If you will, turn back with me
to the book of Psalms, Psalm chapter one. The Psalms are written like all
the other books of the Bible by divine inspiration. Don't ever get the idea because
these Psalms were sung that they're not divinely inspired. And all of the Psalms speak of
Christ our Redeemer. They all speak of Him. This blessed
man that he talks about here in chapter one, don't get the
idea that's you. That's Christ. That's Christ. But it is me in
Christ. Blessed. Blessed. And what I want to talk to you
about this morning is the way of the righteous. In verse 6
of Psalm 1, he writes, For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous,
but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Every son and daughter
of Adam is living out their days in what the Holy Ghost here calls
the way, the way, the way of the righteous or the way of the
ungodly. The word way, the dictionary
defines as a course affording passage from one point to another. That's the way. The way. How to get from here to there. That's the way. Our Lord talked
about it. He said, broad is the way that
leadeth to destruction and many there be that travel that way.
They're on that way. But narrow is the way that leadeth
into life everlasting. That's narrow. Narrow way. Not too many folks on that. It's a course of experience,
life, conduct. Sometimes it's referred to as
the straight and narrow way. I've heard that all my life. The way is the knowledge of how
to get from one place to another. I get ready to go visit these
folks out in California. I'm going to have to get a map
or probably just use my GPS. But he'll show me the way. Turn
here, go straight here, so many miles, turn here. And men and women, their lives are often called
a journey. A journey. In Hebrews 11, 9,
speaking of the faith of Abraham, he says, by faith he sojourned. He journeyed in a land of promise. This was the land of promise.
This is the land that God gonna lead Abraham's seed into. This land of promise. And he
sojourned in this land of promise as in a strange country. Dwelling
in tents. with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs
with him of the same promise. Everybody's in the way, but every
way is not the way of God, or the way to God. There's a way,
it says in the Proverbs, it says it twice. There's a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. It seems right, it seems Logical. It seems logical. A fellow was
trying to defend freewillism to me one time. He said it just
stands to reason. Whose reason? Yours? There's
a way that seems right unto a man. It seems logical. It seems right. It has to be right. What is this way that seemeth
right to a man? Well, if he lives an honest life
and keeps himself from vices and works hard to support his
family and he gives to those who are in need, God will honor
his life and admit him into glory. That seems right, don't it? I
know it seems right because I hear it at every funeral I've ever
attended. They never talk about what that person lying there
still believed. They talk about what they did.
Talk about what they did. And while these things are honorable,
it's honorable. I'm not trying to tell you don't
give to people in need. If you see somebody in need,
give to them. But don't expect admittance into heaven because
you gave to them. Give to them because it's an
honorable thing to do. While these things are honorable,
they ought to be practiced by all. They're not the way of salvation. They're the fruits of it. What else seemeth right to a
man? Majority acceptance. So what you're saying is you
want me to believe you and everybody else in the world wrong. Is that
what you're saying? I'd like to know how many times
I've had that said to me. Well, I'll tell you what John
said. He said, we are of God. How many was there? Just a few.
Less than probably what we got in here this morning. He said,
we know we are of God. Now listen, and the whole world
lies in wickedness. Is that what scripture says? Then why does the other seem
right to us? Do you know every time Israel was in the majority,
when the children of Israel stood up, took a vote, was in majority,
do you know every time they were cursed of God? Majority acceptance doesn't mean
anything because men are dead in trespasses and sin. There's
none righteous, no not one. Now listen, there's none that
understandeth and there's none that seeketh after God. Why do
I want to go to them who have no understanding to put a stamp
of approval on what I believe? Why don't I just go to God? Why
don't I go to His Word? Majority, that seems right. Whatever
the majority of men practice, it must be right. No, sir. Actually,
the opposite's true. A boat was called forward to
cross. It was a special day. The pilot saw way out of the
mess he was in, and he said, It's the custom that we turn
loose a man on this day. Who would you have me turn loose?
The majority said, give us Barabbas, crucify him. Is that the majority you want
to look to? There's a way that seemeth right unto a man. It seems logical to him. So, preacher, what is this way
of the righteous? Well, let me give you four or
five things. First of all, and I'm using this
psalm as the basis for my comment, the way of the righteous is a
person. He starts this psalm out. All
the psalms have their beginning right here. The blessed man. That ain't you. That's Christ. That's who that's talking about.
He never stands in the way of the sinner. I wonder how often I do. I wonder
how often I make comments that puts a roadblock up to a sinner. He said, whosoever will Let him,
get out of the way. Let him take of the water of
life. You're in the way, but not the
blessed man. The blessed man never stands
in the way of the sinner, never. He's always the door. Come unto
me, all you that are weary and heavy. I'll give you life. I'll
give you peace. I'll give you rest, rest for
your soul. Come unto me. The way of the righteous is a
person. He's a blessed man. Our Lord
was about to go to the cross and redeem chosen sinners. And
he was giving to his disciples words of comfort. And he said,
in my Father's house are many mansions. I have no clue what
that means. So I just take it at face value.
Whatever it is he's communicating, what a mansion would be to us
is what this is that he's preparing for us in glory. More than you
deserve. If it were not so, he said, I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
For you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. But
where I am, there you may be also. And whether I go, now listen,
you know. And the way, you know. And Thomas stood up and said,
whoa, we don't know where you're going, and how can we know the
way? You know what the Lord said?
I am the way. the blessed name. He's the way. He's the way. Acts 13, 38. He said, be it known
unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. How does that forgiveness come? through the preaching of that
man, that blessed man. And by him, listen to this, verse
39, Acts 13, 39. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which he could not be justified
by the law of Moses. No flesh is gonna be justified,
that's what it says in Romans 3. No flesh is gonna be justified
by the law. by the laws of knowledge of sin.
You go to the law, pleading the law, and the law says, you're
guilty. Yeah, but I didn't. You're guilty. You robbed a bank. Yeah, but
I gave a tenth of my income my whole life. You're guilty. You robbed a bank. You're guilty.
It doesn't change it, what you give and what you say and what
you do. It doesn't change anything. You're still guilty. Guilty. Oh, listen to this, Acts 4, verse
12. Neither is there salvation in
any other. If you're looking for salvation
somewhere else, you're never going to find it. It's in Christ.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's the way of Christ and
the way of the ungodly. And the way of the righteous
is the way of a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, secondly,
the way of the righteous is a blessed way. It's a blessed way. The dictionary says the word
blessed means to invoke divine favor upon. That's what it means to pray.
Divine favor. It means to preserve from evil
and to endow with gifts. And again I want to show you
that all these things come to believers through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1
verse 3 He said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us. So the Father gave us this, that,
and the other. No, no, that's not what he's
saying here. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Why would he do
that? That you might be holy. You ain't holy apart from him.
You full of holes, but you ain't holy. And without blame, Can you look yourself in the
mirror and say there's a man who has no blame? You can't do
it. But in Christ you can. There's
no blame. He chose us in him before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. That's not talking about you
loving him, though you will. That's talking about being loved. before Him being loved, always
blessed, blessed with the love of God, always. Nothing can change
it. Back yonder in the council halls
of eternity, God the Father struck hands with God the Son concerning
the salvation of a people. And He chose among the salvation
for the glory of His name. And as our covenant surety, he
become the conduit of every spiritual blessing of God. And all the
promises, Paul said, of God in him are yea and amen. Boy, he ain't blessed with God.
He ain't got a nickel. Yes, he is. If he's in Christ,
he is. They're fixed in him, made sure
in him, brought to pass by him. They're one mediator between
God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. This is the blessed man. And somebody might ask, is Psalm
1 talking about Christ or his sheep? Yes, he's talking about
Christ and he's talking about his sheep. He's describing both. In 1 John
4, 17, he said, perfect love has boldness in the day of judgment. It has boldness knowing that
the all-seeing God is looking right on you, right at you, right
now. The love of God has boldness
in the day of judgment knowing this, as he is Christ. So are we in this world. There's nowhere else to have
boldness and judgment except that. Accepted in the beloved,
loved, seated in favor. And apart from him, we have nothing.
We don't have anything. Oh, he's blessed. He's got a
billion dollars. I don't mean he's blessed. Blessings of God in Christ are
beyond any man's imagination. The scripture said, I have not
seen or heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed
them unto us by spirit, by spirit. The way of the righteous is a
blessed way, and everything we have and hope to have is a gift
of God's sovereign grace. He said there's a remnant left.
Israel had dissolved away into nothing, blinded, blinded, had
a veil over their face, couldn't see the glory of God, couldn't
look on Him. But there was a remnant, Paul
said, according to the election of grace. And if it's by grace,
then it's no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. Grace and truth comes by Jesus
Christ. By grace are you saved through
faith. Peter even said this. Let us
have grace that we might serve him acceptably. Oh, I thought
I had to do that, that was just a work idea. No, it's the grace
of God. The way of the righteous is a
blessed way. And then thirdly, the way of
the righteous is the way of God. The Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous. He knoweth. When the Bible talks
about God knowing, it's not talking about an acquired knowledge that
he gets. He looks at you and he hears
what you say and he says, okay, okay, I know, I know. Now I have
to ask him what he's talking about. He knows the way of the
righteous. Not talking about something the
Lord just learned or just found out about. What God knows, he's
always known. One of the definitions of the
word know is to be able to distinguish one thing from another. I know the difference. Turn with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The Apostle Paul is telling us
here in 1 Corinthians 2 the difference between those enlightened of
God and those who have rejected The means of the Spirit of God. All of the things. What are the
things of the Spirit of God? Preaching of the gospel. The
word of God. The word of God. The testimony
of his church. Those are things of the Spirit
of God and they reject them. Not gonna happen. He said, but the natural man,
verse 14, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, they're
foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they're
spiritually discerned, that is, understood. But he that is spiritual
judgeth all things. What's that word judgeth? What's
he talking about? He can judge all things. Well,
he has the ability to distinguish things, and know the difference. That's what he's talking about. So a good substitute for that
word is know, or knoweth. He that is spiritual knoweth
all things, yet he himself, or understandeth all things, maybe
that's a better word. He that is spiritual understandeth
all things. Now watch this. Yet he himself
is understood or distinguished, no difference distinguished,
of any man. What gives us that ability? He
goes on to tell you. The mind of Christ. The mind
of Christ. We know the difference. We know
the difference. God knows the difference because
he set a difference. The subject is the way of the
righteous, and the Lord distinguishes the way of the righteous. It's
His way, and knowledge of it comes from Him. Can't get it
anywhere else. But this is saying more than
He simply can tell the difference, it's saying He knows the way
of the righteous. The way of the righteous, the
way the righteous lives, He knows. the way he worships, rejoices,
and confesses, the way he walks by faith in Christ, the way in
which he comes to the Father in prayer and thanksgiving and
makes his request, the way in which he hopes for justification
and pardon and peace, the way of salvation through the blood
of Christ and the righteousness of Christ, and the way or course
of his life, a follower of God, he walks not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. God knows the way of the righteous,
and he approves of it, delights in it, and has fellowship with
us in it. Now if a man says, I have fellowship
with God, but walks in darkness, the scripture said he's a liar.
He's a liar. But if we walk in the light,
as Christ is the light, We have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of His dear Son cleanseth us from all sin. Fourthly, the way of the righteous
is a righteous way. Who are the righteous, and how
did they get that name? The righteous. The righteous
are those to whom Christ has imputed His righteousness. They
had none of their own. Those Pharisees in their self-righteousness
stood there that day in the house, and they looked on that woman
anointing Christ's feet, and they mocked Him. If He knew who
she was, He wouldn't allow her to wash His feet. Here's what He told them. He said, I'll have mercy and
not sacrifice. Now you go learn what that means.
I'm not come to call the righteous. I'm come to call sinners to repentance. I'm come to give them righteousness. In Roman chapter four, Paul's
teaching us about God's imputed righteousness. And he's using
Abraham as the example of it. And God had given to him the
promise of a seed. He's not talking about his natural
seed being like the stars of heaven and the sands of the seashore.
He's talking about his spiritual seed which is Christ. And in
Christ, he's gonna have a people innumerable. A number that no
man can number. But now he's old and his wife
is old and barren and he still doesn't have any children. But it says in verse 20, he said,
he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God. And being fully persuaded
that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. And
therefore it was imputed, it was charged to him for righteousness. And it wasn't written for his
sake alone it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed, If we believe on him that raised our Lord from
the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. Our righteousness is in Christ. It's not because of what you
did, it's because of what he did. Boy, how that'll change your
attitude when you learn that. It's all about what he did, not
about what I did. It's all about what he's still
doing and not about what you're doing. Faith is a gift of God's sovereign
grace that lets us in on our justification by the righteousness
and shared will of Christ. And you cannot serve, honor,
or exalt the law more than you do when you believe on Christ.
He alone exalted and honored the law. I've often give this
illustration. I was up in Washington, DC, and
we went down there, and we were going in and out all these museums
and stuff. And I went in this art museum.
I've never been in an art museum. I look like I study art. But we went in there, and we
were in this, were the Dutch painters, they call them Dutch
masters, where they did these paintings, and they're huge.
They're five, six feet long, three, four feet high, and there's
benches there, and you can sit on that bench, and you can look
at those paintings, and I did, I was just, man, you can get
lost in the depth of that art. They were just phenomenal. And we'd sat there a few minutes,
and my wife kinda elbowed me, and she said, Who's that guy
over there? And there's this big guy. Boy,
he looked like Mr. Cling. He's standing there, and
he's looking all around the room. And she said, what's he doing? And I said, well, if you get
out your watercolors and you start up toward that painting,
you're going to find out what he's all about. But my friend. That's exactly
what we do when we try to establish our own righteousness. We got
our little watercolors out and we're gonna paint, we're gonna
fix that picture of the grace of God that God's given to us.
We're gonna touch it up. Oh my soul, no you ain't. No
you ain't. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And then fifthly
and lastly, the way of the righteous is visibly different from the
way of the ungodly. It's visibly different. We don't
do things like we used to. Believers, do not walk in the
counsel of the ungodly. If I wanna know the answer to
something, I'm not gonna run out here to some man on the street
and ask him. I'm going to find somebody that
God has taught, and I'm going to ask Him. We don't walk in the counsel
of the ungodly. Believers know God, and they
know His way, and they know His counsel and will. And their lives
are ordered by it, shaped by it, distinguished by it. The
scripture said, in Christ He has abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of
His will, according to His good pleasure
which He purposed in Himself. What is the will of God? It's
a redemptive will. He's going to save a people for
His name's honor and glory. And He's going to do it in Christ.
That's the will of God. What's God doing? He's doing
His will. What's going on here this morning? God's doing His
will. He's doing His will. And believers know it. They know
it. Listen to this, Ephesians 1.10,
that in the dispensation, economy, stewardship of time, all that was trusted into His
hands, including time, He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are on earth, even
in him. The way of the righteous is the
way of God, and the way of Christ, and the way of the Word, and
the way of the Gospel. And this way is drastically different
from the way of the ungodly. It's the way of a person. Religion always tries to sell
you on God's plan. Salvation ain't a plan, it's
a person. It's a person. And that person is the Lord Jesus
Christ. The way of the gospel is also
a person himself. He's the center of it all, his
person, his experience, his good works, his glory, his way. That's
what religion tells you. Believer, though, he's like a
tree planted by the rivers of water. He bringeth forth his
fruit in his season, and his leaf shall never wither, and
whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. God said my word won't return
unto me void. Well, it seems void to me from
time to time, but it's not gonna return to him that way. He gonna
accomplish his purpose. And he said, therefore, based
on this, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners
in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous. Sinners can't stand too much gospel. When I was a young man, back
then on Sundays, the families who were scattered about would
all come together and eat. usually at the parents' house.
And our family was no different. We had Sunday dinner. And mom
would always fix fried chicken every Sunday. Well, didn't you
get sick of it? Mm-mm. No, I counted the days. She'd bring out that big old
oval platter full of fried chicken. There was nothing like it. Mashed
potatoes and gravy and the works. God's people have an appetite
for Christ, but the ungodly don't. And when they hear that steady
die, that steady die, that steady die to Christ, they're not gonna
stay very long. Not gonna stay very long, they're
gonna go out the door. You'll never see them again.
Never see them again. Oh my soul, this one lady got
so aggravated at Scott Richardson years ago, She called him after
church, and she said, she tried to talk to him, and it just wasn't
going nowhere. And finally, she said, Christ, Christ, Christ,
that's all you ever know. That's all you ever preach. He
said, when I die, will you write that on my tombstone? Christ
is all I ever preach, all my soul. Believers wouldn't have
it any other way, any other way. They'll drive as far as they
got to drive to hear this.