Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
1. I thought this week as I sat
down to begin to prepare our study through the Psalms, I tried
to imagine how Spurgeon must have felt. As he sat down, you
know, there was a day that Treasury David did not exist. And Spurgeon
had to put ink to paper for the first time to begin that awesome
work. And I thought, I wonder what
he felt like. I know what I feel like to preach
through these for the next little while. It's hard to imagine what
he felt like, but I'm sure I'm glad he did it. It's a good resource. As I say, we're going to begin
to study through the book of Psalms this evening. It'll probably
take us close to three years to get through. We don't need
to be in a hurry. And Lord willing, this is what
we'll see in the Psalms as we go through and look at them.
We'll see praise and we'll see worship. The word Psalm means
praises. As we go through this study,
what I want us to see is the praises of the Lord. And the
way that we praise the Lord is by worship. That's what the whole
book of Psalms is all about. It's about praise and worship. And the subject of these Psalms
is all Christ. Remember when our Lord told his
disciples that? He opened their understanding
and he showed them how everything written in the Law of Moses,
in the Prophets, and in the Psalms was all concerning him. The Psalms
are all about Christ and they're all about how Christ is personally
experienced by every believer. I believe that's what makes the
Psalms so precious to God's They're about our Savior and how He is
personally experienced by every believer. You find a Bible of
an old believer. They've had that Bible a long
time. Those pages of the Psalms are just going to be more wrinkled
and crinkled than the other pages because they go to them so often.
Because in the Psalms, we see how the believer personally experiences
our Savior. And the whole book begins with
this word, blessed, blessed. And that word means more than
happy. It means how happy, exclamation
mark. There's an exclamation mark in
the book I used to look up the definition of that. It's how
happy, exclamation mark. Or it's oh the blessedness. That's
what this word blessed means. Now we use the word blessed a
lot, don't we? We say so and so is blessed,
this happened, that's a blessing. We use this word often. But I
want us to consider who is the truly blessed person? Who is the truly blessed person? The title of the message is The
Only Blessed Man. So who is the truly blessed person? What blessing is it that I should
seek if I want to be a blessed man? Now, we say there are many
blessings and there are there many different blessings. But
the true blessing, the blessing that I must have is the blessing
that I cannot live without. The true blessing that I must
have is the blessing that's enough. Even if everything else is taken
away. That's the blessing we must have.
So what blessing is it that should I seek? Who is the truly blessed
person? We say that it's a blessing to
have material things. And I don't argue with that.
I'm not anti-material things. I like nice things, you know.
But are those material things enough? Are they really? You
know they're not. You know they're not. One day,
I'm going to leave them all to somebody else, or I'm going to
die, and Janice is going to say, what in this world am I going
to do with all this stuff? And she's going to call Brady and start a bonfire,
and he's going to burn it up. That's what's going to happen
to all this junk. That's not the blessing, is it? And like
I said, I am not anti-material blessings. I like a nice house
to go home to. I like a comfortable chair to
sit in. I like a dependable car. I was
coming back from Cottagefield once years ago. Jay and I are
first married. We drove these jalopies and the engine of that
car blew up in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia. I had
to walk and call her, use four cell phones, come get me. I'm
so thankful that that happened again. I got a dependable car.
I'm just sure it's going to make it from here to there. I'm thankful
for those things. I like clothes. I like good food. Those things are all blessings.
I don't deny that. But my soul can live without
them. And one day they will. They will one day. We say it's
a blessing to have your family all around you. And that's so. But is that enough? Is that the
real blessing that I must have? You know it's not. One day I'm
going to leave my family behind and I'm going to go face God
alone. Just me and God. I love my family. I love it when
the kids are all home and fellowship together and the things we have
together. But I have to admit, my soul can live without. That's
not the blessing I must have. We say it's a blessing to have
a good job, a good paying job with good benefits. Those kind
of jobs are hard to find, aren't they? You got one, that's a blessing.
But is it enough? I mean, is it really enough?
You know, it may actually be a curse. If I've got a job and
it makes me seek promotion and it makes me seek increase in
pay, makes me seek influence, increased influence on the job
and in the community. To do that at the expense of
worship, at the expense of seeking the Lord, that job is not a blessing.
That job is a curse. Good job is a blessing. Again,
I'm not anti, if you've got a good job, don't quit it. Think that's
gonna make you closer to God. No, good job's a blessing. It
enables you to support your family. It enables you to help support
the church. But don't ever forget this. While
you seek to have a good job, you seek Christ and his righteousness
first. All these other things will be
added to you. Then we say good health is a
blessing. How many times, I mean, this is, everybody will tell
you this, if you got your health, you got everything. Well, you
know, I beg to differ. I beg to differ. One day, all
of us are gonna lose our health. These bodies have got to die
because of sin. They've got to lose their health.
Now, I don't deny having health's a blessing. If you've got good
health, it gives you the strength to do things and serve the Lord
while you're here. But I tell you this about health.
I will not truly live until this body dies. That's fact. That will be the day of true
blessing. So if those things aren't the true blessing that
I must have, what is the true blessing? Who is the truly blessed
man? Well, he's described here in
verses one through three of Psalm one. Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth
he meditate day and night. And he should be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit in
his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he
doeth shall prosper. Now most people that you hear
talk about these verses, and even you read about them, they'll
tell you a man is blessed, if he doesn't do some of these things,
and he does do some of these other things. They say that's
a blessed man. They say a man is blessed if he delights in
the Lord. A man is blessed if he delights
in the Word of God, meditates on God's Word day and night.
He's blessed if he's a tree planted by the water and everything he
does prospers and his leaf doesn't wither. He doesn't go through
this gradual descent away from the Lord. We see that gradual
descent away from the Lord in verse one. Walking, standing,
and sitting. First, the man who's not blessed.
First, he just walks in the counsel of the ungodly. First, he just
starts walking by. He just almost like he's window
shopping. He just walks by. He walks by the counsel of the
ungodly. In the counsel of the ungodly,
that's the advice. and the wisdom of this world.
That's the way the world says things. You ought to do things.
First, he just walks by. Then, he stops and he stands. He stands in the way of sinners.
Now, the way of sinners is the way of sin. It's the religious
way of self-righteous works religion. That's the way of sinners. First,
he walks by. Then he stands in it. And thirdly, Then he sits. He
sits in the seat of the scornful. Following the wisdom of the flesh,
following the self-righteous way of the flesh will always
lead a person to be scornful. Always. They'll be scornful of
God's word. They'll be scornful of God's
way. If you're walking in the council of the ungodly, how can
you agree with God's word? Now you're going to scoff at
God's word. That word scornful means interpreter. It's the scornful
person, it's someone who gives their own interpretation of Scripture.
They don't give that interpretation comparing Scripture to Scripture.
They don't give their interpretation of Scripture that's consistent
with who God is or what His Word says. It's their own interpretation. The way things change, you know,
since David wrote this. They give their own interpretation.
That's a scoffer. Now there's no doubt about it.
The man who does that's not blessed. That man's a cursed man. But
if that's the only way we look at this psalm, if that's the
foundation that we use to look at this psalm, it's going to
do one of two things, and both of them are bad. First, if we
look at that psalm this way, that a man's got to do some things
and not do some of these other things, first, it's going to
lead us to despair. If I read that, that verse one,
if I'm honest, this is what I know. That's exactly what I would do
if God left me to myself. That's exactly what I'd do. I
still have a nature of flesh that's so drawn to the counsel
of this world, the way of sinners that being scornful. That's exactly
what I'd do if God left me to myself. I will tell you I love God's
Word. I get up in the morning and I
spend the lion's share of my day in the study, looking at
God's Word. But I just tell you, I'm in this
flesh, I can't meditate on it day and night. I mean, finally,
I just I can't do no more. If I've got to meditate on God's
Word day and night to be blessed, I'm in despair. Are you? I mean, if I always have to delight
in the Lord to be a blessed man, That's going to cause me despair
because sometimes things happen and I just don't delight. I know
it's right. I know the Lord did it. I know
he didn't make a mistake, but if it's painful to me, harmful,
seems harmful to me, I just, I'm not difficult to find delight
in it. If that's what I've got to be, to be a blessed man, I'm
going to be in despair. The second thing will happen
is I may get deceived into thinking I can do those things and that's
going to lead me to self-righteousness. Well, that's not going to make
me blessed. That's going to make me cursed. So who is this blessed man? This
can only be talking about one man. I've got three points. It's
kind of a long introduction, but I got three points. Here's
my first point. The only blessed man is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the only man these verses
can be talking about. Our Lord Jesus never one time
walked in the council of this world. He never walked in the
wisdom or the way of this world. And he didn't need counsel from
anybody in this world. His name is Counselor. If you
want a counselor, you find him. His name is Wisdom. He always
gives good counsel. He didn't need the counsel of
this world. He didn't walk in the way of this world. He walked
in truth and uprightness. He walked always establishing
perfect righteousness to give his people who couldn't do it
themselves. The wisdom of this world. What
is it? In a nutshell, it's to get all
you can. Get everything you can get from
this world. Get all the riches you can get.
Get all the fame you can get. Get all the comforts of this
life you can get. The world says if you do that,
you're a success. That's the wisdom of the world.
How did our Savior deal with that? Remember when Satan tempted
our Lord? He said, look here, look at all
the world. I'll give it all to you. I'll
give you all the kingdoms of this world. They're mine to give
you. Our Lord wouldn't even walk by it. He told Satan, get thee
behind me, Satan. For it's written, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. He
wouldn't walk in the way of the wicked. He wouldn't walk in the
counsel of this world. Christ is the blessed man. He's
the one who would never stand in the way of sin. Christ our
Savior would never stand for self-righteousness and works. His harshest words were always
for the self-righteous. Here's a man, he didn't stand
in the way of sinners. He could sit down at a table
filled with publicans and sinners and be kind and merciful to them.
But Pharisees received his harshest words because he wouldn't stand
in the way of self-righteous sinners. Christ has always stood
firm as the representative and surety of his people. He should
stood sure as the savior of his people to guarantee their salvation.
Then our Savior never one time sat in the seat of the scornful.
Even Christ the Savior did not give his own interpretation of
the scripture. Even Christ the Savior didn't
give his own message to people, did he? When he spake, whose
words did he speak? He always spoke the words the
Father did. In his great high priestly prayer,
he said, Father, these that you've given me, I've given them the
words that you gave me. He never gave his own interpretation.
It's Christ who gives us the word of God. It's Christ who
reveals the true meaning of every scripture because he's the word
incarnate. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, revealing who God is and how God saves sinners. He
did that in truth. Our Savior found his delight
in the law of God. He didn't just keep the law because
he had to. You know, there's laws of the land. I keep because
I have to. I pay taxes. I've got a stack
of stuff I take down to the accountant every year to pay my taxes. It
grieves me to no end. I'm not doing that because I
delight in it. I'm doing it because I have to.
I have to. Our Savior, He never looked at
the law of God like I look at paying taxes. He delighted in
God's law. He delighted to keep it. You
and I can't do that. But Christ the Savior did. The
Apostle Paul said in Romans 7, if you're a believer, you know
this, you love the law. You want to keep the law, don't
you? Paul said, I do. I want to keep God's law. He
said, but I can't do it because I find Evil is always present
with me. Evil was never present with the
Savior. He's perfect. He's delighted to keep God's
law. Christ is the only blessed man.
This tree that's planted by the water of life, that's Christ. He's the tree of life and He's
the water of life. All life is in Christ. All blessing
is in Christ. And the life that He gives is
eternal because His leaves never wither. Christ is the only blessed
man. Who else do you know who always
prospers in everything He does? Only the Lord Jesus. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the successful Savior. He cannot fail to save
His people from their sin because He prospers in everything He
does. The Father sent His Son to this
earth on a mission. He sent him to this world to
do the father's will. What was the father's will? It
was to save his elect from their sin. So the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's only begotten son, came to this earth to live a life,
a human life of humiliation. How he humiliated himself to
be made flesh, He humiliated himself, the creator humiliated
himself to take on the form of the creature. All of his glory
as a son of God was hidden. He looked just like any other
common ordinary man. He lived with all the limitations
of human flesh. He had to sit on the side of
the well and ask the most sinful woman in town to give him a drink.
He lived with those limitations. And then he suffered the untold
humiliation of being made sin for his people and dying under
the just condemnation of his holy father, having his father
turn his back upon him. How he suffered, all the humiliation
that he suffered. Let me tell you, all of that
is in vain. if just one person for whom he
died perishes. It's all in vain. He didn't prosper
if one person for whom he died perishes. Because they decided
I'm not going to accept Jesus as my personal Savior. Now, can
that possibly happen? Well, you know it can't. Because
whatever Christ the Savior does shall prosper. He died as a sacrifice
for the sin of his people. Then their sin is gone and they'll
live forever. Didn't Isaiah tell us that? He
shall, without a doubt, he shall see his seed. The pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail
of his soul and he'll be satisfied that everything he does prospers.
Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ is the blessed man. He's the only
blessed man. Remember that word blessed means,
oh, how blessed, oh, how happy. You just look and see how happy
the Lord Jesus Christ is, how happy he is to see his perfect
work for his people and in his people, how happy, delighted
he is to bring his people home, to be with him forever. You see,
that's the blessed man, and all blessing is found in him, in
the blessed man. Christ is the blessing that we
cannot live without. Right here's my second point.
Christ is the blessed man, and no other man can accomplish this
blessing. Verse four, the ungodly are not
so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore,
the ungodly should not stand in the judgment, nor sinners
in the congregation of the righteous. Now all men are ungodly by nature,
all men. By our birth in Adam, we're the
opposite of God, aren't we? We're the opposite, so we're
ungodly. We're the opposite of God. So
we saw what Christ would do. What do we do by nature? Well,
we do walk in the counsel of the ungodly. I'll tell you what
we do. How do we walk in the counsel
of the ungodly? Well, we set our own selves up
to be counselors. And with human wisdom, we lead
men and women into hell. That's what we do. We walk in
the counsel of the ungodly. We're ungodly, so we see the
way we walk, I'll tell you where we stand. We stand in the way
of sinners. I don't know. I've not traveled
a whole lot over the world. Maybe this is human nature. I
know this is an American trait. I want to stand on my own two
feet. I just want to be independent, stand on my own two feet. We
want to do that, don't we? Spiritually, we want to do that
too. We want to stand in our own works. And then by nature,
we sit in the seat of the scornful. We want to sit in our own interpretation
of Scripture. You can take the Scripture and
use it as an excuse to do anything. That's the seed of the scornful,
being your own interpreter of Scripture, rather than interpreting
Scripture with Scripture and finding out what God says. Men
are so religious, we love to sit before our idol, the idol
we made up from our imagination by interpreting God's Word. and
twisting it to create our own idol. That's what we do by nature. We're ungodly. So there's no
substance to anything we can produce. We produce all these
works, but there's no substance to them. So the whirlwind of
God's wrath will just easily blow us away, like the wind blows
the chaff. You know, the chaff is just nothing.
The wheat's got some weight to it. The chaff is just nothing.
And the wind just blows it away. That's how they separate the
wheat from the chaff. That's what's going to happen to all
men who want to stand before God on their own two feet. We'll
just be blown away because there's nothing to us, no substance to
us. We'll never be able to stand by God before God's judgment
in our own way or our own works. By nature, we're the cursed man,
not the blessed man. By nature, we will be the eternally
sorrowful man not the eternally happy man, if we depend upon
our words. If we don't have Christ, and
you remember this, Christ is the blessing. If we don't have
Christ, everything we have is a curse. No man can accomplish
this blessing on his own. All right, here's my third point.
How can a son of Adam be a blessed man? Well, the answer's obvious,
it's only in Christ, verse six. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Now we know, of course, the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Solomon said, there's a way that seemeth right unto me, but the
end thereof are the ways of death. If he wants to walk in the counsel
of the ungodly, the end of that is always gonna be death. No
son of Adam can do enough. to earn eternal life, so it's
just obvious we will perish. We do a fine job of earning eternal
death, but we can't even begin to earn eternal life. So if we
would be blessed, we must be found in Christ. Not in our own
self, we must be found in Christ. Christ has earned the blessing
for his people. He earned eternal life for his
people, And He gives that life to His people. We have it through
faith in Christ. If you want the blessing, you
have that blessing by being joined to Christ by faith, by believing
Him. Christ is the way of righteousness. He is the righteousness of His
people. The only way you and I can be
righteous is through faith in Christ, by believing Him, by
believing that Christ is all it takes to make me righteous
before God. Oh, how blessed. Oh, how blessed
we are if we're found in the Lord Jesus Christ. How blessed,
how happy is the man who has the Lord Jesus Christ, who believes
Him, who looks to Him. And let me show you how that's
so. Those who are in Christ, they're
not going to go the way of the wicked. The believer is not going
to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. You know why? His steps are ordered by the
Lord. The Lord is not going to let him go that way. If we're
in Christ, we don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. We walk
in Christ. The Apostle Paul said in Romans
8 verse 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. Well, how do we walk in the Spirit?
We walk in the Spirit by faith in Christ. We walk by faith,
not by sight. That's how we walk in the Spirit,
by believing Christ, by looking to Him. If we're in Christ, we're
not going to walk in the way of the wicked. We walk in light,
so we don't stumble in the darkness. A believer's not going to walk
in the counsel of the ungodly. We walk in paths of righteousness
for His namesake. And Christ, the Good Shepherd,
keeps His people in that path. with his rod and his staff that
keeps us in the way, in the path. In Christ, we have life. We don't
walk in death. We walk in newness of life in
Christ. And a believer walks in love,
love. That is not the way of this world,
is it? That's not the way of the ungodly. It's not a way of
love. This world seems like it's getting more and more and more
and more self-centered every day. The selfish? A believer doesn't walk in that.
A believer walks in love. We walk in love because we love
him who first loved us. Paul told the Ephesian church,
walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. That's what a believer
does, walks in Christ. We don't walk in the way of the
ungodly, we walk in Christ. Then a believer's not gonna stand
in the way of sinners. No, if we're in Christ, We stand
in Christ, in Him. We're not going to stand in our
own righteousness, in our own works. We stand in Christ. He's the one who finished the
work. And we stand accepted before God in Him. Look at Romans chapter
5. A believer is not going to stand
in his works. A believer stands in grace. Romans 5 verse 1. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. A believer
not going to stand in works. No, we stand in grace. A believer is not going to stand
in the way of sinners, in the way of self-righteous, works
religion. A believer stands in the gospel,
in the gospel of Christ. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15
verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you received and wherein
you stand. A believer stands in the gospel.
And we won't quit standing in Christ. We're not going to quit
standing in the gospel. Paul said, watch ye, stand fast
in the faith. That's where we stand. We stand
in faith in Christ. We stand in God's grace. Then
a believer, if we're in Christ, we're not going to sit in the
seat of the scornful. We don't make up our own interpretation
of the word. Paul told the church at Corinth,
we don't do that. We're not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God with secrecy. We handle the Word
of God honestly. And if we handle the Word of
God honestly, what must our message always be? It has to always be
Christ, who's the blessed man. And that's how God's people are
blessed and will flourish. I told you before, when I first
became a pastor, the only piece of advice Brother Henry gave
me was this. Deal honestly with God's Word. His people will flourish. That's how they'll flourish.
By preaching of Christ, He's the blessed man. A believer is
not going to go the way of the wicked. You know why? That man
or woman's got a new nature. Look here at verse 2. But his
delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he
meditate day and night. A believer in Christ has been
born again with a new nature. You weren't born the first time
with a nature that loved God's word or loved God's law. You
hated it. And a believer will say this. I love God's law. I really do. I can't keep it. By my own experience,
I can't keep it. I've kept it in Christ, but in
my own experience, I can't keep it. And even though I can't keep
it, do you know I still love it? Every believer does. Look
at Romans chapter seven. Beginning in verse 18. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For
the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that, I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
then a law. that when I would do good, evil
is present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, that's the new man who's been born of
God, and that inward man, I delight in the law of God. But I see
another law in my members, I see another nature in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man
that I am, who should deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind,
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of
sin. See, the answer, the whole key
to that is Christ, isn't it? He's the one who kept the law
for us, and in Him, I delight in God's law. Now, when I say
I delight in God's law, a believer delights in God's law, that does
not mean in any way that we're looking to the law to tell us
what to do, how to do it, when to do it. A believer has no relationship
with the law whatsoever because Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. We have no relationship with
the law. The law is not our rule of life. Christ is our rule of life. We
love the The believer doesn't fear the law, we love it, because
Christ already kept it and made it into the law. A believer in
Christ, they're dead in Adam, but they have eternal life in
Christ, so they're not going to go the way of death. Look
back here at our text, verse 3. And he should be like a tree,
planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit in
his season. His leaf also should not wither, and whatsoever he
doeth shall prosper. Now David here, he's not talking
about a wild tree growing up in the forest somewhere. This
is a tree that's been planted. And it's been planted by somebody
on purpose. And that someone is God. He planted
His trees, His people. He's planted them in Christ and
He's planted them on purpose. And because He planted them in
Christ, they're always well watered and they'll always have life.
They'll never die. Look at Psalm 92. God's people,
His trees, they're always full of life, they're always full
of sap, and they cannot wither, because they're in Christ. And
God's trees bloom, even in the winter, in the hardship of trial. Tomorrow, look outside, look
at the trees. None of them are blooming, are
they? Now it's wintertime. God's trees bloom even in the
harshness, hard, hard winter of trial. Psalm 92 verse 12. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They should be fat
and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my
rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. See, that tree is the
blessed man. Even when everything else is
taken away. That's the blessed man. He's
planted in Christ. God planted him in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only blessed man. If you and I would be blessed,
we must be found in him because all of God's blessings are in
Him. In closing, I want to give you
just a few blessings that every believer has. I've just limited
myself to what we find in the Psalms that we're getting ready
to begin our study of this evening. If you want to get your concordance
out and look at blessed, blessed is the man blessings, you've
got plenty of time to kill just going through looking at all
of those. I want to give you just three. that's found in the
Psalms. And I want you to notice that
if you go look in your concordance, you'll find this is true throughout
the whole Word of God. These are all spiritual blessings.
When God talks about blessed is the man, it's always referring
to spiritual blessings that we can only have in Christ. So if you have Christ, you have
every blessing that God has for a sinner. Every one of them. Oh, how blessed is the man who
has the Lord Jesus Christ. I told you three, I got four.
I'm gonna give them to you briefly. Psalm 32, verse one. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How is that possible? God covered
your sin in the blood of his Son. Oh, blessed is the man. Psalm 32, verse two. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. And how
could the Lord not impute iniquity to a sinner like you and me who
drank iniquity like water? Because he imputed it to his
son, and his son put it away by his blood. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Psalm 65, verse
four. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. The man is blessed
who God chose to save and has drawn to his son. Oh, that's
a blessing. One more, get a hold of your
seat now. Psalm 94 verse 12. Blessed is the man whom thou
chastenest. Everybody said go. I was with
you at those first three, Frank. Blessed is the man who's chastened
of the Lord Blessed is the man when God chastens him, when he
sends trials our way. Trials that we think will break
us. Trials in the darkness of night.
And all you can do is moan to God. You can't even form the
cry to pray to Him. You're telling me that's a blessing?
That's a whole lot different to have a bunch of money and
a big job and a big family and a big car. That's very different. I think the way God counts blessings
is a very different way you and me count blessings, aren't we?
Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O God. Why is that
a blessing? How can that possibly be a blessing? Well, we have to interpret Scripture
with Scripture. What does Scripture say? Scripture
says that's a blessing because if God chastens you, That means
God loves you. Whom the Lord loveth, he chastened. And in that trial, this is what
you're gonna learn. The Lord's gonna teach you something
you couldn't learn anywhere else. He's gonna teach you more about
the comfort of his presence that you couldn't have learned on
a mountaintop. In that dark of night when you can't even form
the words to cry, The only thing that comforts your heart is His
presence. That's a blessing. The Lord will
teach you His power to deliver. He'll teach you, in that time
of trial, we enjoy all these other things, but this is what
we're gonna learn. The true blessing that I must have, that I cannot
live without, and that God's people will never live without,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed is the man, blessed is
the man who has Christ as his all. And when that trial, when
it helps you wean away from this world and lean more hard on Christ
than you ever have before, you know what you'll say? Even in
that trial, you'll say, blessed, happy is the man who has Christ
as his all. Let's bow and pray. Our Father, how we thank You
for the unspeakable blessing of Your Son, that You've given
Your people every blessing, everything You have for a sinner in Him. You've given us the forgiveness
of our sin. You've covered our sin in the
precious blood of Your Son. You don't impute iniquity to
us because You took our iniquity away at Calvary. Putting it upon
Your Son, having Him put it away through the sacrifice of Himself.
Father, how we thank You. How we thank You. What a blessing
to be chosen of God. What a blessing to be drawn to
Your Son through the preaching of Your Gospel. And Father, we
pray that You do that this evening. Draw us ever closer to our Lord
Jesus Christ. And Father, we thank You for
the chastening, for the chastening of the Lord, for the trials,
for the difficulties, that draws us ever closer to our Savior.
Father, apply this message to our hearts. Cause us to rest
in our Lord Jesus Christ, to know we are blessed. Blessed is the name. Father,
we thank you. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and ask these blessings.