lord has place all people into
two groups. There's the believer and the
unbeliever, the saint and the Pharisee, the whore of Babylon
and the bride of Christ. There's the Jacobs and the Esau's,
the sheep and the goats. And in this psalm, we have the
godly and the ungodly. This psalm teaches us much by
way of contrast. The ungodly do walk in the council
of ungodly. They stand gladly in the way
of other sinners, believing that their works of righteousness
God will be pleased with, and they scorn grace being Pharisees
themselves. They do not delight in the law
of God after the inward man, whereby Christ fulfilled the
law. They themselves are still trying to fulfill it by their
own works. Their meditation is not on things
above, but on things of the earth. And on those things do they meditate
day and night. God is not in all their thoughts
or in any of their thoughts. They have no life being outside
of Christ and they bear no fruit. Now here's a good, succinct,
simple definition of the ungodly. The ungodly are not so, but are
like the chaff, which the wind driveth away." And this wind
is a whirlwind. It's a tempest of God's wrath. It's just going to drive them
away. And I can't think of a better use of chaff than to just burn
it up. Just throw it in the fire. Jesus
once gave a parable of wheat and tares, or weeds, wheat and
weeds. He said the wheat, which represent
the children of God, it'll be bundled up, it'll be placed in
a barn, but the wheat, the weeds or the tares will be cast into
fire to be burned. John the Baptist told the Pharisees
of Christ who would gather up his wheat and burn the chaff
with unquenchable fire. Let there be no question. This
is the final state of the ungodly, and it's a serious matter. But
this is what the scripture says. Now, what else can we say about
these ungodly? Verse 5. Therefore, the ungodly
shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation
of the righteous. Whenever we see the word, therefore,
we want to see what it's there for. And if we look back in the
last four verses, we see this contrast between the godly and
the ungodly. We see that the ungodly are outside
of Christ. They are not planted or rooted
in him. So what is this judgment it speaks
of? Well, Hebrews 6 speaks of eternal judgment. Everything
God does is eternal. And this judgment has already
taken place. If you are in Christ, You are
judged as being justified. Your sins have been put away
and there is nothing to condemn you for. You've been given the
righteousness of Christ. You have a new nature. The Lord
has been merciful to you and bestowed abundance of grace upon
your soul. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. The ungodly are judged as being
condemned. They are outside of Christ. They
don't have the new birth. They're dead in their sins and
they're condemned already because they have not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God. The judgment has already
taken place and all that's left to do, all that's left are really
just the doling out of the sentences. Turn with me to Matthew 5. Matthew 25 Matthew 25 verse 32 and before
him shall be all gathered all nations and he shall separate
them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Here's the godly and the ungodly,
the justified and condemned. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father. Here are all those who are blessed
in Christ, the blessed man. They have the very blessing of
the Father. And here is their sentence. What
a blessed sentence it is. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. And the reason they
have inherited the kingdom of God prepared for them from the
foundation of the world is because Christ himself is the Lamb of
God slain from the foundation of the world. He's the one who
justified them by the shedding of his blood. Now this phrase,
from the foundation of the world, is used ten times in the New
Testament. And it's used to show, like I
said earlier, that everything God does is eternal. God's already
done it all. He's already done everything.
He's already done the saving, the electing, the calling, the
preserving, the justifying, and the judging. And here in Matthew
25, our Lord is telling us, He tells us what He's going to say
on that day that He's handing out the sentences. It's as good
as done. Look at verse 41. Then shall
he also say unto them on the left hand, depart from me you
cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels. The very condemnation that the
devil and the angels, those fallen angels that rebelled against
God, the condemnation they receive The goats will receive. These
are those who are cursed. But those who are blessed in
Christ inherit the kingdom of the Father. Those who are cursed
outside of Christ are those who died in their sins. They did
not die in Christ. And they depart into everlasting
fire. Look at verse 46. And these shall go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Back to Psalm 1. Now we read in verse 1 that the
blessed man standeth not in the way of sinners. Well, neither
do sinners stand in the congregation of the righteous, verse 5, nor
sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Now, you may be
thinking, well, I'm a sinner. What about me? Can I stand in
the congregation of the righteous? Can I be numbered among God's
righteous saints? Well, do you trust in Christ
for all your righteousness? If you do, if you do, it's because
the Father has chosen you in Christ. And when He looks at
you, He doesn't see a sinner. He sees His Son. He sees Jesus
Christ, the righteous. And the way the Father sees me
is all that matters to me. My perception of things is not
as they really are, but God's perception of things is as they
really are. And when we're in heaven, I think
we'll really have no recollection of what it was to be a sinner. We will have shed this flesh
and the righteousness of Christ, as all will know, we will feel
as if we've always been there. And as a matter of fact, we already
are there right now. Ephesians 2.6 says, He hath raised
us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places
in Christ. We're in two places at once right
now. We're on earth and we're in heaven.
Right now, we're in heaven. And as mind-blowing as that seems,
that's what the Word of God says. We're seated in Christ. We're
seated in Christ in heavenly places right now. Heaven is the
abode of the righteous. But I imagine for a sinner, it
would be a pretty uninhabitable place. When most people think
of heaven, they think of something like a perfect world where it's
just this perfect happiness in a state of complete bliss. to a sinner, to the unbeliever,
heaven really has nothing to do with Christ. And they themselves
want nothing to do with Christ. But to the child of God, wherever
Christ is, that's where heaven is. I don't know where the kingdom
of God is, but I know if Christ is there, that's where heaven
must be. When Mephibosheth David's lame
servant when Mephibosheth dwelt in the palace of King David while
David was exiled from his own kingdom by his own son. I bet
that palace must have been a hell to Mephibosheth. He had everything
he could have wanted, but David wasn't there. And he was lame. He couldn't
get to David. There was no way he could get
to David. even though he wanted to, and
David was a type of Christ. How miserable that must have
been for Mephibosheth to be separated from his beloved king. But when
David defeated the rebellion of his son Absalom in return
to his kingdom and dwelt again in his palace, I bet that palace
became heaven again to Mephibosheth because David was there. And
wherever Christ is, that's where heaven is. And that's where the
congregation of the righteous dwell. And sinners do not. Now verse six. For the Lord knoweth
the way of the righteous. What is the way of the righteous? Or a better question might be,
who is the way of the righteous? For the righteous, Christ, is
the way. He said, I am the truth, the
way, and the life. No one cometh to the Father but
by me. The way of the ungodly is salvation
by works, and God doesn't know that way. He's not familiar with
man's works. He doesn't accept man's works.
He's familiar with one work, the work of Christ, and that's
the only work the Father will accept. For the child of God,
the way of salvation, is through the shed blood of Christ. And
therefore, it must be a very holy and clean way. The blood
of Christ is what makes clean and holy the child of God. Turn
with me to Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35, verse 8. And a highway shall be there,
and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean
shall not pass over it." This way of the righteous that the
Lord knows, this is also the way of holiness. It is for those
who have ceased from their own works and who have entered into
God's rest. I had one person once tell me
years ago, you have a lazy religion. I said, well, it's true. I don't
have to do anything. Christ did all the work. Christ did all the work and I
just rest in what he's done. There's nothing for me to do,
but the truth is you will either rest in what Christ did or you'll
work your way to damnation. And while you're entering into
the gates of hell, boasting of all that you think you've done
for God and calling God's people lazy because they don't have
to do anything, they just trust in Christ. And by the grace of
God, His people will just trust in Christ and just rest in Him.
This way of holiness is not for proud boasters, but it's for
fools. Look again at this verse, verse
8. about midway through, but it shall be for those the wayfaring
man, though fools shall not enter, shall not air therein. You know,
God's people are really just a bunch of fools who have Christ
as their wisdom. He's been made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Every truly righteous
man believes himself to be unrighteous. Every holy man believes himself
to be unholy. The wise believe themselves to
be unwise. But here's my hope, while on
this way It's impossible to err. The wayfaring man, though fools,
shall not err therein. And here's why. This is a quote
from Psalm 85 verse 13. Righteousness shall go before
him and he shall set us in the way of his steps. The Lord knows
the way of the righteous, and it's because he himself has tread
this narrow path. The Lord has preserved his people
in every single way. He's ensured that not one of
their steps go amiss by by setting their steps in the very steps
of Christ. The Lord knows the way of the
righteous because Christ is the way of the righteous back to
someone. Verse six, the last part, but
the way of the ungodly shall perish. This implies that the godly themselves
will perish, but it's not just the ungodly who will perish,
but even their very way. One day all lies, all lies and
everything false and everything that sets itself up against God
will perish forever. Turn with me to Revelation 19.
Revelation 19 verse 20. And the beast was taken, and
with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him,
with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the
beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast
alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. This
is the end of the way of the ungodly, the beast, the false
prophet, the antichrist, the devil. This is their final state. They will all cease from deceiving
and from every lie they ever told about God. Even the very idea of man's free
will and man's self-salvation and coming to God on the grounds
of your own works and your own righteousness, even that idea
will be utterly obliterated. It'll be obsolete. I'd like to
close with just reading a few verses from Revelation 22. It's
the first three verses of Revelation 22. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the lamb. And in the midst of the street
of it, on either side of the river was there the tree of life,
which bear 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him."
All that will remain is Christ the way of righteousness, the
truth and the life. And we shall serve Him the blessed
serving the blessed one, those in Christ serving the blessed
man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I look forward to that day.