in text for tonight's sermon is Psalm 1. And our New Testament passage is Matthew chapter 5. We're reading verses 1 through 12 of Matthew chapter 5 from the Sermon on the Mount. So if you turn first to Psalm 1 and hear the word of the Lord. This is the word of God. 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. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit, and its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not sold, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. For 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. And then from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, verses one through 12. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This is the word of God. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father, again, we pray that you would bless the reading and the hearing of your word to our hearts and to our minds. Lord, we long to understand your word. We believe it to be your very word and sufficient for faith and for life. And now, Lord, we come to the preaching of your word. Grant strength to your servant. Grant the unction of the Holy Spirit. Open the ears of those gathered here to hear, and Lord, speak to us through your word proclaimed. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. A number of years ago, when Reformation Presbyterian Church was early in its life, it still is relatively young, you realize that. But we had just gone to two services, morning and evening. And I had decided to begin a sermon series on a group of Psalms that are called the Hallel of Egypt. Historically, that's how they're designated. Psalms 113 to 118, those are the Psalms that were sung at Passover. And even to this day, if you look at the liturgy called the Union Haggadah, in Judaism today, those Psalms are still a part of that liturgy. I'll never forget it. In the morning service I preached Psalm 113, and I went for lunch over to the home of Marty and Bonnie Betts. I don't know how many of you know Bonnie. Bonnie was a member of the church here. Now she's actually under the oversight of the Commission of Peninsula Reformed Presbyterian Church. Marty was her husband, a very dear man, a very funny man. I don't know whether any of you met Marty before the Lord took him home. But I remember having lunch with them and afterwards, Bonnie got up from the table and she walked over to a bookcase and she got out a chart. And I said, what's that? And she says, well, I'm going to check you out and see what Dr. Opama Robertson has to say about the Halal. And I said, I didn't know Dr. Opama Robertson had said anything about the Halal. Sorry about that. And I said, let me see that chart. And I looked at the chart, and it was like a light went on in my head. I was ready for it. I'd been preaching through the Songs of the Saints, the Halal of Egypt, various portions of the Psalms before. But to see a comprehensive overview of the entirety of the Psalter in that chart was eye-opening to me. So she told me that she had listened to a lecture that he had done a couple of years earlier at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on book one of the Psalter. I listened to it twice on my way home from Virginia Beach as I was driving the next day. As soon as I got home, I ordered the book. And it's like a light has gone on and I've done the deep dive into the Psalter ever since that time. And I would commend that book to you because Dr. Robertson shows us the whole of the Psalter and how it was carefully organized under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But since then, I have been obsessed. And people from all saints can tell you that I'm somewhat obsessed with these things because they've heard some of these psalms. I'm going to begin a series tonight on Sunday nights when I'm here of selected psalms, but selected psalms that will show the progression as we work our way through the entirety of the Psalter. Now, some of your favorite psalms will be omitted. I don't have time to preach them all. The last time I preached all of them was when I was pastor at Providence Christian Church in Chilhowee, and it took me five years to work through all 150 of the Psalms. But we'll work our way systematically through the Psalter, and my burden is to show you why particular Psalms are what they are, what they contribute to the overall message of the Psalter, the redemptive historic underpinnings of the psalm and where it is in the Psalter, and then the content of the original psalm. The problem with that is you get at least three sermons in one. And I've put it this way before, if you're charitable, you can say, well, these are needy sermons. If you're not assured, well, you can say, well, they're kind of long, because it takes some time to unpack these things. This morning, this evening, we come to Psalm 1, the very first Psalm in this Psalter, and it's paired directly with Psalm 2. And this is a wonderful combination that we see in three places in the Psalter. Psalm 1 is a Torah psalm. A Torah is the Hebrew word for law. It's extolling the law of God. We'll see it as we expound it. Psalm 2 is a Messianic psalm. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. And what you have here is law and gospel in Psalms 1 and 2. And that combination is found in two other places in this altar. 18 is a messianic psalm. 19 is a Torah or law psalm that divides Book 1. Did you know the psalm has five books? If you've never noticed that, don't worry about it. You'll know it after we get into this series and as we get through it. There are five books. Book one, Psalms 1 to 41, divided right in the middle with this combination, a messianic psalm and a lost psalm. And then in book five, Psalm 118 is a messianic psalm. Psalm 119 is the Torah psalm of all Torah psalms. That combination right there between the hallelujah psalms and the songs of ascents. Well, here we find that first occasion, and as we come to Psalm 1, it's a law psalm, but there's something very important to realize. Law and gospel are not at odds with each other, rightly understood. Now, sometimes you read the Apostle Paul and it sounds like they are antithetical to each other. And they are, in one sense. And that is if you see the law as a covenant of works whereby you can justify yourself before a holy God. You cannot. Why? Because you've broken the law. You've broken the law. But law and gospel fit like hand in glove when rightly understood. Because all the law is is a revelation of the righteous character of God himself. It's who God is and who he expects those made in his image, that is, men and women made in his image, how we should be and how we should live. You can't have law without gospel or there's no salvation because we've broken the law. And in order to understand the gospel, you have to understand law. And I'm gonna show you, yes, this is a law psalm, but I'm gonna show you the gospel in this law psalm. Let's look at it as it unfolds. Blessed is the man. This is what the blessed man looks like. 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. These are things the blessed man does not do. He does not walk, he does not stand, he does not sit in these ways. He doesn't walk with the wicked, he doesn't stand with sinners, he doesn't sit with scoffers. I heard another preacher use this illustration and I have plagiarized it because I can't remember who it is, but I would give credit to it. But I think it was Derek Thomas, but I'm not real sure. But this particular picture that you have here, I like the way he described it. Walking and standing and sitting. Imagine that you are walking on a street somewhere. and there's a crowd of people that are there and you're walking along and you can see some people that have their chairs pulled right up close together and they're laughing in a mocking way and you know something ungodly is taking place there. As a Christian, as you're walking along, what do you do? Do you quickly and hurriedly walk on by? Or do you open that ear and do you listen? What's so funny? Why are they laughing? What are they saying? And if you entertain what they are saying, let's say you come the next day and you're walking by, the same thing's happening. You stop and you stand and you listen for a while. what may happen the next day is you may come along and pull up a seat and sit down with them in their wickedness. The blessed man doesn't live this way. All of us get caught in these kinds of traps. But how does the blessed man live? Look at verse 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. This is what the blessed man looks like. He delights in the law of the Lord. And he meditates on the law of the Lord day and night. Anybody beginning to struggle? Do you delight in the law of the Lord? I can meditate upon it day and night without ceasing. This is what the blessed man looks like. I look at the text, then I look in the mirror of the text, and I see myself in, and yes, to a degree, because of God's work in me, I do delight in the law, but not always. I meditate on it day and night. So am I a blessed man or not? Are you a blessed man or a blessed woman? Is that descriptive of you? Well, if we're to be truthful, it's not. But it is descriptive of someone. Who delighted in the law of the Lord and meditated on it day and night? Who never walked, stood, or sat with sinners in order to participate with their sin? Not one moment of his life here upon the earth. His name is Jesus Christ. You see that? Who is the blessed man? Jesus Christ, the righteous, He is the blessed man. And you're the blessed man or you're the blessed woman if you're united to Him. You understand? This is the beauty of the glorious doctrine of justification. We cannot be justified by our works. Why? We've broken the law! So if we sinners are to be justified before a holy God, it's got to be upon the basis of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness as the blessed man is, here's a big word in theology, imputed, that is credited to your account by faith. So that when God sees you, he sees the righteousness of his own son. And he declares you not to be simply not guilty, he declares you to be righteous in his sight. Because you are covered in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's imputed to you. just like your sin was imputed to Him and credited to His account on the cross. And the Father poured out His judgment and wrath upon His Son in your stead. The righteous one was judged as the greatest sinner who ever lived. An eternity of hell in a moment on the cross. For us, we are light. and His righteousness is imputed to you. Brothers and sisters, that's a glorious gospel. That's a wonderful gospel. And of course, the Father vindicated His work and death could not hold Him. He was raised from the dead. He has ascended to the Father. He sat down at the right hand of God in glory. And the fruit of that is our salvation. But salvation is not only your justification. And a lot of Christians make this mistake. They think salvation equals justification. That's actually called in theology, to use another big word, antinomianism. Those that say, well, there's no place for law whatsoever. That holiness and godliness doesn't matter. You see, the beauty of our salvation, and when I teach, I actually teach at a Bible college in Bristol. That's what I do on my Thursday nights. And I teach the four systematic theology courses at this Bible college. When I teach on the application of salvation, all the benefits and blessings that are ours because we're united with the benefactor himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our justification, our sanctification, our adoption, our perseverance. All of these blessings are ours, our glorification. These blessings are ours in the benefactor with whom we are united by faith. And salvation is the whole bouquet of flowers. If each one of those is a flower, you get the whole bouquet, including sanctification. So the one who receives the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, is being transformed from within through union with Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and we're being sanctified progressively, not in perfection in this life. We all know that very well. That's why we have confessions of sin, not only in the morning service, but also in the evening service, because we sin in between the two services. But nevertheless, real sanctification is taking place and a growing delight in love of the law of God. So that we can confess it's sweeter than honey and sweeter than the honeycomb, more to be desired than gold, yay, much fine gold is the law of God because of the Holy Spirit indwelling us and sanctifying us. No, it's not imperfection, we know that. We know that all too well, but it's still real. And that's why you are the blessed man or you are the blessed woman, because you're united to the blessed man. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalm is about law, but it is also about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessed man is like a tree planted by streams of water. Everybody loves trees. Everybody loves trees that are planted by streams of water. The shade that's there, the beauty that's there to sit and to watch and to enjoy creation. But why is that tree so green? Why is that tree always, every season bearing its fruit? Because it's planted by the water and its roots extend to that source that doesn't dry up. That's union with Christ Jesus. Jesus pictures it in another way, another figure. I am the vine, you're the branches, he tells us. The Father's the husbandman. He's the one who breaks off the dead, and that hurts when he prunes. And yet, when you're united with the vine, who is the Lord Jesus Christ? There's life, and there's fruit. This is a description of a blessed man. There's fruit that is produced in your life. And it's because of your union with Christ, just like the tree. It's because it's planted by the water. There's plenty of nourishment and nutrients and minerals and everything the tree needs to be healthy and to produce fruit. It comes from the water. It comes from the Holy Spirit. who enthralls us. This is the work of God, it's not ours. And yet the work of God in us produces works that we do as we delight in the law of the Lord. It's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit and its season, its leaf does not wither. And all he does, he prospers. And this is speaking predominantly of a spiritual prospering. Not a material one. Something far more important than material prosperity is spiritual prosperity and blessing. This is where it comes from, being united with Christ. What do we say when we look at our lives and we say, where's the fruit? There's not much. What's the answer? Well, try harder? Never works. The answer is run to Jesus. That's the answer. Run to Jesus. Cling to Him. And He's the one that produces it within us. Look at the contrast. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. The chaff is dead. Why? It's not united to the water. It drives up, it blows away. That's the picture here. There's a contrast between the blessed and the wicked in this particular text. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Remember how the text begins with the blessed man doesn't stand with sinners. Well, here we see that sinners will not stand in the judgment. will face the judgment of God. They will face his wrath. They will be gathered up and burned, and it's an eternal flame, we read elsewhere in Scripture. This is the lot of the wicked. our sinners and the congregation of the righteous. And the picture here is following in judgment in that great assembly in the new heavens and the new earth with angels and all of the redeemed there in the presence of God himself and the new heavens and the new earth. After the consummation, after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are the wicked, the sinners will not be there, but rather in a place of torment. Those are the only two destinations there are. Are you united to Christ? Are you depending upon Him? Are you trusting Him alone for your salvation? Are you not depending upon yourself and your feeble works, but rather trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for you? If you are, you'll be standing in that congregation on that day. And what a day that will be. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. He knows your life. He knows everything about you. Isn't our God a great God? But the way of the wicked will perish. I ask you again, are you in Christ? We're about to come to the table. We're about to eat the bread that represents his body broken. We're about to drink the wine that represents his blood shed. What are you going to bring to the table? Nothing. No, you'll bring dirty hands. But you say, but I've repented of my sin. Yes. But still. What does Jesus bring to this table? Everything Himself. You can't save yourself. Only Jesus can save you. And every time you take that bread and you eat it and you take that cup and you drink it, you're saying to Christ, I need you. More than I need bread, more than I need wine, I need you, Lord Jesus. And guess what? He's here. He's here. Spiritually, not corporeally. He's here. Or maybe as Calvin says, we're there. I don't know how that is, but I think it is. It's a mystery. There's a special presence of God for those who come and eat and drink in faith and a grace to be received. You should hunger and thirst for Christ as you come to the table. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that by grace we are made the blessed man and the blessed woman.