Take your Bibles and turn to
Psalm 1. Psalm 1. Thank you, Pastor, for inviting
me. I appreciate it. Psalm 1. We're going to read the first
three verses. 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 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. The book of Psalms is the book
of praises. That's what the word Psalms means,
praises. And we learn the worship of God
in this book. What is it to worship God? To worship God is to be completely
satisfied with the salvation that God has provided for sinners
and the person of his son, Jesus Christ. The workmonger sees this
psalm and he thinks, oh, this is instruction for me, what I
need to do to make myself more holy, more acceptable with God. But Christ our Savior said that
except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven. And I can assure you that none
of us can outdo what those whitewashed supplicants did with the law. The child of God sees this psalm
and is taught by the Spirit to know, this isn't me on my best
day. In this first psalm, we see Christ,
the blessed man. And once you see that he, Jesus
Christ, is the blessed man, you have no problem in understanding
that only in Christ does God bless his children. Only in Christ
do we worship God, because here we're confessing, Lord, you provided
all things necessary for me to be saved. And confessing that,
you're giving God all the glory, and that is to worship God. But if you're here tonight and
you think that you're somebody, then you're not gonna believe
it when you hear that you're nobody, and that there's nothing
that you can do in your flesh to please God. You won't believe
when I say that it's only in Christ that we are blessed of
God. My title this evening is Christ
the Blessed Man. In our first point, I'd like
us to see that we must be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm
1-1 says, 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. We see here a contrast between
the blessed man and a man who is just a worldly vain man of
this world. Now there's many people that
our God does pass, he just simply passes by and doesn't reveal
himself in a gracious way. But a man who is blessed of God
shall indeed be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're
not in Christ, then you are not blessed. There may be someone
here that hears me tonight, hears me say that and they think, I
don't know, preacher, I don't think I agree with that statement.
I come from a pretty good pedigree, a good family line, I have a
good education, I have a good job, I have many good prospects,
and things are going my way. What I set my heart to, that
seems to come to pass for the most part. I think I'm blessed.
But the word of God teaches us that if we, when we die, we're
all going to stand before holy God. And if we die without the
Lord Jesus Christ, And we shall have proven to be nothing more
than a cow fattened for the day of slaughter. We must have the
Lord Jesus Christ. The ungodly shall not stand in
the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The one who is not in Christ,
you can see what their path would be outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Outside of Christ, all men walketh in the counsel of
the ungodly. Outside of Christ, all men standeth
in the way of sinners. And outside of Christ all men
sitteth in the seat of the scornful. One of the ways that this world
declares their hatred for our God is in their everyday dealings
in this life. Proverbs 21.4 says, in high look
and a proud heart. We can understand that, right?
And the plowing of the wicked is sin. Something as common and
simple as plowing one's field. Seems like a good thing. But
whatsoever is not done in faith is sin. So we look at this first
verse here, and we can see a young man or a young woman just setting
out, starting out, and they're going on their way, maybe just
starting a job for the first time. And someone takes a liking
to them and says, you know, come here, son. Let me tell you how
to get things done in this world. Let me tell you how to do things
so that you make good friends, and you make good business decisions,
and things will go well for you. So you try a few of these things.
they do seem to go well for you. And you think, wow, that's pretty
good. This person's a wise person. Let me hear what else they have
to say. So now you're no longer just
walking by them, but now you begin to stand among them. And you want to hear what it
is that they have to say. And you begin to adopt some of
the things that they do and some of their ways. And you try these
things more and more so that You may not be a drunkard, but
you begin to covet the things of the world. You see that, wow,
what they do, they seem to prosper in this world. They seem to have
these things. I want what they have, these vacations and these
beautiful homes and all these wonderful things that they have,
so that you begin to covet and set your heart on the things
of this world that you might build your kingdom. And finally,
At the end of your days, you find yourself sitting among the
scorners. Now you're instructing others
that are coming up. Come here, son. Let me tell you how to get
things done in this world. It's fine if you go to church,
but don't take it too seriously. Don't take it too seriously.
We know that religion is just for people that like to rule over
other men and tell them what to do. Before long, you've become
a scorner of the truth yourself. But John told his hearers that
he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." When
you instruct your children, don't forget to teach them Christ.
Take every moment Remind them that they need the Lord Jesus
Christ, that God has provided full and free salvation in his
son. That is the most important thing.
We give so much time to sending them to education and telling
them what they need to be doing, but don't neglect the preaching
of the gospel. We must have the Lord Jesus Christ. He is antichrist that denieth
the father and the son. Thank God that he's brought us
out of that darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear
son. John also told his heroes in 1 John 2, 15 through 17, love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man loved the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life is not of the father, but is of the world. and the
world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the
will of God abideth forever. So there is on the one hand that
the Lord delivers his child from the love of this world. Now we're
all born dead in trespasses and sins, and certainly we know that
it's so easy for us to be fooled. into setting our heart on this
world. I know brethren, I know exactly what it is, but the Lord
teaches us and shows us the Lord Jesus Christ, how gracious and
patient he is with us. And he sends us this gospel and
reminds us again and again, look to me, look unto me. Don't look
to this world. Don't set your heart on this
world that's passing away. But we do know that there are
some, there's many people that do recognize that this world
is passing away. We see monks in other religions
and things like that. So there's a natural sense in
which man can see that this world is passing away. So our God must
save us as well from self-righteousness and the vain religions of this
world. John said there at the end of 1 John 2.17, but he that
doeth the will of God abideth forever. What is it to do the
will of God? Turn to John 6. John 6. To do the will of God is what
Christ told the Jews there. John 6.28, that to do the will
of God is a work which God the Father must do in his elect child.
John 6.28 says, then said the Jews unto Jesus, What shall we
do that we might work the works of God? They thought that salvation
came by work that they did in their flesh to please God. Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God doing for you what you cannot
do for yourself, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. If God does a saving work for
you, and you will believe on him whom he hath sent. You'll
rest right there being fully satisfied with the Lord Jesus
Christ, what he did, the salvation that he provided in himself. Our Savior took on him the seed
of Abraham. He became what we are in the
likeness of our sinful flesh, though he himself had no sin,
and he willingly He subjected himself to the law completely.
He fulfilled all the law, all the ordinances that were against
us because we cannot keep them in our flesh. He fulfilled the
law perfectly and is completely righteous. And it says, the word
of God says that a body thou has prepared me. And in that
body, he fulfilled all righteousness. And in that body, he bears the
sin of his people. And there he took it up to that
cursed tree. And there God poured out his
almighty just holy wrath against his son. And Christ put away
the sin of his people perfectly, completely, so that there is
nothing left remaining for us to do. Christ did that for his
people. This is a work that God must
teach us and reveal to us in the heart. And when he does,
we'll rest right there in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing
more that we need to do, just rest in Christ. That's not a
work of the flesh, brethren. We're certain of this because
Christ in John 6, 44 said, no man can come to me except the
father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up
at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard, and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. The flesh won't teach you this,
but the Holy Spirit of God will. And he does teach that to every
one of his children. So that now in the light of what
we've read in John chapter six, we see that blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, which says there's
some fleshly work that you need to do or that you can do to please
God, nor do we stand in the way of sinners, with those who believe
not the truth but at pleasure in unrighteousness. That is those
that believe that there was some work that they could do, that
they could make themselves righteous and holy with God, and really
what that is is unrighteousness. They think they're practicing
righteousness and all they're practicing is unrighteousness
because they come to God in their own righteousness and not the
righteousness of Jesus Christ whom he has provided. Nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful, who teach that Christ alone is
insufficient, that there's something more that you must do to please
God. All right, having seen how the
blessed man is found in Christ, let us also see how Christ is
the blessed man spoken of here. Psalm 1-1, 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.
The counsel of the ungodly and the way of sinners. You ever
notice that men love to separate and to divide, right? We always
love to categorize. We always like to step on other
people that we might feel better about ourselves. So we're always
looking to separate from and to divide people from one another.
And they say things like, stand by thyself, come not near to
me for I am holier than thou. Our God says, these are a smoke
in my nose. a fire that burneth all the day."
So it's not that man who just labors and tries to make himself
more and more holy and righteous. That's not who God is pleased
with. But consider our Lord with regard
to the counsel of the ungodly in the way of sinners. In Luke
15, one and two, it says this, then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth
with them. How gracious is our Lord that
he who committed no sin would receive sinners like you and
me? You know what's in your heart,
brethren. How gracious he must have been that the publicans
and the sinners drew near to hear his words. and he received
them. All whoever came to Jesus Christ,
seeking mercy and forgiveness, he always received them. He never
turned anyone away. He always gave them mercy and
forgiveness and grace. Consider our Lord with regard
to the seed of the scorners. Their counsel to Christ was,
come down from that cross and we'll believe you then. Show
us that you're God and we'll believe you then. But he didn't
come down from that cross, and so they mocked him, and they
scorned him, and they derided him, all trying to get him to
come down from that cross. But our Savior being the faithful
one, always doing the will of God his Father, always doing
that which pleases the Father, and thinking of his bride, being
faithful to her. Because if Christ had come down
from that cross, then we, brethren, would not be saved. We'd still
be in our sins. and there would be nothing that
we could do about it. In Matthew 27, 39, this is what
they said. They that passed by reviled him,
wagging their heads and saying, thou that destroyest the temple
and buildest it in three days, save thyself. So they heard John
2, what he said in John 2. If thou be the son of God, come
down from the cross. Likewise, also the chief priests
mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others,
himself he cannot save. How true, because he's a faithful
savior. He's faithful, he would not come
down from that cross. If he be the king of Israel,
let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him.
He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him.
For he said, I am the son of God. Can any of us boast of being
this blessed man? Not if we're honest. But when you behold Christ, how
he fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of his bride, then
you see that indeed it is Christ, the blessed man spoken of here,
and that we are blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right? Psalm 1-2, but his delight, this
blessed man's delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law
doth he meditate day and night. When there was a scribe who asked
our Lord one day, what is the greatest commandment of all?
And our Lord answered, the first of all the commandments is here,
O Israel. The Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind,
and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these. And in fulfillment of that commandment,
to love his neighbor, our Lord declared, greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And we see that, don't we, brethren?
How when we were helpless, lying in our polluted blood, being
full of sin, vile, unlovable, unholy, ungodly, Our Savior came
and did for us what we cannot do for ourselves, in bearing
our sin and in putting it away, so that God now is reconciled
with us who were enemies against him by our nature. Christ has
reconciled us to God. Listen to this, Hebrews 10, seven
says, then said I, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God, Above when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin that wouldest
not, neither hath pleasure therein which are offered by the law. That right there tells us that
there isn't a work that we can do by our flesh in following
the law. Even if we kept it perfectly,
God is not pleased with the sacrifices and the offerings that a man
does in the law. Because it says there that God
had no pleasure therein. So verse nine says, Though I
come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the first, that he
may establish the second. He took away that law and those
ordinances that were against us, that he would establish the
second. That is the New Testament written
in his blood, by the which will we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So Christ,
having slain the enmity that was between us, By that one offering
of his body, he fulfilled the will of God his Father. That
really is the only place where you see the offer, is Christ
offering himself to the Father. And thank the Lord that he accepted
that offering. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, so
that we, brethren, have nothing to boast in except Jesus Christ. We boast in him and in his righteousness,
and we rejoice in him, and that's why we're always talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ, because we have nothing to boast in of
ourselves. All right, Psalm 1-3. And he, Christ, shall be like
a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth
his fruit in a season His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. So it's Christ that brings forth
the good fruit in his people, and what he does, it shall prosper. We only bear rotten fruit and
corrupt fruit by our nature. That's all this flesh can do.
It can bring forth corrupt and rotten things. I have a small
garden at home, and so I have a patio where I keep some tomatoes
there on my patio. And one day I came out and I
saw several tomatoes on one of the plants and I decided, all
right, it's time to pick these things. So I went up there, they
were nice and red. I took them off and I looked
at the bottom and I noticed that there was a big black ring, a
black spot on the bottom of them. So it was corrupt. It was foul. I wasn't gonna eat that thing,
so I threw it away. And that's exactly what we do
by nature, brethren. That's the best that your flesh
can do for God, is produce something that is rotten and vile and putrid,
and he will not accept it. Our Lord said, if a man abide
not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and
men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
But here's how we bear fruit in John 15, four and five. Abide
in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide
in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abided in me, and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. We preach Christ, for without
him ye can do nothing. So that in Christ, when we look
at Psalm 1-3, it's in Christ that we shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water. It's in Christ that we bring
forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. So it's Christ who brings
us forth as his fruit and it's Christ who brings forth his fruit
in us to his praise and his glory for his purposes whatsoever pleases
him. He did this by the sacrifice
of himself. Our Lord said, verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Now, the things of nature don't,
you know, God doesn't look at them and think, oh, that's a
good picture. I think I'll use that when I'm preaching the gospel.
But those things were created. The seed, like corn, it does
that because that pictures the gospel. That's why God made it
work that way, so that when you see yourself sowing that seed
and then it grows up and produces corn or some other thing in abundance,
that's a picture of the gospel. That's what our Savior did when
he died, when he laid down his life and was buried and rose
again. So he brought the children that
God had given to him. He raised us all up in him. He
brought forth and gave birth to the church so that now we
continue to bring forth fruit unto him. Ephesians says, we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And I read this earlier today, Romans 7, 4. Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead. And what do married people do? They bring forth fruit,
right? They bring forth children. And
that's what it says, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. And Christ did that, right? When
he formed the new man in us. So that by that new man, this
flesh doesn't do anything. For God, this flesh is rotten
and corrupt. It doesn't get better. But Christ creates in us the
new man, his seed, his creation, his fruit. And he gives that
new man all things necessary for salvation. A new heart, love
to God, Faith in God, hope in God, that's all of His work. That's His fruit, brethren. Rejoice
in what Christ has done. We don't boast and talk about
what we've done for the Lord. We talk about and boast in what
Christ has done for us and His mercy. All right. Let's turn
to Psalm 1, 4 through 6. We'll look at these last three
verses here. And our last point, we'll look
at the ungodly, the sinner, and the scornful. In contrast to
Christ, the blessed man, and in contrast to what Christ makes
us in him, we read this. The ungodly are not so, but are
like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore, 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, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. The ungodly shall have no place
before God except to hear their condemnation. They, when they
stand before God, those who were once wise in their own eyes and
wise to the ways of this world, will have nothing but terror
seizing them. The way of the righteous is peace
and prosperity and eternal things, but not so the way of the ungodly. They shall say peace and safety,
then sudden destruction cometh upon them. I like that there's
a lot of children here. Children, it's so easy to be
boastful and to think that we have so much of life before us
in our youth, but seek the Lord now. Beg him for mercy. Be thankful that you're under
the sound of the gospel. Be glad to come and hear it and
pray that God give you a heart to hear it and to receive it
and to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, because that is a mercy. And
if the Lord reveal himself to you, That's a blessed thing. Rejoice that he's shown you that
in your youth, brethren. For there's many people that
we know that are at the end of their days, and I see them. My dad himself is not doing well. He has cancer, and he knows that
he's dying, and yet he refuses to look to Christ, and he says
horrible things. But I can tell that he's looking
for something. He keeps grasping and grasping, remembering some
good choice that he made. And all he can say is, Dad, don't
stand before God holding on to that choice. I hope that's not
your hope. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what sinners have, is to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ, for he receiveth sinners and eateth with them. In their
end they'll grasp for some hope or some habitation. They shall
seek to walk among wise counselors in that day, but they shall be
driven away. They shall seek to stand in the righteousness
in that day of judgment, but they shall not stand in the day
of judgment. They shall desire to sit among
the righteous congregation in that day, but they shall be cast
out naked and ashamed because they have not the righteousness
of Christ covering their sin. They trusted in their flesh and
they wouldn't hear the voice of the Lord in the day of his
grace. And now the last thing that they're
ever going to hear him say is depart from me, ye workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. Turn to Jeremiah
17. We're going to just look at a
few verses here in closing. In Jeremiah 17, verse 5. And you'll notice a similarity
to Psalm 1. Jeremiah 17, verse 5. Thus saith
the Lord, cursed be the man that trusteth in man, even if that's
trust in your own self, not just another man, but in your own
self. Cursed be the man that trusteth the man and maketh flesh
his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be
like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh,
but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness and
the salt land and not inhabited. This shall be the way of the
ungodly. Don't look to your own heart. Look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The great and final day is fast
approaching and it'll come upon each and every one of us suddenly
in a day that we don't expect it. Jeremiah 17, nine warns us
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked
who can know it. I, the Lord, search the heart,
I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways
and according to the fruit of his doings. That man who wants
to be judged for his deeds, that rejoices in an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth, that man who wants God to look at
his deeds, he'll be judged for those very things, and he's not
gonna stand. He's gonna see in the glory of
God, he'll see just how how his garment of righteousness that
he thinks he has is so full of holes. Everyone will see his
nakedness, and he will be ashamed. To the wicked, those whose righteousness
is sufficient in their own eyes, the psalmist says, not so the
ungodly. They are not planted, they shall
not bring forth, they shall wither, and they shall not prosper. But
there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. The way of the ungodly shall
perish, it is the way of death. All right, but hear the way of
the righteous there in Jeremiah 17, seven and eight. Jeremiah
17, seven. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. That man is completely
satisfied with what Christ has done. For he shall be as a tree
planted by the waters that spreadeth out her roots by the river and
shall not see when he cometh. But her leaf shall be green,
and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit. Do you see, brethren, how Christ
has blessed us? That Christ is the blessed man,
and he is the one who is able and does bless his children abundantly? Christ is the blessed man. Bless
God for Christ's sake. Rejoice in him.