The Blessed Man

Q: What does the Bible say about the blessed man?

The Bible describes the blessed man as one who delights in God's law and bears fruit, highlighting true happiness as found in spiritual rather than worldly pursuits. The Bible, particularly in Psalm 1, clearly defines the blessed man as someone who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners but delights in the law of the Lord. This blessedness is about being favored by God and is rooted in a relationship with Him. Unlike temporary worldly blessings like health and wealth, true happiness stems from spiritual richness, obedience to God's Word, and the assurance of His eternal promise. This blessed man is likened to a tree planted by water, bringing forth fruit in its season, emphasizing that he is sustained and nurtured by the life given through Christ.

Q: Why is the concept of being blessed important for Christians?

Being blessed is crucial for Christians as it signifies being favored by God, which leads to true joy and fulfillment beyond earthly scenarios. For Christians, understanding the concept of being blessed is essential as it encapsulates the idea of God's favor on their lives. Whereas the world often equates being blessed with material wealth, success, or good health, Scripture points toward a deeper reality — spiritual blessing through relationship with God. This means that true happiness and contentment do not come from external circumstances but from a heart aligned with God's will, seeking Him and meditating on His Word. The blessed man bears fruit that lasts, providing assurance that regardless of life's trials, his standing with God is secure and fruitful.

Q: How do we know the doctrine of being blessed is true?

We know the doctrine of being blessed is true based on scriptural testimony and the consistent teaching of the Word regarding true happiness in God. The truth of the doctrine of being blessed for believers is rooted in Scripture, particularly illustrated in Psalm 1, where the character and outcome of the blessed man are described. The assurance that happiness and blessing stem from one’s relationship with God, and not from worldly possessions or status, is corroborated throughout the Bible, including in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. This doctrine is significant because it highlights a consistent biblical theme where blessing is linked to obedience and faithfulness to God’s Word. The experiences of believers throughout history, who find joy in adversity while trusting in God's promises, further affirm this doctrine.

I'm going to bring you a message
today on the subject, the blessed man, the happy man, the favored
man, the fortunate man. But let's just call the sermon,
The Blessed Man. Now, if you ask the average person
about what constitutes blessings and happiness and contentment,
what would they reply? Just ask the average person,
what really constitutes happiness, blessedness, and contentment?
And I believe that most of them would reply something like this.
Well, to be blessed, to be happy, is to have a good job and earn
a good salary, to be materially prosperous, financially secure. That, I believe, would be to
be blessed and to be happy. That's what the average person
would say. And that's what the average preacher is preaching
today. Financial security and happiness and a good job and
materially prosperous and so forth. Other people might say
something like this, what is it to be blessed? What is it
to be happy, to be fortunate? I believe some would say, well,
I believe to be blessed would be to have good health. If a
man has good health, he has everything. Or to have a nice family and
plenty of friends. Yes, I would say to be healthy
and happy and to have many friends, that is to be blessed and to
be happy. And, of course, someone else
would say this. They'd say, well, I think to
be blessed would be to be famous, to have beauty or strength and
influence and all freedom from all care and worry. That to me,
someone would say, is to be blessed or to be happy. But you know
something? All of these things have in common
a good job, financial security, materially prosperous, to be
healthy, have a good family, nice home, and to be famous,
and to be influential, and to have beauty and strength. You
know what all these things have in common? They're all temporary. They're all here today and they're
gone tomorrow. None of them are lasting. For
the fashion of this world and all of these things have to do
with this world. The fashion of this world fadeth
away. And these things can only provide
us with temporary joy or temporary happiness and temporary blessings. Real happiness and real blessings
cannot be found in that which may be taken away at any time.
That can't be real happiness. If it may leave tomorrow, and
the scripture says that, boast not thyself of tomorrow, you
don't know what a day will bring forth. So these things could
not possibly constitute real blessings and real happiness. It must be in something else.
Well, turn with me to the book of Psalms. David in the book
of Psalms tells us who the man is, who the woman is, who is
truly blessed, who is truly happy, who is truly favored of God.
For that's what the word blessed means. Psalm 1 starts out this
way, blessed is the man, blessed is the man. What does the word
blessed mean? Well, it means to be favored
of God. It means to be happy. It means
to be forever blessed, not just temporarily, but to have an inheritance
that's incorruptible and that's undefiled and that won't fade
away, that's not here today and gone tomorrow. Something that's
permanent, something that's real and lasting and permanent and
given of God, something that will not pass away. That is to
be truly blessed. Look at Psalm 1. Will you take
your Bible and follow with me as I'm going to try to go through
this entire psalm in this message today. And I'd like for you to
listen carefully to it. David starts this way, blessed
is the man. He says, blessed is the man.
You know he uses that phrase frequently in the book of Psalms.
I looked up several places where David uses that same word, blessed. In Psalm 2 he said, blessed are
the people. who put their trust in the Lord.
He says in Psalm 32, blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven,
the man to whom God will not charge iniquity. In Psalm 65
he said, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causeth to
approach unto thee. And again he said, blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord. In Psalm 84, he said, blessed
are they who dwell in thy house, O Lord. In Psalm 85, he said,
blessed, happy, fortunate is the man whose strength is in
the Lord. In Psalm 112, he says this, blessed
is the man who fears the Lord. And in Psalm 118, blessed is
he that cometh in the name of the Lord. You know, reading all
those scriptures, It seems to me that our world is totally
out of touch and out of tune with what God calls blessed.
What God calls blessed and God calls happy is not what the average
person calls happiness and blessings and contentment. None of these
things which we talked about a while ago, health and strength
and fame and material prosperity and financial security, none
of these things are mentioned here in the Scriptures. when
it talks about the man who's truly blessed and that which
constitutes blessing. Read Matthew chapter 5, what
we call the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
they shall be happy, fortunate are they who can mourn over sin,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, they shall
inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers,
they're called the children of God. Blessed are you when men
shall persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely
for my sake, rejoice, great is your reward in heaven. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall
be filled, blessed. We must be out of tune and out
of touch entirely with what God calls blessings and happiness. Look at verse 1 of this psalm.
Psalm 1 verse 1. Blessed is the man. Now the first
thing I note here is David did not say blessed is the king.
Blessed is the scholar. Blessed is the rich man. Blessed
is the strong man. Blessed is the famous man. He
just said blessed is the man. The man. Ordinary man. A man
like you. A man like me. This is that ordinary
person who's Subject to infirmities of the flesh. He's not without
fault. He's not without trial. He's
not without sorrow He's not without trouble. He's just a man blessed
is the man Ordinary man now listen to what he says about blessed
is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly? What
is the counsel of the ungodly? Well, it's counsel is wisdom
That which everyone thinks or agrees upon the counsel of the
ungodly is the wisdom of the ungodly, the philosophy of the
ungodly, the wisdom of this world. And blessed is the man who is
not taken in by and does not walk in the philosophy and wisdom
of this world, which is contrary to the wisdom of God and contrary
to the Word of God. In fact, our Lord, through the
Apostle Paul, called the wisdom of this world, the counsel of
the ungodly, foolishness. He said the wisdom of this world
is foolishness and happy is the man. This is what David is saying
here. Blessed, fortunate, happy is
the man who sees the folly of the world's so-called wisdom
and the world's so-called philosophy and walks rather in the wisdom
of God and in the Word of God. Happy is that man. Blessed is
that man who does not walk in the counsel of this world, who
is not taken in by the counsel and philosophy of this world,
who does not compromise with the counsel and wisdom of this
world, who does not feel obligated to be agreeable with that which
he knows is wrong. All right, read on. Blessed is
the man who does not stand in the way of sinners or the way
of unbelievers. Now, the unbeliever has a way. He has a way. He's called the
way of the ungodly, the way of the unbeliever, the way of the
sinner. The sinner has a way. What is
it? It's the way of self. Everything revolves around himself. It's the way of pride. It's the
way of greed. We know something about this
in our nation today. greed and covetousness. It's
the way of materialism. It's the way in religion of form
and ceremony. That's the way of the unbeliever. And this man does not walk in
that way. He does not walk. There's a way that seems right
to me. The Bible says that over and
over again. There's a way that seems right to me. And that's
the way of death. And blessed is the man who walks,
and a man's walk is his tenor of life. It's the bend of his
will. It's the general direction. Oh,
I know people stumble and they fall and they take tangents and
so forth, but the walk is the man's general direction. It's
the bend of his will. It's the tenor of his life. And
this blessed man is the man who does not walk in the way of pride
and self and arrogance and materialism. He walks in the way of holiness.
in the way of God, in the way of truth, and he rejects the
popular way, the popular way. He does not bow to and conform
to what people generally do and say. He loves the way of God,
the way of the Word, the way of truth. He doesn't walk in
that way of the world. And then notice the next thing
he says, blessed. Blessed is the man who does not
walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor in the way of sinners, and
blessed is the man who does not sit in the seat of the scornful."
That's a happy man. You meet with the scornful every
day. They're the so-called wise, the intellectuals. They're cynical
people. They're critical. They're critical
especially of spiritual matters. They make fun of the things of
God and the things of the Word and the things of Christ. Cynical,
critical. They're not teachable. They seem
to know everything. They're seated. What does that
call? What does that mean they're seated?
They're hardened in their cynical ways, in their critical ways,
in their so-called intellectual ways, and they cannot be taught.
They cannot be instructed. They're not open to learn of
the things of God. And blessed is the man, happy
is the man who rejects that seat. and can be taught in the things
of God and has an open ear and an open heart to the Word of
God. Blessed is that man. Now watch
the next line. His delight, his joy is in the
law of the Lord. Now that word law is the Word
of the Lord. Blessed is that man whose delight
is in the Word of God. The Word of God to him is the
children's bread. The Word of God to him is the
green pastures. That's what David talked about
in Psalm 23. He leadeth us beside still waters. He makes us to lie down in green
pastures. That's his Word. What do the
sheep feed on? The green pastures, the green
grass. What do the people of God feed on? The Word of God. His Word is the green pastures. and the children's bread. His
Word is the foundation of faith. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. His Word is our comfort and our
assurance. Comfort one another with these
words. His Word is our strength in time
of trial and difficulty. His Word is a lamp under our
feet and a light under our path that we might not sin against
Him. His precious promises in Christ give us strength for the
day and hope for tomorrow. Happy is the man who knows God,
who loves His Word, who delights in His Word, who's been given
an understanding of His Word and an understanding of the mysteries
of His grace in Christ Jesus through that Word. He delights
in the law of the Lord, in the Word of God. And more than that,
listen, and in that Word, and in that Word, Does he meditate
day and night? You know, it's not just doctrine
to him. Doctrine can be so rich and precious,
and yet it can be so dry and dead letter. It's not just doctrine.
It's not just creeds. It's a living word. I had someone
say to me just recently, Preacher, have you ever been to Jerusalem?
I said, no, I haven't been to Jerusalem. Well, you ought to
go to Jerusalem. And I said, well, why should I go to Jerusalem?
And this person says, well, the Bible, if you can go to Jerusalem
and walk where Jesus walked, the Bible will come alive for
you. I said, the Bible is alive. The Bible's alive for me now.
The Bible is the Word of God. It's the living Word of God.
I don't have to go to a place for the Bible to come alive.
The Bible comes alive in Christ. It's revealed to our hearts by
the Holy Spirit. It is called the Word of Life.
And if it's not to me now the word of life, then I don't have
the life of Christ because this is the word of Christ. And you
can't separate the living word from the incarnate word and the
written word. They're all one and the same.
So this man delights in the word of God and meditates in the word
of God, this blessed man, this happy man, day and night, not
just on Sunday. The Word of God is not something
for him to take off the shelf and dust off and take to church
on Sunday and during special religious holidays or occasions,
but that Word is in his memory, and in his heart, and in his
soul, and in his mind, and he thinks upon it, and feeds upon
it, and dwells upon it. The Scripture says day and night,
day and night. It's God's Word. It's His precious
promises. It's our comfort. It's our assurance. It convicts us. It reveals Christ. One of the hymn writers wrote
this. His Word is everlasting truth. How pure it is on every page. His Word shall guide by every
step. His Word will support me in old
age. It's God's Word. So blessed is
the man. Oh, happy, fortunate is the man. who does not walk in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of unbelievers, nor sit
in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the word
of God, and in that word doth he meditate day and night." That's
a happy man. All right, read on. And that
man, that blessed man, that happy, fortunate, favored of God, man
shall be planted like a tree, like a tree. He's not a weak
weed that hath sprung up, only to be cut down, because it combereth
the ground." He's not a wild shrub that will vanish in a cold
wind. It says here He's a tree, a solid
tree, an oak tree, planted, planted. Someone planted this tree. Someone
on purpose, deliberately, for a cause, planted this tree. this man. And you know who did
it? The Lord did it. He's the planting
of the Lord. What did our Lord Jesus say in
Matthew 15? He said, Every plant which my
heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. So this happy
man here is not a weed that sprang up. He's not a tumbleweed, tumbleweed
that's blown by the wind here and there. He's not a wild bush
or shrub that happens to grow in a place. This man is a permanent,
strong tree that's been planted by God to endure through the
ages. It's a plant in God's garden. That's what it says. Happy is
the man who's like a tree planted. And then where did he plant that
tree? I was out in Texas one time years ago in a meeting near
Waco, Texas, up in Comanche and Northwest Texas, and it had a
drought for months and months. It hadn't rained for months.
The dust seemed like it was two or three inches deep, nothing
green, no pastures, no flowers, no grass in the yards, nothing
green. I was riding down a country road
one day, and I saw a whole line of green trees. bright, green,
flourishing trees. And I said, Look over there.
Why are those trees so green? The man said, That's a river
over there. Those trees are planted by the river and they're always
green. And that's what it says here.
This blessed man, this is to be blessed. This blessed man
is planted by God by the rivers of living water. You see, a tree's
got to have water. and a believer's got to have
water, and that living water is Christ. He said, I'm the bread
of life, I'm the water of life. He said to the woman at the well,
if you knew who it was speaking to you, you'd ask of me, and
I'd give you living water, and you'd never thirst again. Oh,
everyone that thirsteth, come to the water. Christ is the water. And that man planted by God has
his roots deep in Christ Jesus who is the water of life. Now
what's this? Happy is the man. Blessed. This
man is blessed. He bringeth forth his fruit in
his season. His fruit. Now that can mean
two things and does I believe. His fruit, that is the fruit
of the Spirit and his fruit. He bringeth forth his fruit.
And I go to Galatians 5.22 to talk about that fruit. God's
trees are never without fruit. Some bring forth fortyfold, some
sixtyfold, some a hundredfold, but they're never without fruit.
When our Lord found the fig tree without fruit, He said, Cut it
down. It cumbereth the ground. You remember? Well, it's His
fruit. He bringeth forth His fruit in
His season. What is this fruit? Well, He
brings forth love when love is needed. God is love. And those who know God love.
He that loveth not knoweth not God. for God is love, and that's
the fruit of this tree. This happy, blessed man is a
man who loves. He loves God. He loves people. He loves others. Joy. That fruit
is joy. He brings forth joy in a time
of sorrow. He rejoices in the Lord, and
he causes others to rejoice. Peace. This man's fruit is peace
when trouble's brewing. He's a peacemaker. He's a patient
man, patient in time of trial. He's a gentle man, gentle when
cruelty abounds. He's a man of faith, faith for
every doubt. He's a man of meekness, even
in success, even in great accomplishments. He knows who made him what he
is and gave him what he has and taught him what he knows. He's
a meek man, humble, and he's temperate in all things. Blessed
is the man who is a tree planted by the rivers of living water. And he shall bring forth his
fruit in his season and watch this and his leaf Shall never
wither God's trees always are planted by the river of water
in Christ God's trees always bring forth fruit and God's trees
never die They're evergreen. They'll never die. You see the
source of water and life is Christ within And no outward circumstances
can affect this tree. The life is from within. And
the tree cannot be affected by storms or cold or hot or whatever. The storms and trials of life
will not cause that tree to fall or to lose its fruit. The cold
wind of winter, age and death has no effect on that tree. The
hot summer and days and times of famine will not affect that
root. It'll stand. His leaf shall never
wither. My sheep, hear my voice. I give
them eternal life. They'll never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Outward circumstances
will not destroy that tree because its life is within. Its life
is from Christ, and these outward things cannot affect it. Now,
what's the next line? And whatever he does, whatsoever
he does shall prosper. The blessed man knows that whatever
he does will work together for his good. We know that all things
work together for good to them who love God, to them who are
called according to his purpose. From the time of his birth, from
the time of his planting, to the day of his death, everything
that occurs in his life, this blessed man, is designed and
purposed by the will of God his Father, and it's for his eternal
good. and he'll never, never fail.
In every condition, in sickness or health, in poverty's veil
or abounding in wealth, at home or abroad, on the land or the
sea, as thy days shall demand, shall thy strength ever be. And when through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of grief shall not thee overflow,
for I will be with thee even thy troubles to bless, and I'll
sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. And that soul that
on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert
to its foes. That soul, though all hail, should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, never, never, never forsake. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Doesn't mean he'll prosper materially,
doesn't mean he'll prosper physically, doesn't mean he'll prosper in
the things of this world because they're going to be fading away
soon, but he'll prosper in eternal grace, eternal good, eternal
glory. He'll prosper whatever he does.
Blessed is the man. Who is the happy man? Who is
the blessed man? Who is the favorite of God? Who
is the man who is who has joy and happiness. He's the man who
delights in the Word of God. He's the man planted like a tree
by the river of living water that brings forth his fruit in
his season. His leaf shall not wither and
whatsoever doeth shall prosper. Now, in closing, there are three
more verses in this psalm. These verses don't talk about
the blessed man. They talk about the man who's
not favored of God. the ungodly, the unbelieving. And it says, the unbeliever,
the ungodly are not so. They're not like a tree planted.
They're not evergreen. What they do does not prosper.
They're like trees, not trees planted by God. They're like
the chaff which the wind driveth away. You'll see a strong wind
comes and blows through your yard and it blows the leaves
and the twigs and all these things. no root, no foundation, no water
of life, like dead leaves with no substance, and they have no
hope, they have no strength, and they just blow around. And
they shall not stand in the judgment, not be able to stand. The ungodly
shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord
knoweth the way of the righteous. That's the way of Christ, but
the way of ungodly perish. Who's the blessed man? Blessed
is the man who knows the Lord. If you want this tape, this message,
the blessed man, the happy man, you write for it. Send two dollars,
we'll mail it to you, and there'll be another message on the other
side that I'll preach next Lord's Day. So until then, may God bless
you, everyone.

The Blessed Man

What does the Bible say about the blessed man?

Why is the concept of being blessed important for Christians?

How do we know the doctrine of being blessed is true?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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The Blessed Man

What does the Bible say about the blessed man?

Why is the concept of being blessed important for Christians?

How do we know the doctrine of being blessed is true?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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