I'd like to welcome you this afternoon to
our service here at Christ Covenant Church.
I'd like to draw your attention to the
minutes for the council meeting.
They're on the back table back there.
If you have not gotten minutes for the
council meeting, you'll want to procure some of
those.
There's a couple of things that I want
to highlight out of this.
Number two, it was decided to start a
mid-week Bible study on the week alternating
with youth groups.
Youth group's one week, Bible study's the next
week.
That Bible study will run on Wednesdays, and
it is starting this week, Wednesday night, 7
.30 at my house.
At the Sol's house.
We're going to be using N.T. Wright's
Living Faith DVD series to begin with.
We'll start this up, and we'll see how
it goes.
See how it works.
Also, just below that in number three, the
council decided to start a missions fund.
If you have your page in front of
you, you can appreciate the way that spelling
mistakes sometimes work.
Because it says, on the first Sunday of
every month, we will have an extra collection
specified for the fund.
Duh.
Fund.
Duh.
We are going to start doing missions collections,
and there will be a special offering every
month.
We have not yet specifically determined where and
who we're going to be supporting, but we
are considering such things, and we're looking at
them just now.
So, that is going on.
Would you please stand?
The Lord calls us to worship today with
Psalm 24.
The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness
thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.
For he has founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the rivers.
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure
heart, who does not lift up his soul
to what is false, and does not swear
deceitfully, he will receive blessing from the Lord,
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek
him, who seek the face of the God
of Jacob.
Lift up your heads, O gates, and be
lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King
of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty.
The Lord, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift
them up, O ancient doors, that the King
of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts.
He is the King of glory.
Congregation, where does your help come from?
Our help comes from the Lord, the maker
of heaven and earth.
Grace to you and peace from God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.
Please take your canvass and turn to page
288.
O creatures of our God and King, lift
up your voice and with us sing Alleluia!
Alleluia!
The burning sun with golden beams The silver
moon with softer gleam O praise Him!
O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Thou arching wing that art so strong Ye
clouds that sail in heaven above O praise
Him!
Alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice Ye lights
of evening, find a voice O praise Him!
O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Thou flowing water, pure and clear Make music
for the Lord to hear Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Thou fire so masterful and bright God giveth
man both warmth and light O praise Him!
O praise Him!
Alleluia!
And all ye men of tender heart Forgiving
others take your part O sing ye Alleluia!
Give you long pain and sorrow bear Praise
God and on Him cast your care O
praise Him!
O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Let all things their Creator bless And worship
Him in humble dance O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son And
praise the Spirit three in one O praise
Him!
O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Amen.
Our scripture reading this afternoon is from the
book of Ezekiel, chapter 33, verses 1 through
20.
Hear the word of the Lord.
The word of the Lord came to me,
Son of man, speak to your people and
say to them, If I bring a sword
upon the land and the people of the
land take a man from among them and
make him their watchman, and if he sees
the sword coming upon the land and blows
the trumpet and warns the people, and if
anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet
does not take warning and the sword comes
and takes him away, his blood shall be
upon his own head.
He heard the sound of the trumpet and
did not take warning, but his blood shall
be upon himself.
But if he had taken warning, he would
have saved his life.
If the watchman sees the sword coming and
does not blow the trumpet so that the
people are not warned and the sword comes
and takes away any one of them, that
person is taken away in his iniquity, but
his blood I will require at the watchman's
hand.
So you, Son of man, I have made
a watchman for the house of Israel.
Whenever you hear a word from my mouth,
you shall give them warning from me.
If I say to the wicked, O wicked
one, you shall surely die, and you do
not speak to warn the wicked to turn
from his way, that wicked person shall die
in his iniquity, but his blood I will
require at your hand.
But if you warn the wicked to turn
from his way and he does not turn
from his way, that person shall die in
his iniquity, but you will have delivered your
soul.
And you, Son of man, say to the
house of Israel, Thus have you said, Surely
our transgressions and our sins are upon us
and we rot away because of them.
How then can we live?
Say to them, As I live, declares the
Lord God, I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked, but that the wicked
turn from his way and live.
Turn back, turn back from your evil ways,
for why will you die, O house of
Israel?
And you, Son of man, say to your
people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not
deliver him when he transgresses.
And as for the wickedness of the wicked,
he shall not fall by it when he
turns from his wickedness.
And the righteous shall not be able to
live by his righteousness when he sins.
Though I say to the righteous that he
shall surely live, yet if he trusts in
his righteousness and does injustice, none of his
righteous deeds shall be remembered.
But in his injustice that he has done,
he shall die.
Again, though I say to the wicked, he
shall surely die, yet if he turns from
his sin and does what is just and
right, if the wicked restores the pledge and
gives back what he has taken by robbery
and walks in the statutes of life, not
doing injustice, he shall surely live.
He shall not die.
None of the sins that he has committed
shall be remembered against him.
He has done what is just and right.
He shall surely live.
Yet your people say, the way of the
Lord is not just, when it is their
own way that is not just.
When the righteous turns from his righteousness and
does injustice, he shall die for it.
And when the wicked turns from his wickedness
and does what is just and right, he
shall live by them.
Yet you say, the way of the Lord
is not just.
O House of Israel, I will judge each
of you according to his ways.
Congregation of Christ, we are here in the
presence of Almighty God.
Let us with penitent and obedient hearts confess
our sins so that we may obtain forgiveness
by God's infinite goodness and mercy.
Most merciful God, we confess that we have
sinned against you in thought, word, and deed
by what we have done and by what
we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole
heart.
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us that
we may delight in your will and walk
in your ways to the glory of your
name.
Amen.
Arise and hear the good news of God's
forgiveness.
Almighty God, in His mercy, has given His
Son to die for you and for His
sake, forgives you all your sins in the
name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Alleluia.
Praise to God the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
Glory to You, O Lord, both now and
forever.
Alleluia.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Let's come before the Lord in prayer.
Our Father in Heaven, You have been gracious
and kind to us, and we thank You
for this.
We thank You for giving us Your Word.
We thank You for sending Your Spirit to
cause that Word to become alive in us
and before us.
We pray, Father, that You will continue this
work by Your Spirit of causing us to
grow in the image of Christ.
You have done great things for us, and
we are glad of them.
Lord, we pray that You will bless the
works of Your Church.
We pray for this body in particular.
We pray, Father, that You will watch over
each activity that we do, watch over our
studies that we engage in, enable us to
worship You in spirit and in truth, and
pray that You would teach us.
We confess, Lord, that we are not wise,
but You have said that not many who
are wise are among those who are called,
and Your strength is made perfect in weakness.
So we pray, Father, that You would strengthen
us, make us strong in faith, enable us
in all ways and in all things to
trust in You.
We pray for Your Church beyond our walls
and beyond our company.
There are many, many people in Grand Prairie
and in the surrounding area that name Your
name and that worship You.
We pray, Father, that You will strengthen Your
pastors and Your elders and Your deacons and
those who lead in Your Church.
We pray that You would work in them
in such a way as to build and
deepen and strengthen a love for Your Word
and a desire to instill it to Your
people.
We pray, Father, that You will please guard
against error and help us to guard against
error.
We pray, Father, that You will work in
each of the churches that name Your name
in our town, that You would bless their
ministries, that You would cause them to prosper,
that You would use the work of Your
Church in this town to bring many to
faith who have never trusted in You before.
Lord, we pray for Your Church at large
in the world.
In our country, Lord, it seems that there's
many ways in which there's been such decline
in Your Church.
But we know that that is not the
end of things because in other parts of
the world we see Your Word is going
forth with power in great and mighty ways
and there are many, many people turning to
You.
We pray that You will strengthen the hands
of Your Church.
We pray, Father, that You will break the
teeth of the lions that tear at Your
Church.
There are many lands where it is illegal
to worship You in public.
We pray, Father, that You will break down
those barriers through the praises and prayers of
Your people and that You would bring about
the day when the earth is full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters
cover the sea.
Use us, Lord.
Use our efforts.
Use our works for the sake of Your
Kingdom and for the sake of Your glory.
We pray now the prayer that the Lord
taught us, His disciples, to pray, saying, Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy
name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and
forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors and lead us not into temptation but
deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, the power and
the glory forever.
Amen.
Please take your compass and turn to page
42.
Unto Thee, O Lord, my Savior, I lift
up my waiting soul.
O my God, in Thee I trust it.
Let no shame now o'er me be.
On my enemies be shame.
But all those who trust Thy name
honor with abundant blessing.
Show Thou unto me Thy servant.
All that my life's spirit guided, clearly I
Thy pathway see.
In Thy truth wilt Thou me guide.
Teach me, God, of my salvation.
All the day for Thee I fight, Lord,
with eager expectation.
Wilt Thou then, I pray, be mindful of
Thy mercy's manifold.
All Thy care and lovingkindness which have ever
been of old.
Twins of youth, remember not, nor recall my
transgression.
For Thy goodness' sake, O God, think of
me in Thy compassion.
He, the Lord, is good and upright, in
his dealings evermore.
Sinners are by him instructed in the way
untrod before.
He will ever guide the meek, in his
judgments true and holy.
Teach his way to those who seek, with
love, contrite heart and glory.
All the path the Lord hath chosen, speak
of truth and mercy's pure.
Unto such as he is calling, and his
testimony's sure.
For the glory of Thy name, pardon, Lord,
my evildoing.
Grieve us, O my sin and shame.
Hear my cry, Thy love renewing.
Amen.
Wilt Thou
then, just not walk in the wisdom of
men, or dance in the path of sinners,
or sit in the seat of the sufferers?
Blessed is the man, who does not walk
in the wisdom of men, or dance in
the path of sinners, or sit in the
seat of the sufferers?
For his delight is in the love of
the Lord, in his body meditate day and
night.
He shall be like a tree, planted by
rivers of water, bearing its fruit in season,
and its leaves shall not wither.
He shall be like a tree, planted by
rivers of water, bearing its fruit in season,
and whatever he does will prosper.
Blessed is the man.
Be I God, be I my soul, say
I shall wish to win, but
the way of the Godless man will die.
Blessed is the man, in whom the Lord
divine, he shall be like a tree, planted
by rivers of water.
Although we've just sung it.
Blessed is the man, who walks not in
the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in
the path of sinners, nor sits in the
seat of the scornful, but his delight is
in the law of the Lord, and in
his law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree, planted by
the rivers of water, that brings forth its
fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall
not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, but are like
the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the
judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the
righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the
righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish.
Let's ask God to bless our time here
this afternoon.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word.
We thank You that You have given it
to us, but we also recognize that without
Your Spirit to quicken us and give us
understanding, that we lack that understanding in and
of ourselves.
So we pray that You would illuminate our
hearts, our minds, that we may hear and
understand and do those things which You revealed
to us in Your Word.
For we ask it in Jesus' name.
Well, this is a very familiar passage of
Scripture to us.
And as I was thinking about what to
do today, one of the things that came
into mind was the fact that we were
practicing or putting into practice the singing of
these psalms.
And Jamie taught us his rendition of this.
And perhaps we should have a look at
it and to ponder on it a little
more so that when we do sing it,
some things come to mind.
Now grant you, there are people out there
that have done six sermons on this.
So we're going to have an overview of
Psalm 1 today.
Psalm 1 is what's referred to as a
wisdom psalm.
But it's much more than that.
Psalm 1 is also a gateway, if you
will, alongside of Psalm 2.
A gateway to the whole collection of psalms
that are in the Scriptures.
What is introduced here in Psalm 1 points
us forward to what follows in all the
other psalms.
For instance, numerous psalms speak of God's law.
And what's the quickest one that comes to
your mind?
Psalm 119.
Other psalms, like Psalm 92, speak of flourishing
like a tree.
Still others point to the ungodly.
Psalm 35, for instance.
Not the only one, but these are just
examples.
And the Lord knowing the way of the
righteous can be found as well.
An example of that is Psalm 37.
Before we can have an intimate conversation with
God, we must consider our attitude toward the
law of God.
The righteous person loves and studies it, while
the wicked person hates and reviles it.
Psalm 1, as a stand-alone psalm, but
not only that, as the gateway to other
psalms, reveals and introduces us to the way
of the righteous and the way of the
wicked.
Now, if we want to be blessed, what
kind of life should we live?
What pathway?
What pattern of life leads to blessedness?
Well, the world has all kinds of quick
answers to that.
We see it all the time.
For example, commercials.
Now, they don't necessarily put it exactly this
way, but they could.
Blessed is the man who gargles with our
mouthwash.
Blessed is the man who drives our car.
Blessed is the man who drinks our beer.
Now, it's humorous, but it's not because there's
a message underlying, isn't there?
We hear it all the time.
I work with guys.
Many of us work in a place where
we hear people talking about their goals, their
lives, about their plans for the weekend.
Well, their philosophy is blessed is the man
who gets rich and famous and gets to
go out with all the good-looking girls.
But if we want real blessedness, what pattern
should we follow?
Well, Psalm 1 gives us an answer.
Blessed is the man.
Or another way of saying it is oh,
the blessedness of that man who does not
walk in the counsel of the wicked or
stand in the way of sinners or sit
in the seat of mockers.
We begin with a negative definition, so to
speak.
And those three verbs that are used to
describe the things that we ought not to
do alongside the wicked to walk, to stand,
to sit, those three verbs cover the whole
of our lives.
Don't they?
The blessed man, the man whose life we
ought to desire to be like, isn't living
by the pattern of the world at any
point in his life.
Now, does that mean that we can never
associate with the ungodly?
With wicked people?
That we can never go anywhere that they
go or do anything that they do?
Well, if that were the case, we would
have to leave this world behind.
Where could you go?
Psalm 1 is not telling us to set
up a little Christian commune or to move
into a monastery and hide from the world.
Psalm 1 is, however, calling to make a
break away from the mindset, the worldview, the
life pattern of the world around us.
Blessed is the man who doesn't buy into
the advice of the wicked.
Blessed is the man who isn't party to
the ways of sinners.
Blessed is the man who doesn't laugh along
with the wicked when they make fun of
God and His commandments.
If we want this blessedness, then we can't
let the world shape the way that we
think because the things that shape our thinking
shape our lives.
What you think, more often than not, is
what you end up doing if that's left
to go on its own.
We need to be careful in our friendships
in that respect, in the friendships with unbelievers.
And perhaps there's an extra caution here for
young people, for those that are new to
the faith because there's not a maturity.
You see, there is a tendency to talk
and to act and to think like our
friends.
Now, if you don't think that's right, then
all you need to do is listen to
a group of young people talking.
I'm trying to debrief my children from dropping
the word like as a comma in their
conversations because they pick it up from their
friends.
And it's like this and like that.
And they're not saying things are similar.
It's just a comma.
But we rub off on one another.
So our relationships with unbelievers, if we're not
careful, will rub off on us.
If we're not influencing others in a good
way, we may be very well being influenced
in a bad way.
We mustn't come to the mindset to think
that these words in Psalm 1 apply only
to people that are tempted to hang out
in bars and party like pagans.
Yes, that is one application.
That's one way to be conformed to the
world's way of thinking.
But it's not the only way, is it?
We need to ask ourselves a number of
questions on various areas of our lives.
For instance, Mr. Glant has been teaching us
some sessions on how we ought to think
as Christians culturally.
Well, here's a question for us.
Am I working for the weekend just like
the other guy?
As a Christian, I think that's a relevant
question.
If I let the world teach me how
to think about my money, about my family,
about the use of my time.
Here's a dicey one.
Have I let the world influence my thinking
about fashions?
Are we thinking modesty when we go out
shopping?
It's a pertinent one, young ladies, because do
you dress differently than the world?
The scripture would say that modesty is in
place.
Young men, have you bought into the attitude
that depending on the age of hard work
and studies are not necessarily a cool thing
to do?
And good manners is a sign of weakness.
What about our entertainment?
The world tells us that that kind of
thing is neutral.
Is it really?
Unfortunately, I think that many Christians actually buy
that line.
They think that entertainment is neutral.
And again, Mr. Gwant is going to have
a talk on that and I'm looking forward
to it.
The whole aspect of entertainment.
Well, you know, people say it's really only
entertainment.
Don't take it so seriously.
After all, it's just a TV show.
Or how about you like your music and
I like mine, but it's just all a
matter of taste, right?
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not on
a crusade to boycott rock music.
Maybe country, but not rock.
Nor boycott movies, right?
No, that's not it.
But what we have is a reminder to
think about all our entertainment and to think
about it like a Christian.
In faith, we say, we just sang, Psalm
1, that the path toward blessedness leads away
from the world's philosophy of life.
Parents, we need to continue to teach our
children to see through what the world shows
as the glamorous life.
We need to learn to hear that hollowness
in the world's laughter.
We need to recognize the emptiness and the
ugliness of the path of sinners so that
we turn away from it in disgust.
How can we do that?
Well, the answer is given us right here.
Only by turning toward God and letting Him
shape our thinking.
That's what we see in verse 2.
Blessed is the man who doesn't go along
with the wicked, but his delight is in
the law of the Lord.
And on His law, He meditates day and
night.
Now, it has been said, and sometimes we
get into the mindset where we say, well,
that's typical of the Old Testament, isn't it?
There he goes, talking about the law again.
But now that Jesus came, maybe we should
replace that word law with gospel, shouldn't we?
Well, I believe that's a false dichotomy.
If we read Psalm 1 with that mindset,
then we have misunderstood the gospel.
Christ didn't come to do away with God's
law.
He came to give us the power to
keep the law.
To live by God's direction.
To follow God's pattern.
He came to make us delight in God's
law.
Well, what does a person who takes pleasure
in God's law look like?
Is he grumpy?
Does he walk around all the time?
No, don't do this.
Don't do that.
I told you not to do that earlier,
Judah.
Is he always scowling at people around him?
Does he look like his shoes are three
sizes too small?
No.
What's the description here from Psalm 1?
He's blessed.
That's what we just sang.
That's what we sing every time we sing
Psalm 1 and other psalms as well.
We look at the life of this man
and we say, blessed is that man.
I want to live the way he's living.
God's law isn't a burden that saps all
the joy out of life.
It isn't a catalog of dry rules.
Loving God's law isn't legalism because if we
love God's law, we also love the liberty
that His law gives to us.
Loving God's law doesn't mean giving up our
desire for blessedness.
Rather, loving God's law is the pathway to
satisfying an innate desire that every human being
has.
It's the pathway to deep, lasting joy.
And that man is blessed.
Where do we find true blessedness in life?
We find it in God.
That's the message of Psalm 1.
God doesn't want us to settle for all
the little pleasures in life only.
He wants us to find the big pleasures,
the deepest happiness of all, the joy, the
blessedness of life with Him.
The Lord reveals to us that joy in
His Word.
He teaches us to live with Him.
He teaches us to respond to His love.
In His law, He reveals His will for
our lives and points us in the direction
of full life.
So what does that mean?
It means that we need to commit ourselves
to getting to know God's Word better.
But more than that, getting to love God's
Word better so that we don't simply read
it for maybe a few minutes at a
time or a few minutes a day.
But we need to meditate on it and
turn it over in our minds and think
about how it applies to our lives all
day long.
No matter what we're doing.
No matter if we're at work.
No matter if we're at play.
No matter if we're listening to a song
or watching a movie or gathering for worship.
Now I've probably said this before.
Some of you will recognize me.
This meditate has got some interesting connotations.
Meditate is in one sense literally to mutter
and to murmur to oneself.
Now we're doing that.
The question is what we're doing while we're
doing that, right?
What was the problem that Israel ran into
once the Lord led them out of Egypt
into the wilderness and on their way to
the Promised Land?
They murmured.
They muttered.
They complained against...
We left all the leeks behind.
Who is this guy Moses?
And where did God go?
What was God's response?
There was a price to pay.
Their sin in the wilderness at times was
a murmuring and a muttering, a meditating on
all the wrong things.
Oh, what a poor boy am I.
I think I'll sit down and eat some
worms.
Instead of this is the day that the
Lord has made.
Or I will delight in His law.
Now granted, we can't do that all in
our own strength.
But God in His mercy and His grace
has united us to Jesus Christ.
You see, Jesus said my food is to
do the will of God.
And by His Spirit He is giving us
an appetite for the same food.
Jesus is the blessed man of Psalm 1.
But that is good news for us because
He is working in our hearts to make
us blessed with and through Him.
That's the pattern of life that's pointed out
to us in Psalm 1.
This blessedness comes from the right pattern of
life.
And that in turn leads us to prosperity
of life.
Verse 3, He shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water that brings
forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf
shall not wither.
And whatever he does shall prosper.
Trees need a lot of water.
We don't have any trees on our property.
We have a neighbor that has several trees
and our front lawn shows that because they're
soaking up all the water in the neighborhood.
But what is the meaning here then of
this tree?
When we go through a dry summer and
the winds blow, the rain doesn't always fall.
Even the trees eventually start to wither and
die.
But Psalm 1 says here, we don't.
Our leaves stay green and fresh.
Why?
Because we have an unending supply of water.
You see, God has taken us.
We are planted by the Lord.
We are being nourished and fed by God
Himself in His Word.
His Word gives us a blessedness that lasts.
A blessedness that is deep enough to survive
adversity.
God strengthens us and He refreshes us and
He makes us productive.
As we take pleasure in God's law, He
says that we are going to bear fruit
in season.
Our lives will be characterized by love, by
joy, by peace, by patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.
These things aren't unknown to us.
We will do good works to God's glory.
We will speak in a way that also
nourishes and encourages and refreshes others.
Planted near streams of living water, we are
going to bear fruit and whatever we will
do will succeed.
Ah, and here comes the contrast.
But the wicked, the ungodly, are not so.
The wicked aren't fruit-bearing trees.
It's interesting.
The contrast here is that they're not dying
trees or they're not even shriveled little shrubs.
What is the contrast?
The contrast is they're chaff.
It's even that far removed.
There's no nourishment in chaff.
When farmers separate wheat from the chaff, they
let the wind blow the chaff away because
it's good for nothing.
The righteous are like a beautiful green tree,
but the wicked are like worthless, lightweight chaff
that gets blown away.
But maybe sometimes we think the real world
isn't like that.
You might hear somebody say, when I look
around at the world, I see wicked people
making buckets of money, hand over fist.
And I see Christians striving to make ends
meet, some of them living in outright poverty.
I see wicked people who haven't been sick
a day in their life, and they live
it up all the time.
And I see faithful Christians fighting to survive
another bout of cancer.
So how can we say that Christians are
like green trees?
How can we say that whatever Christians do
will prosper?
Is Psalm 1 really realistic?
Brothers and sisters, yes, indeed, it is.
This psalm introduces a whole book of psalms,
and many of them are lamentations.
Cries to God for help in distress.
We read, for instance, in Psalm 34, a
righteous man may have many troubles.
And if we think about Psalm 1, even
here, Psalm 1 recognizes that Christians suffer.
How so?
Well, if we have to stand out from
the crowd, we are not to go along
with that advice of the wicked, and that's
going to lead to mockery and to opposition,
because we dare to go against the mainstream.
Psalm 1 is realistic.
It's not an impossible ideal, as if we
have got to keep God's law perfectly, and
then we will be blessed.
After all, this blessing is for the righteous,
isn't it?
We need to remember that when the Bible
speaks about the righteous, it's not talking about
people who have never sinned, or who will
never sin.
It's talking about God's people.
It's talking about the people that God has
made covenant with.
It's talking about covenant keepers.
It's talking about people who want to keep
God's law, and who make a practice of
repenting of their sins when they fall, and
who seek their life in God through Jesus
Christ.
Here in Psalm 1, God gives us a
promise.
He promises to make us like a green
tree.
He promises to provide us with everything we
need for life.
He promises to refresh us, care for us,
even when we are sick and suffering.
He promises to make our lives beautiful and
fruitful and productive.
That's what Jesus says in John 15.
If a man remains in Me, and I
in him, he will bear much fruit.
The Lord promises to make our lives successful
so that everything we do prospers.
Now that doesn't necessarily mean that we're going
to be rich.
That's not the measuring stick.
However, it does mean that all our work
for God's glory, we can count on God's
blessing.
We must admit that our work is not
perfect.
It's full of flaws.
We don't do anything perfectly, do we?
It's never quite as good as we want
it to be.
And sometimes our efforts seem like an outright
flop.
But God promises that our work is going
to succeed.
He's going to take it and use it
for His glory.
And in the end, for our glorification.
We may not see immediate results when we
live a godly life in front of our
co-workers or our neighbors, or when we
teach our children to know the Lord.
But again, remember, we have through the Scriptures.
Paul reminds us, for instance, in 1 Corinthians
15.
He ends with, always give yourselves fully to
the work of the Lord because you know
that your labor in the Lord is not
in vain.
It is true.
The wicked do seem to prosper in this
life at times.
At times it seems like more often than
not.
They look strong.
They look stable.
They gather their riches together.
But what does Proverbs say?
Proverbs says that the wealth of the wicked
is stored up for who?
For the righteous.
We hear it again and again in the
Psalms.
The wicked spring up like grass and evildoers
flourish.
But they will be destroyed forever.
When we compare our lives to the lives
of the wicked, we need to remember God's
judgment.
The wicked forget about God.
Don't they?
But God doesn't forget about the wicked.
Does He?
He's judging them right now even.
He's punishing the wicked already in this life.
We need to understand what's pointed out here.
He is weeding the wicked out from among
His people.
He's doing so even right now.
And He does so in a number of
ways.
Possibly through death.
Possibly through church discipline.
And sometimes it's even through their own stubborn
disobedience.
The wicked don't have a place in the
assembly of the righteous, the Psalm tells us.
And that's part of God's judgment.
That's part of God's curse.
The man is blessed who walks in the
way that God designates.
But those who don't come under the curse.
And perhaps the wicked may not even think
that that's a half-bad idea.
They didn't want to be with the Christians
in the first place.
Their hearts are hardened.
Only those who are in the assembly of
the righteous will stand in God's judgment.
The wicked don't have a leg to stand
on, so to speak.
The wind of God's judgment will blow them
away like chaff.
We, however, will stand.
Every Christian is a green tree with deep
roots fed and nourished by streams of water
who will flourish and live before God forever.
So what makes the difference?
What makes the difference between the blessed man
and the wicked man?
Well, the difference is the Lord, our covenant
God.
Verse 6 says, the Lord watches over the
way of the righteous, but the way of
the wicked will perish.
The wicked are heading for destruction.
And on the last day, the Lord will
say to them, go away from Me.
I never knew you.
But the Lord knows His own.
The Lord knows the path that His people
are on.
His knowledge is love.
He never loses sight of us because we
are walking in the way of His own
Word.
We are following in the steps of His
Son, of the blessed man.
Jesus Himself is the way and the truth
and the life as He revealed to us.
And when we follow Him, when we walk
that path, the Lord watches over the path
and leads us safely to Himself.
He leads us to blessedness.
That's God's promise to us, congregation.
We will face hardship and grief.
There's no doubt about it.
There may even be sickness.
There will be definitely sorrow.
The ungodly are going to be all around
us and they're going to tempt us and
they're going to offer advice and they're going
to call us to follow them.
When we don't, they might very well make
fun of us.
They might ostracize us.
They might alienate us.
Contrast that, however, with God on the other
hand who promises us security.
We will never be out of His sight.
We will never be out of His hand.
He promises us His blessing.
The blessing of a life that bears fruit
for Him.
The blessing of a life of good works.
The blessing of a transformed tongue that speaks
His praises, that sings His praises and builds
other people up.
He promises us a life that will attract
and draw others to Him.
He promises us blessedness.
He promises us prosperity.
Not by the world's standards, but by His
standards.
A life that carries out His purposes now
and all the way into eternity.
Let us use God's word to point us
to true blessedness today.
Let us join as God's people as we
have already sung Psalm 1 in celebrating the
blessedness not of the rich man, but of
the righteous man.
Let's sing about the blessedness of the man
who succeeds not in the world's eyes, but
in God's eyes.
Let's cultivate a hunger for this kind of
blessedness so that we feast on God's word
every day and bear fruit by God's blessing.
Fruit that will last for all of eternity.
Let's take our cantors and stand together and
turn to page 158.
Please stand.
Before Thee let my pride come near, O
Lord, true to Thy word, teach me.
Before Thee let my singing come true, Thy
promise rescue me.
True to Thy promise rescue me.
Fix Thou Thy status, teacher, free, O let
my lips Thy praise confess.
Yea, of Thy word my tongue will sing
for Thy commands are righteousness.
Be ready which I am to have because
Thy three steps are my choice.
I've longed for Thy salvation, Lord, and in
Thy holy law rejoice.
And in Thy holy law rejoice.
O let Thy forgiveness and help my soul
shall live and praise Thee yet.
A straying sheep Thy servants seek for Thy
commands are righteous, for Thy commands are near
for years.
Amen.
At this time we'll do our tithes and
offerings.
As we've seen in Psalm 1, God has
taken us.
He has promised to nourish us.
And as we come to the Lord's table,
we think on those things.
God the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ
to be the bread of life, given for
the life of the world.
And Jesus assures us that when we come
to Him as the living bread, He will
by no means cast us out.
We are hungry and we are thirsty.
And in coming to the table of the
Lord, we confess that we have no sufficiency
in ourselves, that He by His grace is
the one who fills us with every good
thing.
He blesses us and He makes us blessed.
He also calls us in His Word to
hunger and thirst after righteousness.
He also assures us that as we hunger,
we shall be filled.
He calls us to taste and to see
that He is good and that the one
who takes refuge in Him is indeed blessed.
And as we commemorate the death of Jesus
Christ, we are assured that He will truly
nourish and refresh us with His crucified body
and shed blood to everlasting life.
As those who share in that assurance, let's
confess our faith together with the Church of
All Ages, with the same lips by which
we receive the bread and the wine, and
also speaking together our Holy Catholic faith.
Let's stand together and sing the words of
the Apostles' Creed.
Our Lord says, Come to the water.
Yes, come by wine.
Our Father who gives bread for our life,
we bless you that you cause us to
live, not by bread alone, but by the
living Word.
Our Lord says, Yes,
come by wine.
Our Father who
gives bread for our life, we bless you
that you cause us to live, but
by the living Word.
Amen.
Our Lord says, Our Father who gives bread
for our life, not by bread alone, but
by the living Word.
Our Lord says, Our Father who gives bread
for our life, we bless you that you
cause us to live, not by bread alone,
Please stand.
From heaven, O praise the Lord.
All angels praise the Lord.
Let all the earth keep praise.
Praise him, O God.
The moon and star, the moon and star,
ye of the far and loving God.
Yea, let them for your sake always the
worthy praise.
Stay until being changed.
And from that place where faith strayed, where
faith strayed behind its degree, they cannot pass.
From earth, O praise the Lord.
While we stand to his word, he comes
by rail and snow.
He mountains high, he cedars tall, he cedars
tall, he cedars tall and birds that fly.
Let all the people praise.
Let all their words be praise.
We touch and keep no hand.
I, I, and all, I, maid and youth,
I, maid and youth, this famous truth should
we exult.
Till the day we praise.
For he is great, and great, and that
there's power on high.
In praise of God, we always shall praise.
Always shall praise, dear to his great praise,
he, the Lord.