Blessed is the Man
Ethan Sayler
The Psalms: Songs of Faith for the People of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Seeking Wisdom
Seeking Wisdom
Wisdom is in short supply these days…
Worldly wisdom is failing, changing, elusive
Godly wisdom leads to blessedness
Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise … There is no fool so great as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
Charles Spurgeon
The Wisdom Psalms
The Wisdom Psalms
How do the Scriptures teach the wisdom of God?
Exposition of Truth
Ten Commandments; Ecclesiastes (a book of wisdom)
Narratives that show us the right use of knowledge.
Proverbial Truth
Prov. 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.
Prov. 6:10-11 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.
Prov. 2:19 It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
How do the Psalms convey wisdom?
Singing the praises of wisdom
Give instruction and guidance for living righteously
Contrast between the righteous and the wicked
Listing of wisdom psalms: 1, 19, 37, 49, 50, 73, 78, 112, 119
Blessed is the Man
Blessed is the Man
He does not walk, stand, or sit with the wicked
He does not walk, stand, or sit with the wicked
The progressive influence of wickedness
Walking - the general direction of life
Counsel of the Wicked
1 Cor 15:33 Bad company ruins good morals
Standing - lingering, pausing
Way of the Sinner - lifestyle or pattern of behavior
Sit - soaking it in, being surrounded by it
Seat of the Mocker - Mockers hold nothing sacred, scoffing at God and His ways.
Sitting goes beyond walking and standing, it means dwelling with, abiding, enjoyment.
It’s not all at once, but step by step end up further away from God.
The Key to Genuine Wisdom: Meditating and delighting in the law
Meditation - to ruminate, chew over, contemplate
Delight - to take great joy in - hungering for…
The Law - not just his commands, but suggestive of all of God’s Word
Key Point: Genuine wisdom, and the blessing that comes from it, is found not in the counsel or way of this world, but in the word of God and finding delight in it.
He is like a tree…
He is like a tree…
The Illustration
The Tree
Rooted, flowing, ever new - those who are shaped by God’s word, influenced by His grace are fruitful, maturing, and steadfast.
Vs. the Chaff
Lifeless husk, blown by the wind - lots of energy, but there’s nothing there.
Separating the chaff and the grain, by throwing both in the air. The grain comes back down, the chaff blows away.
Key Point: The Blessing of Wisdom - Fruitful lives, steady and unshaken by the storms, growing as fed by God’s truth
No so the wicked
No so the wicked
The wicked will not stand in the day of judgment
God is coming to Judge - there is wisdom in knowing that there will be a final judgment, so we ought to live accordingly.
Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”
The wicked will not stand with the righteous - If they won’t be among the righteous now, they won’t be among the righteous through eternity
The Lord knows - sees to, cares for, loves the way of the righteous
Key Point: Though the wicked seem to thrive in this world, God knows the way of the righteous, and the wicked will not stand.
Living in Wisdom Today
Living in Wisdom Today
No one is wise
No one is wise
Romans - Paul reveals our folly and foolishness.
3:10-11 (quoting Psalm 14)“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
7:22-23 I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Our tendency is not toward wisdom, but to foolishness. We hear the call to meditate on the word, and to leave the way of the sinner - but we know our hearts, we know our tendency is to walk, stand, and sit in the of the wicked. The pursuit of Wisdom becomes a law we cannot attain, for we do not delight in God’s word.
There is only one who was truly wise, only one who loved the law of God perfectly - Jesus. He is the only perfect man who ever lived, and he is the sinner's Savior. It is he who stands at the portal of this book to show us the way to live and help us do it.
By the inward, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, however, we comes to love the law of God simply because it shows us the will of God, and what it means to walk in wisdom.
We do not rebel against God’s Word, but our whole being, made new in Christ, approves and endorses it.
Knowing and living in Wisdom = Christ
1 Cor 1:30 He has become for us the wisdom of God
God uses the foolish things of this world to reveal his wisdom
We were deceived by the wisdom of the serpent, but we are freed by the foolishness of God.
Augustine of Hippo
The cross of Christ - foolishness to the Greeks, a stumbling block to the Jews, is the wisdom of God - salvation to those in Him.
The gospel teaches us that Christ has kept the law for us, that sacrificial death, and his resurrection, are the very wisdom of God.
We live in this wisdom, we cling to Christ, who is our righteousness - that we may gain true wisdom, knowing, and being known by God.
The wisdom that brings life is found in Christ alone
We are made wise in Christ
Don’t sell yourself short,
The apostles were uneducated fisherman, but the wisdom of God was spoken through them
But Grow in wisdom
James 1:5 - if you are lacking wisdom, ask God
Living in the wisdom of Christ
Dwell in the Word of God - day and night
Rest in its promises, find strength in the truth, be guided in its light
The Law drives us to Christ for salvation, the Gospel shows us Christ’s redeeming grace, God’s word shows us how to live by faith - this is genuine wisdom, this is where blessing is found.
Let your wisdom be seen in how you live by faith
Surely the essence of wisdom is that before we begin to act at all, or attempt to please God, we should discover what it is that God has to say about the matter.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones
James 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
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