Brethren, let's stay there in
Psalm 1 just for a moment. I was reading Psalm 1 recently
and almost preached on it recently. And when Brother Adam was reading
just now, some things jumped out at me. And we may just look
at this instead of my text. I really do want to speak on
this. Who is this blessed man? You'll
hear preachers preach and people will speak of the believer
being the blessed man, that this is the believer. Well, we are
blessed by the Lord, there is no doubt. But first and foremost,
pre-eminently, This blessed man is the Lord Jesus. He's the blessed
man. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly. Here you have the blessed man
and you have the ungodly. Every person in this world comes
into this world the ungodly. Everyone does. We come into this
world having fallen in Adam, having been conceived in sin,
we come forth the ungodly. We're the ungodly by nature.
And the counsel of the ungodly is that we like to exalt ourselves
and we like to preach ourselves and we like to say that we can
contribute to salvation. But anybody who preaches that
that it's by your decision that makes the difference. If you
decided to believe Christ, that made the difference. Your works
have contributed to you being righteous or you being holy.
You did something to make yourself be born again. You, by your strength
and your wisdom and your power, you persevere of yourself. All
of that is the counsel of the ungodly. That's as much the counsel
of the ungodly as some vile, wicked thing that is irreligious
altogether. In fact, it's more, it's worse
than the irreligious. Remember the Lord said to the
scribes and Pharisees, he said the publicans and these sinners,
these harlots and publicans, they'll go into the kingdom of
heaven before you will. No, the blessed man is the Lord
Jesus, and everybody else in this world, by nature, is the
ungodly. The Lord Jesus is the one that
the Father chose. We know that from Isaiah 42.1.
It says, behold, my servant. Now think about those words.
God said, behold, my servant. And he's speaking of his son.
He said, mine elect whom I've chosen. The Lord Jesus was chosen
by God the Father to be the salvation of his people. And when our Lord
Jesus came into this world, he took flesh like those the Father
chose and trusted to him to save. And God the Father looks only
to his Son. He looks only to the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus is the blessed
man. He is the one perfectly faithful,
perfectly obedient man. When Philippians 2, the Lord
said, he took not on him, or he took on him the form of a
servant. He's the one servant who served God in perfect faithfulness
and in perfect holiness and perfect righteousness. And around him,
all about him was the counsel of the ungodly. Everybody he
came in contact with were by nature the ungodly. But our Lord
Jesus did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Men tried to,
they tried to trick him, they tried to persuade him to do various
things. Our Lord looked only to his Father
and trusted his Father. And it's him representing his
people, it's him being faithful and obedient to the Father by
which we're saved. If this was something we worked,
then what would be the point of God sending his son? He sent
his son because he will have his son to have all the honor
and all the glory in the salvation of his people. Our Lord Jesus
walked this earth, and he walked not in the counsel of the ungodly.
He did not stand in the way of sinners, nor did he sit in the
seat of the scornful. The scornful is where the Pharisees
were. They would judge men and condemn
men and scorn men and try to lord over men. Our Lord Jesus
did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He did not stand
in the way of sinners, nor did he sit in the seat of the scornful. So he did none of those things. He was unlike any other person
that ever walked this earth. When God made Adam and breathed
into him life, Adam was, he was without sin, he was upright,
and then he sinned and fell. Ever since sin, there's never
been a man that entered this world that was not a sinner,
corrupt in his nature, guilty before the law. except for this
one man, the God man, the Lord Jesus. He's the only one that
came into this world and walked in this world and was unlike
the sinners, the ungodly, and the scornful. He was unlike anybody
that ever walked this earth. But you know what we did? You
know what the reaction of sinners was toward him? Just what it
says here. We were ungodly toward him. We
were sinful toward him and we scorned him. That's what men
did to him. That's what men did to him. But
it didn't change our Lord. It didn't interfere with him
being faithful to God. He was perfectly obedient. Look
at verse two. This is our Lord Jesus right
here. This is what he did. His delight is in the law of
the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night. I
think this is amazing how that Christ is God who breathed these
scriptures into the hearts of holy men so that they were moved
to write what he would have them to write. And then he came and
became the one man representing all God's select people. And
he meditated in this word day and night. This was his life,
this was his bread. When you read the word law, It's
not just the Ten Commandments, it's the Word of God. When our
Lord walked this earth, there was no New Testament, there was
only the Old Testament. But His, He meditated in the
law of the Lord, the Word of the Lord, and He meditated on
it day and night. His, He said, my meat is to do
the will of Him that sent me. That was his, he said, I always
do that which pleases the Father. He was continually, all of the
law and the prophets and the Psalms, he came to fulfill it
all. And he's what this whole book
declares. He's the son that gives light
in creation. He's the He's the sacrifice that
was slain and the skins used to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness. That pictured Christ and His
righteousness. All the Old Testament types and
shadows, it's all picturing Christ. All the prophets, people are
so concerned about end times and when is the end coming. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is what we should be concerned with. we
should be concerned with Christ. What think ye of Christ? That's
the question. That's the issue. What think
ye of Christ? You could have all your theology
and dot every I, cross every T in your theology, but if you
miss Christ and you do not have the Lord Jesus, you've missed
salvation. And a man can't really have theology
and have his doctrine correct until he's given a new heart
and given faith in Christ to see that this entire book is
concerning Him. Everything in this book speaks
of God's Son, the Lord Jesus. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell. It pleased God to give Him all
preeminence in the salvation of His people. So our Lord came
to fulfill everything written in the book, and that's what
He did. That's what He did. And it says, verse three, 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. That's the Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus is the evergreen. He is the life. He is the life. Our Lord Jesus is the tree of
righteousness. And he alone brings forth his
fruit. who calls his people, and gives
you a new heart, and gives you faith, and grants you repentance,
and brings you to know that he is your salvation. He produces
his fruit in his season, at the time appointed. You know, in
Ephesians 1, when Paul said, we were blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, according as God chose us in
Christ, before the foundation of the world, it says, and he
predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is not only our
righteousness, he's not only our holiness, he's the one who
rules everything in providence. to bring the gospel to us and
then pray the father who sends the spirit and causes us to have
life and a new heart and a new spirit and have faith to believe.
It's the Lord who calls us. We're predestinated unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ, by him. That's the fruit
he brings forth in his season. There's nobody in this world
that God chose, that Christ redeemed, none of them are gonna pass into
the grave before they've been called by the Lord and given
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When Peter said, you know, don't
think God is slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness, no. The Lord is holding everything
in store right now. Everything in this world, he's
holding it in store. He's bringing the things that
are coming to pass. He's ruling everything so that
it's coming to pass exactly as it is supposed to come to pass.
And what the Lord is doing is he's being long-suffering toward
his elect. He is not willing that any who
he chose, any who Christ redeemed, shall perish. and he will bring
them all to repentance. That's why the Holy Spirit said
through Peter, so account that the long suffering of the Lord
is salvation. It is salvation. God is never
frustrated. His will is never thwarted by
the sinner or by the devil or by anyone because he's God. He will bring forth his fruit,
his chosen, redeemed, regenerated, believing child. He will bring
forth his fruit in his season. He never fails to do it. I love
how Acts tells us after the Lord called that multitude on the
day of Pentecost, it says, and the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. He's still doing it. He's adding
to the church. daily, such as should be saved. And it's all of the Lord. All
of it is of the Lord. Let's read Romans 8 just a minute. There is not one thing left out
right here in terms of salvation, our provision. And there's so
much that has to be worked in the world in providence to bring
all this to pass. And that Lord works that too.
Look here, Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. God's working them
all together. This blessed man in Psalm 1,
the Lord Jesus, he's the risen God, man, mediator, King of kings
and Lord of lords. He's working all things together. And all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. Here it is. For whom he did foreknow,
he's the one who chose his people. He knew his people before. He
foreordained his people. He did that. And whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, him he also called. And whom
he called, him he also justified. And whom he justified, him he
also glorified. You see there, everything is
by the Lord. There's nothing there that is
of the sinner. We sinned, that's all we did,
we sinned. Salvation's the Lord, of the
Lord. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Brethren,
this blessed man is the Lord Jesus. Go with me, let's look
at Romans 5. While you're in Romans, go to Romans 5. Verse 19 says, by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, shall
many be made righteous. You see that? That one is the
Lord Jesus. He walked this earth for that
purpose. He, as the Psalm says, don't leave there just a minute.
Why don't you stay in Romans five just a minute. He walked
not in the counsel of the ungodly, He stood not in the way of sinners,
nor did he sit in the seat of the scornful. He's the perfect,
holy man, righteous in all his ways, even in every thought of
his. And in the Lord's word, the Lord's
law, did he meditate? He delighted in it. He meditated
in it day and night. His will was through the will
of the Father. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers
of water, our Lord, arose and sat down at God's right hand,
and he is firmly planted, he is the rock, he is the tree that
brings forth the fruit. He said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. Without me, you can do nothing.
And it's him bringing forth his fruit and his season. His leaf
also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. That
is the Lord, that is the Lord. But look here, he didn't, he
did not, hear the counsel of the ungodly, but here's what
he did do for the ungodly. Look back at Romans 5 and look
at verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Does that mean everybody No,
it's those the Father gave him. It's those the Father chose by
free and sovereign grace and gave to him. And our Lord Jesus,
he's the only one who could lay down his life for the ungodly.
Everybody else were sinners. Nobody else could lay down their
lives as a substitute for another. Our Lord Jesus was the holy,
spotless Lamb of God. So he was fit, he met all the
requirements to be the sacrifice. He's holy without spot and without
blemish. And this is before the all-knowing,
all-seeing eye of God who knew his heart. Our Lord was righteous
in all his ways because he was holy in his heart. And he was
fit, being the spotless lamb, he was fit to go to that cross.
Nobody else could do it. And he laid down his life in
the place of his people. And brethren, by shedding his
blood, his life, he put away all the sins of his people. He
justified his people. He made his people the righteousness
of God in him. Romans 8 says to us, Romans 8,
one says to you that he's called. Verse one, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made me free from the law
of sin and death. 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, 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.
Now, the Psalm says this in verse four, the ungodly are not so. The ungodly are not, they don't
lie in the law of the Lord, When, as you came into this world,
did you delight in the law of the Lord? Did you delight in
the gospel? We did not. We did not. We didn't have spiritual discernment
to understand this word, and we didn't delight in it. Not
at all. It says, the ungodly are like
the chaff which the wind driveth away. We were dry chaff is what
we were. in ourselves and our flesh and
our sin. Therefore, the ungodly shall
not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of
the righteous. An ungodly man, and I'm not talking
about, you know, when you hear the word ungodly, we'd normally
think of somebody that's living in sin and just living an immoral
life and all of that. The Pharisees, who were the cream
of the crop as far as men go, worthy ungodly, and no man is
going to be able to stand before holy God and be received and
accepted of God based on anything that man has done, not one, not
one. The ungodly shall not stand in
the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
When God assembles his people in that final day and he brings
all his people to present them all to God the Father, there
will be not one ungodly man, there will be not one sinner
with Christ. And the way that we're not ungodly
and we're not sinners is not by what we did, it's all entirely
by what our Lord Jesus did for us and in us. The Lord Jesus,
the Lord Jesus, In him, our ungodly self, this is how God sees it.
This is what Romans 6 is declaring. In Christ, our ungodly self,
what we are, the man we are by our first birth, died, was crucified,
was put to death by divine justice. And that man died, that man died. And all the sin that that man
is died and was put away and God remembers him no more. Now,
being born again of God, there is a new man, really a new man. You didn't have this new man.
None of us had this new man. The Lord created a new man in
his righteousness and in his holiness Christ in you, the hope
of glory. The Lord Jesus entered in in
spirit, and the new man and Christ Jesus are one. We're one. You really have a new man, but
you're so vitally united with Christ. And when we die and his
body goes back to the dust, the Lord will eventually one day,
he will raise a new body, a glorified body that he's created. so that
when he presents us to the Father, there will be a new man and a
new body that's been entirely created by the Lord Jesus alone. and we did not contribute to
it. None of our works contributed to this new man. It is all the
work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This earth, this heavens and
this earth is gonna pass away. It's gonna burn with a fervent
heat, but there's gonna be a new heaven and a new earth, and that
new heaven and new earth will be the creation of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He will have He will have created
it all. Everything about the new heaven
and new earth will be to the praise and glory of our Lord
Jesus. But when the Lord has created
you anew, He makes you to be the blessed man. He makes you
to be the blessed man. He makes you to not walk in the
counsel of the ungodly anymore. If you were hearing preaching
that gave man some glory, and gave you the ABCs of how to be
born again, and you were being watched all the time, and corrected
by men all the time, and forced into this attitude of trying
to be perfect in front of men to please men. That is the counsel
of the ungodly. And the Lord give you a heart
now, when he called you by his grace, so that you no longer
walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He makes you no longer stand
in the way of sinners. Our Lord Jesus, he never was
a sinner. He never sinned. He never stood
in the way of sinners. Our Lord Jesus could not sin.
He's God. He's God. But he did, he did, He did have, he did, he was in
the company of sinners. And sinners felt comfortable
coming to our Lord. I'm not making an excuse for
folks to, you know, live in sin or something of that nature.
I'm just saying, our Lord Jesus came to save sinners. How you
gonna save a sinner if you're not in, if you're not around
them? So he sat and he had dinner in
Matthew's house with some sinners. And when the Pharisees saw that,
they would never do what he did. And he said, I didn't come to
call the righteous. I didn't come to call men that
think they're righteous by their works. He said, I came to save
sinners. A man doesn't need the great
physician till that law has shown him he's a sinner and he can't
do anything about it. He can't save himself. That man
needs the great physician. So no, he didn't stand in the
way of sinners. But our Lord came to save sinners,
and that's who he saved. He saves bonafide true sinners
that are made to know we are sinners. And our Lord Jesus doesn't
sit in the seat of the scornful, and he makes you not to sit in
the seat of the scornful. Before the Lord called us, before we
experienced something of God's mercy, and knew what sinners
we really are and how merciful God is to us for Christ's sake
alone. Before that, we were little judges
walking around. We were condemning everybody
else and justified ourselves. But when the Lord saves you,
when he calls you, he made you to see that you're the sinner. He made me see I'm the sinner.
And he made you to see that the only reason that God has been
merciful to us is because he loved us freely by sovereign
grace. He is just to be merciful to
us because Christ satisfied his justice. And he makes you delight
in mercy rather than scorning men, rather than condemning and
scorning and lording over men. He makes you delight to show
mercy. Because you see, God, your Father
likes to show mercy. And when you, you know, you go
through some times and some seasons where you need mercy, and the
Lord works providentially to where some men and women you
come in contact with are not merciful towards you. Some others
are merciful towards you. And the Lord will use those that
are merciful to make mercy so beautiful to you. Mercy will
become so adorning to you, adorning this gospel. And it's not to
make you worship men, it's to use his people, his brethren,
your brethren, to really see how comely mercy is. And it makes you look to your
Lord, and it makes you so thankful that God is merciful to you,
that he delights to be merciful to you. That's when you've been
made a blessed man. And then by his grace to you
in your new heart, he makes you delight in the law of the Lord.
You didn't have any desire to read this word. You didn't have
any understanding of it. But now you have the key of knowledge. The key of knowledge is Christ.
And now, he's giving you a new will, he's giving you a new heart,
he's giving you a true delight to read and meditate on the word
of God. Don't you like it when, you know,
you're so busy, you're working, and you get everything, when
you come home, you got things you have to do around the house,
and you finally get some time at the end of the day, this busy,
busy day, and you can sit down and open this book and read it.
Don't you find those times getting sweeter and sweeter the longer
you've been in the faith? You might get up earlier in the
morning just so you have a little more time so you can start your
day by getting into this word and reading it and have something
to be hidden in your heart to think about all through your
day. This is what the Lord did. The Lord gave you that hunger
and thirst for him and his word. And this is what he makes you
by his grace. First three, he should be like
a tree planted by the rivers of water. Our Lord planted us.
He said, the Lord is anointed me to preach glad tidings to
the meek, that you might be trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Isaiah 61, that's
what he does for you. It's him that makes you to be
fruitful, your righteousness of him and your fruits of him.
And this keeps us from gloating ourselves. It keeps us from being
critical of our brethren and inspecting their fruit. The Lord
makes you evergreen. That means he gives you eternal
life, evergreen life. No wilting and no drying up,
and you're like a tree planted by the water. That water, that
river of life is the spirit of our God in you, and it's Christ
Jesus, and he's planted you, and he's gonna keep you evergreen
by continually giving you this water of life in your new spirit.
And your leaf will never wither, and whatsoever you do shall prosper. Can you say that about a sinner,
about a believer that God saved, that everything you do shall
prosper? Whatsoever you do shall prosper. How could that be said so? I
fail a lot at a lot of things. I see my sin. I see how often
I turn to the right or the left and speak something I shouldn't
or think something I shouldn't. I see that in me. How could it
be said that whatsoever we do shall prosper? Well, for one,
Since Christ is our righteousness, and our holiness, and our wisdom,
and our redemption, and he's in God's right hand, none of
those things ever changes, because anything we do. But secondly,
because our Lord is with you, and in you, and because he is
teaching you by providence, and by his spirit, and by his word,
even when something you do ends up being a trial and trouble
for you, you're prospering in it because the Lord is teaching
you and the Lord is growing you in his grace and in the knowledge
of him. So even our falls and our trials
and troubles, he makes them all to prosper for us. Even things
that we, at the time, we think, this is very bad, I don't see
how anything good's gonna come out of this. in every bit of
it that the Lord makes you to prosper. He makes you to prosper. Teaching you that He is all,
teaching you that you're the center, teaching you not to trust
yourself, but to trust Him. Teaching you to go to Him at
all times, that He's a very present help in trouble, that He's always
present, He'll never leave, leave you, he'll never forsake you.
His mercies are new every morning. He's very pitiful, he knows we're
but dust, and he's gonna keep growing you and growing you and
growing you in the knowledge of him. I don't mean by that
that you're getting less and less sinful and more and more
holy. What happens is, as you become, where you're committing
less sins outwardly, You know, even somebody grows old, that
happens to them. But I'm just saying, but as that
happens for the child of God, you see the sins you are by nature
more. And that's just as bad as the
outward. But here's what he always teaches
you more and more. He's been our salvation from
before he created time. He's been our all before God
throughout time. and he will be our all when time
is no more. Christ Jesus is all our salvation. Really, that's what he's teaching
us every day in everything we go through. The lesson is always
the same, that all flesh is grass, but the word of the Lord liveth
and abideth forever. Christ is salvation. He is everything
in salvation. He's the blessed man, and in
him, he's made us to be. blessed men and women. I pray
he'll bless that, brethren. We're going to close with prayer
tonight, not have a closing hymn. So, our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for your word. Thank you for your grace and
your mercy. Lord, what a salvation to have the Son of God to be
our salvation. Father, we thank you. So wise
in everything you've done to save us this way. Lord, keep
us looking only to Christ. Make us ever more faithful and
more merciful. Lord, keep us evergreen. Make us like these trees planted
by the river. Keep us by your grace, Lord.
We pray this, we pray for our brethren who are sick and hurting
and pain and in troubles of different kinds and sorrowful, Lord. Lord,
you will make your people prosper. We trust you, we believe you,
and we ask, Lord, that you would work that in each of your people.
Be with us now as we depart. We thank you for your mercy and
grace. In Christ Jesus, amen.