The Blessed Man versus the Ungodly Man

[Chris]

The Blessed Man versus the Ungodly Man

The Blessed Man versus the Ungodly Man
By Barbara Henderson

Psalm 1 gives us a contrast between the way of the blessed man and the ungodly. It says;

(1) Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

(2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

(3) And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

(4) The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

(5) Therefore the ungldly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

(6) For the LORD knoweth of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Today is a good day to choose if you are willing to walk the path of the believer who is blessed to the Lord, of if you will walk the path of the ungodly.

The first step onto the path of the godly is through salvation by grace. You must believe on Jesus Christ to be saved. (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. Acts 16:31)

The next step is to decide if you will live a life that ends like Lot's or like the blessed man in Psalm chapter 1

Verse one tells us that the blessed man separates himself from evil. He is like the man in Psalm 119:115 who says, 'Depart from me, ye evil doers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.'

The entire congregation of believers should separate themselves from evil according to the example of Nehemiah 9:2 which says, 'And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.' But, for an entire Christian congregation to separate themselves, the individual believer must first be willing to separate his or her self from evil.

The man who is blessed delights in the law of the Lord. Jeremiah 15:6 says, 'Thy words were found, and I did eat them: and thy word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of mine heart:'.

Every true believer wants to blessed of the Lord. The problem preventing blessings comes by at least two avenues.

First, the believer may have some serious problems in his own life. He may not want to be 'blessed of the Lord' enough to surrender sins in his own life. He may find it easier (at least for the moment) to fight his own battles than to surrender to the Lord.

The second avenue is more subtle. It is given to us in detail in verse one. The blessed man:

DOES NOT - walk in the counsel of the ungodly, The blessed man doesn't even walk near the counsel of the ungodly.

DOES NOT - walk in the way of sinners, The blessed man doesn't stand still long enough to listen to what the ungodly have to say. He doesn't go down the road them 'just a little way' in order to be sociable. He cannot be beguiled with their fancy words if he refuses to listen to them in the first place. (Think Eve here.)

DOES NOT – sit in the seat of the scornful. The blessed man does not join in with the ungodly for any reason.

ON the other hand, the ungodly:

DOES –listen to the counsel of the ungodly. He is willing to listen to whatever is 'new' or 'exciting'. Honestly, there is nothing new in the realm of religion, or anywhere else for that matter. Everyone faces the same lie today that Eve faced in the garden. You will either listen to the liars who say things like, 'you can be a god,' or this path other than the Jesus Christ leads to heaven', or you will just keep on walking like the blessed man.

DOES – quit walking and stop to listen to what the ungodly have to say. This man walks with the world a ways down the road. He sees the success of the worldly. He notices that he might apply their methods of success to his own life, to his church, to his business, to his family.

DOES - sit down and join the ungodly. Pretty soon, the ungodly have joined in with the world. If they were Christians to begin with, you can not tell them from those who belong to the god of this world. An example is of course Lot. He looked at the prosperity of Sodom. He walked down and considered their way of life and 'principles' of prosperity. He joined them. He became just like them.

This is how weak and ineffective preachers of the gospel come about.

They pay attention to what the world says about how to build a successful business and manage that business profitably.

They apply worldly tactics to the church.

They join in with the world, putting money and numbers above the grace and humility of Christ. They measure success by the measuring stick of the world which tells them they are successful if they bring in enough money.

This could not happen unless the leaders and members of the church were ALSO walking with the ungodly, standing still to listen to their 'siren song', and some have even joined the ungodly.

The blessed man: (v2)
Enjoys studying and learning the word of God.
He considers God's law day and night in every thing he does.
Then, the blessed man is blessed even more.
His roots have grown deep into the world of God. He knows right behavior from wrong behavior. He is prosperous and fruitful.

On the other hand – The ungodly do not receive these blessing, but instead are failures;

They are like wheat chaff blown away in the wind. This is a terrible way to live. They have no foundation on which they are able to stand. Political, social, and religious ideologies and changes keep them anxious about everything. They do that which is right in their own eyes.

They do not stand in the judgment, or in the congregation of the righteous. They have not submitted to God, but instead of established their own righteousness.

The LORD knows their ways, and they shall perish. Their end is destruction. If the ungodly are such as Abraham's nephew Lot, they are saved, but without any good works.

The ungodly face judgment day with fear.

The saved who have lived an ungodly life are spoken of in I Corinthians chapter 3. Verse 13 says, 'Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire: and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. (v14) If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. (v15) If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.'

Those whom God never knew are those spoken of in Matthew Chapter 25. Verse 46 says, 'And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into eternal life. Matthew 7:23, also speaking of the judgment, says, 'And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from, ye that work iniquity.'

What an unspeakably horrible way for a soul to end up. It becomes even worse when you know such an end could have been avoided.

If you think that your life is your business, think again. What you do does matter. How you live your life does count. Again, consider Lot. Just suppose that Lot had gone down to Sodom with a heart set on the Lord like Abraham's heart. Lot would not have conformed to the behavior in Sodom. He might have been able to change the mind set of some of the people of the city. Perhaps Lot's influence could have influenced at least ten people in Sodom to turn from their wickedness and turn to the Lord God Almighty. Lot would have been instrumental in saving the city.

So, is this a good time to consider how your life is going at the moment. If you are lost – then it is time to get saved. If you are saved, you are either living a life is clearly following the pattern of the blessed man spoken of in Psalm 1:1; or, you are not. If you aren't sure, here is a good way to decide.

Isaiah 58:1 says, 'Cry aloud, spare not, lift up they voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.'

The way you live your life is supposed to be so different from the life of the world that you stand out like a clear blast on a loud trumpet.

Unfortunately, many Christians are living such a half-hearted Christian life that the 'trumpet sound' of their lives tells the world nothing. I Corinthians 14:8 says, 'For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?"

That is what happened to Lot. He spent his life joined to the people and ways of Sodom. Many Christians today are doing the same thing on different scales. Some live just as worldly as Lot lived. Others are much less openly sold out to the world, but never the less, the sound of the trumpet 'heralding their Christianity' is so off key it only causes the people around them to hiss or ridicule Christianity. It does not prepare them to understand that must decide for Christ, or they have decided against Him.

If you put a bunch of Christians living the life of the ungodly together, and they all blew a trumpet with the skill equal to the way they live their Christian life, you would get the whole bunch of trumpets blowing loudly, but without a single pure note in the bunch. Can you imagine what an awful sound that would be?

Is it any wonder that Christians are not transforming the world when our own lives have not been first transformed? Christians should live their lives in a way that stands out like a loud and true trumpet. A figurative question for many Christians is, 'Is it time for you to learn to play the trumpet?'

The Judge of your heart is God. But it appears that at least two things are wrong in the heart of many Christians.

First, Christianity as a whole is lacking in humility and meekness. Moses was a mighty man of God. At some point Moses became humble enough to understand that he could not do anything through his own power. Then he became meek enough to understand that God could do all things through him. Moses still accomplished great things, but he knew by whose power his deeds were really accomplished. By the way, have you noticed that all the great men of the Bible made it clear that it was God who was doing great things through them?

Second, the saving message of the Gospel of Christ is often not presented with humility and grace. Our hearts are supposed to be broken over the lost. We are supposed to love them as Christ loved them. The Gospel message should not be presented in a manner that says, 'Well, you can just get saved, or you can go to hell.'

The blessed man should never forget Romans 5:8 which says, 'But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'

The song for this article is 'Just a Closer Walk With Thee'.

A closer walk with Jesus is what is necessary to transform the ungodly man into the blessed man. If you doubt it can be, remember the transformation of Saul, persecutor of Christians, to Paul, the greatest mortal to the Gentiles.

Thank you for reading my article. God bless you.

Barbara Henderson

[bluejay87]

How are we to touch or plant a seed with the lost if we do not allow ourselves to be amongst them, just curious.

[Meg]

This kind of thing is enough to tear a person to pieces. Its the foundation of prosperity preaching. We all know of plenty of compromised Christians and outright unbelievers who are in good health and have happy, prosperous lives. Then we either are ourselves afflicted, or know plenty of sincere Christians who are severely afflicted. I sat up last night and this morning in tears wondering what I did wrong. Should I cut ties with my best friend, to whom I am trying so hard to testify successfully, because she's not there yet? Would I hope, then, that that would help me be "good enough" to finally have some peace? For that matter, I live right next door to a very evil family. Do I abandon my mortgage and walk off to distance myself from them???

There have GOT to be better answers than that! Good grief, most of the NT wouldn't exist if Paul hadn't been willing to interact with sinners!

[mattfivefour]

The way you live your life is supposed to be so different from the life of the world that you stand out like a clear blast on a loud trumpet.

Yes, but not by striving to shine nor by standing apart on a hill, shining like a far off beacon ... but in the midst of the people, shoulder to shoulder with the lost and the dying, shining in their midst with a light that flows naturally out of our reborn hearts. This is the life of Christ within, the life that the Holy Spirit is able to form in us as we daily pick up our cross of absolute surrender.

[Elijah's Mantle]

Ive thought very heavily on the question and I have to agree with you meg
there has got to be better answers ,and you know what ? there is better answers

now this statement may in fact be true

The Judge of your heart is God. But it appears that at least two things are wrong in the heart of many Christians.

First, Christianity as a whole is lacking in humility and meekness.

That is true enough I find
my experience with the majority not saying all
is they have never learned to surrender to the one concept taught by Jesus himself in order to obtain a more excellent report so in having witnessed the dire lack of it, personally
It would stand to reason most are not of the blessed , as much as they would wish to be

Jesus Christ spoke of this power and as well lived it and taught it
The FORCE of NON-Resistance to evil
Jesus Christ said Do not resist evil , OVER COME IT WITH GOOD
what was Jesus saying ?
he was instructing his disciples to not show emotional reaction to evil and become angry at evil
yet he was in no way saying allow evil to have its way

Now you and I both know in order for any to overcome evil with good
they will need to have one essential thing living in them and dominating that life
the Holy Spirit

It is difficult to experience that a large majority of Christians just does not seem to have the ability
to overcome evil with good

we have all seen and known and mostly failed in that or know some one who has and lets face it people that say it but dont do it should not preach what they can not live personally ( I found that to be the case in fact with some who compromised their own message to me and other Christians they had influential power over , and Ive often said truthfully wow they sure made hypocrites of their own selves ) at least that was what was demonstrated by those particular Christians having words only but denying the power or proving the truth of the word by doing it toward others which defines a hypocrite essentially which is NOT of the Holy Spirit and marks the person as disobedient as well as totally ineffective when it comes to showing by example

Having to say all that it is evident that Jesus Christ was saying that evil has no power to stand on its own and so having no power Christians who are following Jesus Christ would know by the indwelling Holy Spirit which is how we overcome , that evil requires the emotional reaction to complete its purpose

Taking into account the Holy Spirit there is that uncomfortable truth regarding victims again
In which I myself have been on that end and its not a pretty picture , but I was also among the sayers who failed to over come any evil by doing good so they showed me just how hypocritical they could be and amazing thing is they also favored the negative rather than good I found
Jesus was our greatest living example and Humanly speaking, what is at one moment strong before the weak in terms of evil and its need for a participating victim will be weak before a stronger force. The stronger force being the Indwelling Holy Spirit which works

That is what enables Christians to be fearless and unruffled in the face of great evil and over come it
and also demonstrate it before others we dont accomplish that by a you'ns and us mentality of saint versus sinner

[Elijah's Mantle]

As a matter of fact I would wager any man or person who can not over come evil with good and seeks to call himself or herself Blessed is a person God would have little use for at all , in the soul winning department so they may as well resign themselves to a Monastery life which in no way would subject them to live or even be among most the populace of the world

[Elijah's Mantle]

The blessed man should never forget Romans 5:8 which says, 'But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'

The song for this article is 'Just a Closer Walk With Thee'.

A closer walk with Jesus is what is necessary to transform the ungodly man into the blessed man. If you doubt it can be, remember the transformation of Saul, persecutor of Christians, to Paul, the greatest mortal to the Gentiles.

Thank you for reading my article. God bless you.

Barbara Henderson

The finer part of what all needs to bear in constant remembrance
yet we Christians can not expect people to Love us as God does and should we expect it and most do we will find that instead of being Loved were forsaken and forgotten that's my experience with most Christians that claimed they loved everybody except that sinner Christians show more resistance toward than the average person yet do not have of their own selves the power to over come evil with good so for their own good not that of the sinner ineffective Christians should never attempt to walk among sinners why ? 2 things can happen neither being any more profitable to man or God than the other sadly to say

I thought seriously about this definition after I carefully weighed one in light of the other
Intolerant
unwilling to tolerate difference of opinion
and that is what is really getting Christians a real kick in the teeth
exspecially with hate crime laws being passed
Christians can not merely just profess a more excellent word to a lost and dying world
but not be willing to demonstrate it by action

I once was instructed to follow the over come evil with good principle
yet I found the same man who instructed it was totally incapable his own self to demonstrate it
and I found sadly in the end
for all the good that I would do or could
it would never outweigh the opinion of that same man
that he had toward me as well as others
needless to say his instructions was abandoned to the unwanted nuisance department
so he only demonstrated more over his unwilling ability to tolerate difference of opinion
I learned much from the experience and also what causes people to believe Christians are intolerant
they are looking for demonstration of the more excellent most find tyrannical laws of separation over inclusion
which could be said to be a Blessing to both parties seeing as how it takes the surrendered willing to be capable
of demonstration of instruction

[mattfivefour]

I once was instructed to follow the over come evil with good principle
yet I found the same man who instructed it was totally incapable his own self to demonstrate it
and I found sadly in the end
for all the good that I would do or could
it would never outweigh the opinion of that same man
that he had toward me as well as others
needless to say his instructions was abandoned to the unwanted nuisance department
so he only demonstrated more over his unwilling ability to tolerate difference of opinion
I learned much from the experience and also what causes people to believe Christians are intolerant
they are looking for demonstration of the more excellent most find tyrannical laws of separation over inclusion
which could be said to be a Blessing to both parties seeing as how it takes the surrendered willing to be capable
of demonstration of instruction

This is just another example of a man trying to act like Christ in his own strength. It is only as we surrender more and more to Christ and die more and more to self that the TRUE Christ-likeness is manifested in us by the Holy Spirit. Too often we, as Christians, continue to act using our own human emotions—human compassion, human empathy, human love—all of which are good in their way ... but so limited and flawed. And human emotions also include anger, bitterness, jealousy, etc. It is hard to turn some on and some off. But the nature of Christ that God desires to produce in His children by the sovereign sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within can only manifest the pure emotions consistent with God's perfect character: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, self-control. It is very tiring to try and manifest emotions we do not feel in order to "live up to" the expectations of others. But when we die enough to self to allow the character of Christ to shine through us, then there is no effort at all. We are often not even aware we have changed ... or, rather, that we have been changed. And we can have unfettered joy in the midst of persecution, unceasing forgiveness in the face of injustice, unconquerable love in the face of rejection and hate.

God wants us all to know that if we want to be able to live as Christ lived, we need to walk as Christ walked. (The NT verb "to walk" is a metaphor meaning "to live") That's why He included this verse in His Word: "He that saith he abideth in Him (Christ) ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 John 2:6) And how did Christ walk? By doing good ? Healing the sick? Casting out demons? Making disciples? Confronting religious authorities? Performing miracles? No. Indeed, He did all those things, but they were manifestations of His divine nature and His perfect heart. They were not the way He walked, the way He led His daily life. The way He lived was by Deuteronomy 8:3— "By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." That is what He told Satan (Matthew 4:4) and that is the way He walked, the way He led His daily life. Jesus walked in continual obedience and humble submission to the Father, and in continual communion and communication with Him. Dear ones, if we would ALL be willing to submit ourselves to God (and, yes, I am preaching to myself here as well), if we would surrender to Him to walk in that same way, we, too, would find Christ's yoke easy and His burden light. The road to Calvary was not the first time Jesus carried His Cross. He carried His Cross every day, signifying that He lived not to Himself but to the Father. If we walk in that same reckoning and in that same obedience, daily surrendering ourselves to God to do with as HE pleases, reckoning ourselves as dead to self and alive unto Him, our faith solely in the Cross of Christ according to Galatians 2:20, then we would find Christ's very nature being produced inside us and expressing itself through us in a witness that will have all of the power of Christ's (John 14:12).

[Meg]

Amen

[Elijah's Mantle]

Exceptionally awesome post Matt
That's precisely right on
and a great word of encouragement for all Christians
to fix their hope on the higher and that is Jesus

surrender is really very necessary

what ever self (me) does is garanted failure
what Jesus can do is guaranteed success

you are giving the real meat of the word Brother Matt

[Elijah's Mantle]

If we walk in that same reckoning and in that same obedience, daily surrendering ourselves to God to do with as HE pleases, reckoning ourselves as dead to self and alive unto Him, our faith solely in the Cross of Christ according to Galatians 2:20, then we would find Christ's very nature being produced inside us and expressing itself through us in a witness that will have all of the power of Christ's (John 14:12).

-------"You are not your own; you are bought with a price." —1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a

this part is so worth repeating I couldn't help but affirm it