By the blood of the Lamb redeemed, His child and forever I am. Good singing. Good hymns.
Worth singing. Someday we'll sing as we've never
sung before, won't we? From the top of our lungs, in
the bottom of our heart. Totally without being self-conscious. Just conscious of Him. Alright,
Psalm 1. Now, the word blessed means favored. It means happy. Highly favored. You would ask
the average person, they would say it is to be blessed. Probably without exception, they
would say things like this, well, to have a lot of money, to have good health, to have
a nice home, to have a family, to be without the necessities
of life and have all that you need. And no doubt, those things
are blessings from God. Every good and perfect gift cometh
down from the Father of life. It's God that gives us all blessings. But those are not the blessings. In fact, here in these verses,
it doesn't mention one material thing. Not one. When our Lord
gave those blessings on the mount of the Beatitudes, there's not
one mention of one earthly thing, but quite the opposite. Throughout
the Scriptures, the Lord says things like this, Blessed is
he whose transgressions are forgiven. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. He said, blessed is the nation
whose God is the Lord. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. Blessed are they that
dwell in thy house. Blessed is the people that know
the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord. Blessed. Blessed. And the Lord
on that mount, when He gave those blessings, He said things like
this, Blessed are the poor in spirit. And very few people in
this world know what He was talking about. God's people do, though. Blessed are they that mourn,
they shall be comforted. Blessed are those that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Most people don't know what true
righteousness is, let alone have a hunger and thirst for it. Do
you? If you do, you're so blessed. You're one of the blessed. Blessed
are those that are persecuted for righteousness. So persecuted
they the prophets before you. Bless it. Bless it. The world
doesn't know anything about these things. If we do, we've been
bled. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to us. But the Father, which is in heaven, revealed the true
blessing. So it begins this way. And it's
fitting that the very first psalm began this way to tell us to
begin to show us what true blessings are, who the truly blessed are. Blessed is the man, it says in
verse 1. The man, it doesn't say what
kind of man, it doesn't say a rich man, it doesn't say a smart man,
a wise man, a white man, a black man, just any man. Whosoever
blessed is that man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly."
The counsel of the ungodly is the wisdom of this world. It's
the philosophy, what the world thinks about things, the opinions,
the thoughts of the world. Oh, how blessed is the man or
the woman or the boy or the girl that doesn't follow the so-called
wisdom of this world. It doesn't fall for it. It doesn't
see any wisdom in it at all, but rather thinks it's foolishness. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? You know that. Oh my, blessed
is that man or that woman or that person who does not listen,
heed, and follow the wisdom of this world. Not in line with
everybody like dumb cattle following the blind leaders of the blind.
How blessed if we don't follow and do what the world is following
and doing. Listen to the world. Oh my. You once did, didn't you? The Council of the Ungodly in
Ephesians 1 says, In time past you walked according to the course
of this work. You were walking according to
the prince of the power of the air who had you in his captivity,
who has people captive at his will, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience. And Peter said that you one time
not only walked but ran, were swift to run to mischief, but
now your conversation, your walk, you walk with God. Blessed is
the man who doesn't walk in the wisdom of this world, but walks
according to the wisdom of God's Word. Blessed man, blessed man,
blessed woman. Nor standeth in the way of sinner. Standeth in the way of sin. There's
a way that seems right to me. If you ask people why they do
what they do, they say, well, it just seems right. It just
seems right. Well, that's fitting. That's
what the Scripture says. There's a way that seemeth right,
but it's wrong, the Scripture says. And it ends in destruction. Whatever man says today, you
can count on it that it's opposite of what God's Word says. Blessed
is that man or that person who does not walk in the way. The
way of man, the way of sinners is the way of self, isn't it?
What's in it for me? The way of pride. Oh, he that
walketh in pride, God is able to embrace, and He will. The
haughty looks of man will be brought down. Count on it. Blessed are the meek. They will
inherit the earth. Well, the way of man is the way
of greed, the way of religion. popular religion. And they follow
it by the droves, don't they? You can't build buildings big
enough to hold the masses of people that clamor to get in
there and hear lies. Oh, how blessed is that person
who does not walk in the way of the people of this world,
the way that seems right, nor sit it, verse 1, in the seat
of the scornful. The worldly wise. Oh, how wise
the world thinks themselves to be. Cynical. You've run into
them, haven't you? Cynical. Know-it-all. The world
people, they know it all, don't they? They may not know one verse
in the Scripture. Especially religious people.
I run into religious people all the time. It's obvious they can't
quote one chapter and verse, one Scripture. But they say,
I know my Bible. My, my. I love how the Lord,
when He spoke to the Pharisees who prided themselves in knowing
Scripture, the scribes, whose jobs were to sit and write.
You know, Bible scholars is what scribes were. And He would say
things like to them, Have you never read? When they would say
something or do something contrary to what God's Word said, He said,
Have you never read? Aren't you reading the Scripture?
And then other times he would say things like this, he said,
you do err in not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. Don't sit in the seat of the
scornful. That blessed man, you know, if a scorner was sitting
here tonight, he or she would be scornful of what they're hearing. They would be laughing this little
group to scorn. They did that to the Lord. In
Matthew 9, we're about to get into that story of the maid that
died. And the Lord came in to raise
her and He said, She's not dead, she's sleeping. And they laughed
Him to scorn. And the people of this world,
we talk about eternal life. And He that believeth in Christ
shall never die. And God's people don't die. They
laugh Him to scorn. See to the scornful. Now, you
notice the progression, or rather digression here. It talks about
walking, and then standing, and then sitting. It's kind of like
a person who's walking along, going somewhere, following someone
or something, and then stops. Something or someone gets their
attention. And they stop for that. And then
they sit down and they stay there and they dwell there. They've
found what they're looking for. They've found what appeals to
them. They're looking for it. Stop. Consider. Yeah, that's
what I want. Well, the blessed man walks by
faith. Walks with God. There's nothing
in this world that can make us stop. And stand still. And Terry, we're sojourners,
aren't we? We're sojourners. Strangers and
pilgrims. We're on a pilgrimage. Hebrews
11 says, if the people had been mindful of where they'd come
from, they would have gone back. But no. And there's nothing... The older we get, the older I
get, the less in this world, things appeal to me, no matter
what it is, be it music or the arts or whatever it may be. Nothing,
hardly any more can get my attention anymore. But I tell you what,
I will drop everything for. And I say this in absolute honesty,
and you do too. and you sit down. We're not sitting
in the seat of the scornful. We're sitting in the seat of
the disciple. Sitting in the seat of the learner. We're sitting
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ to learn from Him. Now, this is where I want to
dwell. And it says those that do, they'll be yet praising Him. They'll be sitting like Mary
who was found sitting at Christ's feet And he told Martha, Martha,
you're just careful and troubled about so many things. And he
said, but Mary had chosen the best part. Now, see, this man who does not walk
in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit with the scorners of the truth, why do they not? Because the Lord has blessed
them. Because the Lord is called, blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. Not go to religion,
not go to the church, not follow the crowd, but follow Christ.
The Lord did that. Like Matthew called Matthew,
follow me. Like He did to Andrew and Peter
and Olive, follow me. And who do they follow? Not the
masses, not religion, not the denomination, but Christ they
follow Him. Because He's the one that blessed them. He's the
one that chose them. He's the one that loved them.
And Mary, the reason Mary chose that good part, our Lord said
she had chosen the good part. Why did she choose to sit at
His feet? Because He chose her. That's
why. You know, Mary, He cast out seven
devils out of her. Oh, how blessed she was to be
chosen by Him. that she would choose that good
part. We sing that song, Oh, happy day that fixed my choice. You see, believers, when God
chooses them, they really don't have a choice. It's like falling
in love, you know. You don't look for love like
these silly programs on TV, you know, try up 25 women and see
what works out, you know. Oh, no. Love finds you. And God is love. And God finds
you. You don't find God, He finds
you. Christ finds you. God puts His love for His Son
in you. And you don't have a choice.
You're in love. When you're in love, you don't have a choice,
do you? Will you? I will. Blessed is
that man, that woman, that young person. And look at verse 2. But his delight is in the law
of the Lord. His delight is in the Word of
God. The law of the Lord. You know,
the world not only rejects the Word of
God, but absolutely hates it. Hates to hear it. Turns away
their ears from the truth as if it were something that grates
at their ears. You know that? They do, don't
they? How many people have you spoken
to and just quoted the Word? You want them to hear what God's
Word says, and they don't want to hear that. How many times? I was talking to a fellow one
time, and I brought up a passage of Scripture, and he said, I
don't want to talk about that. And he's supposed to be a religious
fellow. But God's people delight in the
Word of God. Can you think of any passage
in God's Word that you would take out of His Word? Can you
think of any passage in God's Word that you'd take issue with?
There are many you don't understand, but you love it anyway. You delight
in it. His delight is in the law of
the Lord. Delight. Oh, the blessed man, that's called
law. Because it's not God's opinion,
per se. It's not just good advice. It's
His commandment. That's the way to keep my commandments.
It's not suggestions that God gives. It's not, well, here's
God's way, and here's man's way, and you just choose whatever
is the best way. No, it's only one way. Whatever
God says. This is the law. He laid down
the law. And don't think of the law as
being the mosaic law, the Levitical law only. Think of it as whatever
God says. It's good. It's right. It's just.
It's true. It's law. His mind. It's his mind. It's his will.
It's his wisdom. And it's the believer's delight.
Blessed is that man. He delights in the law of God.
The Word of God is his delight. His or her joy and enjoyment. Delight like you would delight
in something you eat, like dessert or something. Caramel delight. You know, they say women, more
than anything on earth, love chocolate. Well, you know, you
see something, some big chocolate, some of you are kind of smiling,
you're drooling right now. Delights. Well, David said, when
I found your word, it was sweeter than honey to me, a great treasure,
my delight, my joy, my enjoyment gives me great pleasure more
than my necessary food, he said. The blessed man finds great pleasure
and enjoyment in God's Word. It's his delight, it's his food,
it's his drink. The Word of God is life to them. And the Lord
told the disciples, will you go away? To many so-called disciples,
what He was saying were hard sayings. We don't like that. It's too hard. But the disciples
said, oh, this is life. Hard? What's hard about them?
The way of the transgressor is hard. Oh, the Word of God is life.
It's bread, milk. The Word of God is likened to
things like this. Good things. Anything more savory
and delicious than bread. Bread. Christ said, I am the
bread. Milk. I am fifty. It's seven years
old now, and I love milk as much as the day that I was born. I love it. Love it. I drink whole
milk, straight out of the cow. It's unpasteurized. It hasn't
killed us yet, so much for the wisdom of this world. Milk, desire
is the sincere milk of the Word, he said. You may grow thereby.
Wine. Come buy wine and milk without
money, without price. Free. Free for the taking. Honey. It's called honey. Sweet. Oh,
my. I take a big spoonful of honey
every day. Brother Gary Vance let us help
him rob his bees that time. We got 25 pounds of honey. And
every day. Oh, you all got sick. I ain't
got sick yet. Oh, hold on now. That means tomorrow
I'll come down with it. But it's a good illustration.
God's Word is health, healthy and able. Health. Honey. Sweet to the taste. Mix it in with tea. Peace. Joy. It gives us peace. Nothing
gives us peace but God's Word. You can't go anywhere to anyone
and find any peace whatsoever. In fact, whatever the world is
saying just gives you nothing but turmoil. It upsets you. You turn the TV on and all it
does is upset you. You open this book. Man, I'm
sure glad God is true in every man's life. Peace, it gives you
comfort. The world doesn't have any answers
to anything. God said, Christ said, come unto
me. I'll give you rest. Laboring and heavy laden, weary,
troubled, anxious, upset, come unto me. Listen to what I have
to say to you. Oh, my. His delight is in the
law of the Lord. He says in verse 2, And in his
law doth he meditate day and night. You know, you may not
think that's you, but you do. God's people do. At times, the
Word of God comes to your mind. It comes up. And our Lord said
that to the woman at the well. Remember, He came to her. She was coming to that well.
She was religious. Been married five times, a lot
of good her religion did to her. And living with a fellow then.
I guess it was okay back then too. But he said, the water that
you've been drawing hasn't quenched your thirst at all. You're just
going to keep on drawing all your life and not get any satisfaction
from it. He said, now, the water that
I give unto you, you say, who wants to give it? The water that
I shall give unto you shall be a well of water springing." A
well springing up into everlasting life. And you tell me if there
are not times during the day that the Word of God, just a
word, in season, does not come to your mind. All the world is
a sermon. If you look at it, you see where
it says meditate day and night? If you will just think, if you
just stop for a minute, wherever you are, whatever you're doing,
and just meditate a little bit on whatever, something of God's
truth and God's Word will come to your mind. We were doing that
the other day, weren't we? We were just thinking of anything.
We were just thinking of the Word of God. Oh, my. That Word
is like a well spring, living water. Water. The Word of God is quick. It's
alive. It's His voice. It's not a book. It's not letters. It's not the
letter of the law. It's the Spirit that prophets.
Not the letter. It's living Word. It's the voice of Christ. Read
the Word of God, not for information, not to bolster your opinions
and your beliefs and so forth, but read it to be taught by,
to be spoken to by the Holy Spirit. Speak to me, Lord. I need You
to speak to me. Speak to me. The Word of God. And he meditates. Verse 3. It says, "...that man will be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water." Like a tree. Now, you don't think I'm going
to go through all this and not apply this to Christ, do you?
Oh, my. He gets all the preeminent. To
Him belongeth all the preeminent. Christ is all in all. And this
is most definitely speaking of that blessed of all blessed men,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Lord Jesus. He is that blessed
man. Oh, He did not walk in the counsel
of the ungodly. He made it not. He did not stand
in the way of sinners. He called sinners. He came to
save sinners, but he said, I am the way. He did not sit in the
seat of the scornful. He sat in the temple. He sat
on the hill on a rock and taught his people. And he, oh, his delight
was in the law of the Lord. He said, is my delight, it's
written in the volume of the book, I delight to do thy will,
O God, of Christ. Yes, He walked. He walked this
earth as a man. He walked by faith. He stood
as our surety. He is now seated at the right
hand of the Majesty Almighty, that blessed man. And we are
blessed in Him. And this life that He gives in
us is a wellspring, springing up, this water of life. And Christ
is that tree, is He not? That tree of life. The water
of life, His fruit, look at verse 3, that bringeth forth His fruit
and His season, His fruit, our fruit, His fruit, and His leaf
shall not wither. Oh, the leaves of that tree are
for the healing of the nation. His works, His righteousness
for our healing. He's that blessed man and whatever
He doeth shall prosper. This was written before He came
and He's come and He did. He prospered. He came to do a
work, and He did it. He's that blessed man. And so
God and all His people call Him blessed forevermore. The blessed
man. But in the context, and the way
we're looking at this, is of God's people in Christ. It's a new man speaking up. Be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water. A tree. Now, a tree
is planted by someone. A tree is planted by someone. Every tree on this property was
planted by someone. You say, no, those old poplars
out there, nobody planted it. Oh, yes, they did, Tim. Every
tree on this planet was planted by someone. Who? All things were
made by Him and for Him. For His pleasure they are and
were created. He planted it all. The Lord planted that garden.
The Lord Jesus Christ. planted the first garden. And
he planted everything. And every tree that the Lord
Jesus Christ plants in the kingdom of God is planted. He said in
another place, he said, every plant that my heavenly Father
hath not planted will be rooted up. Planted by God. The face of the
Lord. To be grounded and settled and
rooted. The root of the matter is in you like Job. What's the
root of the matter? Anybody. The root. Christ said,
I am the vine. You're the branches. Without
Me, no life. You can't do anything. No fruit.
No root. No fruit. You can't do anything. No life. I am the vine. You're the branches that are
planted, and Christ is that tree, and we're planted in Him. Of
God are you in Christ. And if God plants whatever tree
He plants, whatever person He puts in Christ, He plants them
by the rivers of water. The rivers of water. He leadeth
me beside. The still waters. Rivers of water.
Rivers of water are like living waters. Ever fresh, ever new.
That's the Word and that's Christ. Ever fresh, ever new. Planted
by the rivers of living water and it says in verse 3, He'll
bring forth His fruit in His season. Like faith. Fruit of
the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Fruit of the Spirit. It's His fruit. It's His to give. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
We don't produce that fruit. He produces it in us. We get
it from Him. But when He gives it to us like
faith, it's ours. We don't get the glory for it.
It's like a branch, you know. The vine, all the sap and all
the life comes from the vine, but that fruit comes out of the
branch, doesn't it? That branch bears fruit. You understand? They're not getting the glory
for it. But our Father did say, herein is the Father glorified
that you bear much fruit. But whatever we do, we don't
take any credit for it. We give Him all the glory for
it. When did we do these things? We didn't see you naked. Oh,
you've done it in the least one of these, you've done it under
me. Such a good and encouraging Heavenly
Father that He is. The Father is to young people
who are trying, and He says, well done. Well done. Son, well done. Fruit. And they do. They love. God's people do love. He that
loveth not knoweth not God. They do. They love God. They
love His Word. They love Christ. They love His Gospel. They love
His people. They're full of joy. They're full of peace. They're
like Christ is what they are. It's that new man. Some forty,
some produce forty, some sixty, a hundred, but all produce forty. Some one. It says, His leaves shall not
wither. It's evergreen. A tree, whatever the Lord does,
is evergreen. Its leaves shall not wither away. God's people are planted by Him,
will not fall away. They fall. They sin, they stumble,
they fall, but the Scripture says, though a righteous man
falleth seven times, yet the Lord will lift him up. They're
not going to fall away. They'll not be rooted up or plucked
up. Our Lord said, My heavenly Father
holds them. They're in My heavenly Father's
hands and no man can pluck them out of My Father's hands. They'll
not be plucked up. They'll not be rooted up. And
they will not wither. In old age, they'll still be
praising Him. To a hoary head, they'll still
be praising Him. An evergreen. That's because
they're by the rivers of water. When I flew to Montana a while
back, I was struck with how much of a barren Wilderness out west
here. We flew over Colorado and they
were going through a drought at the time. It was just brown,
wasn't it? I mean, there was no green anywhere.
Came into Montana, it was just wide open wilderness, brown. It was that way in California
too, wasn't it? But every now and then, you'd
see a stretch of green. In the middle of all that brown
wilderness, you'd see a stretch of green, more like this. There's trees because there's
a river in there. And whatever trees were planted
by that river were green, flourishing. So it is with the people of God
in this wilderness, this world, barren, people that are barren
of those things that Peter talked about, not God's people. Oh,
my. These things be in you, they
make you that you're not barren, but fruitful, evergreen, I remember
my old dog and I used to love to go down by the river at a
favorite place that he liked to swim, that old pig river. It was right near where you were
baptized, Mack. And there was a big old evergreen
there, a big hemlock. A very big hemlock. Towering
over that water, you know. Just thriving. And it says in
his season, it won't wither. That old hemlock has seen so
many cold winters, so many hot, dry summers, so many ups and
downs, hasn't it? And so have the people of God.
It doesn't matter what they go through. And these things serve
to strengthen. That big tree stands firm because
these seasons that it goes through strengthens it. What does it
make it do? When it's dry, when it's hot
and dry, what does a tree need to do to find moisture? Dig deep
with those roots. Dig deep. And so it is with these
trials that God's people go through. It makes them dig deep on that
solid rock. And it strengthens them. And
come what may, whatever the season may be, hot, cold, oh man, they
are ever green. Whatever they do will prosper.
Did not our Lord say, all things work together for good? How can this be for my good?
I've lost everything. You've lost everything. Well,
good. Now you see that there's nothing
in anything. And I'm going to tell you about
the unsearchable riches of Christ. Brother Scott used to say, Christ
is everything to you when you have nothing. That's only when
Christ is everything to you, all to you, when you have nothing. Nothing in anything. Nothing
satisfied but Him. So these things are all for the
good of God's people. Make us dig deep. Plant it on
the rock. The ungodly are not so, verse
4. The unbelievers are not so, like the chaff which the wind
drives away. Not only that, they are like
the Athenians. that the wind that go chasing
after every wind of doctrine, every new thing, look here, oh,
look there, oh, this is good. No, the people of God are still
by the rivers of water. The ungodly are driven away and
driven here and driven there. And verse 5 says the ungodly
shall not stand in the judgment. They will not stand with Christ
but to be cast out because they don't stand in Him now. You ask
a person where they stand. Ask somebody, what's your standing?
Do you hope to stand before God someday? Why? Why do you hope
to stand? What will you plead before a
thrice holy God who looks on your heart, who has examined
every motive, every thought, every word, every deed, and it
must be Leviticus 22, 21 says, it shall be perfect to be accepted.
What will you say? What's your standing? Where do
you stand? All of God's people say, I stand
in Him. I stand in Christ, the Beloved,
accepted in the Beloved. You said so. For sinners in the
congregation of the righteous, will the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous. But the way of the ungodly shall
perish. What's the way of the righteous?
Let me read it to you in closing, over in Psalm 25, another one
of my favorites. The writer says this, listen,
in closing. Lead me in thy truth and teach
me. Thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, Thy tender
mercies and Thy loving kindness. They've ever been of old. Remember
not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According
to Thy mercy, remember Thou me for Your goodness' sake, Lord.
Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will He teach sinners
in the way. The meek. Will he guide in judgment? The meek will he teach his way. What's his way? Christ. All the paths of the Lord. They
all lead to mercy and truth. They all lead to Christ. Such as keep his covenant and
his testimony. For thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon my iniquity. It is great. Well, I'll tell
you, what man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way. The Lord knows the way of the
righteous. He knows you'll not be asked
when you get to glory. You'll not be asked. You won't
even be there if you're not in the way. Nobody's going to ask
you, why are you here? But if they did, if they did, every believer would
say like with old Roland Hill. Remember old Roland Hill? preacher,
he said this. Somebody said to him, if they
were to ask you when you get to heaven, if you get to heaven,
what right have you got to come in here? What would you say? And old Roland Hill said, I've
got no right at all. But I'm here on the rights of
another. I'm here on the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's the way. The Lord knows
the way of the righteous. He knows them that trust Him
because He gave them that day. He planted them and cried by
the rivers of water. And how blessed they are. Blessed
man. Stand with me. Our Lord, we bless Your holy
name and all that is within us. Bless the Lord, O my soul. who
forgiveth all thy transgressions, Lord, all thine iniquities. That's
the greatest of all blessings. Imputeth not iniquity, but righteousness. O Lord, how we thank you for
your saving, sovereign grace, choosing grace, calling grace,
planting grace. bringing grace, drawing grace. How we thank You for this amazing
grace. Salvation is truly of the Lord.
Oh, how blessed is that man, that woman, that young person
whom Thou choosest. They will be yet praising Thee. All who are chosen by Thee are
found here praising Thee and will be found throughout eternity
praising Thee. To Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own precious blood. Oh, how blessed we are. Lord, make us to see how blessed
we are. Let us not forget. And in knowing
and realizing something of how blessed we are, Lord, let us
never murmur nor complain. How could we murmur or complain?
Let there be no complaining in our streets. Let all the people
of God be joyful and thankful. Not like the world that is not
thankful, but a thankful people that know that they are blessed
with all spiritual blessings and heavenly things in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, teach us that. Imprint
that on our minds and hearts. Let us meditate on that. And Lord, cause Your Word to
spring up when we need it. Cause this Word, this psalm,
this blessed psalm, cause us to meditate on it. Let not the
foul of the air take it away. The thorns choke it out. Plant
it. Ride it on our hearts so that
we might draw from it when we need it. In Christ's name, we've
met here tonight and give these things. Lord, bless this church. Watch over them. In Christ's
name. Amen.