Psalm 1 - Choose Your Road

In 1920, famous author, poet Robert Frost, wrote a poem that has become synonymous with his name as a poet. The poem was entitled The Road Not Taken, and he begins that poem this way. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth. And he goes on to talk about those two roads, and as he thought about them and thought about the ways they would lead him, how he came to his choices to which road he would take. But I'm here to tell you today that such a concept is not popular in our culture today. The idea that there are two roads, a clear cut choice between two ways, is just not popular in the world in which we live. We live in a world that is dominated by two ideas, two philosophies. One is pluralism, which basically says, let's just respect every kind of view and every kind of thought and try to find what's common to them all and believe that. In other words, it's not two clear cut choices. Let's just make everybody feel good at whatever way they go. Let's just make one choice. That's pluralism. We are also dominated in our culture by the philosophy of relativism. Relativism says, oh, two roads, both are fine. You don't need to make a choice. In other words, whatever way you go is fine. You go one way, that's truth for you. That's morality for you. I may go a different way, but that's truth for me. That's morality for me. And so every way is equally valid, equally truthful, equally right. There is no clear cut choice between right or wrong. Those are the philosophies that dominate the thinking of our culture today. And for that reason, clear cut choices between good and evil, right and wrong, and very different roads in life, it's not a very popular concept today. But I'm also here to tell you today that the Bible very plainly paints life and death in terms of clear cut choices between two ways. Actually the Bible tells us there are two ways and you must choose your road. You must choose the way you will go. Moses laid that kind of a choice before the children of Israel when he said in Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 19. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you, here it is, life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose, he said, you got to choose one of those two ways. Choose life so that you and your children may live. Very clear, two clear cut choices. You've got to choose one. Joshua laid the same challenge before the people of generation later as they entered into the land in Joshua 24 when he said, but if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. And he gives two options. Whether the God your forefathers served beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you're living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Two clear cut choices, serve false gods, serve the true God, the Lord. No middle ground, no middle way, two ways, two roads. You've got to choose one of the other. Jesus painted life in much the same terms in the great sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 when he said, enter through the narrow gate for why does the gate and broad as the way that leads to destruction and many enter through it, but small as the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. Again, there's no third option here is there and there must be a clear cut choice between one of those two gates that leads to one of those two roads. Very clear. The book of Proverbs talks about the way of life, the way of death. So consistently the Bible paints life in terms of two roads and a choice that we must make between those two roads. Psalm 1 does exactly the same thing. That would invite your attention this morning to the first chapter of the book of Psalms. Psalm 1 is our text for today and actually today we're starting a new series of messages which I'm entitling favorite Psalms. Now I've picked 15 Psalms that are typically people's favorites and we're going to do a series on those 15 Psalms. Just go right through those 15 Psalms. Now some of you are going to come up to me after the service this morning and you're going to say, have you picked mine? My favorite is. Now I'm only going to do one tenth of the Psalms, but that gives me nine more series to do in the future that I can get yours worked in somehow. So maybe we'll do that sometime. We're going to start with Psalm 1 which has been titled by some people the gateway to Psalms, the vestibule of the Psalms, the doorkeeper of the Psalms. In fact in early copies of the book of Psalms chapter 1 was not even numbered. It was considered to be an introduction to the entire book and the numbering started with chapter 2. That was really chapter 1 in the old Hebrew texts. So this Psalm has often been seen and probably should be seen as an introduction to the whole book. You cannot understand the wisdom of life as its portrayed in Psalms without understanding Psalm 1. That's why we have to include it in this series. Psalm 1 is absolutely critical to understanding the rest of the book. And what it does is it lays down two roads in life that you must choose from. Now the way those two roads are described, they're described with several contrasts in this chapter. And we're going to look at those contrasts this morning. So let's dive into the chapter. The first contrast is the contrast between the two people that are pictured in this chapter. Now actually they're not both named in the beginning of the chapter. We have to go to verses 5 and 6 to see the two people named. But the whole chapter is about those two people. So that's where we need to begin. Let's look at verse 5. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Two groups of people here. You saw them named in those verses, the wicked in the righteous, but in order to understand those two groups, we must first of all understand the legal background behind those two words. Because they really help us identify who's being talked about here. The legal background goes like this. Both of these words, by the way, were legal terms in Old Testament times. And it would go something like this. A judge in the Old Testament would hear the case of two parties. One may be against the other, one may feel the right, the other feels their right, and there's some altercation that has come to the judge. And so he's going to determine who's right and who's wrong. What he does is he hears the facts of the case. He determines what should have been done in that case, and then he compares the actual actions of the two parties to what should have been done. The person who best corresponds to what should have been done is declared innocent. It's the Hebrew word Sadiq. It's translated righteous in Psalm 1. That's our word. It's a legal term for someone declared innocent. The person who is found in the wrong is declared guilty. Hebrew word Rashah. And it's the word for wicked here. Rashahim is the word in Psalm 1. So what we have is two words that have a legal background. One refers to a person who's been declared by a judge to be guilty. One refers to a person who's been found by the judge to be innocent. And that is the meaning of those two terms. Now, what do they mean to us today? How do they identify the two people that exist in life today? Well, let's begin with the wicked. According to the term, the word itself, the wicked in this chapter refers to those who are found guilty by God. God is the universal judge who determines whether mankind is guilty or innocent. And so those whom he finds guilty, they are the wicked. That's the meaning of the word. And you know what? The Bible says that all of us fit in that category. Or at least we start in that category. All of us are declared guilty. God the judge has looked down on the human race and declared all of us to be guilty of sin. Very clearly Paul portrays this in Romans chapter 3. Look at these verses. Romans 3, verses 9 and 10. What shall we conclude then, Paul asks? Are we any better, talking about religious Jews, we better than these pagan Gentiles? Not at all. We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. And he summarizes it in verse 23. When he says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So all of us have been declared by the judge of the universe to be guilty. We are all declared guilty of sin. So we all start out wicked. We are all in that camp to start with. Now it doesn't matter whether you are willing to admit that or not, whether you recognize it or not. The judge, the one who is deciding the case has declared all of us are guilty. All of us are in the camp of the wicked to start out with. I read a story about a man by the name of Wayne Black. He lived in a town in England. He was suspected of a crime of theft. And the police had some general information. They had the name of the person they thought had committed to crime. But they weren't sure who that was. They thought maybe this was the guy who weren't sure. When they went to apprehend him and arrest him, sure enough, the guy had tattoos. All of them, I won tattoo on his forehead that said, I'm Wayne Black. And he did his dead level best to try to convince the police. He was not Wayne Black. But it was right there. Clear as could be, I'm Wayne Black. Now that picture is a picture of all of us. We have been declared guilty by God. We are in the camp of the wicked. We are all guilty of sin. There are a lot of folks who go around saying, I'm not guilty. I'm not a sinner. I mean, I'm not that bad a person. But right across our forehead, it's been stamped by the judgment of God. We are guilty. We are wicked. There's all of us are. None of us are exempt from that. So the Bible makes the clear declaration that we are all declared guilty. Now actually, if we're honest, if we got two grains of sins, we'll all admit. Yes, we're guilty. I mean, can you go back in your life and find one wicked, sinful thought or deed or attitude? Sure you can. All of us can. All if we are honest, we'd have to say, God, you're right. I am guilty. I am guilty of being a sinner. So you see, the Bible says, we all start out in that camp, the wicked. Those who are guilty, declared guilty by God. But then there's this other group of people that he mentions, the righteous. Now as we said earlier in that legal setting, that would be the person who was found innocent by the judge. And that's not exactly how it works in spiritual terms, because remember, all of us are guilty. There is no innocent party in this thing of standing before God. We're all guilty. But God, because He loves us so much, has made provision whereby even though we are not righteous in ourselves, we can be considered righteous, declared righteous by God. You know how that was done? Some of you do, I know. For those of you who may not understand how this is done, God loved us so much. That He sent His Son, who was perfectly innocent, never sinned. He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, to take the punishment of our sin, to bear the penalty, our guilt on Him. And so Jesus did that when He died on the cross. He bore all the guilt and punishment for our sin. And the Bible says, if we will trust Him as our Savior, if we will put our confidence and faith in Jesus Christ and what He has done on the cross to pay for our sins, if we will do that, then God applies Jesus righteousness to us and declares us righteous. It's like something legal happens in heaven. God takes the books out and He says, I'm going to make a difference. I'm going to make a change in the books in heaven. He takes our guilt off of our account in heaven and He takes the righteousness of Christ and places it on our account in heaven. It's not that we're innocent because we're all guilty. But Jesus, God declares us righteous, forgiven, through the work of His Son Jesus Christ. Now the Bible calls that justification. To be justified is to be declared righteous by the judge of the universe. And it all comes through faith in Jesus Christ and His righteousness being placed on our account in heaven. Paul, again, makes that very clear in Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 24. Look at what he says. He says, but now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For there is no difference. All of sinned and fall short of the glory of God and we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. You see, we are declared righteous, not because we're innocent, not because we've done so many good things to cancel out our innocence. We're all guilty. We're all wicked, but we are declared righteous by God because we place our faith in Jesus Christ and God places Jesus righteousness on our account in heaven. That's how it works. That's wonderful that God would love us enough to do that for us. Paul goes on to say in Romans 4, verses 4 and 5. It's clearly not anything we do. He says, now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work, but trusts God who justifies, notice whom he justifies, the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. How do we become righteous? How do we get out of the camp of the wicked, into the camp of the righteous? Through faith in Jesus Christ, not by our own works. You don't get to heaven, you don't become righteous in God's sight, you're not declared righteous by anything you do. It's not by turning over a new leaf or joining the church or getting baptized or praying to some saint or whatever you might do to think your sins are going to get forgiven. That's not going to do it. The Bible says, only faith in Jesus Christ will transfer you from the kingdom of the wicked to the kingdom of the righteous. Paul makes that abundantly clear in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16. When he says, no, that a man is not justified, not declared righteous by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ, Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law because by observing the law, no one will be justified. So you see, there are two kinds of people in this world. There are wicked people. That's all of us. That's the way all of us start out. We come into this world wicked because we are born with a sinful nature and we are born separated from God. We come into this world in that camp and then the other kind of people is righteous people, not people who are do-gooders or who are better than others, but people who recognize their wicked, they are sinful, they are judged guilty by God and we place our faith in Christ to save us and God stamps the record books in heaven, righteousness of Christ on your account. That's how you get declared righteous. That's how you move into the camp of the righteous. Now my friend, there's no third road. There's no third way. There are no three kinds of people. There's no hybrid here. There are only two kinds of people in the world, either wicked or righteous. You're in one of those two camps this morning. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, what he did for you on the cross to save you from your sins, you are still in the camp of the wicked, regardless of how moral you may be, regardless of how kind a person you may be, or how good a neighbor you may be, or how wonderful a provider you may be for your family. If you've never placed your faith in Christ, remember the Bible makes it clear. That's the only way you get declared righteous. You're still in the wicked camp. The only way to be righteous, to be declared righteous, is to put our faith in Jesus Christ. So two people in life, wicked, righteous. You're in one or the other. There's no middle ground. There's no fence to sit on. You're on one side or the other. The second thing the Psalmist talks about though, is the two worldviews of these two groups of people. These two groups of people each have a worldview. Now worldview is a way of looking at life. It's a way of interpreting life and seeing reality and seeing what's really important to you, what's a value, what's a priority to you, what's right, what's wrong, what's moral, what's immoral. That's your worldview. The way you look at life, the way you interpret life is your worldview. Now there are only really two worldviews. There are lots of different philosophies that people talk about, but there are really only two worldviews. The first one is a secular worldview. It's described in verse 1 and this is the prevailing worldview in our world and in our culture today, this is the prevailing worldview. World view number one, the secular worldview. Look at verse 1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. Now what he's talking about here is a life that is immersed in and focused on things that are opposed to God and his word. A kind of worldview, a way of looking at life that is opposed to the word of God and to what God himself declares as important. He describes kind of a progression into that worldview. Most of all, there's a walking, then standing, then sitting. That's a progressive type of thing. And even the words like the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, the seat of mockers, there's a progression into this worldview. You know where it starts? It starts with our beliefs. And that's exactly what he says. The first part of the verse, he says, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. You know, he's just kind of walking by. Oh, what's that? Let me listen to that. Let me hear that worldview out. Let me hear what that person has to say. And you start listening and you start getting attracted to it and you're kind of walking in the counsel of the wicked, meaning the advice of the wicked, the belief system of a wicked world. Now folks, listen, the mind is the key to the whole person. And what you start allowing into your mind and you start listening to and you start entertaining in your thoughts, that's going to become your belief system, that's going to form your worldview. And there are lots of folks today, even Christians who are associated so closely with a secular mindset and worldview that we're beginning to listen to much to that worldview. And we're beginning to become corrupted, even some Christians corrupted in the way we look at life by the worldview that we're listening to. And we're allowing ourselves to kind of walk in that counsel. Let me give you some specific examples of what I'm talking about. Views of what's right and wrong, moral and ethical issues, decisions that you make, are first of all determined by the counsel that you listen to and begin to walk in. This world system, the media as a whole, the prevailing opinions of people in our culture would have us to believe certain things about right and wrong. For instance, they would have us to believe that abortion is an acceptable option for any woman. They would also have us believe this secular mindset and worldview would have us to believe that homosexuality is simply an alternative lifestyle that you choose. And it's not right or wrong, you just, that's your lifestyle. You choose that. Nobody has a right to tell you it's right or wrong. That's secularism, that's pluralism and relativism. That's the whole ball of acts here. That's a secular mindset. And the world's telling us that, the secular mindset's telling us that, a secular mindset would say to us, sex before marriage is okay. In fact, there's nothing wrong with living together before marriage. Who's to tell you that's wrong anyway? Well, I'm here to tell you God says that's wrong. So you know there are some absolute rights and wrongs, but a secular mindset says, what's really wrong with that? Who's to tell me that that's wrong? Sex before marriage, living together before marriage. A secular mindset would tell you that pornography really is an acceptable thing that it actually could be helpful to you and your development as a person. That's a secular, worldly mindset. And there are lots of people listening to that today and thinking that's okay. A secular mindset, secular worldview would tell you that shading the truth is okay if it gets you where you want to go or gets you what you need to get. Or that keeping things that don't really belong to you, that's all right. Why get all been out of shape over something as simple as that? What's a big deal? You see, a secular worldview does not take seriously what God says about any of those issues and it's being pumped at us 24 hours a day. And a lot of us, I'm afraid, are starting to listen to that secular worldview and our belief system is getting all out of whack. It's getting all twisted out of biblical reality. But a secular worldview begins with beliefs. Secondly, those beliefs lead to behavior. And we start living and acting out those things that we've started to believe. It affects our behavior. Notice what he says in the middle of the verse there. He says, or stand in the way of sinners. Now you're no longer walking in the council, kind of walking by here and some stuff, considering it, thinking about it, maybe starting to form a belief system. But now you're standing and the word literally means to take a stand with sinners. In other words, to declare in reality by your behavior, this is where I'm landing. This is what I believe. This is how I'm going to live. Nobody's going to tell me any different, not even God. This is how I'm going to live. And you start living out the belief system that you've found from a secular worldview. You see? See how it works? The behavior follows the belief system and your views become shaped to where your behavior, your lifestyle, your identity, who you are. It really begins to express this secular worldview. And then following your behavior, the Psalmist talks about something else. Beliefs lead to behavior, behavior lead to belonging. And notice how he says, you finally get comfortable and settled in this lifestyle. He says, blessed as a man who does not walk in the council, the wicked stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. Now what is a mocker? Who is that? Well a mocker is someone who has gone beyond just believing what the secular mindset teaches us, worldview teaches us. It's someone who's gone beyond just behaving that way. It's someone who has now adopted a view and an attitude that is critical of those who try to live godly lives. It's demeaning, it belittles, it ridicules. Absolutely has an arrogant, prideful spirit against those who would stand for righteousness and godliness and a biblical way of life. And it's a settled attitude to sit down here means that you've developed a settled disposition and attitude almost a hatred of righteousness. And that is where a secular worldview will eventually lead you. Now all you have to do to hear this is turn on your television and turn to either the talk shows or, and I don't recommend the talk shows by the way, but if you can stand five minutes of it or you can turn to a news program where they entertain callers or various people who are expressing different views and just listen for about five minutes. And you will inevitably in this culture hear righteousness mock and ridiculed and demeaned with an arrogant spirit. The Bible calls those people mockers and they have adopted and are living out a secular mindset. The tragedy is when people who profess to know Jesus because they have become so involved in this secular worldview when they begin to take the same attitudes toward righteousness and godliness and holy living. A secular worldview. The Bible says blessed is the man or woman who does not get involved in that. You don't start swallowing the belief system, you don't live it out and you don't get settled in that attitude of mockery against righteousness. There's a different option. There's another road. There's a secular worldview. There is also a scriptural worldview which is described in verse two. And verse two describes the scriptural worldview as focusing on the law. Look at it, there in verse two. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. Twice the law of the Lord is mentioned. Now sometimes in the Old Testament the word law can refer to the mosaic law. The first five books of the Bible that God gave to Moses. But other places in the Bible and particularly in the Old Testament in what's called the Wisdom writings or the poetic books, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Psalm and Solomon and Ecclesiastes. Those five books, when you ever find the term of the law of the Lord, it's referring to a much broader concept. It's referring to the Word of God as a whole. All of the commands and instructions that God has given us in his Word. So what a scriptural worldview is focused on, it's focused on the Bible. It's focused on what God teaches us in his Word. And there are two parts to it as the Psalmist says in verse two. First of all is the right attitude. He says his delight is in the law of the Lord. That word delight literally means to respond joyfully to. The idea is that you love the Word of God. You respond joyfully to it. You know like the Psalmist said, great peace have they, which love the law. Nothing shall offend them. You love this book. You delight in reading it and studying it and trying to learn more of the Word of God. That's the delight of your heart. You're joyful about that. You have a keen interest and desire and not only learning more about this book but in seeking to live it out in your lifestyle. It's delighting in the law of the Lord. That's the right attitude. But the right attitude leads to the right action. And the right action in the second part of the verse is on his law. He meditates day and night. Now you know, attitude always leads to action, right? I mean if you delight in a person you want to be with that person, right? Or you want to do something special for that person. Attitude always leads to action. If you delight in a book, you want to read that book. Attitude leads to action. If you delight in a song, you want to sing that song. Or thank the Lord for some of us, you want to hear that song. But your attitude leads to action. And what the Psalmist is saying is if you have a delight in the Word of God, then that will lead to some action that you take in response to the Word of God. The action is you'll meditate on it day and night. You say, okay, what's that talking about? How do I actually do that? Meditate on the Word of God day and night. You know, most of us when we think of meditation, again we're influenced by our culture. We're thinking of someone sitting with their legs crossed, their fingers like that, you know, and chanting some kind of mantra and trying to empty their head of everything so they can fill it with nonsense. That's what we think of when we think of meditation. That's not at all what the Bible is talking about. It's not empty-headedness so that you can open up, you know, your mind to some cosmic presence out there. That's not the deal at all. What the Bible is talking about is filling your head with truth. Meditating the Word literally means to murmur or repeat. To murmur or mutter is what the Hebrew word literally means. And many believe that it referred to the idea of reading God's Word out loud, but in a low voice. Kind of blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. We're standing in the way of sinners. We're sitting in this. That's the beginning point of meditation where you actually phrase to yourself the Word of God. You see, doing that helps you to focus and concentrate better on what it's saying. It gets it better in your mind. But meditation goes beyond murmuring or muttering the Word of God. It then extends to how you use it during the day. And it has to do with your thought processes of reflecting on, thinking about what you muttered or murmured that morning as you read the Word of God. You're thinking about it through the day. You're calling it back to mind. You're using it in situations you find yourself in, life circumstances that you're encountering. So it means to reflect on it. And that's why it says you meditate on it day and night. It's like whenever something's going on in your life, whether it's at noon and you're eating lunch or it's at midnight and you wake up and you can't sleep or if it's three o'clock in the afternoon, you're busy at work or it's four o'clock in the morning or eight o'clock. Whenever it is day or night that the Word of God comes to your mind and you think about it and reflect on it and see how can I apply what I know about the Bible to this situation. Now that kind of purposeful immersion in the Word of God is the antidote to a secular worldview. There are two worldviews. One of them is secular formed by our culture. The other is formed by the Word of God as we get it in our hearts and minds and we really seek how to live this out and we think about it through the day and reflect on it and how would the Word of God want me to respond in this particular situation and those are two very different worldviews, ways of looking at life. The Bible says blessed is the man who doesn't accept the secular worldview but immerses himself in a scriptural worldview. When he says blessed, he's talking about a sense of well-being, a sense of rightness, a confident sense of peace and joy of being right with God and thinking rightly about life. It's not swayed or impacted by others. It's not destroyed by others. It's just a calm, very sincere, peaceful, joyful way of knowing that things are right with God and you're headed down the right path. That's blessedness. In the movie, a walk to remember. He's about a young man who's kind of living on the wild side. His name is Landon and he's kind of living on the wild side in high school and he gets in trouble because he involves another student in a prank that leads to that student being seriously injured. As part of his punishment, he is required to do some tutoring of children on Saturdays. It's part of the punishment. The school enforces on him. In that setting that he begins to become friends with a young lady named Jamie. Jamie is a pastor's daughter who doesn't really look like, act like, live like most of the rest of the kids at school because of that she's kind of an outcast. One day, actually the first day that Landon tutors, they're riding back to the school together on the bus and Jamie decides to try to interact with Landon. What you will see next is a distinct clash in these two world views. Let's take a look and see if you can pick it out. Hey, do you want to buy some apple tickets? I'm trying to raise enough money so we can buy Jefferson to meet computers. No. So I saw you in there with Lease. And I know it can be very difficult, but maybe you should try backing it with some somewhere else. Are you going to go visit Klaia Gapai? That would be a no. Do you know that they moved him from the hospital to that rehab place on Oak Street? Is this your idea of small talk or something? Because if it is, your social skills need some work and we want to force them to jump. It's called peer pressure. And how do you know about that? You're eating that precious book. Please don't pretend like you know me, okay? What I do? I do. We've all the same classes in the same school since kindergarten. Why are you're genius-solving? You sit at lunch table, which isn't exactly the reject table, but it's definitely in Salt-Exile territory. You have exactly one sweater. You like to look at your feet when you walk? Away and yet, and for fun. You like to tutor on the weekends and hang out with the cool kids from your stars and plans. How's that, son? Fairly predictable. Nothing I haven't heard before. You don't care what people think about you? No. Did you see the look on his face right there at the end? It's getting under his skin that it does not affect her what he thinks of her. She is living out her faith in a very real way. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks of her because she knows and she has that deep sense, that blessedness, that deep sense of knowing that she is right with God, she's walking down the right path. Nobody's going to move her from that. If you watch the rest of the movie, which we're not going to do this morning, but if you were to watch the rest of the movie, you would find out that her steady influence and testimony begins to impact land in such a way that he eventually changes his lifestyle in a subtle way. The movie presents that he actually comes to Christ. So you see, there's a great difference in these two worldviews, the mocking, ridiculing, scoffing, mockery, kind of worldview that mocks righteous values. The person who righteously says, I'm going to live by scripture, it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. No matter what anybody else says, that's the person who is blessed. According to the Word of God, two worldviews. Now let's hasten on to verses three and four where we find two lifestyles. These two worldviews lead to two distinct lifestyles. And I just want to briefly summarize these as we look at verses three and four because they basically describe the characteristics of these two people who lead these two worldviews. The results of their lifestyles are this. In their lives, number one, there is a godly lifestyle in verse three and there are five things that describe this godly lifestyle. Notice them. He is like a tree planted. That's talking about stability. Did you see that stability in Jamie and just the way she responded, the way she acted, the way she talked? She had her roots deep in something that was much more meaningful in lasting than wild land and stability. A tree planted. Notice secondly, the tree is planted by streams of water. That's nourishment. The streams here are not just the little streams of water that may flow through the desert or flow through the valleys. These are irrigation ditches. So he brewed word for irrigation ditch water that is pumped in purposefully to provide a constant stream of nourishment. The idea is if you are meditating in the Word of God, delighting in the Word of God, you will never lack for spiritual nourishment. You will always have what you need to live life and respond in the right way. Nourishment. The third characteristic is fruitfulness, which yields its fruit in season. Your life will bear fruit. Your life will impact others. Your life will develop a sense of godliness and character that impresses other people and that blesses other people. That's fruitfulness. The fourth characteristic of a godly lifestyle is endurance. Notice whose leaf does not wither. Now that doesn't mean that this tree is not going to go through the normal seasonal cycles of leaves turning red in the fall and losing them in the winter. It means that when drought comes along, the leaf doesn't wither. That when other trees dry up in wither in the middle of the summer, this tree doesn't because it's got constant nourishment. Leaf doesn't wither. Endurance. When trial comes, when difficulty comes, you stick with it. You endure. You persevere. You've victoriously go through those trials. If you're meditating on the Word of God, that will be the case. And the fifth description is prosperity, whatever he does, prosperous. Now this is not, you know, you're going to have a new car, biggest house, nicest clothes in town, all of that. That's not that kind of prosperity. It says whatever he does, prosperous. In other words, God blesses your efforts, whatever they may be. Your lifestyle will have impact on others. You are a person who lives a godly lifestyle and God blesses that lifestyle. That is the way to live, friends. That is a godly lifestyle and that's the way to live, regardless of what this world tells you, because look at the alternative. Look at the sinful lifestyle and its results in verse 4. Not so the wicked, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. There could not be any two pictures in our mind, any different in their nature than a tree planted by waters and a piece of chaff. You know what chaff is? Chaff is the little husk or shell that covers a kernel of grain. It's really nothing to it. In Bible times when they would harvest the grain, they would pile it up on a threshing floor, which was just a flat spot, raised spot. They would wait till the evening time when the winds always blow. You can still see it today in Israel. The winds will blow from west to east, from the Mediterranean across the land every evening in Israel. They would wait till the evening time and they would get a pitchfork and they would go to that pile of straw and they would toss it up in the air. The chaff is so light and empty of substance that it just blows off to the side. The kernel of grain falls back to the threshing floor and that's how they separate the grain from the chaff. Now the Bible says the wicked lifestyle is like chaff. In other words, it's rootless. Unlike the stable tree, there are no roots. You're just blown around by everything that comes along. You have no real sense of purpose or direction in your life. Not only is it rootless, it's dry. Unlike the tree that has the constant stream of waters, this chaff is dry. No real nourishment from the things of this world, from a sinful life. There's no real nourishment there. Nothing to sustain you. And not only is it dry, it's weightless. Chaff is weightless. Has no substance to it at all. It's just empty and vain and that's the way a sinful lifestyle leaves you. It leaves you empty with no substance. There's nothing to it. And then chaff is useless. It's no good for anything. And that's what a sinful lifestyle leads toward my friend. It leads toward a useless life, a life that is wasted and spent and has no lasting value. That's chaff. Not like the solentry planted by streams of waters, leaf not withering, fruit coming out. Man, this is vitality. This is the way to live. But a sinful lifestyle just leaves you blown off to the side like chaff. I read some time ago an interview with Cher, the famous actress and singer. I forget even where I read it, but I remember hearing about it. I've got a quote that she made from that interview. They were interviewing her about her life and career where she was. And she was talking about her 14,000 square foot house on the ocean in Malibu. Wow. That sounds cool, doesn't it? That's great. Love to live there, right? Listen to her talk. She says, I'm growing older. I hate my 50s. And then she says something about that that I can't repeat here. She says, I hate my 50s. I never felt older until I hit 50. When you turn this age, possibilities are fewer. You've been there, done that. You've bought the T-shirt. You've bought the poster. You've been the poster. And then you have to figure new ways to stay vital and interesting and have new dreams. Maybe next time I'll come back as a cowboy. Next time I'll do better. And do you hear the despair in those words? Do you hear the emptiness, the lack of fulfillment and purpose in those words? That's where a sinful lifestyle gets you my friend. It doesn't matter if it gets you a 14,000 square foot house in Malibu. That doesn't matter. Your life is empty. Your life is meaningless. Purposeless. That's the result of a sinful lifestyle, but it gets worse than that. And for the righteous, better than that in the end of this chapter. Because the end of the chapter deals with the two destinations. We've got two people who have two worldviews going two different lifestyles and they end up in radically different destinations. Notice if you will, first of all, the destination of the righteous in verse six. Verse six says, for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous. If you have a King James Version, it says, the Lord knows the way of the righteous. The word for knowledge is not the word for gaining information or just observing something. The word for knowledge is a word which means to have an intimate relationship with, to really know about deeply, to really care about, to care about in the sense that you watch over. So it's a good translation here in the NIV. He does watch over with interest, with care, with love, with concern, with attention to detail, with a desire to protect the way of the righteous. The way that we're going in life, God has delicate interest in and care for. And He wants to make sure that we're walking in His ways. He loves us too much to let us go our own way. So He has an identification with us. So desire to provide for us, protect us. All of that is included in that concept. The Lord watches over the way of the righteous. And ultimately, He leads us to heaven. That's where this way ends up. That's where this road leads to. Is to heaven. It's like David said in Psalm 23 and verse six, surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. That's God's protection and care, interest, love. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's the indestination. I'll be in heaven someday. And it's not just the fact that I can trust God to care for my needs and protect me and provide for me while I'm walking this road down here. But I know that this road of being right with God, of knowing that I've trusted Christ as my Savior, I'm justified. I'm walking that road, knowing that it's going to lead to heaven. I'll be in His house forever someday. That's the only way to live. That's the only way to live to know that's the destination. But not so the destination of the wicked. Look at the end of verse six. But the way of the wicked will perish. The word perish literally means to wander off. The idea is getting away from the sheep and getting in a place where imminent danger is possible, where disaster could overtake you at any time. It's a very dangerous place to be. And cataclysmic disaster could overtake you at any time. Now what that disaster may be and what it may look like and what it may result in, I believe is described for us in verse five. There are two things that it means to perish. If you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, if you're still in the camp of the wicked, two things it means to perish. Number one, it means collapse under the judgment of God. Notice what He says there in verse five, therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment. Now it may not be clear while you're alive and busy with the things of this life. You may think things are going pretty well. You may think life is treating you pretty good. Talking about collapse, man, I'm not collapsing. I'm moving ahead. I'm going forward. I don't care about God in His word and salvation and all that. I'm not necessarily concerned about getting to heaven, but man, my life is going great. It may look that way here, but from God's perspective, the judge of the universe, you have no hope. You have no future because there is coming a day when you will stand in God's presence and you will literally collapse at God's judgment. You will not be able to stand. You will collapse in the face of God's holy wrath. Down God is a holy God. He cannot tolerate sin in His presence. Wickedness will not exist in His presence and there will come a day when all of the wicked will stand before God and will wither and collapse at His holy judgment that will flame out against them. There is no hope in that day if you've not trusted Jesus as your Savior. You will collapse in that day and not be able to rise again when you stand before a holy God. My friend, there is nothing in this world more serious to take than this, to know for sure that you're not among those who will stand before God's Sunday and collapse at His judgment. Have you trusted Jesus as your Savior? That's the only way to know that you will not collapse in His judgment someday. But there is something else involved here. It's not only collapse at the judgment of God, it's expulsion from the people of God. Notice what He says there in verse 5. The wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. What He's saying there is that in that day of judgment the end result will be that the wicked will be cast out from the presence of God and His people into a place of eternal punishment. The New Testament describes in graphic terms what that will be like. Jesus talked about it often in His teaching. For instance in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said, then I will tell them plainly speaking of the same group of people to wicked. I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers cast out of the presence of God. Jesus said in Matthew 22 and He was telling a story that illustrated what it meant to be in His family and His kingdom. He said, then the king told the attendants, tie him hand and foot and throw him outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The story is of a man who invited people to the banquet. It illustrates being in God's kingdom, God's family, being in one of His family, being one of the righteous and a guy shows up who doesn't have the proper garment which in the story stands for being clothed with the righteousness of Christ. He's still among the wicked. He's still a sinner. He hasn't trusted Christ and this is what happens to him. He's cast out away from the people of God. Jesus said in Matthew 25, then He will say to those on His left, depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and His angels and that whole passage concludes with this warning in verse 46, then they will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life. My friend, there are only two roads in life. There is no third option. All of us start out as wicked sinners separated from God but God loved the so much He sent His son to die for us and if you trust Jesus as your Savior, you are declared righteous and you get to be in the camp of the righteous. God's family. Your worldview changes, your lifestyle changes and best of all, your destination changes. What I warn you today, if you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, regardless of how good life may be for you now, your destination is an awful, hopeless time before God where you will collapse before His judgment and you will be cast out from God and His people. For the only way to avoid that is to trust Jesus as your Savior. That's the only way to make the difference. Your frost ended that poem, the road not taken with these words. He said, I shall be telling this with a sigh and think of this in terms of eternity. I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. I urge you this morning to take the road, choose the road less traveled. The road Jesus would say is the narrow gate that leads to the narrow road, if you find it, it's not where most of the people are but I would encourage you to choose that road. The road of salvation, the road of trusting Jesus as your Savior, trust that road, take that road. It will make all the difference in eternity for you. It will be the difference between heaven and hell for you. Please take that road, choose that road. It's about a gathering prayer.