Turn back to Psalm chapter 1. I've thought about this psalm
off and on for the last couple of weeks or so. Titled the message, Jesus Christ,
The Blessed Man. That is the first application
of this song. The Word of God was written by
several men over a period of many years. They wrote as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit of God. And often they wrote of their
own experiences. You know, as you read through
the Psalms, David lays out his heart often of things that he's
going through, not realizing that they apply to the man Christ
Jesus. Not realizing that. I don't think
he realized when he, when he going through everything, what
he, the things he went through. He said, well, now this applies
to the Messiah. No, he wrote his own experiences. And by those
experiences, we see how they apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Word of God was
assembled together as we have it now, all those different men
who wrote the scriptures, when it all came together, it speaks
of one person. the man Christ Jesus. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the primary focus of the Word of God. Look over
in John chapter 5. John chapter 5. Look in verse 39. Search the
Scriptures. And what he's saying to these
Pharisees, you search the Scriptures. You do search them. For in them
you think you have eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me. Of me. He is the primary focus
of the Word of God. You see, it's through the Lord
Jesus Christ that we learn who God is. It's through Him we've
learned redemption. He's the key of knowledge. He
is the key of knowledge. Spurgeon said this. Spurgeon
said that when he found the scripture that he was to preach from, after
he found it, he made a beeline to Christ. He said, I would make
a beeline to Christ once I found the scripture. You know, it's
not, it's really not hard wondering what my subject is. I know what
my subject is. Christ is my subject. I know
that, starting out. But where? Where am I going to
come from? Am I going to come from Psalm 1? Am I going to go
back to Genesis or Matthew? But once we find that portion
of Scripture and we make a beeline to the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ
is the key of knowledge to all the Word of God. Apart from Him,
we cannot understand the Scriptures. I believe that's why we have
so many different religions. They do not know Christ. And
when you do not know Christ, you don't know where you're going
to end up. You don't know where it's going to end up. And the
book of Psalms is a book that reveals the Lord Jesus Christ
in His glorious person throughout the Psalms. Look over in Luke
chapter 24. In Luke 24, verse 44, He said unto them,
These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. that reveals the Lord Jesus Christ
in His glorious person. And in this psalm, in this psalm,
the first psalm, our Lord Jesus Christ is set before us as the
blessed man. Blessed is how that is said.
Blessed. And you know that means happy.
He is set before us as the happy man. You don't picture Him that
way, do you? Most of the time, you don't picture
him as a happy man. You picture him as a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. But the scripture teaches us
he was a blessed man. And he sat before us here as
the blessed man, the man who is blessed of God. The man who
was anointed, as scripture says, with the oil of what? Gladness
above his fellows. And this is the man in whom we
are blessed. You cannot, and you will not,
know true happiness until you know Him. Not until you know
Him. Now, verse 1. Blessed is the
man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly Adam Clarke said
the ungodly are the unjust, rendering to none his due, and without
God. And blessed is the man that walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners.
And he said sinners are those who miss the mark. They pass
over prohibited limits to transgression. Then it says, nor sitteth in
the seat of the scornful. And the scornful are those who
mock, who deride, have no religion, live in open rebellion to God's
law. Now he says, Blessed is the man
that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
There has only been one man who truly fits this description. One man. There has only been
one man who never, ever walked in the counsel of the ungodly. Ever. He never sought counsel
from the ungodly at any time. Nor did he ever stand in the
way of sinners. The Scriptures tell us that there
was one man How many men have lived upon this earth? Billions
upon billions. But there is only one man who
was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Only one man. And this one man
never sat at any time in the seat of the scornful. Never. In fact, whenever they scorned
Him, whenever they derided Him, it says He threatened not. He threatened not. This one man
is the God-man, Jesus Christ. That's who it is. It can only
be said of Him, He knew no We can't comprehend that, can we?
We were born in sin, shaped in iniquity. I've tried to think,
I've tried to meditate, sitting in my study. I've tried to think,
what would it be like to be without sin? I can't even conceive it. I can't get there. I can't get
there. Just like Hollywood. You know,
they can make all kinds of movies about demons and scary movies,
but they can't make one about heaven, can they? They have you
floating on a cloud or something, playing a harp. That's as far
as they can get. You can't conceive it. You cannot
conceive it. And I cannot conceive what it
is or what it would be like to be without sin. But He knew no
sin. That's amazing. That's amazing.
A man. A real man. Adam cannot lay claim
to this. Not long after he was created,
he sinned. He rebelled and all his posterity
sinned in him. And now it's written, there's
none good, no, not one. There's not a just man upon the
earth that doeth good and sins not. The ungodly, the sinners
and the scornful all came from Adam. All came from him. And as I said, this word blessed
means, it means two things. It means two things. It means
to be consecrated, holy. It means to be favored of blessings,
favored with blessings. And then the second one is to
be happy, happy. And I have to confess this. I never really thought of Jesus
Christ as being a happy man. Now, I'm not talking about happy
in the sense you see somebody going around giddy and laughing
and carrying on. That's not happy. That doesn't mean that person's
happy. But a happy man is a man that's just truly content and
just truly delights. And we'll see this in a minute.
He said, I'd delight to do that, Will. Delights in what he's doing.
Do you really delight in the job you're working right now?
I mean, delight in it. Love it. Enjoy it. I don't want to retire from it." Our Lord delighted. He was a
happy man. He was. I know someone's going
to say, I thought that Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He was. My sorrow and my grief. He was acquainted with it. He
took our sicknesses and He bore our sorrows. And yet, He was
a happy man. I don't have to explain that.
He knew no sin, yet he was made sin. This was the little man Christ
Jesus. How could he not be happy? How could he not be happy when
this man is God? God is not morbid. The God of
heaven and earth is not morbid, is not morose, is not unhappy. I believe God is perfectly happy.
And this is God manifest in the flesh. And then how can He not
be happy when He knew no sin? I thought today as I was sitting
in here, if I really knew no sin, I would be perfectly happy.
Don't you know that's part of our happiness and glory? There
will be no more sin. We'll be rid of it. Now He says
no more tears, no more sorrow. And then how could he not be
happy when God is his father? God Almighty is his father. And how could he not be happy
when he knew he would not fail? Isn't that what he says in Isaiah
42? God said, My servant shall not
fail. How could he not be happy? If you knew you would not fail,
if you'd be absolutely 100 percent successful at everything you
put your hand to do, how could you not be happy? Blessed. Blessed is the man. Blessed is
the man. And that man is the Lord Jesus
Christ primarily. But His delight, listen, He does
not walk or stand or sit in the seat of the scornful, but His
delight. Now what does that word mean
to you? Delight. Delight. If I ask Mike
to do something for me, And you said I would be delighted to
do it. I would think Mike's happy to do this for me. Wouldn't you? I'm just delighted to do it for
you. But his delight, happy, he's delighted in the law of
the Lord. And in his law does he meditate
day and night. First application of this verse
is to the God-man. He's the one who said, I delight
to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. Happy to do it. I'm happy to
do thy will. Christ said in one place, my
meat, my food, is to do the will of Him that sent me. I'm happy
to do it. He suffered, yes, but I tell
you what, He was happy to suffer for us. He is delighted to do
it. Because He says here, I delight
to do thy will. What is God's will? This is the
will of Him to send me, that I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. Happy, happy to represent
us. Happy to suffer for us. Happy
to die for us. It was painful. It was painful
and he hurt. And he cried, my God, my God,
whilst I forsake him. We can't enter into that. But
he delighted to do God's will. Happy to do it. Happy to do it.
He is the only man who magnified the law of God and made it honorable. As our Lord would go throughout
the day. go throughout the day doing his
Father's will. It would be on his heart. And
at nighttime, when he lay down to rest, he would meditate on
his Father's Word. And you know what? That was constant.
There was no break in it. Yesterday, Tuesday, I had a terrible
time. I had to leave this about three
different times. I had a terrible time getting
settled down. I could not get my mind settled
down. I got up and left it two or three
times and came back. Our Lord, He said, I delight
in the law of the Lord, and in His law, in His word, do I meditate
day and night. Perfectly. Thinking upon the
Word of God. Just like if you went home tonight
and you took this psalm and you sat down and you thought about
it and you thought about it and you thought about it and you
prayed about it and you thought about it. He did. He did. He never thought about what am
I going to eat? Where am I going to sleep? Or
what am I going to put on? He left that to His Father. He never thought about it. Never
thought about it. All He thought about was doing
His Father's will. And He left what He was going
to eat, what He was going to wear, where He was going to sleep,
He left that to His Heavenly Father. If he was sleeping out
under the stars one night, that's where he would sleep. If they
would eat a little bit of fish and bread, that's what they'd
eat. If they had to go through the cornfield and pluck some
corn for that day's meal, that's what they would do. They didn't
have a storehouse. He trusted God. You know, he
talked about the birds of the air. He said, you're Heavenly
Father of Feast then. That's the way he lived. That's
the way he lived. He lived every day just like
those birds live, trusting the Heavenly Father to just feed
him while he went about doing his Father's will. And also here, we are given a
glimpse into his heart. It's as if his heart's been opened
up here a little bit and letting us have a glimpse in it. Nothing
ever passed through his heart but the will of God. God's Word
ever filled his heart. All the time. And he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall
prosper. That applies to him. That speaks of Him. A tree planted. Jesus Christ is a tree planted
by the Father before the world was. He was established in the
covenant of grace to be the tree of life. Go over in Revelations. I wrote it down, then I somehow
erased it, but it's over in Revelations, I think, chapter 22. He's that
tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
He's that tree of life. He's that tree of life in paradise,
and His leaf, it says, shall never fade from age, from weariness,
from overuse. It will never fail. It will never
fail to comfort. It will never fail to bear fruit. It will never fail, never fade,
and never fail. And He shall bring forth fruit
in His season. What is this fruit? What is this fruit that He shall
bring forth in His season? I'm looking at it. It's the believer. It's the believer. Everyone whom
He saves is His fruit. And you know what? That tree
is still bearing fruit. Centers are still being saved. And they will be brought forth
in his time, in his time, his season, his time. And whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper, he shall not fail. Listen to this in Isaiah
53, 10. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days. He said seed is his fruit. And
the pleasure of the Lord shall what? Prosper. Whatsoever he
does shall prosper. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. Boy, if you and I could look
down from where he's looking from, we would see prosperity. You know, looking at it from
this view, we see a lot of, we just think, my, just a few people? No, he's prosperous. Everything
he does prospers. He shall not fail. Everyone for
whom he died shall be saved. Everyone. Now, now let's go back and apply
this to the believer. We apply it to the man Christ
Jesus. He's the primary focus of the
Word of God. But remember, as he is, so are
we in this world. The true happiness of God's children
is found in this one man who's blessed, who's blessed, blessed,
happy of God. God's children find their true
happiness in that blessed man. Only they know it. They know. They know. When they've been
brought to faith in Christ, they know that their real happiness,
their real contentment, their real joy is Christ. It is Him. When they find Him, they find
true happiness. In Him we are forgiven of our
sins. Now you have to know what sin
is to enjoy that. To be forgiven of something you're guilty of. In Him we are made the righteousness
of God. In Him we are. In Him we are
justified from all things from which we could not be justified
by the law of Moses. In Him we are forgiven We are
pardoned, we are made righteous, we are justified, we are blessed. Blessed, consecrated, made holy
and happy in Him. In Him. There is no lasting happiness
in the things of this world. I think everyone here knows that.
There is no lasting happiness in it. When are we the least
happy? I can tell you when I am the
least happy. It's when I make myself the center
of my attention. That's when I'm the least happy. It's when I'm focused on myself.
Then it starts to be, woe is me. Start that whiny stuff. But my, my, when we are enabled
to look to Him and find in Him all that we need, then we find
true happiness, true happiness. These things are fading. You
see, His leaf never fades. Well, everything else does. All
these things, these things are fading. That which we have in
Him shall never fade. If you and I truly know the Lord
Jesus Christ, we can have true happiness. We have true happiness
whether we have little or much. Little or much. It's not what I possess that
makes me happy. It's the one who possesses me.
It's the one who possesses me that makes me happy. And if you
notice, as we've read through this, not one material possession
is mentioned in reference to happiness. Solomon said the rich
man's riches will not let him sleep. It won't do it. But the ungodly, he says here,
are not so. This is the polar opposite. Not
so. They are not blessed with God.
They are not really happy. Not really. Anyone discontent is not happy.
The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind
drives away, blows it away. What a sad contrast. All that
are not saved in Christ, he says, are like the chaff. You know,
they go through and they pick the wheat and they have chaff.
It's not even part of the wheat. And the way they would do this,
they would throw it up on a windy day. They'd take a windy day
and they would take it in their baskets and they'd throw it up
in the air. And as the wind blew, the wheat would come back down
because it had some weight to it. But the chaff, all the trash,
They'd just blow away. And they'd throw it up again.
And they'd blow it away. And they'd throw it up again.
And they'd blow it away. Until they had wheat. That's what He's
saying here. It's like the chaff. Like the
wind dries away. They're like the flower that
fades away in the heat of summer whose glory shall be forgotten
and the place shall know it no more. No more. Our Lord said
every plant that my Father hath not planted shall be rooted up."
Rooted up. All the sons and daughters of
Adam who are without Christ are doomed. This is why he says they
are doomed to eternal damnation. Therefore the ungodly shall not
stand in the judgment. There is no way they can stand.
They don't have a mediator. They don't have a priest, a high
priest. They don't have a sacrifice. There's no blood for them. They
can't stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of
the righteous. It's not going to happen. And
that day when the Son of Man shall come in His glory with
all His holy angels and take the throne of judgment, He's
going to separate the sheep from the goats. He's going to take
the chaff from the wheat. He's going to winnow His floor
and He's going to put the wheat in the barn, and the chaff, he
says, he's going to burn up. He's going to burn it up. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Verse 6 is the conclusion of
the whole matter. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous. Our Lord said in John 14, He
says here, the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. John 14,
He says, I am the way. You see, He knoweth the way of
the righteous. In John 14, I am the way of the righteous. He
is the way of the righteous. His people are called in the
book of Acts, people of the way. He knoweth the way of the righteous,
because He is the way of the righteous. The Word of God says,
The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord
knoweth them that are His. He knows them that are His. But
the way of the ungodly shall perish. Their way shall perish. Their
hope shall perish. Their works shall perish. They, he said, shall perish. There is a way that seems right
unto man, but the end thereof is destruction. Christ alone, Christ alone He is our righteousness. He is our hope. As it says over in 1 Corinthians,
I believe it's in verse 30, He is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. He is our all in all. He is our way. He is our way. And Jesus Christ is that blessed
man, and everyone in Him is blessed. We are blessed as we are in Him. And if you're happy now, just
wait. Just wait. When sin shall be
no more. And we get rid of these clay
pots. Just wait. Then we'll know what it is to
really, really be happy without a break.