Psalm 1 (02/29/2004)
Bro. Otis Fisher
Transcript
Open your Bibles to the first psalm
and the first psalm says Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly Nor standeth in the way of sinners
Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
This word blessed.
It was written in Hebrew and the Hebrew for that is
Assure the English pronunciation of the translated word
blessed is Ashrae
and Ashrae means a person that is a blessing to himself and others.
Now Greg Did you ever consider yourself.
No, did you ever consider That Yourself was receiving a
blessing from God.
Well, it says he is a blessing to himself and
others.
It's good to live next door to an Ashrae man
Because he receives a blessing from God.
Now Ashrae is different than we normally think of a blessing.
Because this man receives it for himself and That in turn
passes it on to others.
Then we have the walking standing and sitting.
What do you see in those three words in that order.
Joy?
All
right.
John what's the first thing you would do?
Is as you Go through this life and you meet somebody
that is.
Well, you just meet somebody.
What would you do?
Would you walk stand or sit with them?
No, it isn't this walking.
I Think of Peter when I read this you remember when
Our Lord was being Accused before they arrested him and
some young girl Told Peter you're one of them.
What was he doing at that time Greg?
He was in a way He was just keeping him in sight
but Yes he He walked
with these people then we find him standing with these people and
Finally we find him sitting down in the midst of them.
This is a normal procedure of someone that is not serving God.
Do you see the progress?
Walking standing sitting.
It's a downward process.
When a man has once given place to evil or evil counsel
Or to his own sin nature He begins to forget himself
In His sin and so falls into contempt of God, which is called the
seed of scorners now.
Of those three Tell me which is
the worst the counsel of the ungodly?
Standing in the way of sinners or sitting in the scornful.
All right, that's the worst of the lot.
It sounds like the ungodly would be the worst.
But John what is an ungodly man?
Well, he doesn't even devote that much time to it.
He doesn't think about God.
He just he just goes on his way never crosses his mind at all.
That there is a God.
Then the next group is sinners.
Joy, what is a sinner
is what all right?
Greg we have to get a little bit more meaning than.
Then the ungodly what would the next meaning be of sinners.
John you want to try
yes.
All right, well they
may know that if they stop to think about it.
But first we got those that have no time for God.
Second.
We have those that know there is a God know that they are sinning,
but still he does nothing about it.
Then we come to the scornful, what would that be joy?
All
right.
The scornful the worst of the lot.
Is a person that pokes fun at you for going to church makes
light of God.
He knows there is a God but it doesn't mean anything.
Psalms 2 1 2 but his delight but his delight
Is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and
night?
Now Greg you take that verse and teach the truth out of it to me.
All right, John.
Describe that verse to me.
All right.
What does the word delight mean joy?
All right.
Debbie what does the light mean to you?
What brings to what?
Joy is KK with you.
KK.
Move over where I can see you.
What does it mean?
When when you delight in something, do you know
you don't know?
Well, you know so many words.
I thought maybe you'd know what delight meant it means.
That he is joyful that he likes to read the word to study the
word to meditate on the word and He is happy when he is
in delight of the word.
Yes.
That's Right, it's all good.
Now and in his law does he meditate day and
night?
Debbie described for me this word meditate.
That's exactly what it means to chew the cud.
And you have to understand that term.
Joy.
Joy what does a cow do?
All right, he'll drink water in between there or she will.
So to chew the cud is to recall that which you have digested.
That that you have heard.
That that you have read.
That that you have studied you recall it and you think it over and over
Greg.
Until you begin to get all of the good out of it.
But we don't ever get all of the good.
Because that's the reason that we can teach this first Psalm this morning.
As many times as it has been taught.
Looks like we'd have all of the good out of it.
John that brings up a question.
The Bible does not change.
It's been the same for a thousand years.
Yet we can find new things in it.
Things that I've never seen before.
I Want you to explain to me why that is?
All Right.
Debbie, why is it that we can find new things?
Well, that's all true.
Greg why is it that we can learn new things?
Alright, but what is it that changes the Bible doesn't change.
It's the same forever.
Our situation changes.
Never before has there been a situation exactly like this one right now.
So while we're in this situation, let's learn something new
in his law.
Does he meditate.
How often that means all the time that that you spoke
of in the beginning?
Meditate meditation.
Choose the good gets the sweetness and nourishment the best of the word into the heart and life.
This is a way God brings forth much fruit.
He brings it forth we
well John do we own the fruit?
Yes, this fruit that we're producing.
Is that true Greg?
Joy.
So you all are saying it.
That we do not own the fruit, that's right.
Proverbs 23 7 turn over to that
John.
Will you read it, please?
For as he thinketh in his heart So is he?
What's that mean joy?
Greg as you're thinking in your heart, what's that mean in your heart?
All right as you think in the real me I Can see
that because that's what you present John
I can see what you're thinking by watching you.
Supreme devotion to God is the way not only of duty But of
safety prosperity and happiness.
But his will of the Lord the will is here signified
is that the light of the heart and That certain pleasure in the law.
Three and He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season
his leaf also shall not wither and Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Now John tell me how do you plant a tree
and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water?
Joy how do you plant a tree?
I think that
when we get our, that's
what we learn.
And then
the more we
learn the more the fruit will grow from
us.
Well, that's all true, but you don't plant a tree
you cannot plant a tree.
I heard the word Transplant so
in the Hebrew It alludes to the transplanting an
olive tree and he shall be
like an olive tree transplanted by the rivers of water.
Rivers of water is canal.
Debbie what does canal mean?
Well, that's one kind of canal.
Greg tell me what is a canal?
That's it that's exactly right a Man -made waterway
to bring the water from where it is to where it's needed.
That's the canal.
Now who is that canal?
That's right.
That's right.
Jesus the Christ is the canal That brings the mind of
God to the mind of man.
It cannot get there except in Christ Jesus Christ.
So and he shall be like an olive tree transplanted by the canal of
water.
Now if you are here, the olive tree has the deepest root of any tree
alive in the world it goes down and down and down
until it finds water and It lives forever
and it's always green.
It will produce its food fruit in due season and
It cannot use that fruit
but That the tree has no need of the fruit
Except to bear it.
Bring us forth its fruit in his season now.
You cannot produce.
They cannot harvest from us fruit all of the time.
It's in his season in your season in my season that means that
There comes a time in the day or a week or months or years when you are
producing the fruit that you can't use and
His leaf shall not wither.
It's always green and whatsoever.
He doeth shall prosper.
That would be better translated whatever is produced shall come to maturity.
Tree is transplanted.
You don't plant a tree.
You plant a seed.
I think we discussed that This is like a Christian in that he is transplanted
into Christ.
Romans 6 and 3 Taken from where he grew and placed where he should
be.
There are no natural Good olive trees.
They're all transplanted.
They're all grafted into a stump of a
Good tree.
You take the wild tree that's growing wherever and you bring it and graft it
into the good tree.
He is removed from the world of sin put into Christ and this
occurred on the cross you remember and The rivers of water is a canal.
Jesus Christ is the word.
He is the canal a Man -made waterway that speaks of Jesus Christ
so vividly and we move to
verse 4.
The ungodly now we know who they are.
Are not so But are like the chaff which the wind Driveth
a way the ungodly.
These are people that have no time for God.
They're like the chaff that the wind blows away.
What is chaff John?
Not exactly.
What is chaff Greg?
Alright.
That's right, it has a use to protect the grain while it's growing.
But when it's thrashed You have just the grain and the chaff just blows
away and that's what the ungodly are like.
They have no time for God.
They have no choice in the matter.
Now from God's viewpoint, they're chaff and chaff only.
They are doomed from the beginning unknown to them they're headed for hell.
Yet they serve the purpose of.
What shall we say clothing the grain as it grew.
Five.
Therefore.
The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation
of the righteous.
Turn over to Psalms 5 5.
Do I
read that?
Who's that talking about?
It's not just his spiritual belief.
Well, I'm I'm after the fact that he hates all the workers.
He hates those people not.
He hates what they stand for what they do, but he hates the person that is in the world.
Because they do only iniquity.
And what is iniquity.
Great.
Alright turn over to Psalms 11 5.
John read that.
So again, we have a reference that he hates the workers of iniquity.
Is that right?
Yes.
Psalms 5 5 and 11 5 know where these verses
are.
Because you will in your lifetime Face many people that disagree with you
folks were we are facing a
very very hard time.
It's brought on by sin and the workers of sin.
On the news this morning was a clip
about the Student paper of Baylor University.
They endorsed homosexual sin marriages.
Baylor University.
Now Baylor will try to tell you that they have nothing to do with that paper.
If they don't they should have.
John, did you ever in your wildest dreams?
Think that Baylor or the church wouldn't permit the
use of a Bible.
Did you ever think that would come to pass.
It's awful.
Yes, we know that it's coming.
That doesn't make it any easier to bear six.
For the Lord and north the way of the righteous.
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
What is the little word shall joy?
Could we say it's imperative?
Is it perfect or imperfect?
Perfect.
Shall perish the ungodly.
Now if the ungodly shall perish think about where the sinner and the scornful are.
There below the ungodly.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.
Debbie.
The way of the righteous.
What group is that?
The believers.
So he doesn't know them as a group.
How is it that he knows them Greg?
Individually as his.
He knows.
What does the word no mean.
Greg as it's used here,
well does he know you as Someone that comes to
church.
Drives a long ways to be here.
To know means completely totally.
Absolutely, there's nothing about you that he does not know.
There there are things that you don't know about you that he does.
The Lord knoweth the way of the
Righteous.
And What does righteous mean?
John
in Matthew 7 23.
Turn to that
and John you read it.
Yes.
I
think that's the most awful
Statement the Lord ever made or will make to a person is I never knew
you.
You're not of my blood.
You're not of my people.
I never knew you.
There's nothing worse Than to never be known of the Lord.
The word known is your dog.
And it means to know fully.
The Lord God has known us from when there was no time and to
quote a brilliant little child.
We just came with it.
We just appeared on this earth and we were already saved.
We didn't know it.
But we just can't it just came with us.
All right.
Is there anything you'd like to go back to or Exponents bound on a
little bit different.
Or more fully in the first Psalm.
Yes.
That's
right.
The olive tree is a fantastic picture of a Christian.
He never dies.
He's always Green.
He always produces fruit.
He's grafted in.
What?
Yes, the deepest root of any tree alive in the world.
The olive tree.
Yet that that appears above ground is all twisted gnarled
bent out of shape.
What causes that John?
The world but it's one of the strongest trees.
The tree.
Yes.
The trees that were alive when Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane sent me.
They're still alive Unless they've been cut down.
But they're still alive today.
Lives forever.
The olive tree Christian.
Is there anything you'd like to Say
yes,
be still and know that there is a God.
Stand still and watch your salvation.
Greg dismisses, please.