Ps. 1:1
Stands Not, Sits Not
Pastor Martin expounds the remaining negatives of Psalm 1:1 -- 'nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.' He shows that 'standing in the way of sinners' means identifying with their course of life contrary to God's law, while carefully distinguishing this from Christ's deep friendship with sinners for redemptive purposes. 'Sitting in the seat of the scornful' describes the settled posture of contempt toward God's Word. He warns against the progressive descent from absorbing ungodly counsel to identifying with sinners to settled skepticism.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 10 sections · 42 min
- Review of the Series Thus Far 0:00
- Standeth Not in the Way of Sinners: Definition 3:20
- Christ the Friend of Sinners: Holy Involvement Without Identification 7:46
- Application 1: A Plea to Young People Not to Experiment with Sin 13:51
- Application 2: The Danger of Phariseeism 17:23
- Sitteth Not in the Seat of the Scornful: Definition 20:44
- Forms of Scorning: From Rationalism to Modern Indifference 26:04
- Application: Never Be a Judge of Scripture but Always a Disciple 29:22
- The Progressive Descent: Counsel to Way to Seat 34:57
- Closing Plea and Transition to the Positive 39:33
Key Quotes
“He had deep, intimate involvement with sinners, but he never once planted a coal in the way of sinners.”
“All you ever need to know about the way of sinners, you can find out in your Bible. You know what that will make you do? It will make you run from it.”
“Blessed is the man that doesn't settle down comfortably in a posture of contempt for God's Word.”
“We must never come to Holy Scripture as its judges, but always as its disciples.”
“I believe the first-hand witness, the star witness. I believe God.”
“What's her name? What you mean is you've got moral problems. That is, you've got a controversy with God.”
“Avoid it. Pass not by it. Turn from it and pass away. Don't get into that way, because once you do, then there is something in you that will respond to that way.”
Applications
Believers
- Young people facing classroom mockery: do not be bullied or embarrassed about believing the eyewitness God over the reconstructed theories of men.
Parents & families
- Reject the lie that you must 'try' sin to appreciate salvation — covet a clean past for your children rather than a dramatic conversion testimony.
All listeners
- If God has called you to separation, watch your heart for Phariseeism — your separation must produce ministry to needy sinners, not insulation from them.
- Resolve never to come to Scripture as its judge but always as its disciple — refuse every posture that puts your reason above God's revelation.
- Don't 'sit down for five minutes' in the seat of skepticism just to be culturally informed — those seeds germinate in seasons of spiritual weakness.
- When someone claims 'intellectual problems' with the gospel, gently ask about the moral entanglements behind the objection.
- Apply Proverbs 1:10 immediately: when sinners entice you, consent not — close the door at the point of enticement, not after entry.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 111 paragraphs, roughly 42 minutes.
Review of the Series Thus Far
Psalm 51 We come tonight to our sixth study in the first psalm. This psalm that I have said, and I trust being accurate when I have said this, is perhaps basic to all of the psalms, just as Psalm 51 is the classic of the penitential psalms, and in our study of it for some 15 or 16 nights, we sought to understand the basic principles that govern the whole matter of the penitence of a true Christian. So the instruction of Psalm 1 is basic to all of those psalms that are called didactic psalms, psalms of instruction, where the focus of the psalm is not heavenward, prayer or praise or confession,
but it's manward, it's instruction by the psalmist to the people of God. and that instruction is couched under the general title or framework of the way of blessedness. Would you be a blessed man, a blessed woman, a person who has found the true meaning to life, a person who walks in the conscious blessing of God? Well, that way of blessedness is set before us in this psalm as we have seen both in a negative and a positive way.
The blessed man is one who does not do certain things, as set forth in the first verse, and he is a man who does other things. And then there is the issue or the fruit of that negative and positive relationship to truth and the ways of God. And then you have the contrast with the ungodly. The man who seeks blessedness, but seeking it some other way than God's way, never attains to blessedness.
We spent some weeks just on the first phrase under the negative heading, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. If you and I would be blessed men and women, we must, by the grace of God, recognize and resolutely refuse the counsel of ungodliness. Now, how can you refuse it unless you recognize it? And the counsel of ungodliness that so often kills blessedness in God's people is that subtle form of ungodly counsel that comes to us in such innocent guise. And so we considered how that counsel comes to us through the mass media of communication in our day. Last week we considered how that counsel came to many of us for thirteen years within the framework
of secular education, with its whole philosophy of life being continually pressed upon our pliable young minds so that many of us have absorbed the counsel of ungodliness without even being aware of it. Well, we could spend many more weeks dealing with that first phrase, blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, trying to find all of the ways that counsel comes to us, but we must get through the psalm, and so I am arbitrarily moving from the first phrase to a consideration of the last two phrases of the first verse tonight. Nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. The blessed man is
Standeth Not in the Way of Sinners: Definition
not only one who refuses to walk in the counsel or advice of the ungodly, but he refuses to stand in the way of sinners and to sit in the seat of the storm. Now what did the psalmist mean when he said, nor standeth in the way of sinners? We must define the words before we can understand what he's talking about. Well, this word way confronts us in many portions of scripture. He says that man who is blessed does not stand in the way of sinners. Now a person's ways are the person's general course or manner of life. We read in Isaiah 55, 7, let the wicked forsake his way. We say of a certain
person, he does such and such and such and such. Well, that's his way. What we mean by that is that's the general course or pattern of his activity and of his life. Now this text says that ungodly men or sinners have a way. Now who are these sinners? Well the word the psalmist uses in this passage is the word for stepping over the boundaries. It's the word that pictures sinners as those who are lawbreakers, those who do not seek to walk within the framework of the precepts of the living God. They are people who have given themselves over to following the counsels of their own depraved hearts and of their own degenerate dispositions.
Now, they have a way, they have a pattern of life. Because the disposition of heart is one that doesn't regard the guidelines of God's holy law, they mark out a path, a course of action, a pattern of attitudes that is peculiar to them as sinners. Now notice what the psalmist says, blessed is that man who does not stand in that way, that course of life, that pattern of thinking, common to those who step over the boundaries of the law of God. Now to stand somewhere is to deliberately place yourself in a position of identification. You've heard people say and you have said. Maybe you had a certain problem and you've said if you stood where I stood, you'd understand my problem. What we mean is if you were identified with me
in this circumstance. We don't mean literally if you planted your feet where my feet are planted, all of a sudden you'd somehow understand. Now that'd be simple. If that's all was involved in really understanding someone's problem was to say, well move aside or get some chalk and mark where your feet are and I'll stand right where you stand and boom, ipso facto, we have understanding.
Now, we use this as a figurative speech. If you could identify with me in my situation, then you would understand.
Therefore, what the psalmist is saying, if we may put these three words together as he does here, blessed is the man who not only sees and recognizes the advice of ungodliness, sees it for what it is and rejects it. But he also refuses to stand identified in those courses and patterns of action common to those who do accept the advice of the ungodly. Blessed is that man who does not identify himself with the way of sinners, the outlook of sinners, the sympathies of sinners, the enjoyments of sinners. Now, the psalmist does not say, blessed is the man who does not stand in the way with sinners.
If the way was simply speaking of life in general, and of Christians identifying themselves with sinners with a view to reaching them, what he's dealing with is they do not stand in that way, that course of action, that pattern of thinking, that way of conduct that is peculiar to wicked men. Now I want to qualify this because a false concept has blighted much of the evangelical church. And we read this verse this way. Blessed is that man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor have any association with sinners.
Christ the Friend of Sinners: Holy Involvement Without Identification
That isn't what he's saying. For our Lord had very deep and intimate association with sinners. And if we are Christians, we are to walk as he walked. and we've been continually referring this psalm to the Lord Jesus, for he, above all others, is the truly blessed man, the only one who ever embodied this psalm perfectly, who in every situation refused the counsel of ungodliness, who in every situation never stood in the way of sinners, never sat in the seat of the scornful, who continually delighted in the law of the Lord.
And yet I find in the Gospels, our Lord had deep friendship with sinners. In fact, this is what called the Pharisees. When our Lord is speaking to this crowd in Matthew chapter 11, he says the following.
Matthew 11 and verse, perhaps we could back up to verse 16. But where unto shall I like in this generation? It's like unto children sitting in the markets and calling to their fellows and saying, We've piped unto you and you have not danced. The kids say, Come on, let's play games.
And the ones say, What shall we play? You've heard the kids do this. My children do it all the time. Let's play wedding.
And you'll be the bride and I'll be the bridegroom. And so they put on their dress-ups and their heels. So here's a group of kids. And the Lord says, you're just like a group of kids.
And they say, come on, let's go play. And one of the groups says, all right, let's play party. And so they play like they're piping, like they're having a little orchestra there. And they say, no, we don't want to play party.
We want to play funeral. So they say, all right, let's play funeral. So they begin to mourn like they had seen their relatives do. They had their wailing times.
You remember in John it speaks to the people wailing. And then the other crowd says, no, we want to play party. The Lord says, he's like little children. You're not satisfied.
You go from the extreme. Too happy, they say. Too sad. And he says, that's what you're like because.
Now he's going to bring the application to this. For John came, neither eating and drinking. And they say, he hath a devil. He's too somber.
Too noose. He's not one of us. He's too distant. Too austere.
When he preaches, he frowns. And his eyes flash and he points his finger. He's too stern. We like a preacher that's like a brother.
Who really gets close to us. We like a preacher that will sit down and sip coffee with you. We like a preacher that will come and eat Whits crackers with you. That's the kind we want.
John, we can't listen to him. Too austere.
Too negative. All the time preaching repentance. all the time warning of the wrath to come So the Lord Jesus came eating wits crackers sipping tea and what do they say Here what they said And the Son of Man came verse 19 eating and drinking and they say Behold, a man gluttonous and a wine-dibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
We don't like ministers that are too close to the people. We like the dignity of the ministry. He's too close to sinners. Why, look, he's in there eating with sinners.
and even sipping wine with them.
He must be a wine river and he must be a gluttonous man. You see what the Lord is saying? Well, this is not the subject of the sermon tonight. It would be very easy to digress here and I must resist that temptation.
But he's saying, see, you people, this was just a big smoke screen. The problem was this. You didn't want the word of God whether it came through John or me and so you had to nitpick at some little incidental. See, they were nitpicking.
But the accusation is what is an explanation of Psalm 1. They accused the Lord, see, not of being an austere preacher to the publicans and sinners. That would have delighted them. But they could not stand the fact that he was a friend of publicans and sinners.
Now, wait a minute. We read in Psalm 1, Blessed is the man that does not stand in the way of sinners, and yet it said of our Lord, He is the friend of publicans and sinners. That famous parable of the prodigal son has as its triggering circumstance the fact that the Lord Jesus heard this same crowd murmuring when he was having close, intimate friendship with publicans and sinners. I am reading from Luke 15, 1 and 2.
Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. It's all right to stand up in a pulpit above them and preach down to them.
But eating with them, that shows identification, friendship. They couldn't stand that. So whatever Psalm 1 means, it does not mean that the way of blessedness is to be found in disassociating ourselves from sinners as people who stand in need of the grace of God. No, no, what Psalm 1 is saying is exactly what was so beautifully illustrated in the life of our Lord.
He had deep, intimate involvement with sinners, but he never once planted a coal in the way of sinners. See? That way that is marked out by the dictates of depraved human nature. that way that is marked out by the pride of the human heart, that way that is marked out by an involvement with the flesh and the world and the devil, our Lord never once stepped a toe into that way.
But while walking in the way of God, the way marked out by Holy Scripture, for our Lord subjected Himself as a man to the dictates of Scripture, when tempted to turn aside, He said, No, it is written, man must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And in that way of obedience and holiness and righteousness, he was found a friend of sinners, but never standing in the way of sinners.
Application 1: A Plea to Young People Not to Experiment with Sin
And so the way of blessedness is that way so beautifully illustrated by our Lord. Now, by way of application, what does this say to us tonight? Well, first of all, it says, and this is particularly aimed at you young people tonight, it exposes this cursed lie that the devil spawns on so many young people, particularly those from Christian homes, that goes something like this. Unless you really get into the way of sinners and look at life as they look at it and taste their joys as they taste them and sample their morsels as they sample them, how will you ever be able to appreciate the contrast of the way of grace?
Certainly if you're going to appreciate salvation, you've got to know what it is to be involved enough to be saved out of something. and oh how that lie has been spawned upon so many a young person who came out of a Christian context where they had the blessed influence the warring influence the hedging influence of Christian parents and a Christian church no listen to what the psalmist said do you want to know the way of blessedness the way of happiness he says the happy man the blessed man is the man who never has stood in that way He's never had his mind twisted by the patterns of thought that mark the way of the ungodly. He's never had his attitudes shaped by that way of sinners.
He's never had his ambitions perverted and turned aside. I can think of no greater blessing than to have it said of my own children, as one of William Booth's daughters said, She said, I can never remember a time when I have not loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. You say, oh, what a terribly sheltered life that would be. No, that would be the most blessed life.
Because this is a description of the way of blessedness. And he said, blessed is that man who has never walked in the counsel of the uncaught me, nor stood in the way of sinners. All I need to know about the way of sinners, I can know by divine revelation. I don't need to know by experimentation.
For the scripture says the way of a transgressor is what? Hard. Hard. See?
Young people, you get that? All you ever need to know about the way of sinners, you can find out in your Bible. You know what that will make you do? It will make you run from it.
It will make you run from it because it's a hard way. It's a bitter way. A way that leaves stars upon all who walk in it. A way that leaves twisted attitudes that sometimes takes even years of the grace of God to unbend and to straighten out again.
And so I issue a heartfelt plea to you young people. The way of blessedness stands before you in Holy Scripture. The way walked by our blessed Lord. Who had deeper insight to the human heart and to sin and the ways of evil than did our Lord?
That's why they couldn't stand him. He was able to ferret out the corruption of the human heart and drag it out of the depths and hold it before men's eyes. He said, before I came, you could claim you had a cloak for your sin, but no more. But you see, he got that insight not by experimentation, but by the illumination and revelation of divine truth.
Application 2: The Danger of Phariseeism
The second application of this phrase, standeth not in the way of sinners, and I've already touched on it, it tremendously exposes the concept of Phariseeism that so easily pervades the church at any stage. You see, people such as those involved in so-called modern theology, who look upon evangelism and Christian experience as getting so identified with sinners that you can sit down and tell their dirty jokes with them and get half drunk with them and experiment with their morality and the rest, they have no problem with Phariseeism. The only people who can be really tempted to Phariseeism are those who take seriously the Bible teaching regarding separation from sin unto God.
You see, the Pharisees were the separated ones. Modern theology says, no, we're the involved ones. So they had Father Boyd, who wrote that blasphemous book, Are You Running With Me, Jesus, sitting down in the pubs with his turned collar, telling the latest dirty jokes and interspersing a little bit of Christ in between. Well, you see, that crowd can't be tempted to Phariseeism.
The only ones who can be guilty of it are those of us who are seeking to be, for the glory of God, separated ones. Because the Word of God calls us to a life of separation from sin unto God. But you see, what can happen so easily is what happened to Pharisees. Instead of being separate from sin unto God, they separated themselves from sinners.
unto their own little standard of what it meant to be separated and utterly lost any ministry to those in need. And when the Lord Jesus came as the most truly separated one whose feet ever touched God's earth, they were shocked because he got so close to sinners. And they couldn't think of getting close to sinners like that without being defiled. Why, he eats with them.
nobody eats with that crop you get defiled oh the Lord said no he said you're defiled with dead men's bones and all uncleanness because you've drawn your words around you and thanking God that you're not his other men you've lost sight of what true separation is oh may God keep us from the leaven of Phariseeism in our own assembly that we learn what it is to be identified with sinners while never walking in the way of sinners. In fact, dear ones, I know of nothing, I shouldn't say nothing, but I know of few things that make me want to be more truly separated unto God than some real close heart relationship with sinners.
Because the more I see the hopelessness of their attempt to find blessedness in their way, the more convinced I am that blessedness is to be found only in the way of righteousness.
See? Haven't you found that so? You get close to sinners, begin to identify with their problems and needs,
and all will just make you thank God over and over that he's rescued you. See?
Sitteth Not in the Seat of the Scornful: Definition
So the blessed man is one who not only refuses the counsel of ungodliness, godliness but he does not stand in the way of sinners And then in the third place the third negative he does not sit in the seat of the scornful Now again, we must define the words and then see if perhaps they say something to us as we sit here tonight. Now, the concept of sitteth speaks of a settled position. And this is, of course, true all the way through the Scriptures when it speaks of Christ finishing his work, he sat down at the right hand of God. Does that mean literally that there's a chair in heaven and Christ is sitting on it?
Well, I wouldn't want to press that because in some places it speaks of him standing, ministering as the high priest. Well, is he sitting or is he standing? Well, you see the word sit does not so much speak of a physical posture in that case, but it speaks of a place of settledness. He has accomplished his work on earth.
He's now carrying out his work in heaven. He is sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So the concept of sitting means settling in. Blessed is the man that doesn't settle in to the seat of the storm.
For this word seat is some places used for a throne. It's a place where one settles down and from which he either issues orders or views life or plans activity. He's not taking a snooze there, but it's the position from which he accomplishes his aims and his goals. And now he says the person, the place we should not sit is the seat of the scornful.
Now what is a scornful man? A scornful man in this context is the man who regards the truth of God with contempt. they are people not only diseased with sin but they are rejecting all remedies they make a mock of sin and deride all counsels and repute and it's interesting that when we study scripture and the subject of scorners one of the reoccurring marks of the scorner is that he doesn't want to listen to repute look closely at several verses in Proverbs that indicate this Proverbs chapter 9 Remember what we're trying to do now is just define these words so we have some understanding of what the seat of the scornful is, so that we can know whether or not we're sitting there tonight.
You say, well, I'm sitting on a green padded chair. That's right, but you might be sitting in the seat of the scoffer, in the scornful. Now, what is that seat? How can we identify it?
How do we know if we're sitting there? Proverbs chapter 9, verses 7 and 8. He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee.
Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. Notice he brings into focus the reaction of a scorner to reproof to correction to instruction. Chapter 13 and verse 1 Still in Proverbs a wise son heareth his father's instruction see it cuts right across the grain the whole idea if he's over 30 don't listen to him God says if he's over 30 he might have something worth listening to a wise son heareth the father's instruction but a scorner heareth not rebuke again the primary mark of the scorner can't tell him anything he's one that says don't give me reasons, my mind's already made up.
That's the scorner. Proverbs 14, verse 6.
A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not, but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. Here's the mark of the scorner. Under the professed guise of seeking wisdom, in his way, as a scorner, rejecting the counsel of God, he seeks wisdom and never attains it. That remind you of the New Testament passage.
One of the marks of the last days, ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Why? They seek it in the wrong place. They seek it anywhere but from God.
Their basic presupposition is, I am a seeker of truth, but it must be truth that comes from any other source but the living God. I don't want to hear what he has to say. Then one last verse, chapter 15 and verse 12. A skerner loveth not one that reproveth him.
neither will he go unto the wise. Well, I think I've quoted from enough verses to show that the mark then of the scorner is one who regards the truth of God with contempt. Whether it comes as rebuke or reproof or instruction, they refuse that instruction of God. Now, to make this contemporaneous, relevant, I believe the mark of the scornful in our own generation comes to light in a very special way in what I would call the intellectual smugness of our generation.
Forms of Scorning: From Rationalism to Modern Indifference
There are several ways to be a scorner with regard to the reproofs and instruction of Holy Scripture. One way is to take the position that some of the German rationalists did back a hundred years ago, who said, well, you know, if the Bible could really be trusted, then you could listen to it.
But they said it can't really be trusted. There are errors. Moses really didn't write the first five books, and Christ was really just accommodating himself to the ignorance of the people of his day when he seemed to teach that Moses, all of this. You see, the scornful attitude undermined the integrity of Scripture.
But in our day, the mood has changed. The attitude is this. Why, anybody who knows anything doesn't even regard Scripture. See, these people are serious enough at least to regard Scripture long enough and seriously enough to try to undermine its authority.
This generation scorns in such a way as to say it's not even worth considering. It's not even worth any mental sweat to prove whether it's accurate or not.
And that attitude carries over, particularly, of course, in the realm of science, the skepticism, the scorning attitude of our day, this arrogant pride where man utterly rejects that the God who made the world might be able to tell us how it came to be. I had a young man tell me down at Lafayette College, and this struck me so forcibly after talking and debating and reasoning from the scripture for some time about a number of different things. I said, you know, I'd love to come back here sometime and debate, discuss the matter of evolution with you, because I had mentioned it in my message that the basic problem of evolution is not a matter of origins, but identity. It's the problem of what is man, not where he came from.
And so a fellow looked at me, and the look on his face, well, he thought that I was pathetic, but I believe looking at it from the scriptural perspective, it was pathetic. He looked at me and shook his head, and he said, Friend, you're fighting a rear-guard battle.
When I said I'd like to come and debate the validity of the evolutionist claims, and he looked at me like I was some poor relic out of the past who had a few blitz less than a full load, as our good friend Mr. Riesinger would say.
And he shook his head. And he said, you're fighting a rearguard battle. Well, you see what his scornful attitude was? Your position is not even worth considering.
See? Not all right, let's consider it. I don't believe you've got a leg to stand on, but let's see. No, just a swipe of the hand, and he's going to write it all up.
And that's the attitude of the scornful in our day. Now, what does the Lord say? The way of blessedness is found when you and I never take that posture, sitting down, taking that settled position of the man who rejects reproof and instruction and counsel. If we would know the way of blessedness, we must never sit ourselves up as judges over the truth, but always sit beneath the judgment of truth.
We must never come to Holy Scripture as its judges, but always as its disciples.
Application: Never Be a Judge of Scripture but Always a Disciple
And so by way of application, I would encourage you as God's people, if you would know the way of blessedness, for you who are not the people of God, if you would get into the way of blessedness, seek to maintain the attitude described by our Lord in the 18th chapter of Matthew. except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. That childlike disposition, whatever God says is so, is so, because God said it, period, amen. End of brackets.
Nothing more.
Whatever God says is so, is so. God said it. And so, I don't need to cringe, you see, when the scientific community looks upon me as a believer in the biblical doctrine of creation and says, not even worth debating with you. Well, should I cower before that frown of the spawner?
Never. Never. Never. Young people, as you fight this uphill battle in your schools, don't you ever be bullied into being embarrassed about your belief.
You're the only one who's got any sense. That poor teacher, he's believing what men are saying without evidence he went there. And you're just humble of mind enough to believe that the one person who was there ought to know how everything happened. The only person who was there in the beginning was the God who's told us how it happened.
Why should you be bullied and cowered into feeling embarrassed? Well, that's from the scientific standpoint, that only makes good sense. if we're going to have a courtroom trial why we bring in witnesses people who are there and their word carries far more weight than somebody who 10 miles away conjuring up some kind of a mystery novel that he going to write and this situation seems to fit his part and so he gets up on the basis of his speculations to say his piece, his testimony won't carry an ounce of weight. And so the so-called scientist sits in his ivory tower, and he speculates.
Now I've found a little piece of a jaw over here. Now I wonder, probably now we surmise and suppose that and all of this, and then he conjures up his theory and spawns it on you as great scientific discovery. And when I see professing Christians cowering before the latest pronouncements of so-called science, it fills me with holy anger. Now you say there's only one person who is there to witness the whole event.
That was the God who brought it to pass and he's told me how he did it. And I believe God. I believe the first-hand witness, the star witness. I believe God.
don't ever sit in the seat of the scornful and see you can sit there the minute you begin to adopt his attitude of skepticism toward the pronouncements of God anything that leads you away from a simple implicit trust in God and his word beware of it run from it like the plague for you're going to step out of the way of blessedness you'll step out of the way of blessedness and I say to you young men preparing for the ministry Don't you ever forget that. Men who had much promise, who once preached with authority, are now has-beens. Why? Because they said, well, I'd just like to know what it'd be like to sit in the seat of the scorner.
No, not really to occupy it for life. I'm just going to set the timer and sit down for five minutes. Just, you know, we've got to be abreast of the times and understand how people are thinking. And so they put themselves in the seat of the scorner.
and in times of spiritual weakness those seeds of doubt and scorn have germinated and then there's been that terrible process of eating away at the very foundations of their faith and now they can't preach with authority or any confidence. Why? Because they don't know what they're holding in their hands. I saw this so vividly last summer.
A young man who graduated from Nyack Missionary College went off and spent a year at a liberal seminary and at the end of that year as we talked together about the Bible he in essence said I don't know what that is that book that you're holding in your hands I don't know what it is you see he sat in the seat of the scornful began to come to the word not as a disciple to be taught but you see as a judge to evaluate to look down by God's grace maintain that attitude of childlike and simplicity.
The way of blessedness cannot come when we begin to play God any more than blessedness can come to a fish who tries to play like a bird and make his home in a tree.
God never made you to be a scorner, sitting back in a state of independence, passing judgment upon his pronouncements, but he made you and me to be subject to his pronouncements, to accept his view of this world, what it is and why we're here, and the way of blessedness is the way of subjection to those pronouncements. Now, as we close our study tonight, will you notice what I believe is a progression here? I wouldn't hang my life on it, but I would like to hang a few suggestions on it as we close our study of this first verse. Does there not seem to be some progression here?
The Progressive Descent: Counsel to Way to Seat
Blessed is that man that walketh not, nor standeth, nor sitteth. You see, here's the picture of the advice of the ungodly coming from outside of us. Here it comes to us. Here's the man standing, maybe at the fore of the way of blessedness as God describes it, the way of blessedness as the world describes it or promises it.
And the advice or counsel comes from without. The next picture, the man is actually standing in the way of sinners, their way of attaining blessedness, which does not respect the law of God, the precepts of God, and then finally that man no longer stands in the way of sinners. He's seated himself down in the position of a scorner. Now notice the progression from the advice of the ungodly to skepticism and rejection of reproof and truth.
How does that happen? Well, the process is always a moral process. We heard people, well, a certain fellow had intellectual problems with the gospel and he's become an unbeliever. No, he didn't have intellectual problems.
I was talking with one student leader one time, and he said when he gets talking with a fellow, and the fellow says, well, you know, I've got intellectual problems. He says, I always counter by saying, what's her name? What's her name? You've got intellectual problems.
Yeah, what's her name? What you mean is you've got moral problems. That is, you've got a controversy with God. So what happens?
Well, see, once you begin to accept the advice of the ungodly and walk in that way, framed by that advice, there's this tremendous conflict for conscience and the truth of God rise up to condemn.
And yet the flesh cries out to be gratified in that way of undabbedness. So you've got to do one of two things. You've either got to follow conscience out into the clear light of divine truth and forsake your sins and through Christ get into the way of blessedness, the way of obedience to the will of God. Or you've got to try to convince yourself that those strivings of conscience are all a bunch of foolishness anyway.
It's simply just the mores and standards of the past and simply some imposed standards of my father and mother and really there's not anything to it. No heaven, no hell. You see, a man becomes a scorner, not head first, but heart first and flesh first. He so enjoys the way of the sinner that he's got to now stifle the voice of conviction so he becomes a scorner.
And when you've got to reprove him, He wants nothing of that reproof. You see, this is why the Bible gives such serious warnings to the whole matter of turning away from light once that light's been received. If anything comes with sober warning in Scripture, that whole area comes filled with sobering warning. Scripture says it's better for people never to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn aside.
Then it speaks of the dog returning to his vomit. Hebrews 6 speaks of those who were enlightened and tasted the good word of God, and they turn away. A terrible thing. And whenever you find a scoffer and a scorner, a man who refuses the reproofs of Scripture won't even give them a fair hearing.
It's generally because that man, in pursuit of his own lust and passions, has put himself in the way of sinners, and is now seeking to justify it and stifle his convictions. From the advice of the ungodly to the way of sinners to the seat of the scornful. Oh, see the terrible progression of sin and see why the Scripture admonishes us as it does in Proverbs chapter 4, verses 15 and 16. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men.
Avoid it. Pass not by it. Turn from it and pass away. Don't get into that way because once you do then there is something in you that will respond to that way.
Even though you are a believer there are the remains of corruption and those remaining aspects of sin are like a negative polarity. And those appeals to your flesh are like a positive polarity. And there'll be that drawing. Don't enter into the way.
Avoid it. Pass from it. Proverbs 1.10, the writer says, If sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
Closing Plea and Transition to the Positive
For I plead with you, young people, be careful of the advice which molds your life. Don't walk in the counsel of ungodliness. Whether it comes as it does through the mass media, through secular education, through your friends, before you let any advice frame your life ask this question where does it come from? And unless it flows out of Holy Scripture reject it because you know what the end result of heeding that advice will be you'll become a scourner and a scopper with a seared conscience and you'll be able to sin with a high hand and all the entreaties earnest and tearful will be utterly unheeded.
Oh, young people, reject any advice that doesn't come as that advice rooted in the Holy Scripture. Don't ever envy the way in which sinners walk. They seem to be gay and happy, but remember, it's a way of bitterness, now and eternally. Never forget it.
It's a way of bitterness. Don't feel you've got to prove it by experience. God declares it, and it's so. If you should find yourself tonight as one who's in that way, you say, Mr. Martin, this doesn't tell us how to get out of it.
Thank God this is not the only passage of Scripture. For the same Holy Spirit who gave us Psalm 1, telling us of the way of blessedness, contrasting it with that way which is not blessedness, speaks of him who is the way, the truth, and the life, by whom we may approach the Father and enter in initially to that place of blessedness, sins forgiven by his grace, reconciled to God, the Holy Spirit now indwelling us that we might be enabled to meditate in the law of God day and night and thereby be like trees planted by the rivers of water. For the Lord willing, next Lord's Day evening, will take that verse. His delight is in the law of the Lord.
Rejecting these three things, what occupies his mind? What occupies his life? And I trust the Lord will teach us something new of what it means to meditate in his law day and night. Let us pray.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
The second and third negatives: not standing in the way of sinners, not sitting in the seat of the scornful
Christ's example of holy involvement with sinners without standing in their way
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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