How blessed is the man who does
not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path
of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight
is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and
night. He will be like a tree firmly
planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its
season, and its leaf does not wither. And in whatever he does,
he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they
are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked
will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of
the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of
the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." Well, it seems rather strange
to be in such a small building with such a big pulpit. But I
guess if that shows the prominence of the Word of God, that'll be
fine. We're going to look at Psalms one today. Quietly, cautiously. Well, let me say it another way. We're not so much going to look
at Psalms one. As we are, my intention is to
look at you. Through Psalms one. The purpose
of not of preaching is not entertainment. It's not to astound people with
passion. It's not to promote the preacher's
sense of piety. Look how he loves him when he
speaks of him. Also, preaching is not to be
turned into something of a manifestation of glory that never puts its
feet on the ground. And so I'm not so interested
in preaching as I am seeing you change, seeing me change. That's why it's not going to
be extravagant or elaborate. But hopefully it'll hit you somewhere
to help you, to help you. Before I do that, before I turn
to Psalms 1, I was reading this morning. I just wanted to share a thought
with you that I read. It's from Blaise Pascal, the
famous French mathematician, physicist who came to the Christian
faith. And he wrote a work called, in
French, Ponce, which simply means thoughts. And the way he begins
is, well, it's good for us to hear. It's just good for us to
hear how he begins this search and why he writes out his thoughts
in the way he does. So I want you just to listen.
It says, Before we examine the evidence of the truth of Christianity,
I need to point out an inconsistency of those who are careless about
the truth. Yet it is vital to them for it
intimately affects their lives of all their miscalculations.
This is what most blatantly shows up their blind folly. It is this
this present life is momentary. But the state of death is eternal. How terribly important it is
then to live in the light of the eternal, since it ultimately
affects all that we do or think. Since nothing is more obvious
than this observation, how absurd is it to behave differently? And he will use this word absurd
or ridiculous over and over. That we as a people have a sense
of eternity, and yet we're drawn to live For the present and nothing
could be more foolish. Nothing. He goes on, seen from
this angle how absurd it is for people to go through life without
regard for their final destiny. Many of you young people, you've
heard your parents over and over share the gospel, family devotions,
you treat it so lightly. A video game, a song, a movie
will grab more of your attention than the fact is that your youth
is so fleeting. Life is fleeting. And you're
going to die and you're going to stand before God. Instead,
they are led as they feel inclined and they indulge themselves unreflective
and careless as though they could wipe out eternity and enjoy some
passing happiness merely by repressing their thoughts, kind of like
burying your head in the sand to avoid a charging rhino. It's
been tried many times throughout history, it doesn't work. The
rhino always arrives. Yet death is real, for it threatens
us at every moment of time, while eternity is also real and is
in this fact a threat of ultimate destruction and misery. This
creates the prospect of terrible consequences. Indeed, it is the
prospect of eternal damnation. Yet people do not even bother
to find out if eternity is merely an old wives tale. Though this
stares them in the face, they do not even trouble to find out
if the argument for it is valid. They have no idea whether they
should or should not refuse to face up to this question. What
an appalling way to behave. I want you to think about that. You know, you can get involved
in and coming to a church over and over and over until it becomes
nonsensical. It's like you get punched so
many times in a certain place in your body, you no longer feel
it. That's the danger of being here. Hear something good. The purpose of church of gathering
together is not to hear something good. It's to guide us. These minuscule, tiny beings
that we are. Through a labyrinth of life.
To one day stand before the judgment throne of God. And to hear our
eternal destiny decided. Well, let's look at Psalms one. How blessed is the man, verse
one, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand
in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. Now,
there's. There's days and days of teaching,
meditation, thought. And just that little verse and
to read it, memorize it, go on about it. Got that. Put it in
your catalog of things you've done. It's very dangerous. Let's
just look at it, first of all, blessed. What does it mean in
the scriptures? I mean, comprehensively, when
we look at scripture, what does it mean to be blessed? Well,
I've written out a simple definition just from several texts. It goes
something like this. The blessed are those who have
entered into a covenant relationship with God. A true, covenant, permanent
relationship with God by faith. By faith in Jesus Christ. They
are being instructed in His Word and walk in submission to it.
Consequently, their lives are marked by peace, hope, joy and
fruitfulness. Fruitfulness with regard to their
character and their deeds. Now, that's a lot being said
there. Did that describe you? Now, I could give you some comfort
and say, does that describe us? But I'm not going to do that.
Don't want to do that. I want you to be alone when you
hear this. I don't want any comfort from
an all inclusive idea that we're all in this together. No, I want
the spotlight to shine right on your heart. I want you to
think about you and what the word is saying. Is this you? Because it's supposed to be you.
This is not poetry. This is not some pie-in-the-sky
philosophy written for those who just want to dream about
things. Does this really describe you? Are you blessed? Let's ask ourselves some questions.
Have you entered into a covenant relationship with God by faith
in His Son? Look at me. Have you done this? Answer yes
or no. Have you entered in to a covenant
relationship with God through faith in His Son? Do you cling
to His Son? Fall on His Son? Is His Son your
only hope? Do you expect to swing out into
eternity on that one scarlet thread that Jesus Christ died
for my sins? Or do you just hear? Do you just
agree? Do you just acknowledge that
it's true? Is it the faith of your parents?
Your faith of your parents will not help you one bit on the day
of judgment. Is it your faith, your clinging,
your grasp? You violently hold on to Jesus
Christ as your only hope. That's the first mark of being
blessed, then are you being instructed in his word? Now, don't talk
to me about preaching and don't talk to me about being in a biblical
church. I don't care. Are you personally being instructed
consistently by the Word of God? Now look at me again. I am telling
you now, we're not going to leave any prisoners this morning. I
want to help you. I want this sermon to matter.
Are you consistently saturating your life in the word of God?
Are you learning the word of God personally, privately, all
alone? Is that you? I don't care if
you're a homeschool mom, a homeschool dad. I don't care if you're moral,
ethical. I don't care. Are you living? Are you living? holding on tenaciously
to God's word. Yes, young person, you have a
family that gives you devotions. It means nothing, nothing. Do you go to the word of God
your own? On your own, on your own. Do
you answer yes or no? Doesn't matter how pretty you
look. Doesn't matter how just otherworldly
you appear in your dress. I don't care if you look like
pride and prejudice. I don't care. Do you have a relationship
with God's word? Do you? Mother, homeschool mom,
do you have a relationship with God's word? Are you consistently
in God's word? Are you growing in your knowledge
of God's word? If not, stop your homeschooling. Father, Christian, preacher. Are you? Change if you're not. Don't just listen. Change. Now, also, do you consciously
and intentionally walk in submission to His Word? Is the Word in your
mind so that daily You are seeking to purposefully and consciously. It's a conscious decision. To make a choice to submit to
God's word or not. To have it to be the great influence
in your life or not. This is an active mental thing. It's not just passive. It's not just hopeful it will
happen, but you are purposefully doing it. Like Paul describes
the athlete, the Greek and Roman athlete who purposely is thinking
about the way he should strike his opponent or the way he should
run. Are you doing this? Are you doing this? And is your
life marked? Is it marked by the markings
of a blessed man or woman or young person? Peace. Do you actually have you let
me put it this way, can you recall having relished, relished, savored
the fact that you now have peace with God and you're no longer
an enemy? Have you ever thought about that?
and delighted in it. If not. You probably know very
little about having peace with God. Do you have also the peace
of God in the midst of the turmoil of this world? We are supposed
to. We're supposed to reflect the
peace of God in the midst of all the things. We're not like
those who have no God, who have no hope, who have no strength,
who have no one under them or above them or around them. But
we do. He's under us. He's above us.
He builds a wall of fire around us. Have you grown in the word
to the point where you have peace in the midst of turmoil because
of your knowledge of him? Going on. Do you have hope? Do you have hope or is it not
even needed? You know, we've we've become
a generation, especially in the West, that when you talk about
hope, they go, why? Why? I'm doing OK. I'm all right. Why do I need
to hope for something better? We've become dulled in our senses,
we're entertained to death, we've become a brutish people. We are
tantalized by youth and they just keep the hamster wheel going
around and around and around so that we no longer see the
great realities of life, of growing old and weak and death. And that
that and infirmity, what's the word in English? A weakness,
a sickness can come upon us in a moment and destroy everything
we are. I remember during the war in
Peru, we were there and the bombs and the blowing up and the death
and the fear and the churches were filled and there was great
hope. And then when all of that passed and peace came, everything
became blasé again. Do you have hope? Have you learned
enough from Scripture to know that you're mortal? That your
life could change drastically in a second so that you come
to the realization my only hope is Jesus Christ, what God has
done for me and him? Do you hope for a future? Do
you hope for a resurrection? Do you hope for something greater
than this fodder we're being fed on this planet? Or are you
totally content like a beast who will eat hay all day and
not complain? Or has God regenerated your heart
so that you want more and you hope for more? And your hope
does not disappoint because you have a firm faith in Christ. Do you have hope? Do you have
joy? I'm talking about fun. I'm not talking about some sort
of physical excitement. I'm not talking about simply
some chemical reaction. I'm talking about, have you ever
thought about Jesus Christ and his death on Calvary with joy? You were joyful over it. That
good news really, really was good news to you. Have you ever
tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Have you? Oh, what joy,
unspeakable and full of glory at the mention of his name. Or is his pronunciation of his
name, is it met with a dull response in your heart? Yeah, Jesus. Uh-huh.
Got that. Or can you hear the same old
story over and over and over and over again and then tell
somebody, no sir, don't stop speaking. Tell me one more time
about the nails. Tell me about the crown of thorns.
Tell me of His resurrection one more time. Do you have joy at
the mention of His name? Fruitfulness. Are you intentionally,
young people, listen to me, are you intentionally and purposefully
seeking to bear fruit for him? Or is it all about your designs,
your plans, your stuff? Are you purposefully and intentionally
bearing fruit Would someone look at you and say, fruitful? They're
coming to appear to be more like Jesus in their life. Things happen around them. People
are helped by them. People are told the good news.
People are lifted up by them. And don't just think, young person,
I'm not going to let you squirm out the door. Listen to me. This
is not just about adults. All Christians bear fruit. All
Christians bear fruit. If someone is magnificently converted
at the age of seven, they will bear fruit. So don't think just because you
kind of got it nailed down, Jesus died and rose again, that you're
a Christian. Do you bear fruit? Do you want
to bear fruit? Do you desire to bear more fruit? You see, this is blessed. And then a final question before
we go on, do you have and this is, I think, one of the greatest
things that saddens my heart. Are you as a Christian. Conscious. of your blessed state. I have
a dear friend, a physician by the name of Dr. Nathan Berry.
And it is not some sort of cliche. It is a reality to him. If you
ever ask him, Dr. Berry, how are you doing? The answer will always be the
same. And it's not because he decided
this or made it up or thinks it's cute. His answer will always
be, blessed. Blessed. So many Christians. And that's why I don't want you
to take this wrongly. I'm not trying to hurt you, because
it breaks my heart that so many Christians walk in condemnation
and guilt and fear and without a cleansed conscience because
they don't understand the magnificence of the work of God on their behalf
through Jesus Christ. Every Christian, it is your birthright. It is your birthright to have
a sense of being blessed. of just being blessed. I'm blessed. Did the weak say
what? I am strong. Did the prostitute
say, I am clean? You see, that we trade our sackcloth and
ashes for a garland of praise and a magnificent robe. And you
say, yes, yes, I want to get there. No, no, no. You don't
understand. You get there by acknowledging what God has done
for you, not by reaching some level of spiritual productivity. You're blessed because of him,
and it's that that drives you. with a magnificent motivation
other than guilt and fear, just happiness, joy that drives you
and energizes you to bear fruit. Do you have a sense of blessedness?
And what I want you to see is when you read, blessed is the
man, I want you to learn to say this, am I blessed? Do I have a sense of blessing?
Because if I don't, I'm stopping right here. I'm not leaving this
until this gets worked out in my life. Heard a story in Africa
one time, a brother was preaching, and he became quite annoyed with
a young African man that was sitting on the front row, because
he would get there first, sit on the front row, and when the
preacher would make his first point, the young man would jump
up and run out. Every night. Didn't stay. And
finally, he cornered him in the back and he said, What were you
doing? And he said, well, when I heard
the first point and recognized it wasn't a reality in my life,
I figured I didn't need to hear any more. I just needed to go
out and work that out. That's the way you listen to
preaching. You see that it's real. You look, you read the
Bible, you see it's so dangerous to read the Bible sometimes over
and over. Why? Because you look at how blessed
is the man and you never think, well, is this me? And if this
is my inheritance, if it is my legacy, if it's what I'm supposed
to, it's my birthright and I'm not have a sense of blessing.
What's wrong? Where's the problem? How do I
fix this? How do I grow? Now, let's look at how the blessed
are described, they're described negatively by what they do not
do, and they're described positively by what they do. And literally,
guys. This is a maxim for all your
Christian life. Your Christian life will be determined
by you not doing certain things that you should not do, and by
you doing the things that you should do. Now, let's look. It says, what they do not do.
They do not walk in the counsel of the wicked. They do not stand
in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers. Now,
there is some debate. We don't want to read too much
into the text, but overwhelmingly there appears to be a digression
here. And I think one of the reasons
why the. Why the commentary writers and
the theologians see this increase. in straying from God in this
passage is because it is so prominent in real life. We see this happen
all the time, not only in others and not only in young Christians,
but in an old preacher like me. I see this in me and I want you
to see it and I want you to avoid it like the plague. Now, look,
first. They come under the influence
of the wicked. Look what it says. The counsel of the wicked, they
come under the influence of the wicked somehow, they just start
hearing the wicked's voice. Then they accept the lifestyle
of the wicked. It's not just influence now.
They're moving now on the same road and they've accepted the
council and they've joined them in their lifestyle. And then
finally, what happens? What is the next thing? They
join the wicked in their scorn and mocking of the righteous. I've seen this happen even among
true believers that later on proved they were true believers
because they repented. Now, let's just look. Let's talk
about you now. How does this describe you? When
you read this, do you just read it? Do you just memorize it?
Is it just some textbook fact or do you actually look at this
and take inventory on your life? I mean, actually take inventory,
sit down. And ask yourself the hard questions. Here's the first one. Are there
any influences of the wicked in your life that must be removed?
Have you ever asked yourself that question? I'm astounded. Sometimes I'll be with a group
of young men and they're talking about Jonathan Edwards and John
Owens and theologians and reformed theology and this and that and
everything else. And then one of them will say,
hey, did you go see the Deadpool movie? What? You're talking about men
who desired godliness and you went to see the most barbaric,
violent, immoral filth that has been created in some time and
you relished it? Do you see that? Do you see the
influence? The way that you can be influenced?
Are there things influencing your life that are actually the
voice of the wicked? Friends. Now, we're not supposed
to move off into some mountain somewhere and be with the holy
because there'd be no one to be with. And sooner or later,
we'd have to separate from ourselves. We're not called to do that.
We're to interact with all men. We're to love all men. But you
never become unequally yoked. What does that mean? Two oxen
and they put a wooden yoke like a beam over both their necks.
There's no flexibility. There's no moving around. If
those oxen are not in agreement, then you've got a fight on your
hands. Because one's going where the other's going or the other's
going where the one's going, or they're both just going to
crash and sit down. If you ever come into a relationship with
a person whose influence begins to move you away from godliness,
then you have to cut. You have to cut it. If your right
hand offends you, cut it off. If your right eye offends you,
pluck it out. That's a hyperbole. He doesn't mean to mutilate yourself. He is simply saying it's that
important. If there's an influence in your
life that is leading you away from scripture, from the Lord,
it's changing your attitudes. It's changing your conversation.
It's all you talk about now. Jesus is now secondary. And those
things need to be operated on. They need to be operated on.
It can be friends. It can be media. I think the
most powerful thing in the world today is media. And the way Christians
will gobble down the filth of media and excuse it is just it's
beyond it's just beyond reason. Media has such a great impact. It's had a greater impact on
the West in the last 50 years than preaching has, I can tell
you that. I got into a small debate with
some students up in Toronto last weekend at the China Bridge thing,
and they came to me with. every kind of pop science theory
you could possibly imagine with regard to the existence of the
universe, the sustenance of the universe, everything. It was
unbelievable. And what was unbelievable is it was just, I said, you're
like, I said, oh, I want to strangle you kids. You are not Andrea
Vocelli of the music world. You are not Pavarotti of the
music world. You're over here like, I don't
know, new kids on the block. You think that this is like real
science. This is just stuff you got off
the internet. But it's their whole life. They
can now deny the existence of God based upon pop media. And if you don't think that has
an impact on your own Christian life, you're wrong. As a matter
of fact, sometimes it's good to ask yourself the question,
when I became a new Christian and I was so fired up about walking
with God, Now, 10 years have passed or five years have passed.
When I was a brand new Christian, would I have watched this? When
I was a brand new Christian who just loved Jesus and just wanted
Jesus, would I have rebuked me? That's a good question to ask.
Media, literature, that doesn't have as great an influence because
basically people in the West don't read anymore. But literature
can be positive. It can be negative. Media can
be positive, can be negative. Friends can be positive, negative.
But if it's drawing you away from God, you've got to get away
from it. Now, let's go on, let's look at some other things. Also,
are there any areas of your life where you have accepted the lifestyle
of the wicked? You've just gone ahead, you're
moving now in that realm. One of the ways is, would your
lifestyle bring you under any scrutiny by those who do not
love God? Would they join you arm in arm
with what you're now doing? Would they be friends with you
on this new path that you're walking? Need to ask yourself,
not only are there influences, but what influences have actually
so impacted my thinking that now I've adopted that lifestyle
of my own? And it can be with regard to.
Thoughts. Attitudes, deeds, speech, relationships. What you allow to enter into
your mind through media literature. Now, I'm going to sound like
a 1950s preacher, but I don't care. Clothing that's inappropriate. Physical relationships that are
inappropriate, that you just go ahead and accept that that's
just just the way you are, that's the new you. You've thrown off
the shackles of biblical Christianity, and now you're walking in the
freedom of the lust of the flesh. Those are questions that we need
to ask ourselves. And then finally, it says, sit
in the seat of scoffers. Now, just listen to this, we
all know there are legalists out there and legalism is dangerous. Legalism is when someone tries
to have a right standing with God based upon their own works. Legalism is also manifested when
a person begins to live under a law that God never gave. Do you see that? And usually
promote that law stringently among other people. That's legalism
and that's deadly. We don't want that. But now here
is a question. In your supposed freedom or Christian
liberty, do you ever find yourself scorning those who walk, act,
and live with greater circumspection than you do, with greater caution
than you do, and with a greater strictness to the law of God
than you do. It is very easy to become a scoffer and a mocker. You see, some woman come into
the church and she's got a dress down to her ankles and her head
is covered. Would you say, oh, look at that. What we should biblically say
is this, that is not necessarily commanded by God, but if she
is doing it. For her to have a clean conscience
before the Lord, if she's doing it to honor the Lord and she's
not promoting that or demanding that from other people, then
bless her. Bless her. Oh, what a lovely
thing. Do you see? Or do you find yourself immediately?
Have you got so much freedom in your life now to be like the
world in the midst of your gracious Christianity that anyone who
tries to take the law of God or the commands of God seriously,
you now scoff at them? Very dangerous, very dangerous,
very dangerous. Very dangerous. Now, I will admit
you go to the book of Galatians and Paul scoffs at the legalist.
He does. He attacks him head on. And legalism
should not be regarded. It should be denounced, but be
very, very careful, very careful. Very careful, lest you find yourself
sitting with the wicked in the seat of scoffers and talking
about people who are simply trying to have a clean conscience before
God. Now, what do they do? What do
the righteous do? What did the blessed do? Let's
look in verse two. But his delight is in the law
of the Lord and in his law, he meditates day and night now. They delight in the law of the
Lord. Now, we can just stop there,
can't we? And let's ask ourselves some
hard and fast questions now before we do. I want to tell you something
about me. In order to put this, make this
real. There are times when I find myself
not delighting in the word of God. So I have to ask myself this
question, and I tell you that because I want you to recognize,
look, don't just hear these things. But think about them, be honest
with yourself. The most broken, messed up believer
among us is in a good condition. as long as they'll be honest
before God. They'll hear the Word and be honest about it.
They're fine. Don't ever worry about that person.
It's the person who hears the Word, hears the Word, hears the
Word, and it's like it's glancing off their forehead. They're not
even thinking about what they're hearing. Do you see that? Now, they delight in the law
of the Lord. The Hebrew word means they take
pleasure in. It brings them pleasure The word
of God brings them pleasure. The commandments of God actually
bring them pleasure. They are pleased with what God
commands. I remember a student one time,
I think it was in Europe, and he said to me, he goes, you know,
all these, you know, these laws subjecting us with these laws,
these laws that that enslave us, these laws that cramp our
lifestyle. And I said, which law would that
be? Is it the one that says you shall not take your neighbor's
wife? Is that cramping your lifestyle? Maybe you need to change your
lifestyle. Is it the one that says don't bear false witness
against your neighbor? Is that the law that oppresses
you? Do you see? The people of God see the law
of God is good. As good, not not bondage. Not burdensome, as we read in
First John, but a delight, a delight. Now, then he says in his law,
in God's law, he meditates day and night. Now, let's go back. Now, just let your voice ring
in your own head here. Do you delight in the law of
God? If in your own brain you said
yes. Then the response is prove it. Well, how do I prove it? You
meditate in the law of God day and night. Now, let's re ask the question,
do you delight in the law of God? This is not just a Hebrew idiom.
This is real. There have been people down through
the ages that have been mightily used of God. And one of the things
you find about them is they delight in the law of God. And how do
you know they did it? Because they meditated in it day and night. This is how they demonstrated
their delight in the law of God. You see, if you just say in my
heart of hearts, I delight in the law of God, you're going
to go astray. If you say, oh, I love to hear
the law of God. Hold it. If I say I love my wife,
but I never spend time with her. There's a problem, I never think
of her, I love her passionately and I never think of her. There's
a problem there, isn't there? There's a disconnect. I'm not
living in reality. There's a sense of delusion,
mental delusion. What's the same way we can so
often say I delight in the law of God, which basically means
I'm not opposed to it. I think it's good. I think it's
wonderful. Yeah, but do you? Do you think
about it? Does it really bring you pleasure,
enough pleasure so that it becomes the essential aspect of your
life? That you want it as much as breath.
Or food. you see, or personal relationships. Now, I want you to see something here.
It says meditation talks about meditating. His delight is in
the law of God and in his law, he meditates day and night. What
does that mean? Think, think, consider, apply. It's like the old illustration,
which is probably a little bit too hard for our modern generation.
The cow's stomach has four. Elite grass goes in there, digests
it, comes right back up again. Right back in his mouth, and
he chews it again. Digests it, comes up, he chews it again.
Does that four times. And what's he doing? He's getting
all the nutrients possible out of that grass. That's the same
idea here. That you're just going back and
forth, drawing out more and more and more from the Word of God, You're not inventing things,
you're not imagining things, you're not trying to see visions
in your head, you are simply thinking and putting words together
and comparing verse to verse and doing this. And gradually
you're growing and seeing how this beautiful tapestry of God's
wisdom truly works in the life of a human being. So meditation,
though, now that we've explained it, I want to say something very
clearly, it is not the goal. It's just like Bible study is
not the goal. Did you know that? Prayer is
not the goal. People mess up in this. Back
in the 80s, it was all about have you had your personal quiet
time. It was like a checklist in your little discipleship book.
So the goal became have your quiet time, read the Word, pray. That's not the goal. That's the
means to the goal. What is the goal? Conformity
to Christ and fruitfulness. That's the goal. It is to we
meditate to understand and to be empowered to obey and bear
fruit. Joshua, you say, well, this isn't
very practical, really. Joshua had to go to war with
all the tribes of Canaan. And what did God tell him to
do? Meditate upon the law of God day and night. Meditate upon
the law of God day and night. The nation of Israel, because
it was deported, was in disarray and confusion, no political stability,
nothing. What did God do? He sent Ezra. And what did Ezra do? He studied
the law of God. He obeyed the law of God and
he taught the law of God to God's people. John 15, five through
eight, what is it about? It is the father's will. He he
desires that we bear fruit, but we bear fruit by our utter dependence
upon Christ and that utter dependence is manifested on his word abiding
in us and us calling out to God in his name. His word of God
abiding in us. Frank Lombok, many of you, does
anyone even know the name Frank Lombok? Well, if you were in
the Philippines, you would all raise your hand and say, yes,
we know Frank Lombok. Frank Lombok, his greatest goal
in life. was to spend one waking day in
uninterrupted meditation on the person of Christ. That was his
greatest goal in life. And so automatically you're thinking,
yeah, he's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good. Well, he's
known all over the Philippines because he taught the Philippines
to read. The reason why the Philippines is literate is he taught them
to read. Even when when I was in the Philippines a few years
ago, I asked someone, Frank Lombard kid goes, yeah, he taught everybody
read. So heavenly minded, he's no earthly
good. He taught millions of people
to be literate. Why? So that they could read
the scriptures, so that they could know Christ and so they
could know God's world, literature and science and art. Maybe we're
so earthly minded, we're no heavenly good. And to become heavenly
minded begins with the scriptures, it always begins there. I tweeted
something last year and man, did I get a barrage of just,
I was called a simpleton. Well, those are some of the finest
things I've been called. But the guy said, you are just an
utter simpleton. And I thought literally, I thought when I tweeted
this, everyone would be happy for once. I tweeted that and
it's like, you're a simpleton. What did I tweet? Basically this,
I don't know how I got it in 142 characters, but it was basically
this. When you find yourself with no
spiritual power, you can almost always go back to the fact that
you have not spent much time in the word of God and prayer.
And that is the great cause of the spiritual weakness today.
No, it's a simpleton answer. And every time someone tells
me that now personally, that's a simple answer. I go, do you
struggle with spiritual power, vitality, virtue, life? Yes. How much time do you spend in
the word? Well, I got to admit, I really struggle in that prayer.
Even worse. OK. Do you see now the idea of day
and night? Means day and night. I went through the Hebrew on
this, it's what it means. Means day and night now, now
let's be practical, though, what does this mean? There's an idea of. Dependence,
there's an idea of continuity. Of a life practice or life discipline. I have many friends who are doctors.
I've always had a great respect for the medical profession when
it's practiced correctly. Requires a genius, in my opinion. And yet, I have known those doctors.
I can recall one who's one of the most reputable surgeons in
South Carolina, near Charleston. Good friend of mine. He graduated
top of his class everywhere. And he is a walking Bible. He literally meditates on scripture
day and night while he is solving some of the most complex orthopedic
issues you could ever imagine. The idea is that, you know. If
I'm doing a complex mathematical equation, which I don't do anymore
now that I've graduated from the university. I still have
to breathe. And somehow my body has learned
to breathe without me concentrating much upon it. If I stop breathing,
I know it. I've known men like that and
women, they seem to breathe the Bible, they seem to be saturated
with the scriptures. Owen said of, you know, Owen,
the great scholastic, the great erudito, the great scholar. He
said this about John Bunyan, John Bunyan was a tinker, a tinker. That meant he fixed pots and
pans, but he wrote some of the greatest theology that's been
written. Bunyan said, Owen said of Bunyan,
I'd give everything, all my books, everything to have what he has.
And they said this of Bunyan, that if you were to cut his veins,
the Bible would come out. He was in prison 12 years. That's
where he wrote Pilgrim's Progress, second only to the Bible, I believe,
in distribution. On old parchment using milk because
you can smuggle it out and then when you pass the parchment over
a flame, the milk burns and you can see the letters. Pretty amazing. He bled the Bible,
he breathed the Bible, he did. I believe that day and night
means that the person, will and word of God are the chief occupation
of the mind. It is part of what it means to
love the Lord your God with all your mind. One of the most brilliant
and to me entertaining, and I mean this in a wonderful way, not
in a bad way, the most brilliant and wonderful, whimsical, brilliant,
did I say that, person on this planet is Ravi Zacharias. I love
that guy. I mean, it's amazing. And yet with him, the foundation
of all that learning, Bible, Bible, Bible, Bible, Bible, Bible,
more Bible. Now, there are passages we don't
have time to get into, but I can refer you to Colossians 3, 1
through 2, that talks about having our minds set on things above.
I talk about Colossians 3, 16, that the word of Christ dwell
in us. Dwell in us. Now. Is this you? Is this you? And here's something, whenever
the Bible is preached, whenever your relationship with God is
to be spoken of properly, it's always in present tense. You're
only as spiritual as you are right now. You can't rest on
past laurels. You say, well, you know, I memorize
scripture. I did this. If it's always in
past tense, you're in danger. We never talk about past tense.
It's always present tense. What is your life like now? Present
tense. What are you doing now with the
scriptures? Where are you now? I want us
to just look at a few things that are very practical. How
do we, because I honestly hope even though I know it brings
you pain, I hope that some of you have said to yourself, I
am not delighting in the law of the Lord. I'm not doing it.
I hope. That is, guys, I want to tell
you something that that's the turnaround point when you just
hear and hear and hear and you never answer the question, you
just keep going down the wrong way. This is a turnaround point,
if you can say in young people, this is you, I'm looking at you,
OK? Also. Don't be don't be putting Christian
on the end of your name. If you think there's a subcategory
of Christian that young people do not have to bear fruit or
be interested in spiritual things and they're still Christian,
it's not true. Have you come to the point maybe
where you've said, you know, I just I don't delight in the
law of the Lord? Not in a biblical definition,
I don't delight in the law of the Lord. Now, the question always
is, is not to leave a group of people going, I don't delight
in the law of the Lord or I don't love God, but to tell them, OK,
how do we get out of this? How do we get out of this? I
mean, really? Well, I'm going to tell you the
problem is it's not going to be complex and it's not going
to be easy. But you can get out of it. You
can get out of it. First step, recognize your failure. Just recognize your failure.
There's a book that I keep, there's two books that I keep on my desk
other than the Bible. One is, and you can, I've had
it since I was like 22, is the autobiography of George Mueller.
Yellow pages, torn, that book. The other book is actually a
modern contemporary book that's secular. And it's been very helpful
to me. It's called Talent is Overrated. And it uses different people
like Jerry Rice and other people as one of the greatest wide receivers
who ever lived and yet really didn't have talent to be a wide
receiver. And the things that he did to become the man he was,
the player that he was. And just copious amounts of other
examples of people who did not buy in to genetic fatalism, saying,
well, I'm just this way, I don't have talent, can't do this. But
they literally overcame it. And they overcame it by sitting
down strategically and saying, this is where I am. This is where
I want to be. And I'm going to have to seriously
change some things strategically. I'm just going to have to discipline
myself to do this because the desire is so strong. Jerry Rice wasn't fast. So what he did, he practiced
his patterns. to the point of like a half inch.
He would run those wide receiver patterns to a half inch. The
coach would not allow him to share his off-season training
program with anyone else on the team for fear it would kill them. He said, this is what I got to
do. And he wanted it so bad that he was willing to do that. And
I admire that. I really do. And in every individual,
almost none of them have the talent or the gifting. They just
want it. I heard one fighter say, I'm
not talented, I'm obsessed. I've got to have this. They're the people you call crazy.
Extreme. Yeah, yeah, they are all of them. So first thing, recognize your
failure. Secondly, recognize your dire need. Wake up. It's impossible. It is impossible
to live the Christian life without being saturated with the word
of God. It is impossible to live with vitality, strength, fruit. It's impossible. All the preaching
from Anthony and Jamie and everyone else. I'm sorry. It's not going
to get you over the rope. It's not going to do it. What it can do, though, is actually
harden you. So that you're here in all kinds of glorious things
and it never changes you. I'm too old to care about glorious
things, I just want to change. I don't have as much time left
as I did when I started. I want to change. I want to be
different. I want to be like him, not just
say or write or study big things about him. Sooner or later, young people,
college students. You just get so and I'm going
to put it this way, you just get so stinking tired of words. It's like, just show me. Just. I just want to be different than
I am more like him. So you recognize your failure. You recognize, look, you can't
live. You can't. You can't. And I'm
going to say it this way. It's going to hurt you. You can't
be a good husband. You can't be a good wife. You cannot be
a good father. You can't be a good mother. You
can't be a good child. You can't be a good friend, not
the kind of friend the Bible talks about. Apart from saturating
your life in the Bible, you cannot you cannot hear this husband,
wife, brother, sister. All of you hear this, you can't. I love that that I'm not really
big on sports illustrations, but here I go with another one.
I love it where that guy comes to this coach and says, I want
to be a pro football player. I want to be a pro football player.
He says, meet me at the beach tomorrow. Meets him at the beach.
He thinks he's going to run wind sprints in this in the sand.
A big old football coach says, follow me out into the water,
followed him out deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper
until he had to kind of tread water. Football coach, pretty
tall guy, he's still standing there. And he said, well, you
out here treading water now? He said, yeah. And he grabbed
him by the shoulders and the head and dunked him under. And
that football coach was big and he was strong and he held him
there. He held him there until that kid literally thought, I'm
going to die. This man has lost his mind. He's
fighting with everything he's got. He's punching now. He's
kicking. He no longer thinks it's a game.
He thinks he's going to die. And that coach, right when he's
about to pass out, lifts him up out of that water and says,
now, when you want to play football as much as you wanted to breathe,
come back to me and I'll train you. How much do you want to be like
Jesus? But know this, you can't be like
Jesus without the word any more than you can live without air.
You can't. And I used to think it was so
hokey, I'd go into some homeschool houses, you know, they have verses
all over the walls and everything else. I no longer think that's
hokey. I don't care how you do it. I don't care how you do it, put
verses all over the wall, do the Deuteronomy 6 thing, but
mainly verses by themselves aren't going to help you. You've got
to study the scriptures. Yourself, so you've got to recognize
your failure, you've got to recognize that you cannot live the Christian
life without saturating your life in the word. And then. Recognize this, this truth. I
learned this from Jay Adams, the counselor, Jay Adams. And
it's been one of the greatest helps to me. You're either spiraling
upward or you're spiraling downward. That's all there is to it. And
you know what I'm talking about. You decide you're going to work
out one day, you work out one day and then work out the next.
Each day you work out, it kind of gets easier to work out. Each
day you miss, it gets harder and harder to work out, doesn't
it? It's the same way with the scriptures, and I'm telling you,
it's true. The more you study the scriptures, the more acclimated,
the more ready you are to study the scriptures and the more you
back off of it, the harder it is to restart. Now. Here's where we get to the meat
and it's this. I want you, if you're in a situation
right now where you're saying, I'm just not studying scripture.
Next step, begin to consume the scriptures as a matter of sheer
discipline or simple obedience. Do it as hard work. I don't even
care if you think it's drudgery. I don't care if you like it.
Do it. Do it. You know one of the greatest
problems with people is Christians will look at people who study
the Bible a lot or read the Bible a lot or they'll look at people
who pray a lot and this is what they'll say. They read the Bible
a lot and they pray a lot because they're gifted at that. And it's
easy for them. Do you see how that sets you
up? I'm not gifted at that. That's not easy for me. It must
not be my calling. What you've got to understand,
I learned this from Dr. Piper. One of the things you've
got to understand, for every Christian it's a battle. Do I
study the Bible? Yes. It is a battle. I don't want to get up in the
morning sometimes. I don't want to stay up at night
sometimes. Do I pray? Do I intercede for
nations? Yes, I do. Do I enjoy it many
times? Absolutely not. It's a battle. I have a dear friend right now
that just came off a ventilator. Ask him if it's easy to breathe.
He'll say it hurts like hell to breathe. but he's not gonna
quit breathing. You do it because you must. But
here's the wonderful thing that always happens. What starts out,
if you're truly Christian, what starts out as sheer discipline
and raw boned obedience will turn into desire. You know this. The times when you gave yourself
more and more to study God's word, did you not love God's
word? The more you gave yourself to prayer, did you not, could
you not say to yourself, oh, I can't wait till this baby goes
to sleep so I can hit my knees again. But don't think you're to necessarily
start off with desire. You start off with this is a
must. This is a must. And I'm going
to do it. I'm going to do it now. I want
to give you a few things to do. First of all, be intentional.
I want to be an Olympic power lifter. OK, what's your strategy?
I don't have one. You're not going very far. Be intentional. Find out what
your capacity is and don't be easy on yourself. I know some
men who can read 10 chapters a day, 20 chapters a day and
comprehend what they're reading. I know other men just as good
a man, but three chapters a day. If they read any more, that's
no reason to be reading. One of the things that I most
recommend that is most neglected by the modern day Christian,
because we can we got little computer things where we can
jump all over the place and find words and everything else. The
old saints didn't have that. So in order to know certain things,
they had to know something about everything. That's why when we
talk about our doctrine of the Holy Spirit, we usually go to
John 14, John 16. Right. The old guys, they went
to Zephaniah. And you're thinking, was that
even a book in the Bible? So one of the things that I would
truly recommend you to do that I think is the most beneficial
thing to do is to get you, first of all, a really good translation.
I recommend the New American Standard, recommend ESV, recommend
New King James. And I'll tell you what I personally
do now. I've got a Greek New Testament
and I've got all these different things. But when it comes to
me just reading the Bible for change, I don't want to get caught
up in four hours of trying to figure out what this preposition
is. I don't want to get caught up in all these intricacies.
I just want to read and enjoy the word and ask serious questions
about me. And to do that, One of the things I most prefer,
I use the New American Standard Translation, but I use the ESV
study notes. ESV Study Bible. It's notes. And there are others. There's
the Reformation Study Bible. There's MacArthur's. There's
others. But that's the one I use. I find it it's most down the
center with regard to historical biblical Christianity. And why
do I do that? It's not that I read a chapter
and then read the notes. I just I'm reading the chapter.
I'm wanting to hear what God says. But then I come to some
city or something that maybe I don't know where it is and
it kind of intrigues me. I can look down real quick in a matter
of a few seconds, get my bearings of what's going on and get back
up to the text. I just want to enjoy God in the Word and start
in Genesis and read through Revelation and then do it over and over
and over and over again. And that's why a study Bible is also
very helpful when you get into those minor prophets that you're
not really accustomed to. You get kind of a bearing. Guys,
it's not rocket science, it's not brain surgery, or like a
friend of mine says, it's not rocket surgery. You just read
and listen and ask questions. And find text that, you know,
people sometimes will get in a memory system. I'm going to
memorize scripture this way. And that's fine if your brains
work that way. But here's the thing I think is very important,
is memorize those scriptures that you most need now. You're
going through times of trials. Memorize James 1. You're having struggles in your
studies with God's Word. Memorize Psalms 1. Don't just
do something in order to mark it off. That's the type of people
we are, isn't it? I memorize this and this and this and this.
Memorize what you must have to live at that moment. Now, again, I want to iterate
something. Your discipline will turn into
delight. It will. It will. Get someone. I'm so tired of lone wolf, super
spiritual Christianity. Get a friend who's going to start
asking you some serious questions. Get someone. I mean, I believe
that personal discipleship and relationships and, you know,
church is about that. You know, it's not about being
a Gestapo and going around trying to prove everybody's not doing
what they're supposed to be doing. But you need to be intently concerned
about your brothers and sisters in Christ. And it begins with
the Word of God. Now, I've gone on a long time, but I just want,
let's just go quickly to verse 3. The outcome of the blessed
who avail themselves of God's Word. And this is encouraging. It says in verse three, he will
be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields
its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. And in
whatever he does, he prospers. Number one, let me say this.
Those who dig their roots deep into the word of God. That's
what it's saying. Those who dig their roots deep
into the word of God will be like a tree firmly planted by
streams of water. Now, in Peru, in many places
in Peru, it's very arid, just desert, some of the driest desert
in the world. And if you're flying over it with a bush pilot or
something, you just see desert, desert, desert, and all of a
sudden you see this little strip of green. Like a little line. Why is that in the middle of
the desert? Because that's where water's flowing. In that one little place.
You do not have life without water. You do not have spiritual
life without the Word of God. Without the Word of God. Now,
look what it says. It says planted by streams of
water, literally in Hebrew channels of water. Now, in Hebrew, you
want to always look at the plural, because a lot of times it's really
telling us something like he spoke with the voice of many
waters. Well, because they don't say
little pond, big pond. They don't say pond ocean. They
say water, smaller waters. Great. So what it's talking about
here is abundance, abundance. You know, we hear all these TV
preachers and I'm so sick of, you know, their abundant life,
meaning that you're going to go without any turmoil and you're
going to have a Mercedes. That's not what it means. That's
disgusting. We want things much more greater,
much greater than a Mercedes. We want life. We want love. We
want the fruit of the spirit. We want to be a blessing to people. Oh, and another thing, those
guys always talking on TV about, you know, you need to prosper,
you'll be like a tree, you bear fruit in its season. One thing
those TV evangelists need to understand is that trees never
eat their own fruit. If you're bearing fruit, it's
to bless somebody else, not to bless yourself. Let's go on. The word planted denotes that
the availability of spiritual life and power will not be passing
or sporadic or intermittent, but permanent, enduring, a permanent
and enduring flow. You're planted like an oak. Your
roots go deep down. I remember one time we were going
to build a church in Acerradero, and there was a big lemon tree
right in the way, and we had to remove the lemon tree. It's
one of the most difficult things you can do on the Amazon. Or that
was the Maranon River. because they have a taproot that
just goes down and down and down and down. We work for two days
to get that out of there. And that's the idea. It's this
idea of a taproot of a large tree sunk down deep into the
water. It's a permanent flow. There's
a consistency of power and life and vitality that are coming
into that person. And then they will yield their
fruit in their season. This is very, very important.
It shows a lot of wisdom. That the benefits of your Bible
study, the benefits of meditation, of digging deep in the word,
they will not always be immediate. They will not always be immediate.
It's by faith, but they will be sure they will come. There
will be benefit. Why is it just in their season? Why is fruit not always evident? There's three reasons that I
see in the scripture. First of all, times of growth are needed.
If a tree bears more fruit than its structure, its limb and trunk
and root system can withstand, it'll topple over. Limbs will
break. Things will be ruined. I've seen young Christians that
had something of the power of God on their life, maybe a young
preacher, and he didn't build up the structure of his life
with the word of God, but he was mightily used in evangelism
or something like that. And the tree topples over. Why?
Because he doesn't have the structure. He should have stepped back a
little bit. Some wiser men should have grabbed Him and hid Him
a while and taught Him and got Him in the Word, you see. So
there's need to be able to grow, to sustain and hold up this fruit
and not topple or ruin the tree. Also, Jesus talks about in John
15, He said, the Father prunes us. Why does he prune us? He
prunes us that we bear a lot more fruit. If you ever go to
a place where someone's pruning either vines or pear trees, you
think, oh, what happened here? A crazy man with a chainsaw got
loose. You see a stump. Where where's
my fruit tree? You've killed it. But then you
begin to see this thing comes back and bears even more fruit. Sometimes the Lord will do that
in your life. He will just seem like he tears you from limb to
limb. But it's in order to make those limbs more fruitful. And then there's just simply
times of rest. Do you know that the land of
Israel, every seven years in the year of Jubilee, it required
a rest? The land required a rest from
plowing and sowing and fruit bearing. It's the same way in
our lives. Sometimes God just can't use
us all out full like that. Sometimes we just need to rest
and he will rest us when we don't want to rest. Now. It says their
leaf will not wither, fruit may not always be evident, but life
will. Life will. That even when it seems like
you're not bearing copious amounts of fruit in the ministry and
things like that, there is life bubbling up. There is real, genuine
life going on and people can see it. It affects everyone around
you. Life. Then finally. Whatever they do, they prosper.
Now, what does that mean? They are saturated and I'll finish
with this. They are saturated in God's word. They have cultivated the mind
of Christ, they have a keen understanding now of the purpose and will of
God for their lives, and they are empowered to carry out that
will through the strength of the word and the spirit. They're
blessed. They're blessed, they're bountiful. And verse six is such an encouragement.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. What does that
mean? You say, well, I thought he knew
everything. I thought he knew the way of
the wicked. How's it say he just knows the way of the righteous?
We have to understand the Hebrew concept of no, which indicates
intimacy, sometimes the greatest physical and sexual intimacy. And the whole idea means this.
The Lord is intimately acquainted with them and intensely concerned
for their well-being and directly involved in their lives to bring
about His desired outcome. Now, isn't that wonderful? He
knows everything and He's intimately involved in every aspect of your
life. Doesn't that give you encouragement?
That when He now says, follow me by saturating your life in
my word, you'll do so. Don't be like the wicked. Young
people. Don't be chaff, lifeless, dead, useless, that is driven
away and forgotten and is no more, that perish and no word
is ever spoken of them again. Don't be that way. Don't lose
your life. But be like a tree firmly planted
by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season. Be like
that. Give yourself to the word. Sorry
it's taking so long, but hopefully this will bring you some help.
Strong medicine usually does. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word. I pray that you would use it
in the life of your people. Jesus name. Amen.