That fifth verse is a new verse we
didn't used to know. I like it a lot. You older people, I really like
it. Those of you with very hoary
heads should really like that. Down to old age, my people shall
prove my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love. And when hoary
hairs shall their temples adorn like lambs, they shall still
in my bosom be born." He said, I'll carry you all your days,
even to your hoary head. Psalm 1, now go back there to
the first psalm which Brother Stan read for us. Psalm 1, the Lord Jesus Christ
called Himself the first and the last, didn't He? He said,
I am the first and the last. So this first psalm must surely,
must first speak of Him, shouldn't it? And His people. Verse 1 says, 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 storm." Blessed. The word blessed, and that's
how you pronounce it. Blessed. Often it's pronounced
blessed. The Lord blessed Abraham. The Lord blessed this man or
that man, but this is blessed is the man. The word blessed
is often used in scriptures, and it usually means one of two
things. It means blessed, or blessed, it means to be hallowed
or consecrated or favored with blessings. Or, and or, it means happy, happy. and both of which apply to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Hallowed be his name, consecrated,
set apart for God's glory, favored with all blessings, and happy,
happy, happy. The God-man Christ Jesus was
Truly, wholly, scripture says, he was wholly harmless, separate
from sinners, and undefiled. That made him a happy man. Sin
is the cause of all unhappiness. Sin is the cause of all misery. Sin is the cause of all sorrow. In him was no sin. He had no sin. Scripture said
it. He knew no sin. Took part in
no sin. Fought no sin. Committed no sin. No sin. Happy is the man without
sin. Blessed is the man. Therefore,
because he had no sin, because he knew no sin, God blessed him. God blessed him, highly favored
him with all blessings. There's something we need to
understand from the very beginning here. It talks about blessed
is the man, happy is the man, favored is the man, the blessings
of God upon this man. There's no mention of one earthly
possession in the psalm. What does that tell you about
true blessings? What does that tell you about
happiness? There's no mention of one earthly thing in this
psalm, yet blessed is this man. Happy is this man. Highly favored
of God. All the blessings of God are
upon this man, yet no possessions. He had no sin. No sin. He's a happy man. Do not think
of the Lord Jesus Christ as being mostly solemn, somber, grave,
or morose. No, sir. I must confess that I've been
guilty of thinking that. The opposite of somber or grave
is to be cheerful. I looked the word up. The opposite
means cheerful. He kept telling his disciple.
What did he keep telling his disciple? Be of good cheer. You know, you can't say that
without smiling. Cheer up. Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. No,
he was happy. Can I say that? Well, better.
Blessed is the man happy, content. Scripture says, in the volume
of the book it is written of me, Lo, I come, I delight to
do thy will, O God. Delight? Delight implies happiness. I'm delighted? You ever ask somebody
to do something for you and they say, I'd just be delighted to.
Huh? Happy, make me happy. Old Paul
saw Paul, the apostle, was standing before Agrippa in chains. Damn, he's in chains, and there
sits that pompous fella and his wife and all this entourage,
his court, and everybody's had everything, and all their finery
and all their splendor and all that. Here sits this poor fella
in chains about to be beheaded. And they say to him, now, tell
us, tell us what this is all about. What is all this about?
Why are you in chains? Tell us again. And he said, I
think myself happy. He said, I just think myself
happy to tell you. And he said, and I would if you
were all together such as I am to leave chains. Who was happy? Who was happy? Scripture says
he delighted to do God's will. Scripture says of Christ, his
delights were with the sons of men. Do you delight to be with
your children? Your grandchildren? Let me get
down where it really is. Are you delighted? That's a voice
sitting beside you this morning. I was delighted to see it. Delighted. They bring you great delight,
don't they? It's His good pleasure. Fear
not, little flock, it's your Father's good pleasure to give
unto you the King. His delights, John, were with
the sons of Adam. He's delighted to come down and
talk to Adam and Eve. He's just delighted to come down
and talk to Noah about the ark. He's just delighted to talk to
Abraham about that covenant. He's just delighted to do it.
It was His delight, John, to come down here and please the
Lord and make you his people, and to come down here and do
that, he was just delighted to do that. Now, Scripture does say he's
a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, doesn't it? But that doesn't mean he was
sorrowful all the time. The reason he was a man of sorrows
was because he took our sorrows, he bore our sorrows and carried
our griefs, it said. Are you not most sorrowful when
you think about somebody else's sorrow? When your husband's hurting
or troubled or all that, doesn't that make you sorry? When your
children are hurting or in pain, isn't that the chief cause of
your sorrow? When he was carrying that cross,
he said, Don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves
and for your children. That's who he wept for. He didn't
weep over himself. When he wept at Lazarus' tomb,
it wasn't for himself. It wasn't over his lot in life.
It wasn't because nobody loved him. No, no, no. He said, this
is the cause I came to this. He wept over his children, over
the consequences of sin, over their suffering, over their sorrow,
over their death. The misery and so forth, that's
what he wept over. He wept over our sorrow and carried
our grief. And he wept over it, and he was
sorrowful. He said, now is my soul exceedingly sorrowful, even
unto death. When the Lord was faced with
going to Calvary's tree and be separated from his Father, going
through the equivalent of hell, separated from his Father, he
made sin which he had none of, which his holy nature recoiled
against. When he thought of that, he said,
my soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death. And he sweat blood
thinking about it. None of us have ever resisted
sin under blood. That's the sorrow he had. But
for the most part, generally speaking, he's happy. But that's
in his name. Happy is the name. He was highly
favored of God. Why shouldn't a person be happy? God's well pleased with him. To have the frown of God, anyone
who has the frown of God will not be happy. There is no peace
to the wicked. That's why men and women will
never be truly happy. They don't have the favor of
God. You know that? He was blessed. He was happy.
Listen. He was happy. He was blessed. because of what he did not do
as much as what he did. Look at it. It says in verse
1, he walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in
the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the strong. He was blessed for what he did
not do. He was happy in what he did not do as well as what
he did. He did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand
in the way of sinners. He was completely impurposed
to all the thoughts and opinions and everything that everyone
said. Completely impurposed. Unbothered by anything anybody
said at any time. Boy, did that make you happy.
Sam, if you could be completely deaf to everything that goes
on and said, you'd be a happy man again. Nothing but it. Did you hear
what they said? Big deal. And we'll see why he
was impervious to, why it didn't affect him. And nothing anyone
did, nothing that happened, bothered him. No circumstance, nothing
that happened. A hurricane came up when he was
on a ship. He was on a boat, and a hurricane
came up. What was he doing? Sleeping. Happy. Happy. That's a happy man. Because here's
how he did wrong. Verse 2. His delight was in the
law of the Lord, and in his law that he meditate day and night.
His delight being he was completely, and the Lord Jesus Christ was
completely knowledgeable of, conversant with, The mind, the
will, and the word of God. He knew, the Lord, knowing all
things were predestined by God. Nothing else. Knowing that all
things were written before the foundation of the world in the
book of life and sealed. Knowing that all things work
together, everything is fulfilling. the will, nothing's by chance,
everything is ordered, everything's under the divine, sovereign power
and will of God Almighty, knowing that, everything is going exactly according
to purpose. Nothing left to chance, and nothing
can happen to me except what God Almighty ordered. No one can touch me. It's all
good for them to love God. Would you be happy? The same is true of these people. Knowing that all things work
together for good, nothing, absolutely nothing, disturbs this peace.
Listen to this. Psalm 119, 165. Listen to this. Great peace at they which love
thy law. and nothing shall us offend them. Great peace, a day which love
thy law, and nothing shall bother them. Verse 3 says he'll be like a
tree planted by the rivers of water. Would you like to turn with me
to Revelation 22? I was going to turn myself, Turn
with me. So he'll be like a tree. And
it goes on to say, bring forth his fruit in his season, his
leaf shall not wither, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. While you're turning, let me
tell you, I've preached a little bit, now I'll tell you something,
okay? Brother Greg Elmquist took me near his home to see the oldest
tree in North America. It's located down near Orlando,
Florida. It's a cypress tree. It's 3,500 years old. The reason
they know that is because there was one just like it that vandals
destroyed and cut down. That's a good picture of it.
But they counted the wings on it. It was identical, same size. 3,500 years old. That's when
Moses was here. That's old, isn't it? Well, that
big tree is rooted in water. is what's called an aquifer.
Underneath the Hall of Florida is an underground river. It's
called an aquifer, a river of water. You can't see it, but
it's there. That's a good picture, isn't
it? But that tree is rooted and gets
its strength and its life from that aquifer. Can you imagine
all that has come and gone in 3,500 years? And there it stands. All that that tree has seen,
and there it stands. You know, Scripture in the beginning,
the Garden, the Garden of Eden, thousands of years ago, stood
a tree. God called that tree the Tree
of Life. And He said if a man would partake
of this, he'd never die. He'd live forever. Now here at
the end in the Revelation, here at the very end, stands that
same tree. The tree in the first is the
tree here at the last. Look at it. Revelation 22, verses
1 and 2. He showed me a river of water
of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the land. In other words, a river was coming
out of the land. In the midst of the street, the
way, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of
life." There it is again, in the end, that's the tree of life.
"...which bore twelve manner of fruit, and yielded her fruit
every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nation." Would someone like to tell me what that tree
of life is? Stan? Christ. It's that tree of life. Same
yesterday, today, and forever. Christ is the tree of life. Tree
of life, by whose fruit, whose leaves we are healed, whose covering
we're covered, who himself is the water of life, a river of
living water, whose fruit we eat, Go back to our text. It says this tree brings forth
his fruit and his season. Are you with me? Verse 3. Tree, an evergreen tree,
still standing. Christ is still there, the right
hand of God. And he brings forth his fruit
and his season. His fruit I've already quoted
it this morning. He shall save his people from
their sin, his fruit, his children, his offspring. Behold, I and
the children which thou hast given me, every single person
for whom Jesus Christ died, that tree that was cut down, will again. It's the hope of
the tree. Well, it's so penetrating, John. Christ, who died for everyone
he died for, he said, Behold, all the children which thou hast
given his fruit, and his leaves shall not wither, not fade. His fruit, his people, his work
shall not fade, his work of salvation, his word shall not fade, his
people shall not fade, not be cast away, and whatever he does,
whatsoever he doeth, shall prosper. The pleasure of the Lord, Scripture
says, Isaiah 53, that blessed gospel from Isaiah, says the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. God was glorified in Christ. He came to glorify Christ, Mac. He did it. He prospered. He came
to magnify the law, Mac, and make it honorable, God's Word.
Just to live by faith in God's Word. He lived by that Word.
He magnified that Word. He came to build God's Kingdoms,
irrevocable pain, to lay the foundation and the top stuff.
And he built it. The temple stands. And he came
to redeem his elect, to pay the price, and he paid it in full.
And there is therefore now no condemnation to pay. Not one
cent to be paid, not a farthing. All done by the blessed man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, salvation is to look
to Jesus Christ. Salvation is to look to Jesus
Christ and Him alone. as your substitute, as your righteousness,
as your high priest, the one you confess to, as your hope,
as your all. Salvation is to look to Him. And there's a great sense in
which salvation is strength, encouragement. Strength, courage, encouragement,
courage, instruction is to look at Him. Look at Him as our example. He lived by faith. The greatest
example, if you have those examples of faith in Hebrews 11, they
give us courage, don't they? When we look at their examples,
men and women just like us who live by faith, it gives us courage
then. There was a Christ-like people then. That's because they looked like
and lived like the Lord Jesus Christ. They got their strength
from Him. Virtue goes out from Him. That's where you get it. That's
where you get this faith, from Him, looking to Him. Virtue goes
out from Him. And so listen, now for all that
are in Christ, all that are in Christ and Christ in them, here's
what 1 John 4, 17 says. As He is, so are we in this world. How's that? Blessed is the man. Let's look at this now in light
of the believer, the one in Christ. This will be a blessing to you. As a young preacher, I'll just
be honest with you, I was so intimidated by this, so self-conscious,
so worried about doing well. sounding good, not falling on
my face, not saying anything wrong, saying all the right things,
and often mostly concerned just getting through this. But now, really, I look at these
things and prepare these messages thinking, this is so good, this
is so profitable, so-and-so He's going to love this. So-and-so,
I need it. I eat it. I feed off of it. I
am strengthened by it. I get all everything I get from
this. And I think, oh, they're going
to just as they need this. I hope so-and-so's there. They
need this. I hope so-and-so's there. They
need this. It's like you prepare meals for your children. Oh,
this is good food. Same food? Just look for different
ways to prepare the same foods. It's good food. It's good. You've
got to have it. Now listen carefully. What does
it mean to be happy? Every human being, this is what
they're searching for. Happiness. Just be happy. Blessed, happy is the man, is
the person that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. That's the thoughts, the wisdom,
the ways, the opinions of this godless world. Ungodly means
without God. No thoughts of God. Don't care
what God says. God is not in all their thoughts.
No fear of God. What we heard Wednesday night,
the ungodly, the godless world. Blessed, happy is that person
that does not listen to the so-called wisdom of this world, but rather
calls it foolishness. Honestly, the wisdom of this
world is foolishness in it. As time goes on, everything is
proved to be utter foolishness. We're thankful for medical strides. Sam went through surgery just
Friday, and here he is. We're thankful for that. And because of all this technology
and man's progression in the science of this and so forth,
he thinks he did all this. Who made that brain? Who made
the brain that created this technology? God did. But they worship and serve the
creature more than the Creator, who is God-blessed forever. Turn the truth of God, that is,
a God that the heavens declare His glory, the permanent show
of His hand, the wrath of God. Nah. Change the truth of God
into a lie. Say, no God. There is no God. Now we have a Mother. Mother
Nature. A Savior Mother. Why would God
have anything to do with any of these creatures? And He does.
He's merciful in it. So merciful. Walk not in the
counsel of the ungodly, but consider it foolish. Do you really? Do
you really consider it foolish? Do you, Mary, do you really believe
that God is true and every man's a liar? Do you really believe
that? Do you really do? I mean, you're not... A happy woman, blessed, highly
favored of flesh and blood, didn't reveal it to you, Mary, but my
Father which is in heaven, Many are called for your chosen. He
said one day, Mary, I don't know what your maiden name was, but
he does. Mary! Just like he did to Mary of old.
Mary! Called your name. Mary! Now stop. Come go with me, Mary. Don't
listen to what they're saying. Listen to me. You're mine, Mary. Come
here home. The Lord said, you're mine. I'll teach you heavenly
things. Divine mysteries. Don't pay attention. Oh, how blessed. She smiled.
I wish she could see the smile on her face. Happy woman. Has
she gone through the trial? Well, certainly. She's happy. Happy. God is revealing. Oh, happy as the man joins in
Christ. Happy as he whose sins are forgiven. Brother Scott Richardson said
this, and there's not a man we know who's been through more
than he. He said this, he said, I've never
really heard any bad news since I heard the good news. If you ask him, if you approach
him right now, and he's got the vices hanging off his body, he's
down to about 80 pounds. waiting to die, are you asking
how or is it? Happy as a man. Blessed as a
man who sins And the Lord will not impute it. What else do you
need? Do I need to go on, Brother Kelly?
I mean, you know, the sins are coming to God. Sin is the biggest
problem. Sin is the cause of all our unhappiness. Sin is going to keep, separate
us from God. But Christ said that his people
don't have it. I don't know why. It's not on the record. He accepted
it. God's well pleased with them.
That just makes me happy. Makes a sinner happy. That's
why this gospel is for sinners. I've got to go on. I've got a
bunch of good things here. Who walketh not, who standeth
not in the way of sinners. You know, quite often it seems
like the whole world gets together and is united in some way. that they think is right, don't
you? Some cause, the whole world gets
together and unites in some cause that they think is the right
way. And they look to you, aren't you going to stand with us? Don't you stand with us? Where
do you stand on the issues? What issues? There's one issue. Who's on the Lord's side? Where do you stand with us? That's not the issue, is it?
Who's on the Lord's side? Thus saith the Lord. Where do
you stand? On the issue, what think ye of
Christ? That's the issue. That's the
issue God has with man. Where do you stand on that? I stand, brother John, I stand
on Christ the solid rock. You heard the story about the
shamrock, hadn't you? Shamrock? There was a preacher
over in England, got this from Brother Dan Parks, a preacher
over in England preaching one day, and some heckler, it was
during a time of what's called the shamrock races. Shamrock
races. And this preacher in England
was preaching in the open air, and this heckler went, Preacher,
what do you think about the shamrocks? He didn't pay any attention to
him. He went right on the preacher and finally interrupted him again.
Preacher, what do you think about the shamrocks? He didn't pay
any attention to him again. He went on preaching, and again
the fellow finally said, Preacher, what do you think about the shamrocks?
And the preacher said, My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I stand on Christ's solid rock. All other rocks are sham rocks. Sham rock. Where did I get that? Where do you stand on the issues?
What do you think of this? What do you think of that? What
does God say about it? What do you think about abortion?
Are you kidding? What do you think about homosexuality? Are you kidding? What does God
say about it? What do you think about this
denomination? What does God say? That's where I stand. "...nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful." Happy is the man. who sit if
not in the seat of the stormful. Most people are stalkers, mockers. Peter said that, in the last
days, stalkers shall mock, mockers shall come, say, where is the
promise of His coming? All things continue as they always
have been. Yeah, God said they would. Matthew,
God said they would, didn't He? Right after the flood, God said,
summer, winter, springtime, harvest, everything will continue just
as it has been because God's merciful. That's why. Sounds
good. His tender mercies are over all
his works. But that doesn't mean it's not going to end. He said,
As in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man
be. They'll be marrying and giving and marriage and building and
spying and selling and building. Because God said it would remain
the same. The scoffers and mockers, where
is the promise of his coming? Around here is the promise of
his coming. And the heavens declare it, every
time. And most folks are scoffers and
mockers and proud, self-righteous, cynical, cruel, with And no answer here, no hope.
Look at verse 2. He says, That man who is happy
delights in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate
day and night. I quoted it to you. Blessed,
oh, happy is the man, blessed is the man, he who delights in
God's word, nothing shall offend him. You'd be happy. You'd be like a tree. Tree of
righteousness. Isaiah 61 3. Anybody hear that
radio message last Sunday? Trees of righteousness. Planted. Bring forth their fruit. Sounds
just like it. Trees. Singular. Just like the
root of the matters in them. The root of the matters in them.
By rivers of water. You want to grow? I'll give you
a clue to Wednesday night's message of growing and growing. It has
something to do with water. It has something to do with sunlight. Sunlight, water. The root of
the matter is in there. My rivers of water, fruitful,
unwithering, fruit unto God's glory, prosperous. Look at verse
3. It says, whatever he doeth shall
prosper. I'm not talking about material
prosperity at all. Blessed is a man who can say
this, better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure
and trouble therewith. Or like the old woman one time,
let's see, a little old woman who sat down to a very meager
table very meager home, meager existence, but had bread and
had food and had clothing. And she sat down and gave thanks
and said, Oh, all of this, and Christ too. Well, I'm so blessed. Blessed. Happy. Delight yourself
in the law of the Lord. Nothing shall offend you. Be
happy. Prosperous, spiritually rich,
that's what it means to be well-off. To be well-off, spiritually rich,
to be rich in faith. Wouldn't you like to have unbroken
peace? Wouldn't you like to have peace
that just has no bounds, wouldn't you? That nothing could offend?
Talking about happiness. Wouldn't you like to have peace
like a river, just keep flowing? Hope, that nothing can disturb
you. Hope, sure hope, solid hope. Nothing can bother you. Disturb
it. Rest. Joy. Now let me give you a few
things, a few probable reasons for unhappiness and unbelief. Okay? Stay with me a few more
minutes. Anybody ever unhappy? Then listen. Now, we cannot be happy all the
time. It's not humanly possible, nor
should we. Scripture tells us, let your
laughter be turned to mourning. We're such sinners, such unbelievers,
we ought to stop and cause us to weep every now and then. But we cannot, nor should we,
be happy all the time. Anybody that says they are is
a liar. These religious people who all have a perpetual smile
on their face, their faiths, they are. Many things the believers
beset behind them before with troubles, and he said, in this
world you shall have tribulation. A man that's born alone is a
few days and full of trouble. It doesn't keep us from being,
generally speaking, happy people. It should not. But let me give you a few reasons
that would make a believer, the one who professes to believe,
to walk in God's Word and so forth, to trust Christ, a few
reasons why they might stay in a state of unhappiness, okay?
Number one, he said, blessed is the man, happy is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of ungodliness. So the opposite
must be true. That person must be walking more
with the world than they are with the Lord. They must be listening
more to the world than they are to the Lord, right? It must be
so. Not hearing the Word must not
be under the sound of the Word, which cheers you up and encourages
you. It must be under the sound of
whatever. The sound of the Word. Rain softens, rain nourishes,
rain makes you grow. Be out of it hardens, hardens,
hardens, till you become like hard pan and nothing get through. Standing, it says standing in
the way of sinners, standing idle. Our Lord said man must
work by the 12 hours in the day. What is God? What is the work
of His people? Well, what was Noah? Noah was
in the ark. What did he have to do besides
wail? What did he have to do? Feed my sheep. Wait on the rest
of this. Serve the others. That's what
it's all about. That's why we're created, that's
why God saves us. The praise of the glory of His
grace. What's to His praise? How did Christ glorify the Father?
Serving His cause, serving His people. A bride, a wife, glorifies her
husband by serving him, and vice versa. The way of sinners. Did you read
the article in the New Testament? Mr. Self, it wasn't an attempt
at cleverness, people, but simply using allegorical or words like
the parable to make something plain. John Bundy wrote a whole
book using that terminology, but Self, the way of the world
is mean. The way of man is, it's all about
me. Self. There's a magazine called
Self. Self. The way of sinners is self. It's not all about me. We've got to remember our study
concerning little children. The quicker, the sooner we make
them understand this life is not all about you. There's other
people in this house. But feel sorry for yourself. There's other people that need
help. Self. The more we look around,
the more we'll see love of self, love of self, living for self,
serving only yourself, considering only yourself, you'll be the
most unimpacted person. Why? Because the Lord will lead
you to yourself. Your son or your daughter that's
a member of a large family, and they get to acting up, and you
send them through their room. Were you ever sent to your room,
Hannah, by your parents? You had three siblings. While
they're all sitting down there and enjoying whatever together,
and you're up in your room by yourself. Were you happy? Oh, man. Oh, man. If we look around, even
in this room right here, we'll see somebody who has more troubles
than we do. Here's another thing. It says,
"...sickness seeded as thornful." If we begin to sickness seeded
as thornful, we'll be unhappy, meaning self-righteous, fault-finding,
fault-finding, If God's child, if we've hit
self-righteous, the Lord's going to bring us down. It's going
to be a hard fall to. And then we're going to take
our place. We're going to hope and pray
that he allows us back to sit as the chief of sinners for all
these good people. We'll bless his holy name to
even kick us out. Unhappiness means we've forgotten
our blessings. We've forgotten our blessings.
Our blessings far outnumber our troubles, don't they? Like a child who most of its
time is giving, giving, giving, giving, and then finally you
take something away. Now, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his abundant mercy have blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly things in Christ
Jesus. All spiritual blessings. That and all this, too. That's
the bread. This is the gravy. Don't eat
gravy. You've got to have the bread. Christ the bread. Fall into sin. Every believer will. Stumble
and fall. Fall right back into the pit
to some degree that you were pulled out of. Every dog goes back, at least
temporarily, to the bombing. Every beggar goes back to the
dungeon. Every prodigal son gets back
in the hog pen. I was saved from this. And while
you're in it, you'll be miserable. You'll be miserable, but blessed
be the Lord. He pulls you out again. Like
Israel of old in Psalm 107. Oh, they brought them, the Lord
brought them down, down, down. And they cried and He heard them. lifted them out of a horrible
pit, set their feet right back on the side of God. And those are the things of the day. But as we said, if
we look on the things of others, we ought to realize how blessed
we are and look on our own blessing. Look
at the last three verses, ungodly or not so. All that's ungodly,
all those without God, without Christ, without hope. Hope is in this world and everything.
Like the chaff. What's the chaff of the wheat?
Nothing. Chaff, all going to be blown
away. Do you know that? Gone. Because you're like a vapor. It's all gone. All that men live
for, gone. The ungodly won't stand in the
judgment. Here's something wonderful. Scripture
says every knee shall bow. But it says if you look at the
right hand of God, it says there's a number, a multitude which no
man can number standing. Or give him a standing ovation.
It's just one sitting, just one person sitting, and everybody
else is standing. The Lord Jesus Christ sitting
on His throne, all that number, multitude, it's no making number,
are standing, saying unto Him that loved us and washed us from
our sins, you know, but the rest are not going to stand there.
Not going to be standing. If you bow to me now, I'm going
to stand there again. There were sinners in the congregation
of the righteous. Sinners now bow, believe, trust,
look to, confess, repent, follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they're called saints, separated,
no more sin. Verse 6, The Lord knoweth the
way of the righteous. The righteous, he's talking about
the congregation of the righteous, he's talking about God's people,
they're called righteous. Why? What's the way of the righteous
one? Tell me, sir. See a fellow in
heaven? Sinless, beautiful, looks just
like the Lord Jesus Christ. Sir, how did you get here? Surely
it was by works of righteousness which you've done. Oh no, no,
oh no. Nothing can be further from the
truth. But sir, surely you served the Lord all your life. Oh no,
I didn't serve the Lord one moment of my life. But, sir, surely it's because
you confessed him to so many, you won many souls? No! Well, who are you? The dying
thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I go
by the sea, wash all my sins away. I was a thief on a cross,
and I'm here, the reason I'm here is because that Lord on
the throne. That's the way I got here. That's
the way I got here. And that's whatever a single
person says. He's the way. He's the way. The
way of the righteous. The way of the ungodly, there's
a way that seems right. Walk any other way, perish, perish. Happy is the man. Generally speaking, happy. Definitely speaking, blessed
of God, highly favored of God. the favor, pallor, made holy,
consecrated, set apart, sanctified, washed by God, blessed with all
spiritual blessing in heaven. Oh, happy is the man, happy is
the man, because of the man, Christ Jesus. Okay, let John
come up and lead us in closing hymn. There's a hymn in our book, number
68. And number 68, the words of it
are outstanding, sung to the tune of Faith of Our Father,
shared. So stand number 68. But unto Thee we glory give In
love and truth Thou doth fulfill The counsels of Thy sovereign
will Though nations fail Thy power to own Yet Thou wilt reign
as Thou alone But in God alone, the Holy Spirit
reigns.