Psalm 1, first psalm, you remember
that our Lord said on that road to Emmaus, He said to the disciples,
He said, all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law
of Moses and the prophets and in the psalms concerning me.
He specifically mentioned the psalms. So now we come to the
psalms and it's only fitting we look at the first psalm because
truly our Lord said of himself, I am the first and the last,
the beginning and the end. He is this blessed man, this
blessed man that David spoke of. Look at verse one. 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. Blessed is the man. Look at Psalm
72 real quickly. Psalm 72 is going to be our scripture
reading for the second message. It fits both messages well because
it speaks of him. It speaks of Him healing the
children of the needy and Him being blessed. Psalm 72, verse
17, His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him. All nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the
God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed
be His glorious name forever. And let the whole earth be filled
with His glory. Amen. And amen. That's his name. That's Christ.
So we must begin with him, who is the blessed one. And we are
blessed in him. The radio message, I didn't plan
it this way, but I'd like to thank that God did. But I just
kept thinking about blessed for a week and a half, and the radio
was impressed to do that. But Christ is the blessed man
in whom we're blessed, and he walked this earth. God was manifest
in the flesh, and he walked this earth. He stood upon this earth. He sat. He walked. He stood.
He sat. But not like sinners do. You see, he's known as much for
what he did not do as what he did. The law, our Lord lived
according to the law. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not,
thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Thou shalt not covet,
thou shalt not kill. He kept all of that. Completely,
he did not. In him was no sin. He did not. Romans 7 talks about
us, the old man in us, that we cannot do the things that we
would. The things that we would, we
do not. The things that we would not,
that's what we do. Not him. Not him. He was holy, harmless. He was
a friend of sinners, but separate from sinners. He's not like us. Thank God. No, He's made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. He must be perfect. It must be perfect. It shall
be perfect to be accepted. If we're going to be accepted
in Him, If we're going to be complete in Him, He must be perfect. He must completely fulfill the
law of God. And He did. This is the second
Adam. All of salvation is riding on
Him. It's all depending on Him to
not do what God said not to do and to do what God said to do.
And He did. He did. Blessed is the man. His counsel, the counsel he walked
in was the word of his God. Always. Always. The way in which
he walked was the way, the path of righteousness. Always. Always. At all times. Holiness. Truth.
Love. The seat He sits in now is the
throne of glory because of his blessed life on the earth. It's
a throne of mercy and a throne of grace. Blessed is the man,
yes. God hath blessed him and blessed all in him. And that's
what I hope we'll see this morning, that we're so blessed that he
came and we're blessed to be in him and we're so blessed if
he is in us. And we are somewhat like him.
Verse 2 says, His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in
His law doth He meditate day and night. You remember that
He said, My meat. You remember the disciples said,
Lord eat. He said, I am. And what was it He lived to do?
What did He delight to do? What filled him with, it was
his, it was his life. He said, my meat is to do the
will of my father and to finish the work. And in Psalm 40, in
the volume of the book that's written of him. It says, Lo,
I come, and the volume of the book is written of me. I delight
to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. David is writing under inspiration
of the Spirit. So much of Scripture, the prophets
are speaking not of themselves, but speaking of Christ by the
Spirit. And he said, I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation. I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou know it. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. Christ, I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. That's Christ. His delight was in the law of
the Lord. And that's what he did. That's
what he did. So he is the blessed man, the
blessed one. His delight, his will, his purpose
for coming, saved God's people, and he had to do so, he only
could do so by keeping God's law. Verse 2 says, in his law
doth he meditate day and night. Meditate day and night. Our Lord's
every, turn to Joshua chapter 1 with me, Joshua 1. We use the scriptures extensively,
quite a few scriptures. We don't want you to have to
turn to too many and get lost in them. But some we need to
turn to and look at with our eyes. Faith cometh by hearing,
but blessed are they that read it for themselves. Read it. You need to see it written down
that it's in God's Word. Joshua 1. Our Lord meditated
and thought upon the Father's will and the Father's word day
and night, the law, because by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
me. To offend at one point is to
be guilty. His mind, his heart was on him fulfilling every jot
and every tittle of God's law. with his every waking hour. And
even with day and night, David wrote often that he would wake
up at midnight, I'll arise to give thanks unto thee, the Lord
more. He often rose a great while before
day to go out and pray. Pray for what? The work he must
do. And Joshua 1, Joshua is such
a type of Christ. Verse 2 says, God says, Moses,
my servant is dead. Now you arise and go over to
Jordan. You're going to lead my people
into the promised land. The law can't take a sin. Joshua
did. And Christ is Joshua. God with him. And down in verse
7, It says, Be strong, very courageous,
that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which
Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right
hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper. Whithersoever
thou goeth, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy
mouth. Thou shalt meditate therein day
and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is
written therein. For then thou shalt make thy
way prosperous. Then thou shalt have good success."
That's Christ. He's the blessed one. People
went in. Do you remember the story of
Joshua? He told the priest to hold up the ark to cross over
Jordan, what Jordan represented, and that Joshua went before him.
And then the ark went before him. And that's our Lord. He
always went before. And He's the forerunner within
the veil. And He's the one, like Joshua,
whom all the people are blessed by His faithfulness, by Him bringing
them in. And that's what our Lord did.
And, oh, Psalm 119, there's so many psalms that talk about being
blessed and a blessed man. Psalm 119 begins this way. It's fitting. The whole Psalm
119 is concerning the Word of God. Concerning what? You could substitute Christ's name for
every mention of the Law, the Word, the Precepts, the Commandments. You could substitute His name
with all that, because He is the Word, the Living Word. It
begins, blessed are the undefiled in the way. Oh, he was undefiled,
holy, harmless, separate from sinners, undefiled in the way,
who walk in the law of the Lord. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
I want you to turn to one more, Psalm 18. When you read these
psalms, Mindy mentioned this. She was listening to a message
by Brother David Edmondson, and she said he brought something
out that I had trouble reading for myself that David would say
such a thing about himself until Brother Edmondson, that David
McKean would say some things about himself. But Brother David,
the preacher, brought it out how that, no, he's speaking in
the person of Christ when he said that. I look at Psalm 18,
verse 20. The Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness. Who can that be? According to the cleanness of
my hands hath he recompensed me. I have kept the ways of the
Lord. and have not wickedly departed
from my God. All his judgments were before
me. I did not put away his statutes from me. I was upright before
him. I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore, the Lord recompensed
me according to my righteousness." Now who could that be talking
about but Christ? And the whole psalm is a marvelous
picture of our Lord. The Lord is my rock, my fortress,
my deliverer. He came down in darkness, His
secret place, and on and on and on. That's our Lord. He's the
blessed man. We're blessed in Him, by Him, by all that He did
for us. Oh, but you know, David said,
David, the man, said, Oh, how I love thy law. And we do too. Can you think of, like the Ten
Commandments? I hate that sometimes men speak
of the law of God as if it were a bad thing. As if it were, you
know, a reflection of the character of God. I love the law of God. I don't want to have any God
before me. I don't want to take His name in vain, do you? Hmm?
I don't want to covet. I don't want to kill. I don't
want to steal. Do you? I don't want to. Well, the law is good. David said, I love that law.
But, here's the problem. David broke the law. And we do
too. David wasn't a lawless man. He was a lawbreaker, but not
lawless. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah, you do. You know, the world,
the wicked, is going on to talk about the wicked. No God, no
law, no nothing, anything goes. That's not true with God's people.
They're under law, alright. It's the law of Christ. And they
want to do everything He tells them to do. As our Lord did everything,
God wrote down. It was His delight that He did
it. He did it. Nothing wrong with the law. Everything
right with the law. Holy, just, and true, Paul said.
Holy, just, and true. Well, here's the problem with
us. That's why Christ had to be made flesh. Condemned sin
into flesh by a holy life. Declared to be the Son of God
by a holy life. You see? David said, I love thy
law. I delight in thy law, but I just
can't keep it perfectly. Well, Christ did. Completely. He's our hope, you see. He's
our hope. All right, verse 3. It said,
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth
forth His fruit. In his season, his leaf shall
not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Who can this be speaking of but
Christ? He must have the preeminence,
doesn't He? That's why we begin with Him.
You know, there are some men, some people all over the earth
that when they look at this, they never mention Christ's name.
Like the stories of Noah and so forth. You know what, religion
is not going to apply this to Christ. But completely to man. If you'll
do this, if you'll do this, if you'll do that. No, it's all
dependent on if he'll do it. If he did it, that's what it's
all dependent on. He's like a tree. How fitting
that He talks about Him being a tree by a river. And Genesis
2 begins with a river and a tree, tree of life. Genesis 22 ends
with a river and a tree. River of water, the river of
mercy, the river of grace, the river of God's Word flows freely
concerning Christ the tree of life. The tree of life. Everybody wants to seek out and
search their family tree, don't they? There's one family tree
you need to be in. You need to search out and find
out if you're in His tree. He said, I'm the vine. If you're
not a branch, I'll cast you out and burn you in the fire. Without
me, you can do nothing, he said. I'm the vine. I'm the tree. He's
the tree of life. You understand? It began in the
garden with a tree. And it ends, when it's all over,
with a tree, whose leaf doesn't wither. Whose leaves are for
the healing of the people. And that's Christ. It says in
verse 3, He brings forth His fruit. He bore fruit to the glory
of God for His people in His season. At due time, Christ was
made a woman, made under the law, and His leaf shall not wither. His leaf. When Adam and Eve sinned,
what did they do? They ran from God, they hid,
and the first thing they did was they plucked some leaves
off of a fig tree. It plainly tells us it was fig
leaves. Why? Because they're big leaves.
You ever seen a fig tree? They're big leaves. They'll really
cover, won't they? As soon as you pluck them, they'll
start withering. They hadn't worn those leaves
for ten minutes until they start withering. They won't cover. Now his leaves, what he covers
is sin, and that is the living. See, when you pluck those leaves,
they're dead. As soon as they plucked them off that living
tree, they were dead, and they can't cover, and dead works can't
cover our naked soul. Christ is the tree. His righteousness
never withers. He said, My righteousness is
forever upon them that believe me. And whatsoever he doeth shall
prosper. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand, Isaiah wrote. It did. We got time. Genesis 39. Go back to Genesis 39. There
are so many men in scriptures, and even Esther, that represent
our Lord, and the people's salvation depended on them because they
were types of Christ. And one of the greatest, the
Lord begins with, one of the greatest is Joseph. Right? None of the sons of Jacob would
have been saved without Joseph going through all that he did
and the Lord putting him on the throne. Why? To save much people
alive. Well, he was put in prison. He
was hated, despised, rejected. Many
of you and I were talking this morning. about being blessed. And the world thinks riches,
like the message on the radio, thinks riches and prosperity,
worldly prosperity and all these things, not to have any problem,
that's the blessing of the Lord. No, hold on now. When you look
at Job and his friends, who was the most blessed man among those
four men? The man with the most troubles.
Job represents our Lord. His name, Job, by name means
despised, hated, rejected. Our Lord was a man of sorrows
acquainted with griefs. He had nothing but trouble from
the day he was born, and yet he was blessed. The one whom
God loves, he sends troubles and trials and afflictions and
these things. Those are the blessed people.
Why? Why? It's for God's glory. To witness
a good testimony. Did not our Lord witness it?
Even hanging on the cross. Especially hanging on the cross.
Going through all that he did. What a testimony he witnessed
before Pilate, before men, before devils, before angels, before
God. God is well pleased. What a witness he bore of the
troubles that God sent him, that God sent him. Not my will, but
that will. A man of sorrows, a man of grief,
troubles, these things, but he's the blessed man. Well, Joseph,
what all did Joseph go through? Oh, he was so mistreated. What,
he was lied upon? Put in prison, look at verse
21, Genesis 39 verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph, Genesis
39 verse 21, and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight
of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners. That's why Christ
came down to this prison. Is it Isaiah 45? It talks about
the people being all spoiled in prison houses. And all the
prisoners were in the prison. He came to, and what, verse 22,
whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. Sounded like
he did everything for everyone in the prison. Everybody did
anything. Joseph did it. That's exactly what he did. And
that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He's the doer
of it. Read on. The keeper of the prison
looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord
was with Joseph. And that which Joseph did, the
Lord made it to prosper. And because of that, where did
Joseph end up? On the throne. Second to none,
even Pharaoh. Oh, this is the book of Christ,
isn't it? All the way through. So, the pleasure of the Lord
prospered in his hand. That blessed man. Now, the blessing
is to see Christ in this. You miss the meaning. You miss
the reason it was written. You miss Christ if you do not
see Christ in this psalm. But, or and. We miss a blessing
if we do not see how we are blessed in Christ and blessed to have
Christ in us. Understand? You being in Christ,
found in Christ, is your way to heaven. That's how you're
going to be accepted by God, be found in Christ. Paul also
wrote this, Christ in you, the hope of glory. If any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Old things have become brand new. Meaning, you're someone
you were not before. Oh, there's an old man there
who's still the same. He's not going to get any better.
And the more this new man lives, the worse that old man appears.
He's not worse. You just smell him more. The
longer you live, the more stinking his flesh is. But there's a new
man, and this is such a comfort, should be, to all of God's people.
There's some men that would tell you not to ever look for evidences.
This Bible doesn't teach that. Scripture says, Know ye not your
own selves, how that Christ is in you, except you be a reprobate?
Don't you know? Look at verse 1 again. Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. We don't walk with the world
or walk according to what the world says, do we? We just don't. There was a time I did. There
was a time I walked according to the course of this world like
the children of disobedience, a child of wrath, even as others. Quickened man. It's a new man
alive. He's not walking with them. You
can't walk together unless you be agreed. I'm a companion of
them that fear Thee, David said. It says those that fear Thee
will be glad when they see me. That's a fact. We had nothing to do with it.
But there's this new man. New man, right there. You'd never
seen him in the church house unless God had... He's born again. A new man. What a blessing to consider.
I'm not what I want to be. I'm not what I'm going to be.
I'm not what I ought to be, but thank God I'm not what I used
to be. I'm where I want to be. Brother
John said that. People do what they want to do.
I'm doing what I want to do. There was a time I didn't want
to do this. I didn't want to. Now there's
nothing I want more. Now that's not me. It's this
new man. New man. He doesn't stand in
the way of sinners. This whole world's taking a stand
for something. Oh, we must stand for women's
rights. We must stand for LBGTQRXYZ. We must stand for that. Take
a stand. Not me. You? No, no. They're going to stand
on the courthouse and have a national prayer day. Not me! Different
God. They stand for something different
than I did. Right? The seed of the scornful. This world is full of nothing
but mockers and scoffers and scorners and the reason being
is religion. It's religion that's made God
a laughingstock to this generation. No fear of God because of the
pulpit. They're not preaching the fear
of God. And so this world is scoffing and mocking and laughing
to scorn. We're going to look next at Psalm
2 on Wednesday night. We're going to see who's going
to laugh. He who laughs last, we say it, laughs best. God's going to land. We don't sit with the scorners. We don't stand with them. We
don't sit with them. Oh, no. You know where we're
seated? In the heavenlies. Now, seriously, do you consider
this place a foretaste of glory divine? Do you? Do you really? Do you consider this place the
best place on earth to sit Why? There was a time I couldn't
wait to get out of that seat. I was forced to sit. Sit like
your dogs are now. Sit, sit. They want to run. Sit.
You're going to kill yourself. Sit. Well, they didn't run off. Okay, then. Give you up to the
Humane Society. But, God, Makes us to sit together. Raised
us up. Caused us to sit together. And
love it. And not want to get up. Do we
have to leave? A heavenly place. That's this new man. Is that you? That's this new
man. What a blessing. Delight in the
law of the Lord. Do you love what you're hearing? Do you love
God's Word? Do you? Meditate day and night. Now, I'd venture to say, I know it's
so, that there's rarely a day goes by that God's people don't
think about Him and His Word. There was a time when days and
months and years went by and you never gave God a thought.
What is it? It's that new man. It's that
blessed man that's in you. Be like a tree. We could go to Hosea. I think
I'm going there next. Hosea 14. God's people are called
trees of righteousness. The Lord's planted by the rivers
of water. He makes us to lie down in green
pastures beside the still water and fruits. Our fruit is found
in Him from Him, but God's people do bear fruit. They do. And they pray that, don't they?
Come, O north wind. Awake, O north wind. Come thou
south. Blow upon my garden. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat the pleasant fruits therein. Nothing we want more
than to bear fruit unto our Father's glory. His leaf shall not wither. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Everything concerning God's people, whatever God brings about in
their life, whether it be what men call good or whether it be
what men call evil, all things work together for them, for their
spiritual and, yes, temporal prosperity. David said, It's
good for me that I've been afflicted. Why? That I might learn thy statutes. It's all good. Everything, even
the sins of God's people. And only God's people can understand
that. That even their sins are going to bring about great good
in their life. Think not? I could bring you so many examples. So we're so blessed, aren't we?
And it ends this way. In the end, look at verses 4
through 6. It talks about the righteous and the ungodly. The
ungodly, the ungodly, the ungodly. The righteous, the righteous,
the righteous. I had a brother say one time, I'm so ungodly.
No, you're not. No, no, no, no, no. Hang on.
You're either righteous or you're ungodly. It can't be both. Ungodly
means you have no God. Ungodly means you don't think
about God. God is not any of your thoughts. You were ungodly,
but now God's made you godly. You have a God. You love God. You fear God. You follow God. You walk with God. You hear God's
voice, right? Godly. Godly. Righteous. What does it mean to be righteous?
You don't. You know well, don't you, to
be in Christ. That you know that Christ is
your righteousness. You believe Him, it's counted unto you for
righteousness. Right? And that makes you righteous. Right? The ungodly are not so. The religious, who think themselves
to be godly and righteous, are not. Why? Because Christ is not
all of them. Right? So you're either one or the other.
You can't be both. The old man, It's what he is. But the new man is godly. He
walks in godliness and holiness and righteousness. And he talks
about the chaff, verse 4, the ungodly not so. The chaff is
going to be driven away by the wind. There's wheat and there's
chaff, right? What does wheat do? When you're
sifting wheat, what you do is you throw it up in the air on
the threshing floor. Threshing floor. There's a threshold
to keep the wheat from going out. That's Christ. That's the
Spirit of God. Keep us in. Shut us in. But all
right, when you're sifting that wheat and the wind's blowing,
what the wind does is, and the chaff just goes out in the world. The wheat falls to the ground,
falls to the ground at the thresher's feet. We're not going anywhere. We're going to stay right here.
At the threshing floor. That's wheat. Is that sheep?
Wheat and chaff. Sheep and goats. Goats out there
on the hill. Sheep with the sheep. among the
ship, the chap. The ungodly not so, verse 5.
The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in
the congregation of the righteous. God's people stand in Christ,
and there is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment to
them. Why? Because they're standing on the
rock of Christ Jesus. More than that, they're in the
rock, the cleft of the rock, crucified with Christ. And when
that judgment comes, they're going to be seated. They're going
to be seated. Or the world stands before Him
to be judged out of the books of all things that they've written.
See, Christ sat down, didn't He, when His work was finished.
And we're seated in Him. And when the judgments come,
He says, now, my people, be seated. I finished, there's nothing for
you to do, but hear the good news. But to the wicked, the ungodly,
they shall not stand. They'll be cast down. Verse 6
says, The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. I was going
to have you turn to Psalm 27, which it speaks so often of the
sinners, He's going to show the way. He's going to teach them
the way. The Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous. What is that? The Lord knoweth them that are
His. What's your way? The Lord told
people often, go your way. Go your way. What's the way of
the believer? Christ is the way. The way I
want to follow you. You're the way. That's like the
disciples, you know, so many of them walked no more with him.
And the disciples, he said, will you go away? I said, to whom? These words of mine. You're our
way. You're our truth. You're our
righteousness. The way of the righteous. But
the way of the ungodly. There is a way that seemeth right
unto men. And you hear it all the time,
don't you? Well, this is the way I see it. Wrong. It's going to end in judgment.
It's going to end in destruction. You're going to perish. Well,
this is what I think. Wrong. It's not like He thought. Thou thoughtest, God said. That
was altogether such and one as you said. I'm going to make it
plain. God's people, the way is Christ. The truth is Christ.
And because Christ said, I give unto them eternal life, they
shall never perish. Amen.