I'm going to be working out of Psalm 1 today. The Psalms, I do want to clear the air because this is a sort of an erroneous concept that I carried in my life as a young man. The psalms, because of their devotional nature and because of some of the easy-to-pick-up fruit that is right there on the surface of every psalm, they can tend to be considered maybe lighter material sometimes. I've carried that idea in my brain, in my head, just, you know, I'll have a couple of psalms in my back pocket in case I need to teach, or as if they were easier to, or there was less important or vital information contained in the Psalms and in other parts of Scripture that are more difficult. Paul is thick to unpack. He's very difficult to unpack. The Psalms are just as rich. They are just as vital. They're just as useful as the Word of God even says. They are fully the Holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. They are a part of the volume. the whole volume of Scripture given by inspiration of God and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto good works." I don't think there's a problem with maybe thinking less of the Psalms in this congregation, but I did hold that view once as a young man, so I want to make sure it's not a problem Psalms are the holy scripture of God just as much as any other portion of scripture. And you can skim a surface of a psalm pretty quickly, gather up a few things, take them with you. You can also dive into them as heavily as into Paul, as heavily as into any other apostle, and you cannot exhaust the richness that's contained in them. Christ being a major theme throughout the Psalms makes them profound. The Psalms were not written chronologically as they appear laid out. Psalm 1 was not the first Psalm ever written. It was placed there by someone who arranged them into the order they appear. And why would Psalm 1 appear at the head of the Psalms? Why is it placed there It's placed there because it underscores in really plain terms two very distinct types of people that inhabit the earth. There are the righteous and there are the unrighteous or the ungodly. Those are the two people that inhabit the earth in the eyes of God. So where better to mark that distinction then right here in the first song that people are naturally going to read when they pick up the book. These distinct types of people will in the aggregate constitute. So they're going to, if you, if you add them up, they will form nations, states, counties, towns, neighborhoods, churches, families. These are all made up of people and there's either going to be a an amount of righteous people or an amount of wicked people. So it's very important to mark that distinction and to know who you are, to be able to promote righteousness and to be able to reject wickedness and unrighteousness. The genius, maybe, you would say, of arranging this psalm at the head of the book is that it forces all who would begin a journey through the vast land of the Psalms. And it's a pretty wild, like the Psalms can, they're pretty vast territory. It covers a lot of ground. It covers a lot of subjects. It covers most of the subjects of life, the, the, the intelligence of placing it there. And you have to credit God first for that, but also thoughtful men who insisted on that arrangement, um, is that it regulates, it will help to It will help to order the mind appropriately. I don't want to get too carried away with what I've written down here, but I'll just say that it matters what voice you listen to on your journey in life. It actually matters in a critical way. You're either going to listen to the counsel of the wicked, and that will create then a downward slope in your life that will land you somewhere you don't want to land, or you're going to listen to the voice of God on your journey, the counsel of God, the laws of God, the precepts of God. That's what's so critical about the theme of Psalm 1 is that it's about who you're going to listen to. and what the outcome of who you listen to is going to be. So let's read through these few verses and then we'll go back and glean by examining them a little bit more closely. Psalm 1, there's a lot on the surface here to pick up. There's plenty of information readily available, but we'll break it down and see how much more we can dig out. We'll ask ourselves, some questions to check our own life in relationship to the Holy Scripture. We want to hold it up. We want to take a look at ourselves in the mirror of the Word and see what we see there. 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. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, and his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so. Not so the ungodly, as it reads in the original, but they are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Father, bless the reading of your word. We do ask for your help to understand it, first to teach it properly, then to understand it and perceive it aright. Give us listening ears that we may hear what the Spirit says to the church. Open our eyes, open our understanding so that we may see the light of your word and live by it. and understand ourselves are right in its light. In Christ we pray. Amen. This first verse, 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 has a real, has a real nice progression to it. Walking, standing, sitting, kind of talk about what those stances represent. You see, um, this person will be blessed. The word there, blessed, is literally happy. That's what it means. In several other parts of the Psalms and other portions of the Old Testament, the very word that's there translated here, blessed, is actually translated happy. So Psalm 127 would be an example of that, if you're taking notes. That person will be blessed or happy who refuses to live as if there is no God to fear. There is a group of people that live as if there is no God, and therefore they have no fear of him, they have no concern about his word, as if God has given no rules to follow, and as if there are no demands from the creator upon his creatures as to how they are to operate in every area of their lives. Happy is the man who does not walk as if there is no God. as if there is no creator with whom we have to do. An ungodly person, as the word, if you unpack the word, if you study the word out, is adrift. It's a person that blows this way by the carnal lusts and that way by every temptation. They have no plan. They have no rules. They have no plan but to have no plan. Actually, they are just very carnal people. They're taken this way by a lust. They're taken that way by a temptation. They end up forming into groups that basically teach each other how to just party and have a good time. That's basically what is meant here by the ungodly, just someone with, it's a drift, carried to and fro. Let's see where life takes us. There is no God. Therefore, there are no rules. That's how they view life. The ungodly person, this is their outlook on life. No God, so no rules. We just do what feels right to us and is approved by those who journey with us. And they are ungodly and therefore unruly and disorderly. And as the word ungodly means, they are actually immoral. they are against God or devoid of any godliness. And this kind of undisciplined and aimless immorality, what it does is it inevitably, without fail, leads the ungodly to worse things. So they're walking carelessly, they're carried about by their carnal lust, they're carried about by whatever temptation crosses their path, they're carried away by that. But it leads to worse things. It doesn't just stay there in sort of a wantonness or a randomness. With no fear of God, and therefore no real concern for God's commandments, they not only make up their own rules for life, but they also set themselves, eventually, against God's counsel directly. So what is wantonness, what is aimlessness, what was first a rejection of God's counsel in favor of carnal passions, now grows into a rebellion. So now we've taken a stance. He walks according to the counsel of the ungodly. This person just sort of takes general convention, typical carnal thinking, and they walk according to it. Now, though, the growth of that in the person, in their life, that causes them to now take a stand. He stands in the way of sinners now. Now he's in a stance of rebellion against God. Now they set their stance against God to actively serve sin. Now they sin, but with more earnestness. And then it's all down, down the slippery slope from there. So once you take that stance of rebellion against God, and I'm following the order that's laid out for us here in God's Word. Once you take that stance, it will lead you to a place where you then, if you're one of these people, you then scorn God and His law. It's not enough to walk according to your carnal lusts. It's not enough to take a rebellious stance against God. Then you become to aggress God. by scorning him and mocking him. And you can see that very clearly in today's society. Actually, any alternative news source will show you some of that depravity playing out to an incredibly fevered pitch. It's not as worse as it can get, but it's pretty bad where you have people now that are not only content to protest something politically, they must throw a Bible on the ground and kick it around for an hour. I've seen that that happened last week. Um, they kick it, they scorn on it, they spit on it, they mock it, they hold it up and say, your God is powerless. Look what I'm doing to his word. And they tear at it and they throw it back on the ground. And they, that is scorn. That is mocking God and his people. That's what this progression, this is the road that, this kind of wicked person ends up on. The further you get down the road of the counsel of the ungodly, the counsel of the wicked, the worse it gets. The worse your behavior becomes to where you are now not just a sinner, you're a scornful sinner, working against God, working against his people, taking pleasure in mocking God. A godless walk is how it starts. Then it's a standing in sin against God. And finally, a sitting down in a group to mock God to his face. But, so this is actually stated, this verse is actually set up in a positive way, but happy 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. I hope this is you, happy, blessed, full. We know which one of these people we prefer to be, right? I think all of us are clear that we don't want to be in the group that's so caught up in their rebellion that they are setting themselves so clearly against God, right? But then how do we get there? What's the key? How will you avoid becoming that kind of person? How will you avoid becoming even a little bit of that kind of person? Because there's a potential to be one of God's people and still follow, according to the, follow a path that leads you astray. But here's the solution. His delight is in the law of the Lord. So you've learned over the years We have taught over the years, decades now, I've heard this coming out of this pulpit, it's not enough to put off bad behavior. That's not the end of the story. You can try to do that, but without putting on good behavior, Without putting off the old man and his ways and putting on Christ, the new man, and his ways, you will have no solution to the problem. You can do that for a while, put off, put off, put off, but without putting on Christ, you'll fall back into the old ways. You must substitute one with the other, and so the scripture lays that out very clearly here, but his delight The righteous man's delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And so there it is for you. That's the solution. This kind of uncomplicated and and profound statement is what makes the Psalms kind of a joy for God's people to read. It's very plain language. It's not hidden beneath layers for us, right? It actually is fitting for a song to be more available to our understanding right on the surface. For God's people, then, the clear path to happiness and avoidance of misery rests on this one rigorous discipline, which is delight in the law of the Lord. Put off carnal thinking, put on the orderly thoughts of the Lord, and make it your meditation day and night, which is a poetic way of saying constantly, from the time you wake to the time you go down to sleep. Shun wicked counsel, but treasure the precepts of God. And it's worth noting here that the precepts of God aren't just some kind of like general notion or a vague idea. It's not just I have an idea about how I ought to behave. I have this sort of sense that this is how a righteous life works. It's the precepts of God, the laws of God. This is beyond just notions or general senses that we might have. This person is actually reciting to himself the laws, the actual laws of God. He's telling them to himself. They are laws. They are full of imperative demands. And we might be maybe thrown off by a modern or a different sense of the word meditate here, but meditating on the Word of God is not here anyway. It's not necessarily the idea of sitting down, closing your eyes, and thinking about the Word of God and considering the Word of God. It actually literally means to mutter. That's what meditate here means. It means to mutter, to recite under your breath all day long, day and night. This person is speaking to himself, is speaking the laws of God. It's murmuring is the actual word, muttering, but not in a negative way, in a positive way, in a positive sense, the way that a person maybe, if you're working out, if you worked around me and I'm trying to put a shed up right now, I have to talk out my measurements, I have to, okay, now I'm going to, I got to, okay, I got to remember that the trust this way and I talk to myself about the laws for building a shed, right? I repeat them to myself. I've heard people, I've heard some of you talking to yourselves to keep order, to keep moving in the right direction. And that's kind of the sense, although I may be trivializing a little bit. This person is very serious about wanting to live and keep their mind on spiritual things so serious that they recite to themselves the laws of God. It's their meditation day and night. This righteous person recites God's precepts day and night to themselves. When the world comes alive at dawn, the recitation begins. And when night falls upon the land, the recitation is still going on. They have acquainted themselves with the word of God and they will not stop. muttering it to themselves for fear of allowing the opposite to rule and govern their mind. Day in, day out, morning, noon, evening. You can find this happy servant of God strengthening against the influence of carnal thoughts from the environment around him. David, by the word of thy lips, I have kept myself from the path of the destroyer. Pray, David. By the word of thy lips, I have kept myself from the path of the destroyer. And listen to this octave from Psalm 119. I think it might have even been mentioned earlier. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? Well, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. So how is a young man going to cleanse his way, purge the filth from his path? How's he gonna stay clean? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee. And oh, let me not wonder from thy commandments, how can you keep close to the commandments of God if you don't know them. If you don't bring them before your eyes and set them before you, well, of course you're gonna drift. That would be like trying to drive on a road with no markings or a road with no signs. You would eventually lose yourself if you didn't have the order of signage. God's commands are road signage for us. Thy word have I hid in my heart. They have tucked the word of God in his heart, that I might not sin against thee. Is that not a critical life verse that we should all know very clearly in our minds and have a very good understanding of? Thy word have I hid in my heart so that I might not sin against thee. It's not enough to just say, I won't sin. I don't want to sin, I refuse to sin. There has to be something else in there to empower that resolve. Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word." This is probably the author of Psalm 1 in my opinion. I don't see it titled as a Psalm of David. Either David is playing off in his Psalm 119 from Psalm 1 or it's written by David. It doesn't matter. The point is that the message runs true in both. This is a person that is resolved to keep the word of God present, to put it before him, to hide it in his heart for fear of sinning against God. This blessed person has found the key to true and abiding happiness. So there is a key. It's muttering the word of God to yourself. That's what it is. It's constantly reminding yourself of the laws of God, the precepts of God, or your life. It's to highly value God's laws and keep them always on your lips and thus on your mind. That is the path the righteous are on. But what then is the effect or outcome of this obedience that's making this person so happy? Is the person that is keeping the law of God always on their lips, always before them. Are they just happy in an abstract sort of way? Like, is it just like general, unidentifiable, pleasant happiness? Or just a good feeling? Or is it something more concrete? Is it real? Is it identifiable? It is more. With God, there is always more for those who obey. There's always something solid for those who follow God. And as we'll see here in a moment, the reward includes elements that most rational human beings actually really desperately hope to gain in their lives. The true reward given to this person is essentially, bottom line, an enduring meaningfulness. There's meaning to your life. There's an enduring legacy that goes with your life. I don't, most of the people of the world that I know, most of the, of the unconverted souls that I know, they long for legacy. They long to have a meaning to their lives and most of them don't have it. It's a complaint that you have to kind of read between the lines of when they're talking to you and you have to read between the lines of their life complaints. By and large, that's what the issue is. They just feel like they're in the rat race. People hate them. Everything's falling apart. There's no meaning to life. They actually begin to even put life in those terms. I don't know why I'm doing all this. What's the point of all this? But for the righteous, there is eternal meaningfulness to their life, as we'll see. Verse 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. So this is the promise from God for all who will shun wicked counsel and keep the counsel of God constantly on their lips. Is this the promise of a mere man to us? If this was a promise of a man to me, that I would be as a tree planted by rivers of water, that I would bring forth much fruit, that my leaf would never wither, that whatever I set my hand to do, it would prosper. If that was a man saying to me, I promise you that, what would be the value of that? People have been promising themselves things for 10,000 years and failing to fulfill those promises. God, is the one promising this and he has never broken a promise to his people, ever. To believe that God would break this promise that he's offering in Psalm 1, would essentially be to begin a journey down the path of apostasy. You would be claiming that God can lie, that he willfully lies, and that's the end of your faith. There's no recovering if you commit to that. So we can essentially say, we can essentially know, we know by faith that this promise is good and we can count on it. We can lean on it. We can take it to the bank. It will cash. God's promises are that way. Just a word of caution that I wrote in here, just as we examine the illustration provided here by the psalmist, kind of to describe the outcome of obedience, because now we're in verse 3, and this is, he uses, the psalmist uses an example or an illustration to say, what is the kind of blessing that this person will receive in their life? What is the kind of outcome that this person can expect in their life? And he uses an illustration of a tree planted by rivers and waters. But one caution is that happiness is not perfection of circumstance, okay? So the promise of God is not all your circumstances will be pleasant. All your circumstances will be ordered right in a way that pleases you or that you can identify as this is the kind of outcome that I want. True happiness for God's people consists in being planted by God's infinitely wise providence in a place where their roots can tap an endless source of nourishment and health. So pictured here is a robust, healthy tree that yields abundant fruit in its season as it should. And because its roots are tapping an endless source of life, its foliage doesn't wilt no matter what the conditions are around it. So I mean, we're Midwestern people. We're actually very worldly-wise, so we know more of the Mediterranean world where this psalm was actually composed than they knew of any of our parts of the world. But if you've got this idea in your mind of the tree planted by rivers or waters that it looks like, you know, this like nice apple tree, Nicely situated beside a deep, wide creek and a green Missouri meadow, lush forest, animals and critters running around. That's actually not the picture that this, that would be a very nice setting. That would be a very easy setting for a tree to live in, right? The actual setting that this psalm is written in, it's probably not any kind of circumstance that any tree would choose for itself. Not this picture. It's not a Missouri meadow. We know the area. We know the area that David lived in and grew up in. It's probably an arid, dry wasteland. That region has not changed. There's no description of that region that would say it was once lush and now it's desert. It's been what it is now. And you've got You've got every little tuft of grass and shrub and critter that lives there, just scrapping it out to survive. That's the reality of the setting that this psalm is set in. There's a meager looking desert stream, a little basin of water that pools there maybe. An intense desert sun beating down mercilessly on the land. You can see that in the, in all the trees that grow in that area and all the plants and bushes that grow in that area. You actually see a very weather beaten look to them. The scene is baking. It's, it's hot. It's under a blazing sun. The environment is hostile to life. And yet, right. And yet against all odds, there grows an olive tree with its weather beaten gnarly trunk, dusty green crown, branches spread to the sky and loaded with olives. This is the picture that you're looking for, for the tree that this psalmist... There's no other fruiting tree in this part of the world but the olive tree, basically. This is kind of to lift the phrase out of Isaiah 6. It's in a different context, but these are the words. This is a tree of righteousness. It's the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. Imagine then, and if you look at these old olive trees in this region of the world, they have big, gnarly, beaten trunks. I mean, they have endured the heat of the desert by day, the cold of the desert by night. They've been under blazing sun their entire lives. Some are hundreds, some are 5,000 or 6,000 years old. Lebanon has a couple of trees in them, olive trees by a river. that are said to be 6,000 years old. That's how far back the history of these two trees goes. They're weatherbeat. The circumstances that these are planted in are not pleasant for a tree. So what keeps them alive? What keeps them alive, the only possible reason they're still alive is because the roots have tapped directly into the source of life-giving waters. which have fortified it against extremely harsh weather, the extremely harsh environment in which it was planted. Then the psalmist leaves the frame of the illustration a little bit. I mean, we abandoned the illustration of the tree a little bit to say, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Because this person lives according to God's precepts, every endeavor will bring them a prosperous spiritual return. And now the psalmist sets a contrast for our consideration. So now we have to talk about the ungodly, which were mentioned. What does it look like for those who choose to live in a way antithetical to the blessed person? So the blessed person has chosen the path of righteousness, the path of God's mind, God's thoughts, God's law, and they have chosen to rule and regulate their life according to God's law by telling it to themselves constantly. What about the wicked person, the ungodly person? As always, with any who refuse God's counsel and who reject his clear imperatives, it doesn't go or end well for them. For the ungodly who walk in the counsel of the wicked, who commune with sinners in their rebellion, and who sit with those who scorn and mock God, there is an opposite outcome than happiness, fruitfulness, prosperity. And it's summed up actually pretty abruptly in really clear terms. Doesn't need a lot of commenting, actually. Verse four says, the ungodly, in contrast to this picture of this tree stretching forth its branches loaded with fruit, the ungodly are not so, but are like the shaft which the wind driveth away. Once separated by threshing, from the grain, this shaft is driven by the wind to become just part of the wasteland, and that's it. There are no roots, there's no green leaf, no fruit, nothing prosperous at all, just shaft, and it's of no use to anyone. Such is the promised end for the person who casts off God's laws by not setting them always before their eyes. Notice that it's not just casting off God's laws, but it actually is, how do you do that in your life? How does one cast off God's laws? By not bringing them constantly before them. You might be thinking, I don't reject God's laws. Well, do you bring them constantly before you? Then you reject God's laws. If you say, not really, then you reject God's laws. You can't be in the middle somewhere between following God's ways and rejecting God's laws by just sort of floating around in the middle. There is nothing like that. To not bring God's word constantly before you is to cast off God's laws and to allow carnal thought and temptation to rule your life. But such is the sad outcome for all who fail to recite to themselves the commands of God constantly. The harsh environment around them consumes them, and they are as if they had never been. But does the shaft tell itself it has great meaning, great purpose, and great value? Well, of course it does. Every wicked person thinks they are numero uno. They're number one. They're the most important thing in the universe. And get enough of them together, and they tell each other that, and they form nations that believe that. Of course they believe they're important. But hear the word of the Lord. This is out of Proverbs 16. Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall. And hear this out of Isaiah 14. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground? which didst weaken the nations. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation and the sides of the north. That is one blasphemous reference. If you've ever, if you're connecting what that means, that is blasphemous. That's pride. This is a being that walks according to the counsel of his own mind. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Verse five, therefore, The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Is it possible the proceeding prospect of ending up as nothing more than useless shaft didn't sound all that bad to some? I mean, maybe you're thinking doesn't sound too bad to blow about with the wind. It's not that big of a deal. Well, The Lord isn't finished illustrating the end of those who walk according to the counsels of the carnal mind. Those who prefer the counsel of the ungodly above the laws of God actually be culled from the congregation of the righteous. They will not stand in the congregation of the righteous. They have no place there. They will be forever barred from the presence of God's law abiding saints. They do not stand with the congregation. They are removed. I don't know about you, but my soul weeps and I've wept this week. I have struggled this week to find that to some degree or another, and I think by studying studying it closely in my own life, I've determined that unfortunately, we all walk according to carnal thought. For some time of our journey, we all struggle with moments that we fail to recite the word of God to ourselves, to murmur it to ourselves. And so then that means that we do take steps in the path of the ungodly. And that should really trouble us because the outcome of that, if it's taken to its full extent, is that we would suffer a loss greater than we can comprehend. To be called out of the congregation of the saints would be the ultimate end. But I don't want to take even a couple steps out. I don't even want to be in timeout for a day or two. I want to be with the saints. My Lord is there among the brethren. My God is there being worshiped by the brethren. What a loss to have heard the counsel of God, to have tasted the good food of his word, to have handled all manner of holy things, but all for naught, to in the end be concluded in unrighteousness and expelled from the assembly of the righteous, And yet such is the promised end to those who turn away from God's laws to follow the ways of the unrighteous. If I asked you to think about people who you know have turned to an apostate state, you can probably think of people I can conjure three or four names that I have journeyed with on the journey of life that I have journeyed with in the paths of righteousness who today are in a full headlong slide down to the pit of hell. I, I know names. I beg God on their behalf that their apostasy would be only temporary, that they would Lord, Lord have mercy on them, that they not remain in this state. But this is the end of those who refuse to walk according to the laws of God and the counsel of the mind of God, to be concluded ultimately and totally in unrighteousness and removed from the congregation. Verse 6, for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Why do the godly end up where they do and the wicked where they do? The answer to that is actually grace. God's grace is the answer that is essentially the key to that. God himself, the God of salvation, has arranged to lay out for his elect every factor that will convey them to a state of happiness in a desolate land. down to the path they tread to get there. God has laid it all out. He has mapped it all out for his people. So to him belongs all the glory for the saints happiness because it was his original pleasure to do them good. He knows the way of the righteous and approves of it for he laid it out in the first place. God is, if you're on this path, be happy. You are happy. God knows this path. He laid it for you. But God has nothing to do with the way of the ungodly. Its builder and maker is actually the biggest rebel of all time. He laid this path out. He's a wicked being. He's an evil being. I don't want, I in my life don't want to take one more step on that path. It's to his pleasure that we do. And it slights God. This path of wickedness is entirely of Satan's own design. and it leads to the only end it can. It leads to utter ruin. It's the only place it can end up. I can't say anything to prevent you more than what the scriptures are saying. They're laying out for us a clarity that we don't, we would do, it would be very foolish for us to ignore the clarity of God's word here. What path are you on today? I'm asking myself this question as I'm typing it. Do you delight in the council and laws of God? Can you prove that? Are they constantly on your lips? Do you set them always before your eyes? If so, rejoice. Great is your reward. You're going to be like a tree planted by rivers and waters. You're going to give forth abundant fruit in season. Your leaf will not wither. You'll endure. Or are you on the road to perdition as we speak? Do you find little pleasure in the counsel and laws of God? Do you rarely crack the book? Do you read it in a sort of casual, dutiful way, but take no pleasure therein? Are the laws of God rarely and barely on your lips? Well, turn back, please. Turn back while there's still time. Drop everything else until you've returned to the fork in the road and run as fast as you can on the paths of truth. For they alone will lead to abundant life and to that true soul happiness. among the congregation of the saints. Turn back if you're on the wrong road. That is a fair appeal to make. Don't deceive yourself. If the word of God is not vibrant, if it's not active on your lips, if it's not constantly before you, then you're actually only halfway on the path, one foot on one path, one foot on the other. Eventually, you'll take a turn for one or the other. But my appeal would be, turn, please. I'll make a mention of a practical way that we can do that before we have our closing prayer, but for now, this passage out of 2 Thessalonians. Chapter two, Paul says, but we are bound to give thanks all way to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. And I can honestly say, I don't feel that most of us are in trouble. I don't feel that the congregation here is in some sort of headlong rush on the path of the wicked. But as we've clarified, We can all take some steps on that path, and that's not good. We can all neglect to keep the Word of God always before us. We can all have even long seasons of our life that there is simply no input from God's Word. It's very bad. It's a slight to God, and the word today is simply to warn against that possibility. But we are bound to give Thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, may they comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Encouragement is the prayer, the intercession on your behalf is that you will take up this idea, this work, that God would strengthen you for the work of keeping the Word of God always before your eyes, that you would pursue it to your great happiness, to your unending pleasure, and that you would avoid neglecting the Word of God because it only leads to ruin. It only leads to perdition. Do you want even some ruin in your life? Then toy with this over here on this side. But do you want no ruin in your life? God's promises are true and sure. You will have no ruin. They will have no ruin who pursue his law, who recite it to themselves and mutter it to themselves and keep it constantly on their minds. That's the appeal. Our father bless us with an understanding of your truth. Teach us, Father, that the value of your law is that it leads to life. It leads to holiness. It leads to pure joy. It leads to a life that worships in every part of it. And Father, we would take a warning from your word also, that there is great destruction ahead. for those who neglect your word, who allow carnal thought, sinful behavior, mockery to take hold of any part of their lives. Those parts of the life will be destroyed and others connected to them. So we pray father that we would be both encouraged to double our efforts to seek out your word and to to know it, to bring it into our lives and to put it always before us, that we would double our efforts there and that we would also be warned against neglect. Strengthen us in Christ to the work that we have ahead. Illuminate our minds through the work of your spirit, who will only illuminate through the word. In Christ we pray. Amen.