Psalm 1--The Blessed (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Mike Abendroth here.

Psalm 1 as the Gateway Psalm and the Blessed Man

Psalm 1. We on Thursdays have been looking at Psalm 1. It is a great psalm. It is a gateway psalm. It is the preface of the Psalter, and it starts off with this exclamation, a plural exclamation, an intensive exclamation, the blessedness, the blessednesses.

Well, okay, ESV. Is the CSV in front of me? Who knows what's in front of me? ESV, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And on his law, he meditates day and night. No Compromise Radio, we've been going through this psalm trying to encourage you to continue your study of the Bible. Every one of us could study the Bible more.

I hope you have a routine to study the Bible. Now, here's what I would say before we look a little bit more at Psalm 1, verses 3 to 6. Is just get in some kind of routine. And of course, if you mess up your routine here or there, it's not that big a deal.

A Daily Routine for Bible Study

But, you know, nine days out of 10, I get up in the morning and I, well, every day I get up in the morning. I don't think I've slept past noon for, I don't know, decades. But the days that I get up in the morning, I wake up, I go over to the, we have some special Japanese water boiler thing.

So once it stays, it boils and goes up to 210 degrees, 212. It settles back down to about 208. It just stays that way. So it's ready to go in the morning. And I grind some coffee beans, dark, and put them in the French press, pour in the 212 degree water, wait four minutes, press, and get a huge mug of coffee.

I put a little bit of nonfat half and half in there, which isn't really half and half. It's just bulked up skim milk and some Truvia, Stevia, something like that. And then I sit down. And so then I have, I either grab my iPad.

Which one do I grab? I grab my cracked iPad 2. I preach from an iPad mini, but I grabbed my iPad 2 cracked. Sometimes it flashes on and off. And those things are heavy compared to the mini. And I will read from Logos, memorizing Titus these days.

So I'll probably try to catch up on some memory verses. And then there's the ESV app, of course, there. Or if I'd like to look at the Interlinear, my Logos Bible program. Other days, I bring out my New Testament, Nestle Aland, blue, Greek New Testament, along with my Cambridge Calfskin New Testament and a little notepad.

And then I begin to study the Bible. I like to read some Psalms. I like to read a proverb. I like to read Gospels to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's just what I do. And I sit there for a half hour and read, sometimes an hour.

And that's how I try to start off the day. Now, sometimes we get up early. We drive to New York City. I got to catch a flight. And so I don't, but that's typically my day. So I want you to do what I do, because this is, it'd be like Mike Day.

No, I'm just trying to say, try to get something in a routine, down in a routine. It'll help you. The men here at Discipleship Group, I make them for about four to five weeks, write down every day, how many minutes they spent in the Bible before their workday started.

If you want to read your Bible late at night or in the middle of the day, I listen to the Bible in the car as a supplement. I mean, there's all kinds of things you could do, of course, but I'm trying to get these men for this particular Discipleship Group to start off the day in the work.

So it is worth it. Bible study is worth it. On this earth, yes. And then of course, ultimately in heaven, yes. Psalm one goes on to say verse three, He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does, he prospers.

What a great picture of a life of the blessed man. Think about this tree, vitality, fruitfulness. And here we have a simile, right? As or like. He is like a tree. He's not, as Pink said, a reed moved about by every wind which blows nor a creeper trailing on the ground.

A tree is upright and grows heavenward. A tree is planted. Many are not, but grow wild. They plant the trees under the care and cultivation of its owner. Thus, this assures us that those who delight in God's law are owned by God, cared for him and pruned.

By him. Good words from Arthur Pink. The man of God, the blessed man is the man who delights in the law and he meditates on that law day and night. And he is vibrant. He is healthy. He is stable. He is mature.

This is a godly man likened to a tree. What a great, what a great description of a blessed life of a godly person. Enduring. Abundance of water by the tree because it's growing properly. I'm distracted because somebody's driving around out in the parking lot and they look dangerous to me.

For a few seconds there, I couldn't really think because somebody just pulled in the parking lot and was doing some stuff they ought not to do. Now they just turned around and drove off. So I feel better.

We could edit that, that makes it more real life. This is like reality radio. So you just never know what'll happen. A couple of weeks ago, I'm looking out of this very same window and there's about 30 Thanksgiving turkeys right out there.

No, no, they're alive. I didn't kill any. Thought about it, but didn't kill any. I didn't really wanna pluck off the feathers. I remember when my father and I would go hunting when I was very young. My job was to be the dog and he would shoot the pheasant.

I would go grab the pheasant. I think when I got a little older, I could ring the necks. Then I got a little older and I thought, I don't really like killing things and I don't like cleaning them. I like eating them.

Anyway, if you don't clean these things properly and get all the little pellets out, it hurts your teeth. So really the word here, planted by streams of water is to transplant. And it is a passive participle, transplanted by streams of waters.

How amazing is it that we can jump from turkeys to mean people in cars, to trees planted by water. 1 Thessalonians 2, for this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you receive from us the word of God's message, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

It performs its work and the text says here, it yields its fruit in its season. Fruit from God. And of course I could easily tell you how the spirit works through the word. And the New Testament would tell us the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

The Wicked as Chaff and the Reality of Judgment

It is worth it. Especially when you look at the opposite. Look at the one whose delight is not in the law. Look at the one who's not meditating in the word day and night. Look at the one who instead follows the counsel of the wicked and the way of sinners and sits in the seats of scoffers.

Look at them. Verse four, the wicked are not so, but they're like a chaff which the wind drives away. Spurgeon, in this verse, the contrast of the ill estate of the wicked is employed to heighten the coloring of that fair and pleasant picture, which precedes it.

Not so. The wicked are not so. They're not like the trees firmly planted. They're not bearing fruit in due season. Matthew, Henry, not so the ungodly. They are not so. They are not led by the counsel.

They are led by the counsel of the wicked. They have no delight in the law of God, nor ever think about it. They bring no fruit, but grapes of Sodom. They cumber the ground. Not so. Not so the wicked.

But they are like chaff that the wind drives away. What's chaff? Well, that's a common Old Testament word, isn't it? The stuff that is dead, the tree that is luxuriant, the tree that is green, the tree that is fruitful, and we have the dead chaff on the threshing floor, swept away by the breeze, dead, lifeless.

That's the characteristic morally of the ungodly. Unserviceable chaff, worthless chaff, dead chaff, without substance chaff. Spurgeon said, this is their doom. The wind drives them away. Death with its terrible blast will hurry them into the fire and they will be consumed.

So you go to the threshing floor, you throw up the grain and the wind catches the chaff and drives it away. That is like the wicked, the husk, the dry calyx of the corn and other grains, just worthless matter driven away by the wind.

Intrinsically worthless, one old preacher said. Psalm 35, let them be like chaff before the wind. Isaiah 29, multitude of your enemies shall become like fine dust and the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff.

And when you think about the chaff a little bit later, Hosea talks about the winnowing metaphor and divine judgment. Chaff isn't good for anything. It's useless, it's meaningless, it's worthless. This is the wicked.

These are the ones who are involved with wickedness. And remember, wicked does not necessarily mean grossly wicked. It just means people who don't really care about God, people that are too busy to think about God.

What's their life like? Their life is like, it's worthless. Hate to say it, somebody else said it, so I'll steal what they said. Their life is like, you know, firewood. They're going to be firewood, the wicked.

Remember, this isn't the Hitlerian kind of people. This is people that do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, right? If you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, you are what does 1 Corinthians 16 say? Anathema, Proverbs 29, 18, where there's no revelation, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he keeps the law.

How opposite are the wicked? Like chaff, the wicked will be separated from the grain in judgment. 2 Thessalonians 1 .9, and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.

Standing Before God and the Hope of Salvation

Verse five of Psalm 1, therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Here comes the great wide thrown judgment. Can they stand its test? Psalm 130, verse three, if you Lord should mark iniquities, who could stand?

Belshazzar in the book of Daniel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. I mean, how much chaff can you put on that side of the balance before that balance goes down? How sad. Ecclesiastes 12, for God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

But the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. The fate, the fate. What's the outcome of each one of these kinds of lives? Well, this is the natural outcome of the wicked perish, the natural outcome of the way of the righteous.

The Lord intimately knows, intimately knows them. Spurgeon, the Lord is knowing the way of the righteous. He is constantly looking on their way. And though it may be often in mist and darkness, yet the Lord knows it.

If it be in the clouds and tempest of affliction, he understands it. He numbers the hairs of our head. He will not suffer any evil to befall us. He knows the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Job 23 verse 10. The Lord knows those who are his. Second Timothy 2. I know my sheep as the father knows me, even so I know the father. That is a lot different, isn't it? And Jesus saying to the lost, I never knew you.

Isaiah 57 20, but the wicked are like the tossing sea for it cannot be quiet. And its waters toss up refuse and mud. There is no peace as my God for the wicked. Second Timothy chapter two. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having the seal.

The Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness. My name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. How solemn is the fate of the ungodly?

How awful, how eternally awful. The way of the wicked will perish. Proverbs 10 28. The hope of the righteous is gladness, but the expectation of the wicked perishes. Everything perishes for the wicked.

Their best life is now sadly. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Hebrews 10. Nahum one who can stand before his indignation, who can endure the burning of his anger. His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by him.

Standing before God. When you have to stand before God, what will happen? One day you'll die and you will stand before God. There'll be an accounting. There'll be a judging. God has known everything you've ever done and said and things that you should have done and said that you didn't say and do.

And then what? And then if you say, judge me based on my merits, judge me based on what I've done. I mean, you wouldn't be saying anything. This is just, you know, figuratively speaking. The only hope for anyone is to say, I do deserve damnation.

I do deserve to perish. I have earned it. I am wicked. I am this wicked person. But you have said in your word, and I believe by faith that those who look to the Lord Jesus Christ for their righteousness, for their forgiveness, for their justification, for their propitiation, for their reconciliation, for their redemption.

That I will not have to pay for my sins. Jesus has paid. That's the only way I could stand in your presence. That yields hope. That yields, name one, the Lord is good, see, because he has provided this way of escape.

He has provided this deliverance. That's why we call it salvation. To be saved, to be delivered. Because one day you're going to have to stand before God, every one of you. Every knee, the name of Jesus should bow.

Those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father. So why not do it now? Why not say, Lord Jesus, forgive me.

And I want to bow my knee now to you. You are God. And you are the eternal son. You died on the cross. I'm taking God at his word. And all that look to him will have eternal life. I'm looking to you now.

Luke 13, 23. And someone said to Jesus, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? Jesus said to them, strive to enter by the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

Once the head of the household gets up and shuts the door and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door saying, Lord, open up to us. Then he will answer and say to you, I do not know where you are from.

And you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence. And you taught in our streets. And he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers. John 5, 24.

Truly, truly, Jesus said, I say to you, he who hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life. No wonder Paul can say, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Jesus. Two ways of life found in the Psalm. There's the way of the godly and the way of the ungodly. And for the way of the godly, no condemnation for those in Christ. For the way of the ungodly, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven.

For many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out many demons and in your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house.

And yet it did not fall for it had been founded upon the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. The rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house and it fell and great was its fall.

The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at his teaching for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes. Matthew 7. Well, it's interesting when you think about this Psalm of meditating on God's law day and night and delighting in the law of the Lord.

I mean, can anybody do that? Well, of course they can. How about can anyone ultimately do that? Always do that. Can that be their description of their life without fail? When you ask that question, then you realize that Jesus is the ultimate blessed man, he's the one who ultimately meditated on the law day and night and delighted in the law of the Lord.

If you want someone who's the Torah oriented person as Goldsworthy would talk about, he is the Lord Jesus Christ. Harry Ironside was a Bible teacher and he told a story about a visit to Palestine long time ago by a man named Joseph Flax and he had an opportunity to talk to some Jews and Arabs about the subject of Psalm 1.

He read it and then asked the question, who is this blessed man? This man never walked in the council of the wicked or stood in the way of sinners or sat in the seat of mockers. He was the sinless man.

Well, according to the story, no one said anything. Flax said, was he our great father Abraham? No, one old man said, he cannot be Abraham. Abraham denied his wife and told a lie. Well, how about the lawgiver Moses?

No, said another man, he can't be Moses. He killed a man and lost his temper by the waters of Meribah. Flax said, what about David? Oh, it was not David. Then an elderly Jew arose, according to the story.

My brothers, I have a little book here. It's called the New Testament. I've been reading it. And if I could believe this book, if I could be sure that it is true, I would say that the man of the first Psalm was Jesus of Nazareth.

So who is the one who ultimately can fulfill this? We know it's the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when the Lord sees a Christian, he sees someone who loves the Lord. He sees someone who loves the Lord's word.

He sees his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, because we have union with Christ. We are in Christ. And so how great is the blessed man? My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. And if you'd like to write me and ask a question, make a comment, here's a show idea, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Don't forget, you can listen to equippingeve .org with Aaron Benziger on Saturdays, every other Saturday on this No Compromise Radio network that is to say, it won't be on WVNE, but the show will be on the iTunes feed, or you can go to her site, do notbesurprised .com or equippingeve .org, is that right?

And so if you'd like as a lady to study more, equippingeve .org is for you. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. Don't forget that you can catch us at World View Weekend. And I think there's even an app you can get on your phone to watch some of those TV shows on No Compromise TV.

God bless you.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.