Put your marker in Matthew chapter 5 and then make your way to Psalm 1. We finished up our study through the book of Colossians and now for a time we'll be in Psalms. And before I even get into the message this morning, I'm actually going to begin by reading the text because we're going to do a lot more by way of introduction than breaking down the actual text of Psalm 1. But I'm going to go ahead and read it so we have it in our minds. It's not very long here. Psalm 1, let's read the Word of God together. 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. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for this day you've given us. Lord, the life and health you've given us to be able to be here. We lift up those who are not able to be here today, Lord. I think about Dan and Jean specifically. Just touch them and help them through this hard trial they're going through. Lord, I ask that you would just bless those that have come. We're thankful for all the visitors. Lord, wherever we are today, I pray that you would reveal it, Lord, that the Word of God would just shine through us and in us, Lord. We have no place to hide. but Lord, that we would take that next step, whether it's the lost needing to be saved, whether it's, Lord, those that are just maybe struggling with worry or fear or temptation or just going through a hard trial that they're experiencing grief, I pray that we would just trust you into me as sin and self and just fill me with the Holy Spirit and that Christ would be magnified. And it's in His name we pray these things, amen. So especially, and y'all know I do this every week, but especially, When we're starting a new study, a new book, I want to start wide and work our way in because if you read the Bible and you're just so narrowly focused on what's being said in that one spot, so many times you miss it when you don't see the bigger picture. So I want to start zoomed out and slowly come in and by the time we're done, as far as the text go, we're just going to look at Verse 1 here, but Psalms is not a book with 150 chapters. Now I may mess up and say that, it's just sometimes it can be a habit I guess. But it is not a book with 150 chapters. We just preached through Colossians, there's four chapters in the book of Colossians. That's not the situation with Psalms. There are 150 individual Psalms, or what we would call Psalms. The Psalms was basically a worship hymnal for Israel. That's one reason I love singing the Psalms so much. In fact, Ephesians 5 even talks about the Spirit-filled life, and it mentioned the singing of the Psalms. And so I think it's important to sing the Word of God. I think it gets our minds right for worship. I think it helps us to memorize. the Word of God, but these are individual Psalms. And because the Psalms are the Word of God, they're automatically connected in some way, but again, not in the same way as maybe the Gospels or the Epistles in the New Testament. This is important too to understand. Psalms is also divided into five books. When I say books, I mean scrolls. But it's just easier for us to understand that concept. So, five books, or five scrolls, Psalms is divided into, and they go like this. Book 1 is Psalm 1-41. Book 2 is Psalms 42-72. Book 3 is Psalms 73-89. Book 4 is Psalms 90-106 and Book 5 is Psalms 107-150. And so a good study Bible will divide that out for you. As you read, you'll come to those divisions. And so every book of the Psalms has a slightly different theme. And in Book 1, 1-41, The main theme of the book we're in right now is human suffering and the need for divine deliverance. We're going to see that over and over and over again. Human suffering and the need for divine deliverance. Now, there are several categories of psalms as well. We're going to see this. We have psalms of praise. Sometimes they're called hymns. Psalms of lament. The royal psalms. The psalms of thanksgiving. Wisdom psalms. Imprecatory psalms in which judgment is preyed down. Then there's the Messianic Psalms and other kind of more miscellaneous psalms, I guess you could say. But here's what's interesting about Psalm 1, and this is what makes Psalm 1 stand out from all the other 149 psalms, and that is this, that if you were to look in the ancient manuscripts, it's not listed as the first psalm. It's listed as the introduction to the Psalms. In fact, in my study Bible, it actually introduces it that way. The introductory to the entire Psalter is what my study Bible says. And so in this sense, Psalm 1 stands on its own because it's an introduction to the entire Psalter. And this is really important. And this is what we can't miss. It's important because it gives us a lens by which to view all of the Psalms. And that lens is the Word of God. We just read about it when we read through this text. Psalm 1 is about the centrality of the Word of God both in our lives and in the Psalms themselves. And listen, this is true of the entire Word of God. But I would say it's especially true of the Psalms. But if you don't come to the book of Psalms and recognize it as the inspired, God-breathed Word, the Word of God, then it's going to be nothing but a book of ancient Jewish poetry. So if you don't believe it's the Word of God, then really all we're doing by meeting this morning, we're just having book club. But I want you to understand, this is the Word of God. I'm preaching the Word of God this morning. When you come to it as the Word of God, then every time you come to a psalm of suffering, we can trust God. When we come to a psalm of praise, we can praise God. You can go on down the list, but if you don't come to it as the Word of God, it's really going to lose most if not all of its meaning. So with that in mind, Let's look at the specific content and context of Psalm 1. In verse 1 it says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. And for the rest of the message will be in this one verse. Now, this Psalm begins with the word blessed or blessed. This word blessed is used 49 times in the Psalms. 16 of those are found in Book 1. Now, this is interesting to me. Both the first Psalm and the last Psalm in Book 1, which the last Psalm being 41, both of those Psalms in Book 1, the first and the last, begin with this word blessed. It opens and closes the book with that word. And so it's really important to nail down the definition of this word. If you miss this, you miss the whole thing. So the word blessed, I've heard it said that blessed means happy, but it's really higher than that. It means, oh, how happy. There's a difference in that. Man, there's such a strong emotion tied to that. Oh, how happy. We have to understand that this happiness, you know, it isn't a vague, subjective definition of happiness. I mean, really, if you go to Walmart, which I wouldn't recommend that for anybody, but if you go to Walmart and you ask a hundred different people what it takes and what it means to be happy, you're allowed to get two hundred different answers. We're not talking about that. The Bible has a definite definition for what that term means. And it's true happiness that comes from being in a right relationship with the Lord. And that only comes through Jesus Christ. So true biblical happiness comes from being right with God through Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be in a right relationship with the Lord. And to prove this, I'm going to go to Jesus' own words while He walked this earth. And so keep your place here in the Psalms because we will be back. But I want you to go to Matthew chapter 5. Now, many of you are very familiar with this text. This is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. How would Jesus open this all-important sermon? Well, He began it with the very first word Psalm 1 did. This word blessed. And so let's understand as we read these and go through these. The Sermon on the Mount, like so many things that Jesus said and did, had a dual meaning. It had a near and far meaning. The near meaning of this text is fulfilled in salvation. If you're saved, these beatitudes apply to you. But they're not fully realized. They don't come into full fruition. They don't completely culminate until the earthly reign of Jesus Christ, the millennial kingdom. Then everything gets kicked up a notch. The already and not yet of this blessedness that he describes. Let's read through this sermon nine times. In this short intro to the sermon, does he use the word blessed? So let's see what it means. Matthew 5, verse 1, And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, And when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now this poor in spirit, this is talking about being broken about our sin. And if we've ever been crushed by the weight and the guilt of our sin, this is when Jesus on the cross became precious to us, did it not? We wanted something more than we had. We were tired of the weight and the dirt and the shame. And then Christ and the Gospel became beautiful to us. And ours is the Kingdom of Heaven because of what Christ did. Now that's been fulfilled if you're saved, but we still wrestle in the sinful body. That's not going to be true in the kingdom. It comes to full fruition. Verse 4, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Again, this carries the idea of mourning not only over suffering, that's certainly true here, but it's mainly talking about sin, the mourning and the grief over our sin. for they shall be comforted." Did He not comfort us the moment that He saved our soul and forgave us and took the guilt and the weight and the sin that weighed us down? We certainly, again, still wrestle with that. We wrestle with suffering. Not in the kingdom. Verse 5, He said, "...Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Again, we see this already and not yet. We're going to inherit the earth in the kingdom. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Certainly when we were saved, we became positionally righteous, but we still struggle with unrighteousness in this flesh. Not true in the kingdom. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart. Certainly that's not true of an unsaved person. And really it's only true for those that are saved positionally, the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, or I think about, oh, how happy! For great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." So again, we see this comparison between the already and not yet. And so here's what I want you to get. Is that when he talks about being blessed, and we see this word, it is in connection with knowing Jesus Christ. It's in connection with being in a right relationship with God. And without that, there is no true happiness. There's just distraction. That's what he's talking about. Because this is so important and because we will see this word so many times in Psalms, I wanted you to see it. And now that we have seen it, we can go back to Psalm 1 and we'll break down the first verse of this text. Back in Psalm 1, it ties this blessedness with yielding to and obeying the Word of God. True happiness is tied with being right with God through Jesus Christ and obedience to His Word. So the question that I want to wrestle with, only one point this morning, but again, y'all know that doesn't mean a thing. I got to preach a few times while I was over there and I got to my last point, I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. I caught myself saying that I was coming in for a landing. I said, well, the folks over there at Grace, they know that doesn't mean anything. But with all this in mind, what are the marks of a blessed man or a blessed woman? And that's what I'm preaching on this morning. Blessed is the man. And I'll do probably a part two next week. The blessed man or the blessed woman. What does this mean? What are the marks of a blessed man or a blessed woman? Number one, the only thing that I'll be dealing with for the remainder of the message is that is shunning worldly counsel. shunning worldly counsel. Verse 1, 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. And so, the very first mark of the blessed man or woman is not in the affirmative. It's not a positive command, but it's in the negative. And so if you're going to be blessed and happy in the Lord, you're going to have to say no to certain people and certain things. You need to learn that word no. It's one of the most powerful words really in our arsenal, really in the English language. And because so many people don't know a thing about biblical boundaries in their life, they really don't know how to say no to anything. But we're going to have to say no to certain things. And by the way, you're also going to have to learn to say no without feeling guilty about it. Saying no is a righteous thing a lot of the times. Now sometimes it's not, especially when we say no to what God has clearly commanded us to do. But we need to learn to say no. Listen, you have to understand this. We have to understand we do not live in a neutral world. We live in a world that's hostile to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, we're going to be there in just a couple of weeks when we get to Psalm 2. And we're going to see how hostile this world really is to the Lord Jesus Christ. So sometimes, that means that we're going to have to offend the world in order not to offend Christ. Well, so be it. We live in a world where everybody wants to walk on eggshells because we're so worried about offending everybody but God. Listen, again, we don't want to be jerks for Jesus. We don't have to be arrogant. We don't have to be ugly. In fact, we need to be grace seasoned with salt. But I'm here to tell you if we have a choice between offending God or offending the world, then let's go with God whether or not it hair lips the entire world. We need to go with God and stop worrying about offending the world. Listen, this is so important too. We also have to learn to discern between our responsibility and our concern. In fact, in one of my counseling classes this semester, this is one central thing that we studied. And we talked about it in terms of the circle of responsibility and the circle of concern. If you think about every individual, you have a very narrow circle of responsibility and a somewhat wider circle of concern. And when you can't discern between those two things, you're bound to be frustrated. And there's a ditch on both sides. If you decide to make your circle of responsibility too big, then you want to take responsibility for everything. You want to shoulder everything. You'll be taking responsibility for somebody else's faults, and somebody else's bad decisions, and even other people's sins, and you take upon an impossible weight when you do that. There's no joy in the Christian life that takes on more responsibility than God wants us to have. But then the other ditch is a circle of responsibility that's way too small, in which case nobody cares about anything. They kind of have the mentality of whatever will be, will be. You know, God, I'm here, whatever you want to do. And that's not it either. Because God has commanded us to do certain things, and so we know what our responsibilities are. And this is the reason that the Word of God sets us free. Because it gives us clear responsibilities and boundaries, and therefore it protects us from those who would exploit us. I love that. Listen, if I listen to the world's advice, if I listen to the world's criticism, and listen, I'm not above criticism at this point. I thank God for good criticism in my life. And even, I've had to learn the hard way that even when criticism comes from the wrong motives, I still need to analyze it. Because even if there's 10% of truth, that's 10% of change in my life that I need to, Lord help me, I need to do better on this. So I'm not above criticism. But if I listen to the world's advice, and I listen to the world's criticisms, I would be an absolute basket case. And I know some of you are thinking, well, I thought you kind of were anyway. I would be more of one. Listen, not only, according to them, not only am I missing out on all the fun, but I'm the most evil person on the face of the planet. I check every box. According to this world, I'm an evil, white, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, patriarchal, bigoted Christian. I'm sure there's a bunch of other words I could put in there. Been called all these things before. And if I really believe that, I couldn't even sleep at night. But here's... I'll give you one guess as to how much sleep I've lost over that. And the reason is because I know what Christ has said. And that is, that I'm a child of God, I'm accepted by God, I'm loved by God, I'm forgiven, my sins are gone, I'm the bride of Christ, I'm clean, and I'm on my way to heaven when I die. That's what I know about myself, because that's what the Word of God says, who I am in Christ. We have to recognize our identity in Christ. That's who we are, whether it pleases the world or not. And so you will be miserable, absolutely miserable, if you give a place of authority to worldly counsel. 1 Corinthians 15.33 says, Be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners. And what that means is that bad company ruins good morals. And we definitely see some bad company in this verse. Let's read it again. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. There's our first character there, the ungodly. Nor standeth in the way of sinners. There's our second one. Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. That's the third. So let's analyze these words. So the wicked here in this text means a lawbreaker. And this isn't just speaking of breaking the law of the land, although I'm sure that's certainly a part of it. This is speaking of one who is hostile towards God. One who lives in rebellion against God and His commands. And this is in total contrast to the blessed man or woman. Look in verse 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. So the wicked hate the law of God. They rebel against the law of God. But the saved love it. They love the Word of God. They don't see the commandments as burdensome. Now listen, I'm not just talking about The Old Testament Jewish law, I realize that we're not under those things for salvation, and I realize that the ceremonial law was done away with because they were just shadows and types of Christ. And now that the real priest has come, we don't need a priest. Now that the real sacrifice has come, we don't need a sacrifice. He's the greater temple. He's the greater sacrifice. He's the greater priest. It literally is the whole reason and concept for the book of Hebrews. And so we're not talking about those things, but we still understand that it's still wrong to commit adultery. It's still wrong to murder. It's still wrong to steal and lie. We understand that God hasn't changed His mind on these things. But in other words, we don't have to live out the law to save ourselves because none of us could fulfill it perfectly, which is why Christ had to come and fulfill it for us. And so, the wicked are those that are lawbreakers. But then sinners. This is someone who is enslaved by their lust. Jesus said in John 8, 34, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. That word servant is doulos in the Greek. It literally means a slave. Whoso committeth sin is a slave of sin. Now there's an old saying that misery loves company. Have you ever heard that before? Misery loves company. There are people out there that are so miserable with their life and with their sin and with the consequences of the choices they've made, that instead of repenting, instead of humbling themselves before God and letting Him pull them out of the ditch, they want to pull other people into the ditch with them. They want to make you as miserable as they are. And so they will offer you things, they will try to convince you of things to try to bring you into their misery. Listen, don't do it. That would be a great place to say no. We live in a world that glorifies and glamorizes sin. And at some point in time, This world will offer you happiness in something other than God. This is so important right here. Because here in Psalm 1, as it gives us a lens to see the rest of the Psalms, it's really presenting two ways, is it not? Following the Word of God, submitting to the authority of the Word of God, or going your own way. As the song says, I did it my way. Look what it did for them. And by the way, that's the song of everybody that's in hell today. I did it my way. God help us. So it's giving us a choice between two ways. And the alternate way, the other way, would try to offer you happiness in something other than God. You know, Satan never shows you the fine print of the contract, does he? I mean, I think about even in the garden with Adam and Eve. What did he tell them? Hey, God told you you would die? If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? He said you'd die? Are you kidding me? He knows that actually what's going to happen is you'll become as God yourself, just like a God or becoming your own God. It was really a promise of autonomy. You can have happiness and satisfaction apart from God. By the way, that is the very definition of idolatry. And that is trying to find happiness and satisfaction in anything other than God. That's actually what idolatry is. And so this is what the two ways are, submission to God or not. Submission to the Word of God or going your own way and trying to come up with your own rules. And so, this world will come to you offering you happiness in the form of drugs, or drunkenness, or sex outside of marriage, or illicit, forbidden sexual relationships, or greed, or materialism, or even claiming an identity of somebody that God never created you to be. Those are all faults. They're all a facade. They all lead to death and destruction and hell. There's no real joy in those things. But the blessed man, the blessed woman says no to these things. I have something better. I'm living for something better. I'm going to a better place when I die. That is not appealing to me. Now listen, when it comes to the Christian life And I'm sure this is true of parenting too. Now listen, there's a place for rules. I know we live in a society that frowns upon rules. I'm not against rules. But I am against rules as the means of proper motivation. I think there's a very important distinction to make there. What are you saying, Brother Brandon? What's the difference between having rules and using rules as a source of motivation? Because the rules themselves can never be a motivation. Certainly there are benefits to following the rules. I mean, listen, even a lost person can benefit from thou should not commit adultery. But there's a greater spiritual reason. And that's because the reason that God commands us not to commit adultery is because God is not an adulterer. God gives us the rules and the law because it's a reflection of who He is. It's a reflection of His character. So yes, as a human being on this earth, I don't want to commit adultery against my wife because it would destroy the family, it would hurt her. I mean, we've got a lot of practical reasons, but above and beyond that, I don't want to stain the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to do that. And so we have, as Christians, we have a transcendent reason for what we do. Something above and beyond us. You know why I came to church this morning? Because I love the Lord. I love His Word. I love the people of God. I love singing the songs of God. I didn't just come here to check a box. I sat in a pew for a long time before God called me to preach. And even longer before God called me to pastor. Back then, guess what? I still love the Lord. I love hearing His Word preached. I love being with the people of God. We could go down the list. That's our motivation. It's not just keeping a rule and trying to stay out of trouble and trying to keep the peace. It's because we love God. And we love His Word. That has to be the overarching motivation for what we do. The world will come to you offering you other things that will make you happy. But here's the thing, and I'll say this before I move on. Talking about rules versus rules for motivation. I have rules for my kids, there's no doubt about that. But I try to get them to see past that. And I've told them a hundred times that there's going to come a point where you grow up and you get out of my house, and then you're going to have to go to church because you want to. Not because I'm making you. Not because I'm driving you. Don't ever do that just because, oh, I'm so afraid of what Dad will think. You better be afraid of what the Heavenly Father thinks. And so even when it comes to this motivation, if you have, listen, the only real safeguard we have against the wicked, the sinners, the scornful, the world, the flesh, and the devil, the safeguard is what we have is real. If what we have is real, We really do have something that we can stand on. It can't just be about the rules. I've got a friend of mine, he's a pastor and he's somewhat a city boy, but his grandparents were just as country as cornbread. They lived on a farm, they raised cattle, I mean the whole nine. They checked every stereotype you heard about Alabama, they've got it. And my friend, he used to, his name is Carl, Brother Carl, He used to love pop-tarts as breakfast food. That was his favorite breakfast food as a kid. But he used to go over to his grandparents' house during the summers and they raised bees and they harvested their own honey. And they used to go harvest that honey and then they would make, made from scratch, we called them cat head biscuits. And they would take that harvested honey and put it on those homemade from scratch cat head biscuits. And Brother Carl, at first, he was like, I just want a Pop-Tart, you know, and they're like, you know. And the way Brother Carl describes it, he said, when I tasted that honey-soaked cat head biscuit, he said my eyes were open and the scales fell off and my heart grew three sizes that day. And he said it did something for him. He said, I never wanted a Pop-Tart again. He said, I just wanted the Cat Head Biscuit. And the moral to that story is, you can tell somebody, you better not eat that Pop-Tart. Or you can give them the real thing and they'll never want it in the first place. That's the difference between religion and knowing Christ. It's having the real thing versus trying to follow the rules. That is not what the psalmist is doing here, because as we're going to see by the time you get to Psalm 2, we're going to be seeing a magnified Christ. Spoiler alert, Psalms is all about Jesus, just like Genesis and Revelation and everywhere else in between. He has to be our motivation. I need to move on. Y'all are amen-ing too slow here. But also we see this third party here, the scornful. Now, a scorner is a mocker. It's one who mocks God. We see quite a few of them today, don't we? This is a full-blown God-hater. And we live in a society that will praise you for mocking God and His created order. And really, we live in a society that makes one feel safe. It makes them feel applauded and affirmed to mock God. I hear today, and listen, I'm not throwing stones. You know, you can talk about sin without hating the sinner. I hope you understand that. I'm not throwing rocks at the LGBT, but listen, I love them enough to tell them that they need to repent. Because that's not what God ordained. He ordained marriage between one man, one woman, and one lifetime. I hear people say, well, it's just so brave. It's so courageous to just come out of the closet. Why? You're applauded at every level of society for doing that. You'll be crucified at every level of society for saying what I just said. And so it makes people feel affirmed. It makes them feel safe in their rebellion. But Proverbs 11 verse 21, it says, Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished. In other words, people may feel really good when they lock arms in their sin and celebrate and parade in the streets, and God says, okay, just give it a while. Because justice delayed is not justice denied. The blessed man doesn't join hands with them. And what's interesting here, we see two progressions in this first verse. We see a progression of types of people. We see the wicked to the sinner to the scorner. But we also see a progression in the positions. Did you see these words here? Walking, standing, and sitting. And it almost seems if at first the person is just kind of the neighbor that walks by the wicked, but then they stop and chat and then they are with the sinner. And the next thing you know they are comfortably seated in the seat of the scorner. You see, the longer somebody lives in sin, the more comfortable they become with it. Their conscience becomes seared, the Bible says, as with a hot iron. When you brand cattle with that hot iron, it hurts that cow, and they'll pull back, and they'll moo, whatever a cow does when they're in pain, bellow, I don't know. But that skin becomes hardened, and they can't feel anything when that brand hits. That's how the conscience becomes. Maybe that first time you're tempted to do something you know is wrong, and you do it, and man you're worried about it, you feel kind of guilty, but then you do it again, and eventually you feel less guilt for that thing. You become more comfortable with it. You become seated as with this scorner. There's a progression there. In the church where I got saved, the pastor used to always say that sin will take you further than you want to go. It'll cost you more than you're willing to pay, and it'll keep you longer than you were planning to stay. It always does. Sin corrupts. It's a slow process. But it all starts with an ungodly yes where there should have been a no. And so the blessed man has to learn to say no to ungodly, worldly, and unbiblical counsel. I hope you understand that every single day You're under the influence of something or somebody. Especially in this world of technology where you walk around literally with the world in your pocket. And so, especially I would say to the young people, you're at a stage in your life, you're learning what your authority is. You're learning and you're buying into what's going to be the governing factor of your life and how you make your decisions. It better be the Word of God. Better be the Word of God. Because there's so much influence out there that tries to take us away from what God has said. What did Satan say to Adam and Eve? The very first time that Satan is quoted in Scripture, what did he say? Yea, hath God said. He brought into question the Word of God. He brought into question what thus saith the Lord, and the world is still doing it today. Everyone has an authority. What's yours? How do you make decisions for your life? How do you determine what right and wrong is? Good and evil? If it's anything but the objective standard of the Word of God, it's only your opinion. That's all you're left with. It's all subjective at that point. I think about, as I close, I can't help but think about John Bunyan's book, The Pilgrim's Progress. That's the second best-selling book in the English language, second to the King James Bible. And in fact, Charles Spurgeon said he read that book over a hundred times in his life. It would really benefit you to read that book. But it's an allegory of the Christian journey, of the Christian life from salvation to heaven. And it follows the main character named Christian. And I think about early in Christian's journey after his salvation, on his way to the celestial city, there at the beginning of his journey he was confronted by worldly wise men, and formalists, and hypocrisy, and they all tried to convince him in their own way to halt his journey. You better not listen. You better just keep on going. But Christian, he said no and that's exactly what he did. He kept walking toward that heavenly city and we must do the same. The very first mark of the blessed man or woman is that they say no to ungodly counsel and says yes to God and His Word. Without that, everything else we're going to talk about is worthless. You can't believe Psalm 1. If you can't believe Genesis 1, 1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, John 3, 16 has no meaning for you. Revelation at the very end has no meaning for you. What is your authority? Blessed is the man that has the Word of God as his standard.