Date of Sermon Delivery: 16. 1. 2022

Place of sermon Delivery:  Delhi, India

Sunday Worship Service

Speaker: Jatin Bisht

Title – The way of the righteous and the wicked 

Bible: Psalm 1:1-6

Key verse - 3

1. Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction

Good morning, people of God.

Once again, I welcome you to the fellowship of God.

I hope you are all well and doing well in your places.

I hope you are doing great in your studies, in your homes, in your workplace, in your life, and in your spiritual life. If you are not doing well, have hope in Jesus because he is alive and calmly watching his work.

Last week was not good for my health, and I felt sick after a long time. For a time, I was suffering from fever from Monday to Thursday, and in the midst of that, I got another internal disease, which for that time was very frightening to me.

Even though I was found so weak in physical, the Lord did not let me become weak in mind, and I remained in the midst of God’s word and his activities

What can we do for each other? We can pray for each other, and for the rest of the things, God will do in our lives.

Thank you for praying for me. Keep praying for me and I will continue praying for you.

Let’s open our bible to Psalm 1:1-6.

Before reading today’s word, I request to you that if any of you do not have a personal bible, then first you buy a personal bible. This is the first step to reading the bible.

Avoid phone bible reading. If we are doing this, then we are opening the door for the enemy to come and take the word away from us.

Let’s read together Psalm 1:1-6

1Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and 
whose leaf does not wither whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction

Let us bow our heads and pray to the Lord.

Lord, thank you for the new day, and thank you for your living word. And Lord, open our hearts and our minds to hear you. We pray in Jesus’ name Amen.

When we read the Bible, we came across two images: one blessed and one wicked.

But, before we go any further, I'd like to draw your attention to the word "blessed."

The blessed word means "happy, but this joy is not perishable but permanent.

And this joy is received by grace. We cannot purchase it in the market, but it is only received by God.

1. The way of a blessed man is based on the word of God (1-3)

So, in today's Bible, there is one man who is so happy or blessed because he is living his life according to the word of God. When God says to him something, he keeps it in his heart and applies it. As we apply the cream to our faces to become more handsome. In the same way, if a man applies God’s word in his life, he is a blessed man.

In verse 1, it explains the things the blessed man does not do.

He does not walk in step with the wicked, stand in the way that sinners do, and sit in the company of mockers.

So this blessed man does not do what the world is doing.

He is not part of corruption, fraud, or dishonesty. He is not giving abuse to someone; he is not going into a bar pup to drink wine or smoke.

He is running away from sin. He is fearing God. Many times, after drinking wine, people do not want to go and meet God because of fear of God, but that is not fear. Fear of God means when your desire is pulling you into a beer bar, or when your friend is pulling you into it, but your spirit is saying no. That is the fear of God.

And he is not sitting in the mocker,

For example, if you went to a government office for some work and when you arrived, you discovered that the officer was not there, and his assistant told you to sit outside until the officer arrived, and you had never seen him before, but when he arrived and sat over his chair, you would recognize him because his chair is his identity.

The identity of this blessed man is not among those who mock and those who raise their heads with pride.

Who mocks? 

The one who looks down on others, the one who has pride, the one who wants to be better than others, the one who does not help someone in difficulty but makes jokes, this is the way the world works.

But my dear brothers and sisters,

This blessed man is not doing this work because his identity does not correspond to that of the world.

So, what is he doing if he does not fit in with the world and is fleeing sins? 

Let’s see verse 2

But whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

He delights in the law of the lord, God’s word is not a burden for him. He is not doing God's will not because of some pressure, but he is delighted.

The Bible says do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, do not give false witness, do not be greedy, etc. 

But those who are in the world and living according to the word, want to do all these things because they get joy from doing them.

But this man does not do all these things, because he knows this is all good for him.

In traffic, people are in tension. o oh we have to wear a helmet now, or we have to follow this light rule, but once I think, if everyone does not take traffic rules as a burden, but delights in traffic rules, then our Delhi traffic and road accidents will reduce so much.

Rules are good for us. It is not a burden when God gave us His law, bible, and word because he loves us.  

And this blessed man knows about it. Therefore, he delights in the word of God.

He not only delights in the word of God but meditates on the law day and night.

It does not imply that he read the Bible for three hours and then goes outside and beats someone nicely, or that he goes to a wine shop and drinks in his home right after the Sunday service, or that in the fourth hour he just closes his eyes and thinks, wow kitna achchha likha huva hai.

But it is all a wrong exercise. The real meaning of mediation is to be applied in our lives. That means this blessed man applies God's word day and night in his life.

So when he goes to his child's marriage, he will not see what others are saying but he will see what the word of the Lord is saying.

When he needs to take a decision for his life, or he will stand in front of the stage where he can lie and reach another place, at that time, he will not listen to what the world is saying.

Maybe he will lose something, according to the world. He did not lie, therefore he did not get that position, but the verse says he is a blessed man.

Let’s see verse 3

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither whatever they do prospers.

This tree itself has not been planted but has been planted, and this tree was planted by streams of water. Someone planted this tree for some reason and purpose.

In the old testament, God freed his people from Egypt and called them his people.

The Lord liberated the people of Israel, and called them his people; he gave them his law, and in that law, they had to walk themselves, but they failed,

God took them out of one place and planted them in another land, and he gave them living water, God gave them mercy.

And the Lord makes this man fruitful in his time, and the four things the psalmist says about his leaf do not wither.

When does a tree leaf wither? There is no water when there is no light. But this tree's leaves do not wither. In any situation in this world, this man will not worry, and in the end, whatever they do prospers. But do not take it that whatever he touches will become gold.

Do not look at it with worldly eyes.

For the world, success means when they want something or desire to have something, they think they are prospering. If a boy gets his dream girl, then he thinks he will prosper. He gets a job in the Indian army, and he thinks he will become successful.

Success is completely different

When you achieve something in front of the world, when you get money in front of the world when your statue becomes famous in front of the world when you are the richest in front of the world.

But today God is not speaking about this prosper, In reality, this man's life is a proper life.

Why?

Because he has joy, which does not have those people who are walking in the way of the world.

And whatever he is doing, he is going with the help of God’s word. His whole life depends on God, therefore his life prospers.

 But in today's bible, there are second people,

2.The way of a wicked man is based on worldly things (4-5)

4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

Listen to God’s word, Next day they will be in line at the wine shop.

Listen to God's word the next day, and they'll be in a group starting to backbite

listen to God the next day, and he'll be hurting his church brother.

Wicked people do not walk in the word of God. Their lives do not depend upon God's word, but they depend upon the world.

And they are like chaff. When they spend their lives in the world, their lives are empty. They just go before the wind. If they see some other thing, they will run before it.

Chaff does not have any value; it is lighter and is used for burning.

Wicked people like this chaff.

Let’s open 1 John 2:16-17

16 For everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 

17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

A blessed man lives forever because he is living according to the word of God,

But for a wicked man who is living according to the world, verse 5 says he will not stand in the judgment, and neither will sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

In verse 1, a blessed person does not sit in the company of mockers, and in verse 5 a wicked man does not stand in the assembly of the righteous.

There is isolation between blessed men and the righteous. They are incompatible with one another.

A tree planted by streams of water, it has nothing to do with hollow chaff. 

Because that tree will not be uprooted as strongly as the wind, but this chuff will fly away even if a little wind comes. 

3.     The Lord determines the end of the path of these two (6)

Let’s see verse 6

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

God knows the way of righteousness, and here God knows this way has deep meaning, this path is created by the lord because this path is based on the law given by the lord and the words of the lord. 

But the path of the wicked will perish.

Dear brothers and sisters,

It is important for us to know which way we are walking, which path we are on.

Have we immersed our lives in the words of the Lord, or are we just floating above the words of the Lord?

Do you feel a burden when you read the word of God? You cannot abuse someone, you cannot live your life as other young people do, and you cannot be in a relationship as the rest of the world is.

But always remember that we received the great grace of God. My young brothers and sisters, Jesus came into this world, lived in the world by the word of the Lord, and died on the cross for you and me. And we all received his righteousness.

Did Jesus sit with sinners? Yes, but he told them that you did this wrong.

Did he walk on the will of the world? No, but he showed the world the right way.

Did he sit in the company of mockers? He did sit with them, but he gave them the good news and saved them.

If God saved me and you, then why do we not follow his word? Why do we feel burdened by his good news? My brothers and sisters, if you find your life burdened by good news, then something is wrong.

If you find it difficult to love your brother in church or in your house or your sister,

If you find it difficult to do good for others, then something is wrong.

Because Jesus has given his life for me and you, and if you are still not living our life according to his word, and if you are still not happy, then something is wrong. We are like that chuff, which blows in the wind.

But if you want to be a blessed man (a good tree), as Jesus has done for us, he has made us trees, then enjoy in his word and live according to the word of God.

Amen.