reassurance in this area. And
I know that most of you do. What is true and lasting happiness? True and lasting happiness. Now the world, the people of
the world, have some ideas about what constitutes happiness. And I'm old enough to have disproved
all of these by experience. They say a person is happy, fortunate,
and well-off who is materially prosperous. He has a good job and a good
income, plenty of money, And he's a happy
person. And then others say, well, a
person is happy. Happy, fortunate, well-off. Who
has good health. He's strong and without disease
and without any severe problem. Has beauty. Good friends. Has a home. children, grandchildren, family,
all around him. That constitutes happiness. There are a lot of people who
live only for those things. They live for materialism and
they live for their immediate families. They're so anxious
about these things all the time. They're happy when those things
go well and they're unhappy when those things don't go well. Someone
else says, well, a person is happy who has freedom from care
and worry in this world. We don't have any worries, any
cares. Everything's going our way, so
we're happy. Happy. And then today's religion,
it bothers me. Today's religion really bothers
me. All these people are whooping it up and waving their arms and
shouting hallelujah and praise the Lord. Now I know a little
bit about the Word of God and a little bit about God Almighty
and a little bit about sin and salvation. I've been, I've been
buried in it, studying it, reading it and preaching it for nearly
40 years. But now if I start waving my
arms and jumping over chairs up here tonight, you'll say something's
wrong with him mentally. because that's not the way he
feels. I don't feel that way, and as
I look out here over this congregation, I don't see very many people
who are in the queue-jumping mood, are you? Or the arm-waving, or the songbook-throwing,
or the whoop-de-doo mood. I've got a lot of burdens, have
you? The Apostle Paul did. He said, I have a continual sorrow
in my heart for my brethren, according to the flesh. I could
wish that myself were cursed from Christ for my brethren.
My constant prayer and desire before God is that they might
know Christ. Darvin up here praying for a
genuine, broken, believing heart. That's a burden, isn't it? It's
a burden. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. That I may know Him and the power
of His resurrection. Well, have you noticed one thing
about all these things that I've mentioned? Some feel that happiness
is material prosperity, a good job, and a good income, a fine
home, and bills paid, and other people feel that happiness is
in health. And I say, well, if you've got
good health, you've got everything. You've got beauty, and strength,
and friends, good home and family, and all your children. You ever
get these Christmas newsletters from people? Family newsletters
at Christmas. They start off telling about
all the prosperous things that have gone on during the year.
They're just so happy, and so-and-so graduated from school with honors,
and so-and-so got married, and so-and-so had a baby, and so-and-so,
they're going down the line and hopefully wishing you a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year, you know, just all this sort
of thing. But if you ever notice, if you
notice as I went down through these things, all of these things
have one thing in common. One thing in common. They're
all temporary. They're all temporary. And every
one of them shall pass away. There's one thing about that
house on the hill, God's gonna burn it up someday. There's one
thing about all our savings And our materialism is just going
to be like waste paper in the street someday, and the diamonds
and gold are going to be like sane, worthless, worthless. And all of these natural relationships
are going to dissolve and pass away. Not even going to be remembered.
Not even going to be remembered. Now let's be honest, and I came
to this point in my message, in preparing this message, Happiness
is not in materialism, because that's temporary. I know a lot
of, I know people, very wealthy people who'd give all their own,
all they own, just to get rid of a disease that they have right
now in their body. They'd give every dime, everything
they own. All of these things, but let's
face this, there's no happiness in materialism, there's no happiness
in in health and strength and there's no happiness in it. We'd
like to keep our families all the time, wouldn't we? Just all
around us. But these are temporary things.
Let's be honest. Let's be honest. I put this down.
Let's be honest. We enjoy these things. I enjoy
it. This church provides me with
a very nice comfortable car and I enjoy it on the trip. I flat
enjoy it. I'd hate to drive a T-model.
I flat enjoy riding in that air-conditioned car, don't you? I enjoy my home. This church has a parsonage over
there they let me live in. And it's a nice home, and I enjoy
it. Enjoy the comforts of it. And especially in this 96, 98
degree weather, when you go in there, it's nice now. We got
a big king-size bed and a king-size bedroom with a king-size bathroom,
and I like it. I got a king-size, uh, enjoyment
out of it. I love good food. We had a meal
today. We had the marshes and the matters
and the mayhens and the coffees and we all sat around the table
today and had a feast. We had everything you can imagine,
even blackberry cobbler. Herman Pick the blackberries.
That's good, isn't it? And I'm glad I've got good health.
I'm just so delighted. I thank God. I thank God that
my health is good. I'm able to come here and Sixty-one
years old, and as far as I know, I may hold up tomorrow, but so
far I'm in good shape. I'm thankful. Let's be honest,
I enjoy those things. Do you? Let's be honest now. I'm glad these things are so. I'm glad I've got good friends.
I'm glad America's not at war. I'm glad we're in a free country.
I'm glad I'm not in jail. I am glad. I can say I'm very
happy that I have these things. But I'm talking about true happiness
tonight. I'm talking about true happiness. I'm talking about
true and lasting happiness. And it's not found in these things.
It's not found in these things. And even you young people now,
you're thinking about getting married and having a home and
prospering and getting along in the world and raising a family. But I tell you this, you'll find
temporary happiness and temporary contentment and joy in these
things, but it's not lasting. It's just not lasting. I want
to find a happiness. I want to find a cause for rejoicing
that's permanent and real and lasting. I want to find a cause
for happiness and joy when these things begin to fail, when these
things begin to fade away. I think about some of you. John,
you don't mind me using you as an illustration. John has no
family. They're gone. They're in different
places. We're his adopted family, we're
his family. And John's in a wheelchair, his
strength. He can't stand here like me.
One day I was talking to him and I said, I'll stand for that,
John. He said, I'd like to stand for
anything. But you're happy. And this is
what I want us to find, is a happiness that does not depend on these
material, fleshly, temporary things. I want that happiness.
And if I can find that happiness, and that joy, and that contentment,
then these things won't be so important. But they won't be so important,
and I won't get them out of their perspective, their place. And I can rejoice when I'm alone.
I can rejoice when the clouds are rolling in. I can rejoice
in difficult times. I can rejoice even in failure,
if I have some cause for real happiness. Now, open your Bibles
to Psalm 1. we can find something here to
take home with us, something we can stand on and rest in. Now here in the book of Psalms,
the first Psalm, David begins the book of Psalms, the hymn
book of the church, with the word blessed. Blessed is the
man. And that word, as Paul read a
moment ago from Matthew, is twice happy. Twice happy. That word
is well favored, favored of God. That word is fortunate. That
word is twice happy. Blessed, blessed, blessed. Let
me show you how many times David uses that phrase. I'll just run
through the psalm. This is not all of them. This
is just a few of them. And notice every time he mentions this happiness,
happiness, happiness, and favored of God, It's always in our spiritual
relationship with God, not in material things. Not at all. He didn't say, blessed is the
king, and blessed is the scholar, and blessed is the wise man,
blessed is the strong man, blessed is the rich man, blessed... No,
not a time. Now, I want you to listen to
this. As I run through these, I'll just quote them for you.
Psalm 2, he said, blessed are all they that put their trust
in the Lord. Twice happy. fortunate. Psalm 32, he said, blessed, and
Paul quotes this, blessed, happy is the man whose transgressions
are forgiven. Blessed is the man, happy is
the man, to whom God will not impute iniquity. Psalm 34, blessed,
blessed is the man that trusted in the Lord. Psalm 40, blessed
is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. Psalm 65, Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto
thee. Psalm 84, Blessed are they that
dwell in thy house. Psalm 89, Blessed, happy are
the people that walk in the light of God's countenance. Psalm Blessed
is the man whom thou chasteneth, O Lord, and teachest out of thy
word." Psalm 112, blessed is the man who fears the Lord. Happy,
twice happy, fortunate. Psalm 118, blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. Psalm 119, blessed are they that
keep his testimony. Seems like the world is totally
out of touch with what blessedness and happiness is. I hope we're
not. I hope we're not out of touch
and out of tune with what real happiness is. I hope we're not
taken up, and this is what we're going to see as we go along in
this message, you're taken up in the wrong direction, in the
wrong thing, looking for happiness where it can never be found.
All right, here's my outline tonight. I want to talk about
who this happiness is for. Who's it for? For whom is this
happiness designed? And then secondly, where it'll
never be found, this true lasting happiness and joy. And thirdly,
where it is found, where true happiness is found. Now this,
this, this is true. This can't go wrong. It may be
that I will not apply it to my own heart, but it's true nevertheless. All right, and then fourthly,
what this happiness brings. Now, first of all, Psalm 1, verse
1, listen. Blessed is the man. For whom
is this intended? Blessed is the man. Blessed is the man. Did it say
blessed is the angel? Blessed is the holy man? Blessed
is the successful man. Blessed is the wise man. Blessed
is the written oath. Blessed is the man. He's just
a man. This blessedness, this happiness, is intended for me
and you. It's intended for ordinary folks
like us. That's happy is the man. Well-favored
is the man. And woman, when we say man here,
we mean woman. And this is a man. Here's a man
who is subject to the infirmities of the flesh, and yet he's happy.
Yet he's blessed. Yet he's fortunate. He's subject
to every infirmity of the flesh. He's not without fault. He's
not without favor. He's just a man. This happiness,
this blessed state... You know, one day our Lord said
to His disciples, whom do men say that I am? And they said,
well, some say you're John the Baptist, Who do you say that
I am? And Peter said, You're the Christ.
He said, Blessed are you, Simon. Blessed are you, Simon. Happy
are you. Fortunate are you. Blessed are your eyes, they see.
Blessed are your ears, they hear. Blessed are you, Simon, son of
Jonas. Simon, son of Jonas. Just a man. Just an ordinary man. And Simon
had his ups and downs, Simon had his successes and failures
after that, Simon had all, but he was still a happy, blessed,
fortunate man, just a man. We're just people here, we're
not blind, we see the world. We see the things of the world.
We're not blind, these things are before us. We're not deaf, we hear the words
of the world. We're not dumb. We speak. We
retort. We reply. We get upset, just
like anybody else. We're not dumb. We're not dead. We think. We imagine. We desire. We feel. But yet this happiness is for
people like you and me. I'm talking about happiness.
Real, true, lasting happiness is for people like you and me.
I can be, if I can find the key here, by God's grace, I can be
truly happy. Truly content and truly at peace
in my soul, in my heart. So it's for men and women. It's
for folks just like us. This happiness is for me. For
you, Charlie. For you, John. Happy. And it's
not a false happiness. It's not a phony happiness. It's
not a claim to happiness. It's not a temporary happiness.
It is a true happiness. Blessed, happy is the man. The
man. Happy is the man. Do you see
that? Let's go on until we get there.
Happy is this man. This man. All right, notice the
second thing now, where it's not found. Happy is the man who
walks not. Who walks not. He's not here.
And he's not found this happiness here. Who walks not in the counsel
of the ungodly. nor does he stand in the way
of sinners, nor does he sit in the seat of the scornful." Now,
let me see if I can work on this a moment. Contented, happy, well-favored,
and blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the
ungodly, stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat
of the scornful. Now, there are two or three interpretations
of that, and two or three ways that men deal with it. And I'll
give you two of them. Here's the first one. The first
one is this. This, the author said, reveals
the gradual decline of men into hardness of heart, into departure
from the Lord. This is a gradual decline. Now
watch it. As he departs from God, as he
departs from the way of the Lord. First of all, first of all, he
walked in the company of ungodly men. choosing them as his companions,
men and women who know not God. He walks in their company. Evil
communications corrupt good manners, and he begins to find his fellowship
and his social contact and his time spent with this ungodly
people who know not God. He walks with them, walks with
them. It's a passing thing. It's a
passing thing. He walks with them occasionally.
He walks with them. And then, secondly, after a while,
he not only just walks with them, but he begins to stand with them. The relationship becomes more
permanent. And he stands with them. They're
his constant companions, almost. They're his frequent companions. He stands and he begins to walk
in their counsel and in their fellowship, and then he begins
to stand in their way. He stands with them. He's found
with them most of the time. He's found with it. He's found
with that crowd. That's where you find him, standing.
Used to be he just passed by. Now he's standing with them. Now thirdly, he's gone now. He's
sitting with them. He's made his abode. That's his
place now. He's sitting with... He's sitting
with the critic. He's sitting with the scorner.
He's sitting with the fault finder. He's sitting with the scorner. That's the gradual decline. That's
usually the way it comes. That's usually the way it comes.
The person begins to walk. He begins to make contact. He
begins to move in that circle of the ungodly. That's people
who worship not God, who know not God, who walk not with God,
who love not God, who care not for the things of God. They begin
to walk with Him. Then He begins to stand and finds
His delight in their company. He sits down. And that's where
death finds him. That's where judgment meets him.
That's where hell keeps him. Now that's a good interpretation.
That's true. Somebody asked me one time, is
that what that means? Well, it's true nevertheless. As long
as you don't violate the scriptures, as long as it meets with other
scriptures, it's all right. But now here's the other. He
said, blessed is the man. who walks not, and the emphasis
on that other interpretation is walking, standing, and sitting.
In other words, the first contact we have with these people, it's
a matter of walking, and then it's a matter of standing, and
then it's a matter of permanent residence. But in this interpretation,
which I like best, and fits in with the blessedness of the man,
the emphasis is upon three things. The emphasis is upon the counsel.
And then the way, and then the seat of the scornful. First of all, the counsel. What
is the counsel of the ungodly? It's the ungodly's wisdom. Turn
to Isaiah chapter 55. Now see if this doesn't fit here.
Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 7. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts, God's thoughts are his counsel, are
they not? His wisdom, the wisdom of God,
the counsel of God. My wisdom is not your wisdom,
my counsel is not your counsel, my thoughts are not your thoughts.
either your ways, my ways. And so the counsel of the ungodly
is the understanding of the natural mind. And this blessed man knows
this. He knows that his happiness is
not found in the wisdom of this world. It's not found in the
counsel of this world. And then what is the way, the
sinner's way? Back to Psalm 1. The counsel
of the ungodly is the wisdom of the ungodly, the understanding
of the ungodly. They reject the Word. This is
what I think. This is the way I see it. That's the world's
way, the world's counsel. And then what is the way of the
sinner? What is the way of flesh? It's
the way of materialism. It's the way of greed. It's the
way of covetousness. It's the way of self. This is
the way that passeth away. This is the way that seems right
to men, but the end is destruction. The blessed man finds no happiness
in the wisdom of this world, nor in the materialistic, selfish
ways of this world. Nor does he find any happiness
in the seed of the scornful, the wise and the prudent. He
does not find his happiness there. He sees nothing there at all.
He knows it's not there. The honor of this world, the
praise of this world, the approval of this world, the applause of
this world, there's nothing there that constitutes happiness. Is
there? Some of you have accomplished
unusual, successful things, materially and in an honorable fashion. Some of you have several degrees
at the end of your name. Some of you are prosperous. Some of you have won beauty contests
and And some of you have been outstanding in different fields.
Have you ever found any real lasting happiness in these things?
Now tell me, have you ever? Is there anything that... Some of you have sat on school
boards, and you've been in important meetings, and you've been in
all of these things. What the world, what people clamor
after, you know, the council of this world, national committee
man. and delicate to the National
Convention and all this stuff. You've been there. You've been
in big business meetings. You've been with people that
folks are seeking their autograph and all that. Now tell me, what's
there? The counsel, the wisdom, the
understanding of this world as they sit around their meetings
and plan great and notable things. What's there, Ron? You found
anything there? You've been in some of them. None of them know anything about
grace or mercy or Christ or salvation or the blood or... You can't
talk about those things. And the way of the world. I just
haven't been able... I've been in... I've served on
boards and different things, had my picture in the paper and
all this foolishness. I've never found anything there
except there's the picture, you know. The counsel of this world, the
wisdom. Understand the way of this world. I got a name. I got
my name on a plaque, you know. And most of these people are
very, they're very opinionated folks. They're critics. They're
unmoving. They don't have any joy in the
old-time gospel, do they? Anybody ever carry a Bible to
one of those meetings? If you did, that's life. If you did,
they'd like it. You know what I'm trying to say?
Rubbing shoulders with the high and mighty. Winning honor and fame of men.
My son won the home run hitting contest in college last year.
Well, well. Wonderful. You'll be a fat man someday who
can't hit a softball. That's right. I got elected to
this, that and the other, didn't you? One day they won't even
remember your name. Won't even remember your name.
You try this sometime. You try to remember who was the
running mate of Franklin Roosevelt in his third term. Now that man
was famous. Who was the Attorney General
of the United States under Harry Truman? Ron Craven, that's the
only one in here that knows that, and he teaches it. That famous
man, but who knows? Who cares? Who was the head of
this out of the other? Who was the first astronaut to
fly around the world? The average person don't have
the faintest idea, yet he was the toast of America one time. These things are nothing. They
are nothing. The wisdom of this world. You'll
come to know the way of the centers, the way of men, the way that
seems right. This is the thing to do. Win
acclaim, and honor, and fame, and prestige, and power, and
materialistic. Get all you can get. Get all
you can and can all you get. That's this world's philosophy.
Get a raise. Get more money. Buy another car.
Build another house. And then you get to be so critical,
wise, and smart-aleck, and prudent. All right, verse 2, let's get
back with this. Where is it? Where is this happiness?
Blessed is the man. Happy is the man. Fortunate. Here's the man who's fortunate. If not, the man voted the most
likely to succeed in his class, high school class. That's what
all these high school class reunions are. They're trying to recapture
something they used to have, and it ain't there no more. It's
just not there. It's gone. This is now. And I tell you, when we lie down
to die, that's going to be now then, too. That's going to be
now. But, verse 2, here it is. Where
is happiness? His delight is in the law of
the Lord, and in that law that we meditate day and night. Now,
I'm not doing any violence to God's Word. That word, law, is
not law as we interpret law. That's not the Ten Commandments.
My delight's not in the Ten Commandments. My delight is not in the Ten
Commandments or the Levitical law. The word law is used in
the Bible several ways. First of all, when you talk about
the law, you might be talking about the Ten Commandments or
the Levitical law, or you might be talking about the Word of
God. And that's what, Jim, it is here. This man has found his
happiness and delight in the Word of God, in the Word of God. Now, I'm not only talking about
the written Word, I'm talking about the incarnate Word, which
cannot be separated from the written Word, that's Christ.
See, the Word is twofold. We find our happiness and delight
and joy in the blessed promises, the precious promises of God.
This is the children's bread. This is the children's bread.
I wish so desperately that our folks would spend more time in
the Word of God. If you would spend more time
in this book. This is, you know when he talks about he leads
us in green pastures? This is the green pastures. This
is the green pastures. This is the sole rule of faith
and practice. This is the revelation of the
Father's will and purpose. You want to know God's will and
purpose? It's revealed right here. This is our comfort. When Paul
was writing in Thessalonica, to the Thessalonicans, he said,
comfort one another with these words. You find your comfort
in this book. Assurance, faith, cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. Our strength in trial is found
in His Word. Our rule of conduct is found
in His rule. Our daily delight and evening
repose is found right here in the Word of God. study it, meditate
upon it, eat it, devour it. Here it is. One of the hymn writers
wrote this, laden with guilt and full of fear, I fly to thy
word, O Lord. Not a trace of hope appears anywhere
but in thy blessed word. That's true, The words of my
Father's grace does all my grief relieve, and I behold my Savior's
face on every page. God's Word is everlasting truth,
how pure is every page. This Word shall guide my path
and support me in old age. God's Word. But not only the
written Word, I'm talking about the incarnate Word. It's not
the word in letter, but it's the word in truth. Christ is
the truth. Christ is the wisdom of God.
Christ is the rest of God. Christ, as Paul read, is the
peace of God. I find my happiness and comfort
and joy and my delight in Christ Jesus. Old John Newton said it
this way, how tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer
I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds
and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness for me. The midsummer
sun shines but dim, the fields strive in vain to look gay, but
when I'm happy in him, December is as pleasant as May. Content
with beholding his face, my awe to his pleasure resigns. No changes
of season or place would make any change in my mind. While
blessed with a sense of his love, a palace, a toy, would appear,
and prisons would palaces prove if Jesus dwelt with me there."
My friends, you know where happiness is found? Contentment and peace
and rest in whatever circumstance is found resting in Christ Jesus,
the Word of God. That's where it is. His delight is in the Word of
God. And in that word does he meditate
day and night. And I'll tell you, now this is
true, whether you have a day ahead of you that's full of pressure
and decisions and hard work and responsibilities, if you can
walk with Christ and know His presence and know your relationship
with Him, I believe you can have a happiness even in those responsibilities
and that hard work, and those duties that are upon you. And
when you're alone, you're sitting alone, you're not surrounded
by people, you're just alone, and you begin to think about all the memories and these things,
if you can just rejoice in Him, in His presence, in His worth,
That's where true happiness is. It's found in Christ. It's found
in Christ Jesus. Now, the other night I preached
out here in the county. In Carter County. And I asked
the people five questions. Five questions. I asked them this. I said, what
would it mean to you? What would it mean to you, right
now, to know that all your sins are forgiven? All of them are
put away. I'm talking about past, present,
and future. There is no charge against you. There's no record. There's no condemnation. None
whatsoever. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Well,
we have that in Christ. That's what I have in Christ.
I can have happiness and peace and joy in Christ knowing that
all my sins are put away. Secondly, what would it mean
to you to know that the Almighty God, the living God of heaven
and earth, is reconciled to you? That He's not angry. that his
wrath is put away, that he loves you, really, truly loves you
with an unchanging love. He's reconciled you. Well, that's
in Christ. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself. We delight in that. We meditate
in it. Third, the question was, what would you do? What would
you give to have? How would you like to have a
new nature, a nature like a nature akin to God, a nature that comprehends
and loves the gospel, a nature in which worship and prayer and
fellowship with God is not a duty or responsibility but a delight.
Well, we have that in Christ. And then fourthly, what would
you give? What would it mean to you to
know that everything Everything, regardless of what it is, good
or bad, or past, present, or future, everything, was working
together for your eternal good. We have that in Christ. All things
work together for good to them who love God, who are called
according to His Word. We have that in Christ. What would it
mean to you to know this, that if death comes upon you tonight,
or tomorrow, if God is pleased to take you out of this earth,
that that experience will simply take you into the presence of
the Lord. That death is not lost, but gained.
It's like one old man said on graduation day. Somebody said,
you're leaving the land of the living. He said, no, I'm leaving
the land of the dead. I'm going to the land of the
living. Oh, preacher, those five things,
you know, that's it. That's where it is. Well, it's
in Christ. That's where those things are, not in religion,
but in Christ. All purchased by Christ. All
provided by Christ. All right, let me hurry. Let
me give you this. The third verse. All right. Blessed, happy of
the man. He knows where happiness is now. And he's no longer seeking
it there. He's no longer looking in that
direction. So he's weaned from those things. And his delight,
his joy, is in the Word of the Lord, in the Son of God. In Christ
does he meditate day and night. He thinks on Christ. Let me add this one thing. And I realize I'm a preacher.
Now, I've got to teach tomorrow morning, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Friday, and Wednesday. And you say, well,
you know, you have a lot of time to spend with the Bible, preparing
messages, and that, you're in your study and all, but some
of us, we have to get up and go to work, and we have to work
in secular things. I know you do. And I realize
that. But still, I believe that as
much of the time that you could meditate upon Christ even in
your activities and in your work. I do believe that. I believe
if you commit the Word of God to your memory, and have something
on your desk that you can read, or have something wherever you
are, in your kitchen, put on your refrigerator door, somewhere
where the Word of God, the precious promises, these things in which
we delight, have them so you can read them, and look at, sing
a hymn, But just delight in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord, meditate
on Christ. And he said, verse 3, what does
this happiness bring? Now watch this. And he shall
be, this happy, blessed man, he shall be like a tree. Now
notice, this is not a wild shrub. This is not a bush that grew
up. This is a tree. This is a permanent tree. And
he shall be like a tree, and it wasn't, it didn't spring up
accidentally. Somebody planted it. Somebody
planted this tree. This happiness, this state, is
not accidental. Somebody planted it. Let me refer
you to a verse of Scripture in Matthew, chapter 15. I want you
to go over there with Matthew 15. Let's look at this a moment. Matthew 15, verse 12 and 13.
Now this, as I can say, this state, happiness, contentment, and joy. Don't say, well, I have not there, but I'm still saved. Let's don't
handle this thing that way. Let's don't look back at anything
past. Let's don't look at any kind
of experience past decision or church membership or theology. Let's examine ourselves, not
whether we came into faith, but whether we'd be in the faith.
Let's find this happiness now. Let's find this relationship
with Christ now. Let's delight in Christ now and
meditate upon Christ. There's nothing worse than used
to be stuff. Barney, you say there's nothing
worse than an old experience that stays old. There's nothing
worse than a man who's crawled in a refuge and pulled the door
in behind him. There's nothing worse than a
man who gets in a falsehood of lies, or a refuge of lies and
a falsehood, and just camps there and does nothing about it. Let's
do something about it. Do something about it. We're
not preaching just to hear ourselves talk or to fill in time. This
tree here is planted. God planted it. Matthew, verse
15. Listen, verse 12. Then came his disciples, and
said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended when
they heard this saying? And he answered and said, Every
plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted
up." God planted this tree. This is a deliberate act of God,
the salvation of this individual. He's a tree. He's an unmovable
tree. He's a permanent tree. He's a
tree planted by God. He's a sturdy tree. He gives
shade to the weary traveler. He gives fruits to the hungry
traveler. He gives a place of rest to the
hot and weary traveler. He's a tree. He's there for a
purpose. God put him where he is for a purpose. A tree provides
shelter, it provides shade, it provides rest, it provides fruit. by the person coming by. God
planted it. Put it that way. And where is
it? It's planted by the water. The rivers of water. That's Christ.
You see, this tree has a constant supply of water. I was out in
Texas one time, years ago, in a meeting in Comanche, Texas. And it was dry. It hadn't had
rain, I don't think, in months and months and months. Everything
was dead. Everything was dead. You could look over the valley
and you could see a river winding through that dry, parched, desert
country. And all along the river, every
tree was green as it could be because it was drawing its nourishment
from that river. And that's where we're planted.
We're planted in Christ. We get our life and nourishment
from Him. That's the reason. And it says
here, He'll bring forth His fruit. They will in his season love
when love is needed, joy in time of sorrow, peace when trouble
brews, patience in time of trial, gentleness where cruelty abounds,
faith for every doubt, meekness even in success, temperance in
all things, and it says, and his leaf will never wither. It will never wither. That man that finds his rest
in Christ and his joy in Christ and his happiness in Christ,
he's a tree God planted, planted him in Christ. He'll bring forth
his fruit in his season, dependable fruit, and his leaf will never
wither. Somebody said God's trees are
evergreens. No cold winter or dry summer
shall cause these leaves to wither. Now here's the last thing in
our closing. And whatever he does shall prosper. Whatever
he does. And of course that's based on
Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good. Prosperity. Not physical prosperity,
material prosperity, but spiritual prosperity for them who love
God, who are called according to His purpose. True and lasting
happiness. Where is it found? found in God's
word, in God's redeeming word. It is. Believe me. That's first
class.