Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Psalms, chapter 1. I'd like for us to look this
evening at the first three verses, Psalm 1, verses 1 to 3. Blessed or 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. 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." Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you
this evening. this blessed time to come together
and to hear the gospel. Lord, we thank you for a heart
that desires to hear. I pray that you would bless the
service tonight. Lord, I pray that you would bless
your word, accomplishing your purpose that you have sent this
word for. We thank you and praise you for
Christ's sake. Amen. When we open up the Word of God, this is what we're looking for.
We're looking for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We look
for Him. We ask after Him. We seek Him. And according to
His Word, when we seek, we are going to find. I want you to
turn to Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29, verses 10 to
14. Jeremiah 29, verse 10, For thus
saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward
you in causing you to return to this place. For I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace. and not of evil, to give you
an expected end. Then shall you call upon Me,
and you shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you.
And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with
all your heart. For I will be found of you, saith
the Lord, I will turn away your captivity. I will gather you
from all the nations, from all the places whether I have driven
you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place
whence I caused you to be carried away captive." It is the good
pleasure of Almighty God to reveal Himself to His people. The Lord delights. in revealing
Himself. And we've come tonight for this
purpose. To hear from Him. To see Him. To behold Him. I want us to consider
this man back in Psalm 1. I want us to consider the man,
the blessed man. The God-man. He who is the representative
of his people. This is who he's talking about
right here. This is the man that the Spirit of God is speaking
of in Psalm 1 verses 1 to 3. I know this. We need a representative. We need an advocate. We need
a mediator. We need a surety, a substitute. to answer for us before God. Why? Well, because God's demand
for righteousness, for holiness, is more than we can answer for. Believe me. What God demands.
Let me read this. Leviticus 11, verse 45. Listen to the word of the Lord
first. I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt,
to be your God, ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." The scripture demanded that those
people taken out of Egypt, that is, that type of spiritual bondage,
that type of the regeneration of God's people, Egypt, bondage,
sin. Almighty God brought His people,
brought natural Israel, the national Israel, brought them out with
a mighty hand of power, God's will, God's purpose. Sit Moses
in there. Told Pharaoh, you let my people
go. And he brought them out. That's a picture of God's people
brought out of the bondage, the blindness, the darkness of sin. Now, here's the demand. Leviticus 11.44 says, I am the
Lord your God. You shall, therefore, sanctify
yourselves, and you shall be holy, for I am holy, neither
shall you defile yourself with any manner of creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth." Here's the demand of God. I demand
you be holy. You shall be holy. You shall
not defile yourself with anything in the land. Now let me ask you
something. Who can fill that order? Is there
a man or a woman that has ever walked this earth born in Adam
that can do what God Almighty demands? You shall be. You shall be. You shall be. Holiness. is obedience, perfect
obedience to the Lord God and His Word. Now, I'm going to ask
you this, who is holy in himself? Who can stand before God and
say, I have fulfilled all that was demanded? Men, women that
think that they're going to stand before God on their own ability,
on their own will, on their own obedience. I walked down the
aisle. You didn't walk down anything
perfectly. There was so much pride in walking
down, you know. I wonder if they all see what
I'm doing. We've never done one thing. There's one. There's one who is blessed. Happy is what the word means.
One that is truly happy. One who is happiness himself. Oh, how happy he is in his own
character, in his own merit, in his own obedience before God. in the perfect accomplishment
of God's will, the Lord Jesus Christ. Him only. God's Son. The Savior of His
people. I have a dear friend that told
me one time, we've got one chance to do the right thing. And man blew it. Man blew it. Man had one chance in the garden
to do the right thing. And he fell. And every man, every
woman in him fell in him because in him we were all drawn in his
loins. We were all in the loins of Adam.
And what Adam did, we all did. We all rebelled against God. And I'll tell you, here's some
good news. Concerning our representative, the one we need, the surety.
Here's the blessing of being chosen in Him, redeemed by Him,
regenerated by His Holy Spirit. As He is, so are we in this world. Now here's the blessed man right
here. Three verses that speaks of him. This is our representative. You
know Him. You trust Him. You believe Him.
Not the works of your own self-righteousness. If you have no confidence in
yourself, and the Lord has given you a heart to trust Him only,
this is who represents us right here. Blessed is the man. Our elder brother. He who is
the perfect one of the order that Almighty God is said to
have loved. The order of man. The order of
humanity. God loved this arrangement. He loved man. Man. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only perfect one of that order, The one that the Father
was well pleased with. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel, in the advice, in the consulting of, in the
purpose of the ungodly. Blessed is that man. Like I said, the first Adam, he listened to. Satan came to
Eve and he questioned, you know, has God said? Yeah, she said
that's what the Lord said. He said we should not eat. In
fact, she even kind of embellished it. He said we shouldn't even
touch it. And the ungodly, Satan himself,
said to her, he said, you don't have to believe that. You don't
have to believe what God has to say. Here's the lie of Satan. You don't have to obey God because
there's no real consequences to it. If you eat of that fruit, God
knows that you're going to be God's. You're going to be like
Him. And Eve came to Adam and offered
him the fruit. And Adam took it. In that, there
is a beautiful picture of the gospel right there, Adam being
a picture of Christ who would not let his wife perish. Associated
himself with her. Made sin. But here is the blessed
man. The man who was not like the
first Adam. The blessed man that did not
walk in the counsel of the ungodly. This man, the Savior. He who
never walked, never departed, never fallen after the counsel,
the advice of the wrong, the ungodly, the wicked, the bad. Three times Satan tempted the
Lord in the wilderness. And all three times the Lord
Jesus Christ obeyed God. Did not walk in that counsel.
according to the commandments of His Father. That counsel of
the Lord that stands forever. Blessed is that man. His steps
were ever ordered by the Word of Almighty God. Never deviated. Never thought of a deviation. Not in deed or word. And He that
sent me, the Lord said, is with me. The Father hath not left
me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners." Never tarried. Never ceased for
a moment. I was thinking of myself. I might be going somewhere and
walking through some place and I'll see something and I'll just
look at it and I'll think, you know, I wonder if I could use
that. And I'll sit there and mull over
it for a minute. I wonder where I could put that.
I like that. But then after a while, I think
about it and I thought, well, really, number one, I don't have
the money. Number two, I'd have no place for it. It's just useless.
I have no reason. stood, never stood in the way
of sinners, never contemplated, never for one moment did he cease
from his perfect obedience in walking before God Almighty. The way of sinners is darkness
and the Scripture says God is light and in Him is no darkness
at all. The fiery darts of Satan's temptation
falls upon us and we're like tender. I mean to tell you, it
does not take that long. I'm just, I know better. I know
better. But before I know it, I've succumbed. But for him, Those fiery darts
is like just water. No effect whatsoever. John 8.46,
he says, Which of you convinces me of sin? What proof? What proof? That's what the Lord asked him.
What proof do you have? There was nothing in him to judge.
He never walked in it, never considered it, never stood in
the way of sinners. Blessed man. that never viewed,
never looked upon with any thought of deviating from His way, never
thought of the way of rebels, stood in the way of perfection
that even we speak of Him. He spoke of Himself. He said,
I am the way. This man never stood in the way
of sinners. He said, I am the way to God.
I'm the truth. I'm the life. Lest is that man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
in the way of the sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
The scornful. That word, the scornful, it's
those that scoff at God. Scoff at God's way. Mock. God. Mock His Word. Mock His redemption. Mock His
election. Mock His particular saving of
His people. He never sitteth, nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful. Now, when we talk about a seat,
You know, we are reminded that there was no chair in the Old
Testament tabernacle. The reason for that is because
the work of the priest in the Old Testament was never done.
The blood of bulls and goats will never put away sin, never.
And they would sacrifice thousands and thousands and thousands of
animals. And not one drop of that blood
would ever put away sin. So those priests, they never
sat down. They were never done. Day after
day after day after year after year after year. Fifteen hundred
years. All of those sacrifices, nobody
ever sat down. Now here we've got some that
think that they've got the right to sit down. The seat of the mockers. What they've done is they've
got themselves convinced by the exercise of their free will,
by their own self-righteous works, they think That they have the
right. They think that there's a seat,
there's a rest. They think that they can sit
down. I've made and paid my vows before
God. That's what the false religionists
back in Proverbs 7 said to the man that she caught. I've paid
my vows. I'm at peace with the Lord. I've
done that which was required. Whatever it is. Men will take
Scripture and they rest the Scriptures. And they'll take a Scripture
and they'll say, that right there, I can do that. I can obey God. The seat of the scornful are
those that think that they have a right to sit down and rest
in their own merit. They mock sin. This is what Proverbs
14, 9. Fools. make a mock at sin. But among the righteous, there's
favor. They mock sin. They say in their
heart, it's not that bad. Not that bad. There's no real
consequences to this. I'm telling you, the Lord Jesus
Christ never sat in the seat of the scornful. He did not mock
sin. There was a debt to be paid for
His people. And He came into this world made
of a woman, made under the law, And he lived before God Almighty
in absolute perfect obedience because of the sin that held
his people captive. He humbled himself and made himself
of no reputation and went to the cross, made sin, laid down
his life. No big deal? That's what the
fool says. No big deal. I can handle this
matter. I can handle this. I got this
under control. All I've got to do is just A,
B, C, D, E, F. Just a few minor things. It's not that big a deal. I'll tell you how big a deal
it was. Almighty God, Jehovah, forsook His Son. Made sin. I'll tell you how big a deal
it was. Christ died under the penalty, His people's penalty,
guilt. He didn't make a mockery of it. He obeyed God. Made flesh. Made sin. Paid their debt. He cried, it is finished. He
never sat in the seat of the scornful. They mock him. I tell you, the
scornful, they say, because they say, I've got the ability, I've
got the last word. Well, then therefore, what they're
saying is really, the death of Christ was not necessary. I'm
the one that made the last decision. What they're saying, mocking
sin, God's unjust. They said that the shed blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ was ineffective. That's what they're
saying. It's ineffective. He said it's
finished. They say, the scornful, the mockers,
said, no, it's not finished until I say it's finished. That's what
they say anymore. That's what they say. It's not
done until I say it's done. That's blasphemy. That's blasphemy. You say it's going to take me
walking down an aisle, it's going to take me accepting Jesus, it's
going to take me to be baptized, me to speak in tongues, me to
do this, me to go to confession. That's blasphemy. Blessed is the man. And 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, his pleasure,
his desire is in the law of the Lord. When we say the law of
the Lord, that which flows from God Almighty, His law, His word, His character,
His thoughts. And in His law does He meditate
day and night. This is the blessed man. This
is the man. Christ Jesus. Truly man. I'm telling you, there is a man
in glory. There's a man seated on the throne
of God. There's a man who represents
His people, who answers for His people, who lived for and died
for His people. Psalm 40, verse 78, Then said
I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it's written to me,
I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my
heart. His regard. In our nature, truly
man, his regard was ever God's Word, God's command. Oh, the peace and comfort of
having Him answer for us. To have Him answer. I don't want
to answer for myself. I don't want to stand before
God without a substitute, without this substitute, this blessed
man. This is the man. The law. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. That's what Scripture says. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. This is what the law does.
The law declares all of us, born in Adam, guilty. Now, we're guilty. And I'll tell you another thing,
in ourselves can do nothing about it. Can't do a thing about it. What are you going to do? Remember,
whatever you do, it better be perfect, better have always been
perfect. There better never have been a blight, one transgression,
never before or after or during. A man that trusts in himself,
best realize what you're saying. I mean, the law of God better
look at you and say, I don't see anything. Never saw anything. The law declares us guilty and
teaches us the darkness and the depth of our depravity. We don't even know how rebellious
we are. We have no idea how rebellious
we are. The moment we think ourselves
even remotely having a little bit of good before God, I'm telling
you, that's arrogance and pride. You call God a liar. There's
none good. Not one. And thirdly, the law
shuts us up to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The law is our
schoolmaster. Brings us to Him. Drives us to
Him. Don't talk to a believer, I tell
you, about doing. for his salvation. A believer
knows better. Romans 8, verses 3 and 4 says,
For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, because of sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ in His law. That's what Scripture is. His delight is in the law of
the Lord. And in His law does He meditate
day and night to ponder, to study. As believers, we hear. the law's demand. And we hear
His voice. And those sweet words I just
quoted a minute ago, it's finished. It's finished. Oh, if those words
be applied to me, I've got some comfort. That He's put away my
guilt If the Lord reveals to me that I've got hope in Him,
that I've got hope, don't look at yourself. I'm going to tell
you right now. Look at yourself. You're going to be disappointed
every time. There's not one thing that you're going to see that's
any comfort. There's nothing there. There's
nothing there. Looking to Him. The Lord Jesus
Christ. I hope there is therefore now
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And the last verse,
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, his branch, He is the vine. He is the tree
with branches. His leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. He shall be like a tree
planted. Transplanted is what that word
means. Transplanted is the meaning of
that word. Here's an amazing thing, he never
left the presence of his father, but took upon himself the form
of sinful flesh. Omni-present, total deity. And was made in the likeness
of his people. That body that was prepared him,
and he was planted, put here by the rivers of water, by the
rivers of God's good pleasure and promise, that bringeth forth
his fruit, his people, his will, In His season, in His time, I
got thinking about His time. You know what His time is? Eternity. He bringeth forth His fruit in
His season. And His leaf, His branch, His
people also shall not wither. They're not going to die. I give
unto them eternal life. They'll never perish. And whatsoever
He doeth, He shall prosper. Planted among His people. Made flesh. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh.
That body that God made Him, and He dwelt among us. Planted
as a tree. The tree of life. Firm. Solid. enduring the vine in whom
his people were chosen, placed, kept, his leaf, his people, the
branches that grow and flourish from him who is the fountain
of life. He shall bring forth his fruit
in his season. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out my sheep, His leaf, one not going to wither."
He said, My sheep, they are My boys, and I know them, and they
follow Me. I give unto them eternal life. They are not going to perish.
Nobody is going to pluck them out of My hand. They are not
going anywhere. They are kept by the power of
God. through faith, and whatsoever he doeth." Which is the will
of the Father. He said, I do only those things
that please Him, shall prosper. The counsel of the Lord, that's
going to stand. Almighty God's will is going
to be done. I'm the Lord. I change not whatsoever
His purpose to do. That's what He's going to do.
Now, I know this. This is the message right here
that God's going to bless to the salvation of His people.
The message that honors the Son. All Scripture given by inspiration
of God. And all Scripture, according
to the Word of the Lord, is concerning Him. So we look to Him tonight. Wait on Him. Lord bless these
words to our heart for Christ's sake.