Bless the Lord, O my soul, all
that is within me, bless his holy name. Taken from? Psalm 103, that's right. We looked
at that Wednesday night, and I hope that that has stuck with
you. I hope it was a blessing to you
then, and continues to be. Bless the Lord. We're going to
look this morning at the blessed man. Psalm 1. Go there with me. Psalm 1. Read with me verse one. Blessed
is the man or woman or young person that walketh not in the
counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful. I stand up here Sunday after
Wednesday after Sunday and preach the same things to
the same people, mostly. And yet I can say truthfully
with the Apostle Paul, to do these same things, to preach
these same things is not grievous to me. I do not grow tired of
it. Nor do many of you. And I know, beyond a shadow of a
doubt, that this is the power of God. This is what it pleases
God to use. This is the means that He uses. I know this from His Word. I
know this from experience. I know it from observation. that this is what God uses to
give life, to give a new birth, create His
sons and daughters, open blind eyes, deaf ears. And I preach to those who obviously
have heard and experienced these words of life, and I delight
I preach to those who pretend to. I preach to those who obviously
have not heard these words of life, most of whom are young
people, teenagers, who, very obvious to me, wish they were
not here and would not be here if they had a choice. and think this is all, I know.
They think this is all nonsense, and they think that out there
in the world is where it's at. This psalm talks about happiness. Blessed, the word blessed means
happy. Blessed means happy. happiness,
fulfillment, real life, life. And as I said, I preach to these
different ones Sunday after Wednesday, and no matter how frustrated
I get, how concerned I become, how worried, I have to be worried
If you love somebody, you get worried over them, don't you?
Because you just don't know what the Lord is going to do and not
do. But no matter how badly I want to physically lay hold on somebody,
particularly our young people, no matter how badly I want to
shout at them, scare them, try to convince them, I know that this is what God
uses. So I'm going to keep doing it.
And all I can do is hope and pray that God Almighty will take
a word, which is like a sword, and pierce And I pray, I do,
I pray often, Lord let this be the day, let this be the message that you will call someone from
death to life. Let this be the message that
you will redeem a life from destruction. Let this be the message that
you will save somebody from this untoward generation who is obviously
going down the broad road of destruction. Lord, let this be
the day. Can you pray that with me? Do
you? He says here in verse 1, blessed
is the man. Oh, how happy and blessed. All blessings from God. temporal,
but the greatest are spiritual, come from God. Blessed, happy,
content, well, faring well, is the man. Who? That. And it goes on to talk
about this really happy person, blessed person. Now, this whole
book, the Bible, that's what the word means, biblia, book. This whole book tells about man. There's nothing new under the
sun. It's all common. It's all been written right here.
There's no man or woman or young person that ever lived that's
done or said or anything or been anywhere, had anything, thought
anything that's not recorded right here. It reveals it all. The thoughts
of man, young people, their ways, their pursuit of happiness. Pursuit
of happiness. That's what everybody wants.
To be happy. Just be happy. And they pursue
various things to make them happy. Thinking, if I can just have
this, I'll be happy. Because what I want is to be
happy. One of the wisest men to ever
live, God said he was, Solomon. He wrote a whole book, Ecclesiastes,
about the pursuit of happiness. Pursuit of happiness. He knew
before he wrote that. But he did these things for our
sake. God had him experience all these
things and write a book about it. And this man, Solomon, went
through everything. He tried everything. He tried it all. All that this
world has to offer, he had it all. And he concluded, when it
was all over, it won't make you happy. Nothing. Didn't it? Those of you who have read it,
tried it all. And this whole book, see, speaks
of man. It reveals his thoughts, his
ways, his pursuit of happiness, and how man tries to be, and
may think himself or herself to be happy, but they're really
not. They're miserable. And they reveal it in many ways. And then this book talks about
a man. This book exposes mankind, young
people, old people, male, female, exposes them. It just lays bare
everything. And then this book, and it shows
us that man, the end of man, we read there in Psalm 49 that
his end, is six feet in the ground. Everything he ever accomplishes
or pursues, everything he works all his life to obtain to make
him or her happy, every one and everything ends up six feet in
the ground. And then this book talks about
the man, the blessed man. Someone, if you'll look to and
look at, you'll be blessed. Blessed is the man. The man. John, this psalm starts
out, blessed is the man. It talks about the man. This
has to be talking about the man, Christ Jesus, doesn't it? He
must get the preeminence in all things. Blessed is the man. This whole book talks about the
man, Christ Jesus. The God-man. The blessed man. The truly blessed man. I hope
you'll look with me. I hope you'll listen carefully
as we consider this man who walked this earth. A man. Stood. He walked. He stood. I'm standing before you this
morning. A man. Well, God became a man and stood
as I stand, stood upon this earth and sat, sat down, walked, stood
and sat with sinners. Ate, drank, he lived, he worked,
he ate, he drank. God lived, worked, ate, drank,
slept for 33 years. Happy? content, full of joy, peace,
knowledge, understanding, the blessed man. The blessed man is happy, okay? He's the blessed man. Though he had nothing at all, no earthly possessions, I'm talking
zero. He had it all. He had nothing
at all, yet he had it all. Though he was the poorest of
the poor, he had no house. He had one suit of clothes and
one pair of shoes. The poorest of the poor, yet
he was rich beyond description. Though he was nearly always alone. He was never lonely, until he hung
on a tree. Never lonely, though he stood
alone. Though he was despised and hated
by everybody, he wasn't trying to be popular. His happiness
was not found in other people thinking well of him. If I can
just be popular, people think well of me, I'll be happy. I
want to be happy, so I want them to think well of me. Everybody
hated his guts. Yet he's happy. Accepted by the only one that
mattered. Well pleasing to the only one
that mattered. He's blessed. He's a happy man. He walks not, verse 1 says, he
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, no matter what anyone
sayeth. Had no influence on him whatsoever. He walked not according to their
thoughts, opinions, and wisdom. And he was blessed, he was happy. Says he didn't stand in the way
of sinners. People get in long lines. People get in long lines. Huge
crowds gather. The whole world will line up
to go after something the most ridiculous and foolish. It's laughable what the whole
world will get in line to pursue and wait in line, stand in line
to go after. Yet there he stood over there in another way. He said, come unto me. Though he walked alone and seemed
to stand alone, yet he is happy. Nor sitteth, verse 1 says, blessed
is the man that sitteth not, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. When our Lord was on this earth,
they gathered together. Psalm 2 says they gathered together
and took counsel. They all sat in judgment seats, scorned him, condemned him, sentenced
him, and executed him. They all gathered together, all
walking one way, standing, sit together and talk about it. and
scorn it. Listen to me. Listen to the foolishness. Hath not God made foolishness
the wisdom of this world? The whole world sits down these
days to talk about things. Don't they? It's the most talkative
generation ever. They sit down to talk about things.
The experts If a man really were an expert,
he wouldn't let other people call him that, would he? He'd really, he'd understand
there's not much, there's a lot he does not know. The experts
are rich and famous. They like to sit down, they like
to talk. And millions upon millions of
people, millions upon millions of people sit down and watch
them talk. You think about that. And pay
them lots of money to talk, while they sit and hang on every
word that they say and believe it. And there that man stands, alone,
with a book in his hand. Now the whole world's got their
thoughts and opinions and talking about it, and everybody's coming
up with all their theories and all their answers and all that.
Here he stands with a book in his hand, a book that has been
through generation after generation, eons of time, the book still
stands. There he stands. And verse 2
says, look at it, verse 2 says, his delight is in the law of
the Lord, the word of the Lord. And in his law, in his word,
he meditates day and night. finds great joy, great rejoicing
and delight and happiness in this book, in these words, and thinks on it, says meditates
on it, meditates day and night, thinks on it. People don't meditate
much anymore, do they? TVs and computers and all that
do everyone's thinking for them. People don't search and dig and
study and study and try to see if things are so, meditate. They don't do that much anymore,
do they? The blessed man, he meditates like Joshua of old. Does this sound like Joshua 1,
those of you who have read it? Joshua, the Lord says, his delight
will be in the law of the Lord. He'll meditate in it. His way
will be prospered. His delight is in this book.
Thinks on it. Wise consideration. Gives careful
thought. Scripture says, answer not a matter before you
hear it. Don't judge anything before you
think on it. Don't run after anything as soon
as you hear it. Don't believe anything as soon as you hear
it. Study it. Search it. Meditate it. The blessed
man, joyful, content, happy, says his delight is in the law
of the Lord, the unchanging Word of God. In the law he meditates
day and night, happy, while fools walk on by, don't ever give it
a thought. I run into people all the time
who could not quote you one verse out of the thousands upon thousands. Yet they think they know what
this book's saying. And they think they know a better way.
And they think what all is being said and done is new and novel
and right and wisdom. And I can't quote a word. That's
a fool, isn't it? A man that just rejects this, thumbs down.
A woman that doesn't even think about it. Never even reads it.
A fool, isn't it? My earthly brother is like that.
He couldn't quote you one verse. Couldn't quote you one verse.
Got all the worldly wisdom a man could attain. Fools said, no, God. This book
is wisdom from above in it. A blessed man meditates in it. Christ walked in the Word of God. Blessed. Blessed. And there he stands
like a tree. There he stands. As fools rush
by. Fools rush here and rush there.
Go here and go there. And go after this, go after that.
There he stands. This blessed man. Like a tree. Evergreen. Look at verse 3. It says, He
shall be like a tree. Planted by the rivers of water.
Tree. rooted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season. His leaf will not wither. Scripture
says all we do fade like the leaf, doesn't it? What is man? He's like grass. And here this man stands like
a tree, an evergreen, planted by the rivers of water, unfading.
Whatever he does, whatever he does will last, prosper. Whatever
he does will prosper. It'll stand forever. Whatever
he says, whatever he does will be forever. It'll never perish. Everything he accomplishes will
be forever. Everything he accumulates will
be forever. Everything he's found, he'll
lose nothing. Huh? If I can just find this,
get this, I'll be happy. No, you're going to lose it.
Whatever it is, you'll lose it. You're going to lose it. I found what made me happy, this
person. They're going to die. I found
it, this possession. You're going to lose it. Here this man stands without
anything. He has it all. With no one but
one. planted like a river, by the
river, rooted. And whatever he does will prosper. We used to live on a farm down
by the old pig river. There was a tree, a hemlock,
one of my favorite trees, hemlock. And hemlock, as you know, is
an evergreen. It stays green year-round. It does not lose its leaves like
a deciduous tree. Well, that evergreen, that hemlock,
stood there. It was there before we arrived,
and it's still there. It was down there not long ago,
and it was still there. And he was there, no doubt, hundreds
of years before we came, and will possibly, probably be there
after we're gone. And that tree started out as
a root, didn't it? Started out as a little root,
sapling. It grew into a young tree. And
it grew in stature, height. And by that river is where it's
growing, that water that keeps going. Even the old pig river,
we never saw it, it run dry. And it grew into a tree until
finally its head towered over most all the other trees, looking
out over all the others. And the reason being are its
roots way down deep in the dark, mysterious depths, the mysteries,
things you can't see, held fast to. And that river has run and
run for years, and it has raged and it has flooded. It is raised
real high, and there that tree stands. That river has run dry. No water. Almost. And there that tree stands. And people get in their boats,
canoes, John boats, flat boats, inner tubes, and float on by. And never give that tree a thought.
But there it stands. And they float on by. And that
tree represents the Lord Jesus Christ. We've said so often that
the very calendar is judgment against mankind. Time itself
is measured by this person who lived on this planet, Jesus Christ.
Before him, what happened before he came, and all that's happening
during, not after, during, because he's not dead. Jesus Christ. He started as a root out of dry
ground, Scripture says. No form nor covenants. No beauty
that we should desire. If you've read, and we may go
back through Genesis, I don't know. No promises. I'd like to.
But I was reading myself recently. Go back to Genesis chapter 1,
2. You'll see that God planted a
tree in the middle of the garden.
Didn't it? What was it called? The Tree
of Life. Remember that? The Tree of Life.
Oh, and back in the beginning, God talked about a tree. God
planted a tree, an evergreen. And after man fell, brother Ed,
after man fell, it still stood there. Still stood. Man fell, tree stands. Alright? A couple thousand years
go by, or more. Here we're reading, in the middle
of this book, in the beginning was a tree. You turn, you open your Bible,
where does it open up to? You open up your Bible, it falls
on the psalm. The very first psalm talks about a tree. A man
was like a tree. The last chapter in this book,
anybody know? Revelation 22, anybody know how
it starts? A tree by the rivers of water. The leaves are for the healing
of the nation. All manner of fruit, twelve manner of fruit.
See, He's the first and He's the last and all in between.
Whom to know is to have eternal life. Jesus Christ started in
the garden. Same yesterday, today, and forever. This blessed man. This blessed
man, like a tree planted by the rivers of water. The blessed
man. Look at verse 4. It says, is he ungodly or not
so? Ungodly means just what it sounds like. Without God. Without
God. Having no hope in this world. Hope for what? Happiness. No
hope for peace. No hope for joy. No hope for
anything fulfilling. No hope for anything lasting.
No hope for real life. Abundant life. No hope. No hope. Without God. The ungodly man.
See, in God we live and move and have our being. Without Him,
no hope. Ungodly. Without Christ, who
is God. The ungodly, he says, is not
so. What? Not happy. Not blessed. Not blessed. They pretend to be. Listen to
me. Young people, listen to me. They
pretend to be. Can't you see through? Can't
you see through the pretense of people? Listen to me. Young
people, look at me. Look at me. Can't you see through these people? Here they sit. with their bodies
marked from head to toe, indelibly marked for the rest of their
lives. They have printed themselves up. They have pierced everything
there is to pierce. They have ingested everything
there is to ingest to make them feel euphoric and happy. Every
drug, every drink, everything They filled their bodies full
of substances in order to be happy. Mutilated their bodies
to be happy. And they're plumb miserable and
they end up going, damn! Can't you see through that? Lauren,
can't you see through that? Elizabeth, Davis, Anna, don't
be a fool. They're not happy, and if you
follow them, don't be a fool. You're never going to be happy
with anybody or anything This talks about happiness. God can't
lie. You say, I don't understand. Sure you don't. I didn't either.
But I'm telling you the truth. What I'm telling you is of Him
who said, I am the truth. I am the truth. Dylan? Dylan? Listen. Old people? Why will you die? Why will you die? Huh? Sunday
after Wednesday. Stand up here. I'll tell you
the way of life. It's a man. It's a person. The
only one you need to listen to. Only one. Don't listen to anybody
else. They're not happy. The world's
not happy. Don't listen to anybody. Don't
listen to your friend. They don't know whether they're
coming or going. And the only one you need to
listen to is the man who's telling you about the man. Are you hearing
that? There's old people in here who
are after other things. You're going to miss Christ. Blessed is the man. There he stands. Time goes by. Thousands, millions of people
go by pursuing this, pursuing that, doing this, doing that.
Oh, we're happy. No, you're not. And there he
stands. And he says, Come unto me. Oh, you that labor heavy laden. Quit following the crowd. Quit
listening to all the voices. Irony. The man. Ungodly are not so. They're not so. Just not so. They're like chaff. Chaff. The wind blows away. Chaff. This book talks about a walk
of faith. We've got to go through this life. We've got to walk
through this world, don't we? We've got a life to live. We've got a life to live. Our Lord
said, I'll give you life more abundant. Life more abundant. More than
eating something. I've eaten at the finest restaurants
this world has to offer. I really have. I'm just quite
sure that very few human beings have eaten in any finer restaurants
than me. Right, ma'am? I'm telling you from experience,
there's no food that tastes like this. That other stuff goes out in
a draft. It's a bunch of you-know-what. It all ends up turning into a
bunch of can I get plain? Water, drink, this and that and
the other, leave you thirsty. Why do people, when they get
a lot of money, want more money? Because it won't satisfy. How
do you get a house? You get a bigger house. Bigger
house. New car, you get a bigger car. Why? Because it won't satisfy. How ignorant. How long can a
person go on like this? Huh? If I have these clothes,
if I can have these clothes, I'll be happy. Yeah, right. Yeah,
right. Man's a fool, isn't he? Another
fool. There's a walk to walk, and the
Lord says that we walk by faith. Walk by faith. In Christ. Walk by faith. Jesus Christ.
Now, there's nothing but worry. There's nothing but worry if
you don't know Christ. You're going to go through this
life worrying about losing everything. Nothing but worry. You're going
to go after something, you're going to get it, and then from
there on you're going to worry about keeping it. Nothing but
worry. You're going to worry about this,
worry about that, worry about the economy, worry about terrorism,
worry about worry, worry, worry. But Mark the perfect man. The
one walking by faith. Who? Jesus Christ. The world was never in more turmoil,
under more terror than at the time when he walked on this planet.
It had no bearing on him whatsoever. None. Israel was under bondage to the
most cruel, tyrannical government ever. It didn't matter who was
on the throne. Because he was. Walk of faith. This is the believer, he said.
The believer. As he is, so are we. Blessed. There was a time when
you and I walked walked in the council of the ungodly, believed
everything we heard and everybody we heard and we believed them.
Oh, did you hear this? They said they, who is they? What did they say? They will
change their minds tomorrow. Don't listen to it. And here
it stands. And you start meditating, Tammy,
you start reading God by His mercy and grace, set your mind,
your heart, your affection on these things. And you start meditating
and you say, oh, this is true. This reveals all this lunacy. You remember me saying that when
I was a young teenager, I said that I thought I was smarter
than my pastor. I told a friend of mine that
I could disprove everything my I told him I had a book, and
I had a little bitty book by this Hindu guru, navel-gazer. I had this little book about
that thick that I said, this book, I can disprove everything
in that book. Oh, what an utter idiot. Oh,
thank God for his mercy. At that young fool, he showed
him what a fool he was. And I bet you there's someone
in here, I know there's a young person thinking, please get this
over with. It's going to end soon enough.
Soon enough. But now, by the grace of God,
I'm not listening to the counsel of the ungodly. Now, by the grace
of God, I'm not standing in line. Standing in line. the way of
sinners. Standing in line. Get in line.
Line up. Load up. Line up. For what? Where are you headed? Where are
you going? What are you looking for? We're going over this cliff.
Come go with us. No. I think I'll go the other way.
Mr. Kelly, by the grace of God. Who
did this? Who turned me? Stop my wild career. Stop. There was this true story. There was a man who was on a
foggy night driving, and a bridge was out. And he didn't know it. True story. He was driving down
this road, and the bridge was out, and he didn't know it. He
went over the bridge in his car, totaled his car, and he barely
escaped without injury. He crawled up out of there, and
he went out on the road. It was foggy, and he stood in
the middle of the road. and tried to flag people down
to keep from going that way. Some of them tried to run over
him. Others thought he was a fool, crazy. They swerved around him. Before he was over, I think there
were like 15 cars plunged over that bridge. He's just trying to warn them. Why will you die? Why would you doubt? By the grace
of God, not lining up, or sitting in the seat of the scornful,
I sat where many sit now and thought, I'll be glad when this
is over. And now here I stand. And some day, verse 5 says, the
ungodly will not stand in the judgment. There's a day coming
where all flesh will be gathered before the Son of the Most High
God. Fairy tale? No. Fable? No. Jesus Christ was no fable,
was it? Listen to me. Jesus Christ was
no fable. Young people die like old people.
Told you about taking my 15-year-old friend up in my arms. Dead. Tried to give him mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation. Dead. He'd been gone a long time. Nearly 40 years. Dead. Had his
whole life ahead of him. No. He's dead. He's dead. All of them gathered
in the end. And everybody is going to be
over and all gathered for the judgment seat. And some will stand. Stand. Accepted. Holy. Unblameable. Unreprovable. There was some
of them had their bodies all marked up. Now they're clean.
Washed. White. Pure. Such were some of you. Now you're
clean. Washed. Clothed. Stand. Complete. Accepted. Happy forever. Happy ever after. ever after. No more tears, no
more sorrow, no more crying, no more death, no more loss,
no more pain, no more suffering, no more anything. Happy, blessed,
blessed. While others are on the knees,
naked, ashamed. I'm not trying to scare anybody.
This is just the truth. It's just the truth. It's not
a fable. The congregation, they're righteous. And verse 6 says,
the Lord knoweth. The foundation of God has this
seal. Stand assured, having this seal.
And I'm sure glad it's been sealed. This is my hope for me, my hope
for you, my hope for these young people. I've tried my best this morning,
and it's not good enough. You'll keep trying. I'm going
to stand up here and I'm going to keep bringing this same message. I call out names all the time.
Why? I'm not trying to embarrass anybody. And I hope you'll hear it's the Word
of Life. Because this is real. It's real to me. It's real. And
I hope you'll make it real to you. The Lord knows the way of
the righteous. And he puts them in that way
by his grace, Christ's the way. He puts them in that way and
their end, that way leads to a good end. Everything in this world and
everyone in it that's not in this way is going to have a bad
end. It's a bad end. Bad. Tragic. Terrible end. Traumatic. But the way, the marked
end of the perfect man. He's laying on his deathbed.
He's got cancer. It's all over him. No, no, no, no. Don't look with those eyes. Don't
look with the eyes of flesh. It's not all over for that man.
He's resting in cry. He believes cry. He believes.
A dear brother who sat under my pastor's preaching for 30
or 40 years. He was on the deathbed and going
through his second open heart surgery, bypass surgery, second
one. He didn't make it through. It
didn't get out of the intensive care. And my father, his pastor
went to see him on that deathbed, and he was green. His color was
green. He had tubes stuck in him everywhere
it could be stuck. It's over, isn't it? He looked
up at my pastor with a smile on his face. When he walked in,
a smile on his face, he said, Pastor, I want you to know, I
believe everything you preach to me. And I'm happy. Marked the end of that man. It's
all over? No. No, it's not. It's just begun. You mark that person without
Christ. Here he is, accumulated. All this world has to accumulate.
Is it over? Yes, it's over. It's over. It's
all over. It's all over. The way of the
righteous. The way of the ungodly is going
to perish. The way of the righteous is going to continue. I think
it was Stonewall Jackson. I don't know that man, whether
he knew Christ or not. I don't know. But his dying words,
do you remember what his dying words were? What's your name? Lewis Darnell. I remember those words. I can't
remember your name. Do you remember what he said? He's about to die
and he said this, and it's prophetic really. He said,
Cross over the river, pass over the river, and rest under the
shade of the trees." And he died. Well, let's just
do that, what you say. Sit under the shadow of this
great tree, which is Christ, by the river of living water.
And watch the world float by, and the water rise, destroy many
of them. The water go down and they holler
and cry and let them do what let them go on by. Let's just
sit under the shade of this tree, huh? Happy. Happy. Come what may, hell or high water,
Nancy. And we stand. And then when he stand, you know,
he's coming back. We'll stand with him. Well, the whole world says, I
thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought. Blessed is the man. Okay. What's that number? Four hundred
forty-nine. We'll see you first and last.