Where Happiness is Found

Transcript

GRM 971
11/12/2006
Where Happiness Is Found
Psalm 1
Gil Rugh


We’re studying the book of I Corinthians together on Sunday morning, but I want to deviate from that study today. And I want to take you back to the Old Testament, to the book of Psalms and the first Psalm and talk about the matter of happiness, true happiness, true joy, true prosperity, true meaning and purpose in life. Everybody wants to be happy. We are flooded with products that are sold to us on the basis they will make our lives happier, more enjoyable, more fun. I was watching an advertisement not too long ago and it was on depression. You know they go through and show somebody down and moping and going obviously through sad times, but they have an answer. And they have an answer even if the pills you are taking aren’t getting it done. There is a further answer. All of us want to be happy. You don’t wake up in the morning and say, I hope this is a day in which I am sad and gloomy and unhappy. You wake up and say, I’m looking forward to a good day, a happy day. We want our lives to be happy, but we need to understand what brings true happiness, otherwise we are like the world, driven on a relentless pursuit of something which we can never have. And we end up with lives that God states quite bluntly are absolutely worthless. In fact God says some lives are good for nothing but destruction.

Now this is God speaking. He draws a contrast—you either have a life that is filled with His blessing, His happiness, His prosperity, or you have a life that is absolutely without value. It is good only for destruction. And that’s the contrast that is drawn in the first Psalm. And he won’t relate this to the things that the world thinks will bring happiness, but he’ll draw the contrast with the world and the happiness that comes from God.

This first Psalm serves really as an introduction to the rest of the book of Psalms. The contrast drawn here will permeate the Psalm, the contrast between the righteous and the wicked, the blessed and the cursed. This Psalm in many ways prepares the foundation for much of what the Psalm talks about. It begins very quickly—how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the paths of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. So very quickly he talks about the subject and he has our attention. The word translated blessed is in the plural. Oh the blessednesses, the happinesses. The Greek translation of the Old Testament was used that carried over into the New Testament, the Greek word that means the happy or blessed. And we have it in the beatitudes, when Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said, blessed are the poor, blessed are, blessed are. Coming back to this same basic, word and the same foundational idea, where true blessing, true happiness is found and how you have it.

We’re not talking about just a feeling. We live in a society controlled by feelings, we even watch the news and people there ask, how do you feel about this, how do you feel about the war, how do you feel about that decision. Rarely do we hear someone say, what do you think about this? Do you feel happy today? Well do I feel happy. I’m happy. But do you feel happy? I think so, tell me more. Well, you’re walking around with a big smile on your face. And you see past somebody and they’re smiling and you say, oh you’re happy today. But we want to understand that happiness comes from the inside out, it’s not just somebody just told you a funny story and you have a transitory moment of laughter. We’re talking about something that permeates a life, that is part of our normal condition. The plural here, the blessednesses or happinesses, many would translate it because that intensifies the idea—how very happy, how very happy is this kind of man.

And he’s going to talk about him first, negatively. And you’re aware in Hebrew poetry, like in our poetry in English we often rhyme things, one way of doing poetry, so some of our words rhyme. In Hebrew one of the ways they did poetry was called parallelism. There are three parallel ideas stated here. The man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Three words there—walk, counsel, wicked. Then you’ll have three parallel ideas—stand, path, sinners. Nor stand in the path of sinners. Stand, path, sinners. So if you wrote first walk, counsel, wicked, then under that you would write stand, path sinners. Then the third line, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. Three ideas—sit, seat, scoffers. So the walk, the stand, the sit line up under one another; the counsel, the path, the seat line up under one another; wicked, sinners, scoffers. They are all basically saying the same thing, overlapping ideas.

First he talks about what a person who is truly happy. He doesn’t say, here is how to get happy, but he describes the person who has this happiness, this blessedness. First negatively. I know we don’t like to be negative today, let’s put everything positively. But God chose to first set forth what He does not do. This is a man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He does not walk, his life is not patterned and shaped by the input of the wicked, the advice, the ideas, the thought patterns of the wicked. That word wicked, it’s the most general term in the Old Testament to describe the opposite of righteous. If you’re going to make a contrast between the righteous, this is the Hebrew word you would use. We translate it wicked. It carries an idea of being at unrest. The wicked are like the waves of the sea, there is no peace, says my God, to the wicked. Constant state of unrest, discontent, always looking for something else. They are the wicked, they live in a state of abnormality, if you will.

The truly happy person does not have his life shaped by the thinking of the wicked. Becomes a key idea. He says more here, nor stand in the path of sinners. So his life is not shaped, his conduct is not shaped by the wicked. He is not joined in the lifestyle of sinners. A word here that means miss the mark. You are very familiar with that concept of sin in the Bible. It means to miss the mark, we fail to be what God says we must be, we are sinners, we miss the mark, we do not measure up to, arrive at what God says we must be. We do not join in the lifestyle if we are the happy, blessed man, of the wicked. Nor do we sit in the seat of scoffers. The blessed man does not sit in the seat of the scoffers. The scoffer is one who rejects God, rejects the Word of God. He scoffs at that Word. True wisdom, the beginning of wisdom is the knowledge of the Lord. But scoffers despise that. I was reading an article in a news magazine this week, a couple-of-pages article on some recent books that have been published by atheist scientists. And it used to be that those who didn’t believe in God said we need to keep religion and science separate. But these men have written books, and there are several of them by different authors, that have been very popular. Their view is, there is no place in our society for religion, period. And for our world to be what it needs to be we need to abolish religion, not keep it in its own area, but do away with it. Doesn’t matter to them that 90% of the people or whatever claim to be religious in one form or another, believe in God. These are the scietific, scholarly and elite who know best. It’s almost frightening to read what they’ll say. How blatantly they scoff at God and write Him off, scorn any concept of Him as the creator and so on. That may be the extreme side, but the world is filled with people who reject the wisdom of God.

The truly happy man will not sit in the seat of scoffers, will not take the input that determines where he is in life and what he does with his life by the input of those who do not know the living God and reject His wisdom. Doesn’t walk in that counsel, doesn’t stand in that path, doesn’t sit in that seat. There might be a slight progression here—when you walk that way then you associate with those people, then you settle down in their place. Our input cannot come from the world. The Bible constantly draws this contrast. I want to say something here. We think, oh I wouldn’t do that, but we have to be very sensitive to this. Almost all of us have TVs in our home, television, and here comes in, not the wisdom of God but the thinking of the wicked, of sinners, of scoffers. When I was young, I can still remember vaguely, Elvis Presley was coming on the scene. That tells you how old I am, I wasn’t even young, young, young, young. Everything is relative. You know when he was going to go on the Ed Sullivan Show..........anybody remember the Ed Sullivan Show? You know, the big debate was they wouldn’t show him below the hips because he moved around too much. I wasn’t even allowed to watch Ed Sullivan because of that, I missed it. I had to catch it on later news reels when I got older, you know. Now you turn on TV and the lewd and the MTV and everything that’s done just pours in. Comes easy for parents to tell their kids, why don’t you go watch television for a while. What are they going to get from television? Almost scary, isn’t it, to read the statistics on the number of hours a week kids spend in front of the TV. What are they getting there? They’re getting the counsel of the wicked. Is that the input we want to shape their lives? I’m not on an anti-television crusade, but I am saying we need to be careful. We as adults, where do we get our input that shapes our lives? Oh I’m not influenced by it. We need to be very, very careful. These things are in the world, this is the world around us. He’s describing here the person who experiences God’s blessing, God’s happiness in his life. He doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the path of sinners, sit in the seat of scoffers.

Just turn over to the book of Proverbs, just after Psalms, a book of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. You get wisdom from the Lord. Look what he says in verse 10, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Down in verse 15, my son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path. Does that sound like Psalm 1? Do not walk in the way with them, keep your feet from their path. Look over in chapter 4 verse 13, we’ll get to this in a moment when he gets to the positive side—take hold of instruction, do not let go, guard her, for she is your life. Look at verse 14, do not enter the path of the wicked, do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it, turn away from it, pass on. You get the idea, relentlessly telling you in every way, stay away from it. Don’t enter that path, don’t proceed in that way. Avoid it, don’t pass by it, turn away from it, pass on. It’s a fool who thinks their closest associates and best friends can be the wicked, but I will lead a godly life. I realize Jesus was called the friend of sinners, even Christ was the friend of sinners in the context of being with them to be the light and darkness and share with them the truth of the God that He came to reveal. In that sense we should be sinners, we are there to be with sinners to be a light to them, to share the wisdom of God with them, to share the revelation of God, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. We paddle around and do all kinds of things with them and never get around to the truth for fear we will offend them. Instead we are allowing them to shape us, rather than them being exposed to truth through us.

Look over in Proverbs 13:20, he who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. I Corinthians 15:33 says, evil companions corrupt good conduct. Same thing we have here. He who walks with wise men will be wise, the companion of fools will suffer harm. Chapter 14 verse 7, leave the presence of a fool, or you will not discern words of knowledge. And on it goes. We don’t get the input, we don’t allow the influence, we don’t settle down in the ways of the wicked, the sinners, the scoffers. We have to be careful about that and what is influencing our lives, what is shaping our thinking. It is a relentless task, because the world around us constantly presses in and constantly the pressure is there to be shaped by the thinking of the world—its values, its purposes, its thinking.

Back in Psalm 1 he has told us what the man who is truly blessed, who is very happy does not do in a very succinct way. Now the contrast, verse 2, a strong contrast. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. It’s not enough to know what the blessed man, the happy man does not do, you must know what he does do. His delight is in the Word of God. That’s what brings him joy, that is what he fills his life with. He meditates in it day and night. You know this is his delight, it’s not his burden, it’s not drudgery. Oh, no, I have to go to a Bible study again. Oh, no, I have to read the Word of God again. It’s just not what I feel like doing, it’s no fun. Something is wrong, that’s not the truly happy person. The blessed man finds his delight. That doesn’t mean the study of the Word of God may not be difficult. We are to labor in the Word, to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen who do not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth. So there can be delight in that which is even hard work and wearisome toil. You have a new baby born into your home, that means a lot of hard work for the mother, toil and labor, sleepless nights, interrupted schedule. So you say it’s hard work, it’s labor. Yes, but you ask her, is it your delight? Oh, there is nothing like it. You say, make up your mind, is it hard work or is it a delight and happiness to you. Well what do you mean? That’s what it is. There is nothing that brings me greater joy and happiness than that little one, and quite frankly, there is nothing that’s harder work and more labor and more inconvenient for me. So here, his delight is in the law of the Lord.

In His law he meditates. That word meditate is to go over and over it again. Sometimes the analogy drawn with a cow chewing the cud, going over and over it again. Someone wrote it this way. Meditation is not the setting apart of a special time for personal devotion, whether morning or evening. Not saying anything is wrong with that, but it is the reflection on the Word of God and the course of daily activity, regardless of the time of day or the context. The godly respond to life in accordance with God’s Word. Meditating on the Word, thinking on the Word so that when something comes up in my daily life at work, at home, at the store, my reaction, my response, my conduct is shaped by the Word of God. What should I do here? And I think on the Word of God, I’ve been meditating on it, it’s been on my heart, on my mind.

Turn back to the book of Joshua, we recently did this on Sunday night, Joshua 1. You know we have many unhappy professing Christians. Counseling is a huge market in what is called the evangelical church. And generally it seems those who profess to be Christians are just as unhappy as those who make no profession. And yet God describes His people as very happy. Look at Joshua 1:8, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. The happy man, the blessed man in Psalm 1, he meditates on the Word of God day and night. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. You see why we’re constantly going over the Word of God in our minds so that we can do it, so that we can live it. For then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have success. Oh we want to be successful, we’ll read books on being successful, how to succeed. God says, here’s my plan—fill your heart and mind with my Word, being going over that through the day, in the evening, at night. What do you do when you can’t sleep? Well I worry. Go over the Word of God. I had a professor in Bible College, he’s preached here several times, he’s now home with the Lord. I remember all the way back when I was a student, he said, you know how I go to sleep at night? I think my way throught he Bible, chapter by chapter. I start at Genesis 1 and I think, what is in Genesis 1. And then I go to Genesis 2 and on until I fall asleep. Then the next night I pick up where I left off. The problem is, after we get to Genesis 3 we begin to think, what is in Genesis. That’s why I have to fill my heart and mind with the Word of God. Used to be my pattern, as many of you, I’d take an index card and write a verse on it every morning, put it in my pocket, take that verse out, memorize it, think about it. Every day for those 24 hours, that’s my verse, that’s what I’m thinking on. I’m going over it, I’m memorizing it, then I’m thinking through all the pieces of it and what does it mean and what is it’s importance. Just keep my mind filled with the Word of God so that we can go over it. We can’t go over it day and night because I don’t know it. We think, well I went to church this morning, good, put my Bible up there, I’m done with that. We don’t pick up the Bible again until the next Sunday morning. Where is my Bible, has anybody seen my Bible? Oh it’s still in the car from last Sunday. That’s how the cover gets turned, the sun gets on it and it starts to curl from drying out. No, I’m to be going over it every day. This is what shapes my life. I’m getting the input of the world every day, all day, every evening. I am balancing that because I’m thinking this is the truth of God and I’m thinking on it, I’m dwelling on it, I’m going over it, I’m going over what we did at Bible study, what was taught, thinking through that again. I’m not done with that passage, that passage is part of my life and I’m living that. And there are portions of my life that ought to be adjusted into conformity to that.

Look over in Jeremiah 15, we’re in Psalms, keep going past Psalms, Proverbs, you’ll hit the big prophet Isaiah, and after Isaiah is Jeremiah. You know Jeremiah had a difficult ministry. We call him the weeping prophet. He also wrote the book of Lamentations that follows Jeremiah. They are the lamentations of Jeremiah. You are familiar with Jeremiah, he had a hard ministry, a hard life, constantly rejected. He said even his closest friends were watching with glee, waiting for his fall. These are the kind of friends you don’t................ And those were his friends. You’d think he’d be depressed, discouraged, without hope. Then you come to Jeremiah 15:16, your words were found and I ate them, I took them into my heart and mind and life. Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart. For I have been called by your name, oh Lord God of hosts. Why is the Word of God a delight? Because I belong to you. There are times that the best thing you can do is stop thinking about things, trying to work out a solution, just stop, go into the bedroom or a closet or someplace where you can have total privacy and say, I’m just going to read the Word of God. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that in my life, still do it. I just have to stop, I’m just going to get apart and I’m just going to read the Word. Lord, I’m not even going to pray. I’m going to let you do the talking, and I’m going to do the listening. I’m going to read what you’ve said. Lord, I’m just going to read this until it starts to fill my heart and mind because I don’t know what else to do. I may be there for half an hour, I may be there an hour, I may be there two hours. It doesn’t matter. I’m just going to take and try to fill my heart and mind with the Word and clear out the other things.

Our first thing is we run here and we run there. The psalmist wrote that it was the Word of God that was his counselor. We need to find that, that’s the input. It becomes the joy, the delight of our hearts. Jeremiah’s circumstances haven’t changed, but you know what changed? Taking in the Word of God, feeding on the Word. And the Word became the joy and the delight of his heart. He still has all the opposition, he still has all the enemies, even his friends haven’t changed their thinking. But now he has joy in his heart, the delight of his heart.

Come back to Psalm 1, but stop at Psalm 119. And we could spend the rest of the time just reading Psalm 119. Someday you’re going to come to Indian Hills and I’m going to say for the sermon today we’re going to read Psalm 119. And I will keep you awake, because every other stanza of this we will stand. That way I’ll be sure you don’t go to sleep in the reading. Don’t stay away next Sunday because that won’t be the Sunday. Psalm 119:1, how blessed. Here we are, we want happiness, we want joy. But we don’t want to come and simply do what God says. How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart.

Down to verse 9, how can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your Word. Verse 11, your Word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you. Verse 14, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. Is that true? You know, this is more important to me than money, this is more important to me than being a success in the world. I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways. I will delight in your statues, I shall not forget your Word. Is it more important to you as a parent that your child be a believer and know the Word of God than it is they do well in the world? I talked to a believer not too long ago and they talked all about what their grown child was doing, I won’t say whether male or female, and they’re in their 20s and this person professes to be a believer. And I said, how are they doing spiritually, do they know the Lord? Well no. Don’t you think that’s important? I mean what if they died tonight in an automobile accident? All this other stuff is nothing. We parents who profess to know the Lord lose our way. What is precious? What are true riches? What is true happiness. I don’t care if you’re rich or poor, but I do care if you know the Lord and walk in His ways. There you will find true happiness, and any other place and any other way you’ll find no happiness.

Come back to Psalm 1. Look at verse 3. We’ve drawn the contrast. The happy man, here is what he does not do, here is what he does do. Now let’s describe him in verse 3. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither and whatever he does he prospers. The results of avoiding the wicked, of being involved in the Word of God and have the Word of God permeate your life and control your conduct is prosperity and blessing. Palestine is a dry, deserty land. They have recently tried to repopulate it with trees and so on, and it makes a great difference. And in that dry, deserty place nothing pictures prosperity and fullness of life than that tree that has its roots firmly down to the water supply. Marilyn and I have traveled to different places and some of the more deserty regions of our country. We’ll often remark, there must be a river over there or a stream. Why? You see the trees. There is nothing else around, but then you see a clump of trees or a grove of trees and you say there has to be water there. They seem to be flourishing and everything else is nothing. That’s the picture here. A tree planted by streams of water.

Turn over to Psalm 92:12, a picture of a tree. The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God, they will still yield fruit in old age. I love that verse. They shall be full of sap and very green. I mean, they prosper throughout their life, their happiness, their joy, their blessing is not tied, you don’t have to have the energy of youth to have the blessedness and happiness that God produces in a life. It’s rich and full even in the old age, when the health is not what we might like it to be, when the physical strength is not what we like it to be. Yet the spiritual prosperity is there. That’s true happiness, that’s true prosperity, that’s true joy.

You have to go to Jeremiah 17, you’ve just been there. There is a contrast here the same as we have in Psalm 1 because you’ll note verse 5, thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. I’d say this sounds like the description in Psalm 1, right? Verse 7, blessed is theman who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream, will not fear when heat comes. Its leaves will be green, it will not be anxious in a year of drought not cease to yield fruit. You seel the blessing and fullness of God is not affected by external circumstances. So we see the world and they have fears—what will happen as a result of this elections, what will happen as a result of that. Nothing that will affect my joy and peace and prosperity in my God. I should fear? I should think I have to stay up all night to see what the result will be? I should act like that is a major issue? Doesn’t mean I can’t be interested, but I need to be careful. My prosperity is not shaped by............. You understand in times of drought my God will provide for me. I can flourish in times of drought, as much as in times of blessing and abundance.

Just jot down Colossians 3:16, we won’t turn there. Let the word of Christ richly dwell in you, richly dwell in you. Saying the same thing _________________. We meditate on it day and night, my life is permeated with the Word of God. There was a football game yesterday, I understand, and I’ve heard some talking about it and I saw part of it. You know why we can talk about it? We saw it, we paid attention to it, we filled that portion of our lives with it. Sometimes we don’t know what to say about the Word of God. You know why? We haven’t been in it for a while. It doesn’t richly dwell in us. When we watched that game we got caught up to it, we weren’t just sitting there.......... oh the game’s on. Some of you were, I know. But some of you were really in to it. We were with our grandkids and they gave us a description of what it was like when the game was on at home. It wasn’t just...........the jumping up and shouting. We get involved. We read the Word of God and our mind is on another thing. It is to be our delight, I’m filling my mind with it, this is the most important thing, this makes known to me the living God, reveals Him to me, reveals His purposes for me, reveals His will for me. It is His guide for my conduct, it’s to permeate my life, it’s the sustaining provision God makes.

Come back to Psalm 1. Isn’t this amazing? Here is what God says and it’s a time, and I was just answering an e-mail from a friend in another state who is in a church and he wrote concerned about how their church is moving progressively away from the study of the Word and less and less time given to the study of the Word. Other things are filling in. We say, how can you have the blessing, the happiness, the prosperity that God brings to a life through filling your life with the Word of God when the church is moving away from the Word of God. Sadly, God’s people are happy to have it so. Tell me something that’s practical, something that will help me, give me four steps to success. Fill your life with the Word of God, guard yourself from the input of the wicked, the sinners, the scoffers. There is a contrast drawn. We’ve described the happy man by what he does not do, by what he does, and then we have a description of what his life is like. He is like a flourishing tree.

Now we have a stark contrast in verse 4, the wicked are not so. That brings in the contrast. He’s talked about the blessed man, he could have called him the righteous man in contrast to the wicked man, but he calls him the blessed man because the righteous man is the man who is truly blessed who is truly happy, the very happy man. The wicked think that they can have happiness, they have no true happiness, no true joy. The wicked are not so, they don’t flourish like that tree with that abundant supply coming in. And as we saw in Jeremiah, even in times of drought. Here we’re told in verse 3, the leaf does not wither. Same ______, prospers in drought. Understand all times are good times for the child of God. All times are good times. The child of God flourishes because of the sustenance of God, not because of the circumstances of life. I have to remember that in my life, remember that when my health is good, my health is bad, my job is good, my job is not good, my kids are doing well, my kids are not doing well. I flourish because God causes me to prosper, to be blessed, to be very happy. Because that’s the connection of my life, that’s what brings happiness, joy, blessing. Not the circumstances, not even the people, but my God.

The wicked are not so, and he doesn’t contrast a good tree with a bad tree. Here he contrasts the flourishing tree with the chaff. The wicked are not so, they are like chaff which the wind drives away. You know what the chaff is? It has not value, it is worthless. Stark contrast. The living God says the wicked are worthless, good only for destruction, for burning. What a stark statement. Why in the world would the people of God be going to the people of the world, the wicked, the scoffers, the sinners, for input on how to shape their life and life their life. They are going to those who are worthless, God says. Their lives are without meaning, they are literally without hope in the world. They are like the chaff.

Verse 5, therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. ____________what the chaff was in biblical times. You know we’ve just had harvest, and we have the combines that go through and sort out the grain from the chaff that gets spit out. In biblical times they went out and cut the grain and brought it in and beat it to separate the grain from the stalk, the chaff. Then they took that winnowing fork, they called it, and the winnowing floor was placed where a breeze came through, and then they would just throw it up with that pitchfork kind of winnowing thing. Throw it in the air, and when it came down the breeze would blow the chaff out and it would pile up there where the breeze would tail off. And the heavier grain would fall down. They would keep doing that until they had sorted out the chaff from the grain. Then you know what they did with the chaff? They would gather it up and burn it, it’s no good, we just have to get rid of it. So to say the wicked are like the chaff, you’re saying they’re good only for destruction. Remember John the Baptist in preparing the way for the coming of Christ, the Messiah, in chapter 3, said that when the Messiah comes He will have His winnowing fork in His hand. What was the point? He’s going to separate the true grain from the chaff, and the chaff will be gathered and burned. What did Jesus say? Matthew 25, at His Second Coming to earth He’ll separate the sheep from the goats, another way of describing the wheat and the chaff. And those who are the goats, the chaff, He says, depart from Me, cursed ones, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. That’s the goal of the chaff. It’s not like well, the wicked don’t have as much as we do, the wicked aren’t as truly very happy as we are, the wicked aren’t quite as prosperous as we are. The contrast couldn’t be greater—the wicked are chaff, they have nothing, they are without value, without worth. I realize every human being is created in the image of God, but from God’s perspective the wicked are of no value to Him. They are the chaff.

They will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. These are those doomed to destruction. Now you’ll note, the very fact that he says in verse 5, the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, who would ever think they would? They, many times think they will. And sometimes the people of God forget that they will not stand. Why are we going to them for input on how to live our lives, what we should do about our problems, what really marks you out as a successful person. We come to the Word of God. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 48:22 says, there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord. Now they’re constantly on the go, looking like the waves of the sea.

Come over to Revelation 3. When you come to Revelation 3, while you’re turning there, let me just remind you of the Sermon on the Mount. It began in Matthew 5 by Jesus describing those who are blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are, describing the rightoues, the truly saved as those who are truly happy. You get to the end of that Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, Jesus said, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord we did many things in your name. We cast out demons in your name. And He’ll say what? Depart from Me, cursed ones, I never knew you. There are some who may think they stand. We may forget the stark contrast there is between the righteous and the wicked, the flourishing tree, prosperous because of God’s work in his life through the Spirit through the Word, and the wicked, the sinners, the scoffers. Look in Revelation 3:15, the letter to the church at Laodicea. Jesus speaks to this church, professed to know Jesus Christ. I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, hot or cold, I will spit you our of my mouth. I want you to note here, we talk about the contrast, it is a stark contrast. We like to blur it off into the grays—the hot, the cold, and then just everybody sort of in between. But Jesus says there is no in between because the lukewarm makes Him sick. So you are left with the lukewarm and the cold on one side and the hot, because the cold, their position is clear. The lukewarm, He says I’d rather you be cold. I like a cold drink of water or iced tea, I like a hot cup of coffee or a hot cup of tea, and neither one do I like lukewarm. You say, I’m so thirsty, could you bring me a glass of water and they bring you a glass of warm water. You take a drink of it and say, why didn’t you let the water run? Lukewarm.

But note what they see themselves, verse 17, because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, have need of nothing. You do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. You don’t know you’re chaff. They are in the church, the church thinks it’s prosperous. Do you know why? They walk according to the counsel of the wicked, they stand in the path of the sinners, they sit in the seat of the scoffers. We’ve taken all this input from those who _________smart, and look at our church. It’s large, it’s wealthy, it’s prosperous, it’s influential. That’s the church at Laodicea. Out of the seven churches it’s the “most successful” humanly speaking. I am rich, I have become wealthy, I have need of nothing. You do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. How can you be so confused? I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may clothe yourself, that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

We must come to the Savior. Only He can take the chaff and make it a flourishing tree. There is nothing in between. There are deluded people, but there is nothing in between. Do we understand that as a church? I’m terribly concerned for what is called the evangelical church today, as you are aware, and the grip that is there, away from the Word of God. I am saddened by people whose interest in the Word of God seems to grow less and less and less. Should I delight in the Word of God less than I did 50 years ago? 40 years ago? 30 years ago? Why should I cool in my passion for Him. Why should it be the new Christian who can’t get enough of the Word of God, enough of Bible study, be in the Word enough. And the old timer settle back, and less is better. Why are we happy to get together less as God’s people to study the Word. Why are so many people happy that we cut back on Bible study? Oh our lives are busy, we’re busy with things, we’re busy. We’re taking our input, our kids are running here and there and everywhere because of school activities, sports activities, and this activity. They hardly have time for Bible study. Parents feel like they’re running here and there. I say, where are we taking our input? Are we sitting in the seat of scoffers? Have we taken our counsel from the wicked? Where are we getting these ideas, there is something more important to us than the Word of God. Do we really say this is my delight, I love to go and be taught the Word of God, I love to take it into my life every day, I love to have it on my mind, this is truly characteristic of me. I wonder if the Spirit of God would take each of our hearts and minds from the past week and reflect up on the big screen, we’re going to take each one individually and we’re going to show what filled your mind on Monday, what filled your mind on Tuesday, what filled your mind on Wednesday, what you meditated __________________ on Thursday. I wonder what our week would look like.

Would we look like the blessed man of Psalm 1? You know what I did Thursday? I mulled over the truths that we studied Wednesday night, it was just on my mind and I’m thinking, Lord, how rich it is. I thought about that portion that I read at lunch. Is this what fills our minds? Fills our life? God intends you to be happy. That doesn’t mean all your circumstances will be pleasant. Jeremiah said, your words were found and I did eat them and your Word was for me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name. Do you know what it is to have true joy and rejoicing in your heart? Are you a depressed Christian, or are you a happy Christian? Well my circumstances come and go, I have health problems, I have difficulty, I have family problems. No, but do you have your roots down as a flourishing tree. God want to produce His joy as only He can do. Remember the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy. Do you have that joy, that peace, that happiness. If not, maybe you ought to go home today, take some time apart for a couple of hours and just say, Lord, I’m just going to fill my heart and mind with your Word, I’m going to let you talk to me. The foundation of it is, do you know the God of this Word, have you come to believe that which is foundational to everything, have you come to Him to have your blinded eyes opened? He is the only Savior. A sinner can’t make himself righteous, the chaff cannot make itself a flourishing tree. Only the living God can do the miracle of regeneration. But He not only can, He does. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life. Have you come to recognize that God is a Savior. You are a sinner, you are chaff doomed to hell, but Jesus Christ will cleanse you and make you new. If you humble yourself, God, I believe what you say is true, I am sinner, deserving of hell, assured of going there. But I claim your mercy, I claim your Son, I am trusting Him alone as the one who paid the penalty for my sin on the cross. When you do, you become a tree, now, growing and you experience that growing prosperity, spiritual affluence, joy, happiness and peace.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your plan for us. Thank you, Lord, that it is your purpose in this life, filled with tribulations and trials, it is your purpose that we as your people, redeemed by your grace, made new, it is your purpose that we live as your children, filled with your joy, your happiness, your peace, the prosperity of soul that comes in no other way. Lord, I pray for those who are here who have struggled along, trying to live a life that they do not have. They’ve been self-deluded, they claim to know you, but they are without hope in the world. They think they’re doing well. Lord, open their eyes to see their lost condition. Lord, I pray for those who do know you. How easy it is for us as a church so blessed by you, so many blessings upon blessings to grow weary in well doing, even to find the study of your Word tiresome. Lord, I pray that our spirits and souls might be refreshed, that we might fill our hearts and minds with your Word, that it might indeed be our delight, that we would evaluate our days to be sure we are meditating on your Word day and night so that we might do according to all that is written in it. Thank you, Lord, that you are our strength, your Spirit is our teacher and our power. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.