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Psalm 1 (The Way) Selected Psalms Jeff Kliewer
And as I like to say, the rest of you are stuck with me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much. Just, we're overwhelmed that we can come and congregate with the righteous by no merits of our own, no righteousness of our own, all in the righteousness of Christ.
His righteousness imputed to us. We pray now that Christ Jesus himself would be revealed through the Word of God. Let the Lord of the Word be revealed through the Word of the Lord. God, we're not here just to read words on a page, but to encounter the living God.
Help us, Lord, to see that these are words of truth, these are eternal words that come from you. Help us to see you this morning. God, we pray that our hearts would be open to your Word, change us from the inside out.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Recently there was a young theology student at St. Andrews University in England that made a great discovery. He deciphered a code that had never been able to be deciphered before. It was the sermon notes of a preacher named Andrew Fuller.
Now if you see my notes, sometimes they look a little bit like an indecipherable script as well. But in this case, he had made up a code that he was able to follow, a shorthand version that no one had ever been able to read.
However, someone discovered a written out copy of his sermon and comparing it with his sermon notes, it was like using the Rosetta Stone. They were able to figure out what his sermons were. So Andrew Fuller's sermons are now being translated for the first time from his own shorthand script.
You ask the question, well, who is this Andrew Fuller? Andrew Fuller was a British theologian and pastor. He preached from around 1770s until 1815 in England and was a great preacher, very important, very prominent.
Many of the particular Baptists looked to him as kind of like the fountainhead of their movement. He was a great preacher. But the reason I bring him up today is because he was first of all a man of the word, but secondly, that word motivated action.
Something changed drastically in the time of Andrew Fuller. When he took the pulpit, in those days, following the early days of the Reformation, England had become Protestant. But there was a movement that came into that Protestant church in England which kept people from preaching the gospel.
Some have called it Hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinism taught that while God predestined and elects people to belong to him, because of that reality, were not to preach the gospel. Christians were to be silent, to no longer offer the gospel because, hey, God already knows who his elect are anyway, and it doesn't change eternity to preach the gospel.
Therefore, the church had fallen silent. There was a theologian named John Gill who taught this. But here is what is so unique about Andrew Fuller. Instead of taking the tradition of man what was being taught in his day in the particular Baptist churches of England in the 1770s, instead of just taking it, he did what every good Berean should do.
Acts 17 .11. The Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians. Say Thessalonians, that's a hard one. Because they examined the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was teaching was in accordance with the scriptures.
What made the Bereans noble was that they always turned to the scripture first. And so Andrew Fuller says this, Lord, thou hast given me a determination to take up no principle at second hand. He doesn't want second hand information.
He doesn't want theology, although theology as such is good, but he's not gonna be content with the system that he's being handed. He wants to see it in the scripture. He says, you have helped me to search for everything at the pure fountain of your word.
God's word is a pure fountain. Fuller says, I perceive that the system of Bunyan, that's John Bunyan, who wrote the Pilgrim's Progress, was not the same as this John Gill. For a while, he maintained the doctrines of election and predestination.
He nevertheless held with the free offer of salvation to sinners without distinction. So Andrew Fuller, by studying the scripture, came to realize that the election of God is his business. It's a secret will of God.
What God does in the salvation of sinners, in the hearts of man, to draw people to himself, that's God's business. But our business is to preach Christ and him crucified. And here's what Gill had said.
We're not to preach the gospel. Leave it to God to save sinners. This was the error of hyper-Calvinism. Along comes Andrew Fuller, and he says, no, the scriptures are clear. Call people to repentance.
Preach Christ. Preach passionately.
Call people to faith.
And so he began to do that. And in 1792, the first Baptist missions agency was formed. He, along with William Carey and John Ryland, gathered together and they said, no, as Christians we are called to preach Christ.
And the first two missionaries were sent out shortly after that, William Carey and another. William Carey to India. And William Carey preached the gospel in India. Before William Carey left, some of the hyper-Calvinists said to him, son, sit down.
Basically saying enough with your zeal, enough with your enthusiasm. Sit down. If God wants to convert the heathen, he will convert the heathen. That's what William Carey was told. But Carey said, no, we go and we preach Christ.
For 40 years, William Carey ministered in India. Took seven years before he saw his first convert. But do you know that during 40 years of faithful ministry, he translated the Bible into six languages.
The pure fountain of God's word was now being read in Hindi and Urdu and four other languages that I couldn't pronounce. He also translated the Bible into 29 other languages in part. He labored night and day to learn languages and bring the word of God.
He valued the pure fountain of God's word so much that he laid down his life in Britain. Traveled overseas to India to translate the word of God for people. I watched a video on Facebook. Maybe some of you guys have seen this going around.
It's Chinese believers in a rural town that have never had Bibles. And in comes a crate full of leather-bound Bibles in their own language, in the Chinese language, the dialect that they spoke. And these Chinese believers open that crate and celebrate like Cubs fans when they win the World Series.
Like Eagles fans when they win the Super Bowl. You should see the joy on their faces. They're crying, they're kissing this book. They've only had fragments and they've only had oral tradition. They've only heard parts of it in the gospel.
Now each one of them holds the word of God in their hands. One of them says, this is what we needed the most. This is what we needed the most. It's a beautiful video. It's also a bit convicting. Because how many Bibles do I have on the shelf?
And how many days have gone by in my life where I never picked it up? Do we value the word of God like a fountain of life, like a stream of living water? Turn with me, if you will, to the first Psalm.
Psalm chapter one. Psalm one is the first of the first book of Psalms. There's five books of Psalms. One through 41 is the first. Psalm one is an introduction to all of them. Brendan read it for us. 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, hear this church, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law he meditates day and night. We'll stop there for a moment. The law was all that David had. He had the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy.
And he would meditate on it day and night. We're not sure who actually wrote this Psalm. Doesn't say David. In fact, nobody knows the first two Psalms. They're kind of an introductory package there. To set our eyes to the word of God.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 16, 25.
Whereas the way provided by God ends in perfect life and gives abundant life along the way. This morning we're talking about the way. The way to have life, the way to experience true life, joy, meaning, a fountain in your soul.
And that way is Jesus Christ, the righteous, revealed in his word. Meditating upon his law is the way of life. Let's talk for a minute about the two ways presented in this Psalm. At the end of verse six, it says, the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
There are two ways in this Psalm. One that leads to life, and one that leads to perishing, to death. 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 mockers.
There are two ways. One is God's way, revealed in God's word. The other is man's word. God's word versus man's word. Now notice in verse one, that those who walk in the counsel of man's word, they begin by hearing the sound of the world around them.
There's a clamor for their attention. It might come from the TV, it might come from the radio, their friends, their parents, relatives. There's a clamor as they grow and they walk. But notice the progression from walking to standing to sitting.
In verse one, 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 the scoffers. The way of man, man's word, begins as a walk. You're in the world.
You're born into the world. You're walking in the world. But it progresses to standing. You become of the world. You begin to listen and partake and be a part of this crowd. And then finally, you've sat in the ways of the world.
The seat of the scoffers. There's a progression there from walking to standing to sitting. Contrast that, verse two. The one who doesn't walk that way, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night.
So the key to understanding verse one, if you kind of look at the middle part of each phrase, the counsel, the way, the seat, those are all referring to the same thing. It's man's word, his counsel, what people say, the way that they have, the way that they have or the seat that they're in.
Juxtapose that to verse two. The middle of each phrase is the law of the Lord. The law, he meditates on it day and night. Man's word versus God's word. This is really the dividing line of humanity. Acts chapter nine, verses one and two says, Saul, still breathing out murder and threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priests and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
The way is a moniker for Christianity. Christianity early on was called the way. You see that again in Acts 19 and about four or five different places in the book of Acts, Christianity is called the way.
Notice here, it's a revealed way. It's what God has revealed in his law. It's the law of the Lord. Man's way versus God's way. So, everybody in this room and everybody on planet Earth is following one of two ways.
It's the way of the righteous or it's the way of the wicked. But the way of the wicked has two different options that people follow. Two tracks that are along the same way. The way of the righteous follows after the word of God, but man's word comes in two different forms.
In Psalm chapter two, there are those who say, let us throw off God's bonds. Let us burst their bonds apart. There are some who will say, let's do away with the law of God and do whatever we want to do.
This is the way of hedonism. To just do whatever a person feels like doing. The other option down this false way, this way that is not from God, this man-word way, is to try to keep the law and to be good enough to earn God's salvation.
This is the way of religion. Religion says, do good, keep the law, and God will accept you. But the end of this way is also death. There is often an opinion that circulates that the difference between people is some are religious and other people are atheists or agnostic.
And it doesn't matter what your religion is as long as you're not atheist or agnostic. The truth of the matter is that there are two ways. One of them is the revealed way of God. The other is deceit. Whether it be to throw off the constraints of God or to make up your own religion.
There was a cult that existed in the 1970s, 80s, and really exists to this day, although it lost a lot of its prominence in recent decades. It was called The Way. The Way International. A man named Victor Paul Werwheel was the founder of it.
And he taught that a person needs to speak in tongues to unlock all the spiritual gifts. He taught that Jesus was not God. In fact, the title of his book was Jesus is not God. That was the title of his book.
He claimed to have The Way. The Way International. And he offered courses in The Way. One of them was called The Foundational Class on The Way of Abundance and Power. Course number two. The Intermediate Class on The Way of Abundance and Power.
And you can guess the third class. The Advanced Class on The Way of Abundance and Power. I want to tell you something about religion. Not revealed in the Bible. Man's religion. Whether it be a cult like The Way or Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses or anything other than The Way as revealed in the scripture, it always does two things.
Number one, it always demotes Jesus to a position somewhere less than God Almighty. So in Mormonism, he is the physical descendant.
Of Heavenly Father,.
But there's many descendants of Heavenly Father and you yourself can become a descendant in the same way that Jesus is. It's a progression. Heavenly Father had a father who had a father who had a father and we're just somewhere along that strain.
And so Jesus is demoted to something rather ordinary. Jehovah's Witnesses have him as a created God. Something that God made that is still some kind of demiurge. And the way International had him created or procreated when Jesus was born, but not preexisting.
There is always a demoting of who Jesus is. But secondly, there's always an elevation, a promoting of you. A promoting of self. And there's a self-righteousness that's prescribed that if you will do this, if you'll follow the way to be baptized in a certain way, to speak in tongues, to do some religious thing, to follow certain sacraments, to follow any kind of religious ritual.
These things promise you along their way eternal life. So false religion always demotes Jesus and promotes self-righteousness. But turn with me to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 verse 1. Now it's time for us to see the way.
The true way.
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face. That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love. To reach all the riches, the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery,.
Which is Christ.
John 14 6. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. Cultic groups come along with a secret knowledge. Behind the book of Colossians, there were some Gnostics, some early people who had the secret knowledge.
They had the way that nobody else understood. And if you bought into their club, you could join with the secret knowledge. You could have a part in it too. But Paul answers that in Colossians chapter 2.
And he says, the mystery, the secret, the great secret, is no special knowledge. The secret, the mystery is Christ. Christ, he says in verse 3. Then he'll say it again and again. Verse 3. In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
You don't need secret Gnostic knowledge. You need Christ. Verse 4. I say this in order that no one may delude you with what? Plausible arguments. Things that sound good. For though I am absent in the body, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing to see your good order.
And the firmness of your faith in Christ. Verse 6. Therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Rooted and built up in him. And established in the faith. Just as you were taught. Abounding in thanksgiving.
Brothers and sisters take this warning. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy. Here philosophy, the root is phileo and Sophia. The love of wisdom. Phileo, love. Sophia, wisdom. The love of wisdom.
The love of a secret knowledge.
Don't be caught up in that.
An empty deceit. According to what? Human tradition. Man's word. According to the elemental spirits of the world. And not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Deity dwells bodily.
Christ is God in the flesh. And you have been filled in him. Who is the head of all rule and authority. So returning with me now to Psalm chapter 1. I wanted to take that detour for just a minute. To remind you that the way is revealed.
But look at verse 1 and 2 again. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. The temptation is to raise your hand and say. That's me. I never listen to the counsel of the wicked. Nor stand in the way of sinners.
Oh yeah, I don't walk with them.
I don't stand with them. 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. The temptation is to say.
That's me.
I'm the tree. I'm not the chaff. I'm not the wicked one in this Psalm. I'm the tree. In the same way when we read the story of David and Goliath. Who do we read ourselves to be? I'm David. Standing up to the giant.
The truth. What that story is revealing. Is that we are Israel. And David represents the king. The true son of God. Who comes and conquers the giant of sin and death. David pictures there the son of God.
Not us. In the same way when you read Psalm chapter 1. I want you to now put on your Christological glasses. And say wait a minute. Who is it that walks not in the counsel of the wicked? And never sits with them.
Never stands with them. The book of Psalms.
Is a book.
About Christ. He is the righteous one. And here from the very get go of the book of Psalms. Christ is the blessed man. You say I'm not so sure about that. Is that the intent of the author? Recognize that Psalm 1 and Psalm 2.
Fit together as two halves. They were kept together. No one knows the author. Psalm 2. Is about the son. Kiss the son lest he be angry with you. I have put my king on my holy hill. Verse 6. Verse 7. You are my son.
Today I have begotten you. Kiss the son. Lest he be angry with you. The Psalms. Reveal Christ. This is one of the things that I. Never get enough of. I never tire of this subject. Somebody once said. That.
In the old testament. Christ is predicted. In the gospels. Christ is revealed.
In the book of Acts.
Christ is preached. In the epistles.
Christ is explained. In revelation. Christ is expected.
From beginning to end.
This book.
The law of God. Is about Christ.
It's about him. And so we begin.
Blessed is the man. It's only Christ who walks this way. But here's the good news. Those of us who come into Christ. Receive his righteousness. He comes into us according to Galatians 4. Christ then is formed in us.
Paul says. I feel like I'm in childbirth. Until Christ be formed in you. Christ the righteous. Who comes to live inside of us. Begins to change us. And so we move on to the second point. I know that was a long time on the first one.
But don't be scared. It's only six verses for the whole song. Verses three and four real quick. The second point is. When we come to understand this. When Christ comes into us. And gives us his righteousness.
And comes to live inside of us. It changes our life entirely. He gives us an entirely new quality of life. And the life that comes through Christ. Is secure in him. Like a tree is secure. The life apart from Christ.
Is blown by the wind. In every wave of doctrine of men. Like chaff is blown by the wind. The life in Christ.
Is meaningful.
You will have a passion deep in your soul. That you've never experienced. When Christ becomes all in you. But the life of the chaff.
Is meaningless.
It blows in the wind.
And it's gone.
And it's never heard from again. The life in Christ is prosperous. For all eternity. But apart from him. The life of the chaff.
Ends.
And goes nowhere. 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. In all that he does he prospers.
The wicked.
Are not so. But are like chaff. That the wind drives away. When you break apart the wheat. And the chaff is in your hands. And you roll it together.
And the wind blows.
And you throw it up.
The chaff just blows.
It's an empty shell. That used to hold the wheat. But the chaff is worthless.
Contrast that with the tree. The tree planted by streams of water. The Christian man. Or the Christian woman. Equally. Are trees. Not chaff. We are planted by streams of water. And that water is the pure word of God.
I go back to the words of Andrew Fuller. In that time. When he founded the first Baptist Mission Society. He wrote this. Within the last year or two. We have formed a mission society. And have been enabled to send out two of our brethren to the East Indies.
William Carey.
My heart has been greatly interested in this work. Surely I have never felt more genuine love to God and to his cause in my life. I bless God that this work has been a means of reviving my soul. If nothing else comes of it.
I and many others have obtained a spiritual advantage. What was Fuller experiencing? What was burning in his heart? He says, I have found the more I do for Christ. The better it is with me. I never enjoyed so much the pleasures of religion as I have within the last two years.
Since we have engaged in the missions business. Mr. Whitfield used to say. The more men does for the God. The more he is allowed to do. The life of a Christian. Being nourished by the word of God.
It's joyful.
If you look at verse three it says. The tree.
Yields fruit.
There's fruit that comes from his life. The leaf of the Christian tree.
Does not wither.
What Andrew Fuller and William Carey were experiencing in the 1700s. Is available to you and I today. If we'll plant ourselves in the tree and receive. In the water. So the water is coming through the roots.
The fruit that comes from our lives.
We begin to live with a passion. A passion for something that matters. Something eternal. That people who are made in the very image of God. Would be rescued from hell. And brought to heaven. In all he does he prospers.
The wicked are not so. But are like chaff that the wind drives away. So to our last point. Two destinies. There are two destinies.
One of the wicked.
And one of the righteous. This is very politically incorrect to say. In the culture in which we live. But not all roads end in the same place. It says therefore the wicked will 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 wicked. Will perish. We return to John 14 6. Jesus said I am the way. And the truth and the life.
No one comes to the father except through me. It's a pretty exclusive claim isn't it? It's a pretty clear claim. He claims to be the way. Not a way. But the way. So Romans 10 14 to 17 comes to us.
Just listen to this.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
As it is written. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says. Lord who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing.
And hearing through the word of Christ. Faith comes from hearing. Revelation 20 15. If anyone's name was not found written. In the book of life. He was thrown into the lake of fire. It's a hard teaching.
But Spurgeon puts it this way. We are so gentle and quiet. We do not use strong language about other people's opinions. But instead we let them go to hell. Out of charity for them. Did you hear that? We let them go to hell.
Out of charity for them. There really is only one way to the father. And that is through Christ the son. Jesus has made that new and living way. By his blood. And so in closing. To summarize Psalm chapter 1.
We're told. Blessed is the man who does not walk. In the counsel of the wicked. Nor stand in the way of sinners. Or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight. Is in the law of the Lord. And on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree. Planted by streams of water. Which yields its fruit in season. Its leaf does not wither. In all he does he prospers. The wicked are not so. But are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will 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 wicked will perish. The word of God teaches us.
That Jesus is the way. There's no self-righteousness in us. We don't come preaching our own goodness. Our own ability to do something better than anyone else. We come preaching Christ.
And him only.
Lifting him up. Because Jesus is the way. So this morning. Have you been like Andrew Fuller? Planted in the word. Receiving from that fountain. And so transformed to go preach Christ to the ends of the earth.
Each of us will be sent in different ways. Some of us to our schools. Some to workplaces. Some to the street, to the gym. But if you are on that new and living way. We have an obligation. To share that living water.
With those around us. Let's close in a word of prayer. This morning, God, we're turning our eyes not on ourselves. But turning our eyes to Christ. Recognizing that Psalm 1 is not first of all about us.
Psalm 1 is first of all a revelation of Christ and his righteousness. And because you have revealed this new and living way. Through the blood of Christ. We ask God. That you would fill us with your Holy Spirit to bring that news to others.
To preach Christ and him crucified. I pray that all of us here would be like trees planted in the living water. That we would receive from the word of God on a daily basis. And through that we would experience this abundant life.
This prospering life. This meaningful life. That we would be secure in Christ. And go forth sharing that with others. We ask for your living water in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and worship.
