And I look so forward to hearing
what the Lord's placed on his heart. So brother, you come at
this time. Appreciate you being here. Good morning. I invite your attention to Psalm
number one. The first psalm. This book of psalms has 150 psalms in it. This first psalm sets the theme
for the whole book. This book of Psalms was a psalter
for the ancient church. They sang these psalms. It was their hymnal. Christ is
the theme of all the scriptures. And here in this first psalm,
we're going to look at the blessed man. And preeminently, that blessed
man is Jesus Christ. I would hope that as we read
this first psalm, and as I read it to you and expound the passage,
I would hope that each of us would endeavor to be the man
that is described in this psalm. But I would have you also know
this, there is one man who is indeed what this psalm describes. and that man is Jesus Christ.
This psalm is about Jesus Christ. Pre-eminently, Jesus Christ is
the blessed man. He is the one that is described
in this psalm. The blessed man is described
in verses 1 through 3, and then he's contrasted in verses 4,
5, and 6. So let's just begin at verse
number 1. Blessed, the word means happy. Blessed is the man, that member
of humanity, who does, here are set forth three things concerning
the blessed man. who walks not in the counsel
of the ungodly is first. Second is, nor stands in the
path or way of sinners. And third is, nor sits in the
seat of the scornful. These are three things he does
not do. Later we're going to look at
the things that he indeed does do. I want you to notice there
is a regression here. in these things that he does
not do. He does not walk in the counsel
of the ungodly. He does not stand in the way
of sinners. He does not sit in the seat of
the scornful. When one is enticed to do evil,
it usually begins by walking in the counsel of the ungodly.
walking beside someone who does ungodly things. Eventually, that
walking with an ungodly person changes so that you are now standing
in the way to talk with him face to face. And if you talk with
the ungodly and with the sinner long enough, you're going to
sit down in his seat and be a scorner of the righteous. This righteous
man, this blessed man does not do that. He does not walk in
the counsel of the ungodly. He endeavors to walk in the counsel
of God. Jesus Christ did that. Jesus
Christ preeminently walked in God's counsel. In every step
he took, there was never a sin, there was never a transgression,
there was never an error. Jesus Christ, the blessed man
par excellence, walked in the counsel of God. Whatever God
would have him to do, wherever God would lead him to go, that
is what Jesus Christ did. It would be good for you and
me to follow in his footsteps, to walk in the counsel of God
and to stay away from ungodly people. Do not walk with them.
Do not walk with them. He does not stand in the path
of sinners. When sinners want you to stand
in the way with them and talk with them face to face, get away
from them. Jesus Christ did not stand in
their presence. And he who does so will find
himself in the seat of the scornful. These are those who scorn God,
scorn His law, scorn His word. scorn his Christ, and I hope
that there is none of us here this morning that is of such
a person as that. One who scorns the things of
God. This world is full of such people.
Do not sit with them. We here are taught that we are
to be very careful regarding our relationships in this world. This does not mean that we have
no contact with sinful people. It is impossible to live in this
world without having contact with sinful people. Indeed, of
Jesus Christ it was said, this man receives sinners and eats
with them, and so should we. We should welcome sinners. Sinners
should be welcome in our presence, but never do we walk in their
counsel. Never do we stand in their path
with them. Never do we occupy a seat with
them in scorning the things of God. Number two, here's what
else is said of him. His delight is in the law of
Jehovah. His delight. His delight. Law is not something we take
great delight in. Law governs our lives. The law tells me on the highway
that the speed limit is 70. On a road that I can see, no
bends, it's clear. And I wonder, why am I being
told I cannot go 80? I know goodwill. I'm capable.
My car is capable. And there's no problem with it.
But the law says, no, you go more than 70, and you're subject
to a ticket. There is something in me that
kind of resents that. There is something in me that kind of
says, wonder what I can get away with. That's the way we treat
the law. We have a nature in us that does
not really like the law all that much, man's law nor God's law. Jesus Christ did not have that
aspect of our nature in him. His delight was in the law of
Jehovah. What is the law of Jehovah? Well,
first, these scriptures are Jehovah's law. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this, it is because there is
no truth in them. Jesus Christ delighted in the
Scriptures. He knew the Scriptures. He read
the Scriptures. Indeed, He was the Scriptures,
for they all spoke of Him. They spoke of His saving work.
They spoke of His kindness and His mercy, and He delighted in
the law of God. He delighted in the commandments
of God's law, which may be brought down to two commandments. You
shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart and soul and mind
and strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus
Christ delighted in that. He delighted in loving Jehovah. He said that when he came into
this world, he said, Lo, it is written of me in the volume of
the book, I delight to do your will, and your law is written
within my heart. And he did. He delighted to do
God's will. Everywhere he went was doing
God's will, obeying God's law, and he knew God's law because
it was written in his heart. And he delighted in it. He even
delighted in the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law of God. Most of us do not much care for
that law because it, number one, shows
us what great sinners we are. It shows us how holy God is,
how righteous God is. It shows us God's righteous and
holy demands on us, and then it shows us what vile and wretched
sinners we are. It shows us our inability to
remedy our situation. It demands perfect perfection
out of every one of us, and we are perfectly incapable of doing
so. It shows us our need of Jesus
Christ and Jesus Christ looked at even the Mosaic Law and delighted
in it. Delighted in it. And in his law he meditates day
and night. I hope none of you None of us
who claim to belong to the Lord God Jehovah
are found failing to meditate in His law every day. Can you truly say you love the
Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength
and Let a day, two days, maybe a week go by and not meditating
in his word. This word. Jesus Christ meditated
in God's law day and night. It was his constant thought.
That does not mean that he had no concern for the world around
him. He had to. He had to live and
eat and sleep and do other things just as you and I do. He had
chores to do, but at all times God's law was his meditation.
I stopped in a bookstore yesterday and was just looking in the section
that had Bibles. A gentleman walked up, picked
one up, and I was looking at another one and he said, Do you
read the Bible?" And I said, every day, in depth. Have to. I have to preach it.
I have to teach it. I have to administer it. Jesus
Christ delighted in this law. I delight in this. I delight
in this book. I am, and perhaps this may be
true of just about every other pastor, I would not trade places with
anybody else in the whole world. I love what I do. I love meditating
on God's law. I love reading these scriptures. I love studying the things of
God. And every one of us should. Every
one of us should. Meditating on his law in the
morning, meditating on his law before you go to bed at night,
meditating on God's law throughout the day instead of flooding our
minds with so much other useless stuff that are found in the world
around us. Would you not agree? In his law,
he meditates. This is what the blessed man
does. He meditates in God's law day and night. He shall be like
a tree planted by the rivers of water. He shall be like a
tree. And brother, I should have asked
beforehand, but what time are we supposed to be over here?
Okay, it's up to me? All right. I told you I love
my job. He shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water. That's what Jesus Christ is.
When God planted that garden in Eden, He put a tree in that
garden. God planted a tree that was there,
the tree of life. That tree of life is Christ. Adam sinned. He was forbidden to have access
to the tree of life. And when you read of it next,
it is in heaven, in the paradise of God. That tree of life is
Christ. That tree of life is planted.
Jehovah planted him. Planted by the rivers of water. That tree of life is by that
stream that flows from God's throne in heaven. Planted, it
will not be uprooted. Every one of us should be like
a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its
fruit in its season. That tree of life In the paradise
of God, we're told, bears 12 manner of fruit, and its leaves
are verdant and green all year long. They are there for the
healing of the nations. This tree of life, Jesus Christ,
this tree planted by the rivers of water, that tree is ever in
bloom, ever effectual, ever healing, and ever nourishing. He shall
be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth
its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and
whatever he does shall prosper. The church should be such a tree
as that. We have apple trees, orange trees,
fruit trees of every sort that bear their fruit in every season. That means, my friends, that
there are only a few weeks of the year that you can gather
apples. Sometimes there are none on the
tree. It's true with dates. It's true
with figs. It's true with persimmons. It's
true with oranges, lemons, limes. It matters not. Where is the
tree that bears fruit all year round? We have something like that in
the Caribbean. It's called a banana grove. Banana groves are producing
fruit all year long. That's what the Church of Christ
should be. The Church of Christ should be
like a banana grove, just bearing fruit all year long. Jesus Christ
does. He's bearing fruit. His leaves
are ever there for the healing of the nations. And whatever
He does shall prosper. Everything He does shall prosper. Jesus will never fail. Never
fail. I resent highly these portrayals
of Jesus Christ as trying to do things and cannot because
men will not let him. In the first place, Jesus Christ
does not try to do anything. God does not try to do anything. God does. Jesus Christ does and
never fails. Whatever he does shall prosper.
I'm glad of that because I am told that he set it upon his
heart to save me. I hope he does not fail. He has
put it in his heart to bless me. I hope he does not fail. I know he will not fail because
everything he does shall prosper. Whatever he does shall prosper. In his death on Calvary he prospered
because he said it is finished. That's prosperity. People talk
about a prosperity gospel. I can show you one in Jesus Christ.
He's the one who prospers. Everything he does shall prosper. He prospered in the tomb because
he came out victorious over death, hell, and the grave. He prospered
in his ascension into glory because he made an open show of all his
enemies, mocking them as he went into the heavens. He, the great
Michael, the archangel, cast Satan out of heaven. He prospered
in his ascension in the glory. He prospered in heaven itself
because God said, come and sit on my throne. You've earned it. You've earned it. Everything
he does shall prosper. God gave him a kingdom and said,
subjugate the nations. He shall prosper. He will do
it. The Lord's gonna send him back
to reward his servants. He shall prosper and none shall
stop him. Everything he does shall prosper. Now that's the prosperity gospel
I want to hear. I love that prosperity gospel. That gospel that declares the
prosperity of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, we have a
contrast. The ungodly are not so. Here's the contrast. In the first
three verses, we have seen the blessed man described and described
most graphically, most perfectly in Jesus Christ. And I hope that
each of us would endeavor to be the man that is described
in those first three verses. But here's the contrast. The
ungodly are not so. What do you mean the ungodly
are not so? The ungodly will be glad to walk
in the council of the ungodly. It's their own council. The ungodly
gladly will stand in the way of sinners. The ungodly will
gladly sit in the seat of the scornful. The ungodly have no
delight in Jehovah's law. The ungodly refuse to meditate
in Jehovah's law. The ungodly are not like a tree
that is planted by the rivers of water. For Jesus himself said,
every tree that is not planted by my father shall be rooted
up. They bring forth no fruit for
God in any season. Their leaf will always wither
and nothing they do shall prosper. This is the ungodly. The ungodly
are the opposite of this blessed man. The ungodly are like the
chaff which the wind drives away. The ungodly, therefore, are not
like the tree that Jehovah plants by the rivers of living water. The ungodly are like the chaff
which the wind drives away. What is that chaff? When the ancients harvested grain,
wheat, for example, they brought all of the grain into the threshing
floor. They had a threshing machine,
or perhaps they just walked on it, but they crushed that grain. It broke the holes around the
meat of the seed, the kernel. They would break that hard kernel,
and then they would start to separate that chaff. That chaff was what you did not
want. That chaff was the hard part
of the covering of the wheat. It's good for nothing but burning,
so that's what they did with it. They would take the grain
after it had been threshed and they would throw it into the
air. If there was a breeze, the breeze would catch the lighter
chaff and blow it away and the heavy grain would fall right
back down to the threshing floor. If there was no breeze, you'd
get a winnowing fan, and someone would wave that winnowing fan,
and you'd throw the grain, all of it, into the air, and the
winnowing fan creates a breeze, and it blows the chaff away and
off of the threshing floor, and the grain itself falls back down.
We're told of Jesus Christ that His winnowing fan is in His hand. And He comes to separate the
chaff from His wheat. His wheat is precious to Him.
He wants His wheat. He will have His wheat. He does
not want the chaff. What does He do with the chaff?
It is blown away from the wheat and separated. It's good for
nothing but burning. So that's what He does. The ungodly are like the chaff. which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall
not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of
the righteous. They shall not stand in the judgment
in that final day when our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ returns, and all the nations are gathered there before him. He will separate them as a shepherd divides his sheep
from the goats. He'll put his sheep on his right
hand, put the goats on the left, He'll separate them much like
the harvester does with the grain and the chaff. The Lord will
do it with the sheep and the goats. He will tell the sheep, come,
you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world, and they shall go into that congregation
of the righteous. in heaven's everlasting glory. Consider that for a moment. They
shall go into the heaven of heavens itself, and there they will stand
on Mount Zion, we read in the Scriptures. They will stand on
Mount Zion in the congregation of the righteous, all those who
are covered with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and have Him
for their righteousness. This congregation of the righteous
is the church of Jesus Christ in its glorified state in heaven
following that great judgment. He'll say to the sheep on His
right hand, come you blessed of my Father. And He'll take
them there into the congregation of the righteous in heaven's
glory and there they will stand and sing praise to God and walk
with Him for all the rest of eternity. The ungodly are not
so. They shall not stand in the judgment. They shall be sent away. They
will be sent as far away from the congregation of the righteous
as they can be sent. In heaven's everlasting glory,
there is that congregation of the righteous. All those who
have Jesus Christ for their righteousness, there they stand on Mount Zion for all eternity, praising Him. But the ungodly are not so. They're
not standing there. They're consigned to everlasting
punishment and torment and destruction, all because they would not believe
in this blessed man, this man that God sent, this man that
God blessed. They refused this blessed man
whom God sent. They refused his gospel. They
would not be the kind of man that God would bless. They do
not deserve that place, do they, with the righteous to stand.
No, no, no. They shall not stand in the judgment,
they shall be sent away from it, and they will never know
the congregation of the righteous. There will be no sinners in the
congregation of the righteous, nary a single solitary one. Why? For the Lord knows the way
of the righteous. The Lord knows the way of the
righteous. First of all, he knows the way of Jesus Christ
because Jesus Christ is that righteous one. If you want to
know who the righteous one is, it's Jesus Christ. Jehovah knows the way of the
righteous. He knows the path that Jesus
Christ takes. And He knows the way of those
who have Jesus Christ for their righteousness and who themselves
are righteous. We who have that divine nature
put in us, we who have the seed of God in us, are said to be
righteous. We're told to be righteous as
He is and to do righteousness. Therefore, when the psalmist
here speaks of Jehovah knowing the way of the righteous, the
righteous first is Jesus Christ and then it is his people. Jehovah knows the way of the
righteous because that way is Jesus Christ, he who is himself
the way, the truth, and the life. I want to know the way of the
righteous. God spare me from that path of
sinners. I want to know the way of the
righteous. And that way of the righteous
is found in Jesus Christ, who is himself the way and the righteousness,
the righteous way and the way of righteousness. Jehovah knows
the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish. My friends, I have endeavored
this morning to set forth this truth to you as simply and as
clearly as I know how. There are two sorts of people
in this world. Everybody falls into one of these
two categories. You are either the blessed person,
man or woman. You're either the blessed one
or you're the ungodly one. You were born ungodly. It was
your nature. You were conceived in sin, shapen
in iniquity. You departed your mother's womb
speaking lies. You've been perfecting that art
ever since. You've lived in ungodliness all
your life from your mother's womb because you were ungodly
in your mother's womb and your actions only evidence what you
are by nature. It's time to stop walking in
the counsel of the ungodly. It is time to quit standing in
the path of sinners. It is time to stop sitting in
the seat of the scornful if you would be the blessed man. Who
is the blessed man? He has Jesus Christ for his righteousness,
and he also knows the way of the righteous. The way of the
righteous is Jesus Christ. He walks in Christ, talks in
Christ, sits in Christ, lives in Christ, and Christ is his
all in all. And today, I speak to you and
I speak to me. We are either among the blessed
or among the ungodly. Now, in which are you? May the Lord be merciful and
gracious to us May he let every one of us be blessed men and
blessed women. A simple