Address—Steve Bambauer
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I thought to look at a few.
Words from the 144th Psalm. And while you're turning there and reading that first verse, I'll just introduce this fellow named Augustine. Augustine, sometimes called Bishop of Hippo. Hippo around 410 AD.
One of the last.
Ones whom they so-called church. Early church fathers.
To give you some idea of perhaps what people were thinking about then, it's not very far from what we're thinking about now. I hope it isn't.
But thou, O Lord, whoever liveth, and in whom nothing dies, since before the world was, and indeed before all that can be called, before thou existed and art the God and Lord of all creatures, and with thee fixedly abide the causes of all unstable things, and the source of all things changeable, and the eternal reason.
Of all things reasoning and temporal.
Did you get all that?
Well, simply stated, he's saying that there is a first 'cause to all things caused and here we are.
This flies in the face of a lot of what you're going to hear today.
From those guys with letters after your name that stands up, that stand up on the podium even at the secondary level and at the university level.
To them, it's what they would call metaphysical naturalism or scientism or or particle ISM. That is meta is the grand story of something. Physics is atoms, the space between them, the laws of nature. And what then makes them dance? And here is our present expression goes all the way back, all the way out. We'll go all the way forward.
Metaphysical Naturalism.
They deny a first 'cause it doesn't fit in. And all of these other big words are only used to satisfy their desire to not have to deal with God.
And all these other big words that they use.
Or what they hide behind to deny first 'cause when we speak of first, 'cause here we see the creation of all things. The Greeks had four steps for something to come into being.
That formal cause, efficient cause, material cause, and final cause.
The formal cause is that it's in the idea of somebody's mind. Somebody's going to make a Greek tribe. Greeks did that.
These were ships. They were used for war.
They were there.
Instruments of warfare.
They had hoped that this tribe would be more effective than the Persian tribe.
We do things like that today, only the scale is different.
We develop weapons, we develop cars, whatever it is, somebody, Henry T they, he had this in his mind.
That's the formal 'cause it sends somebody's mind. We'll call that an intelligent designer of something.
The material causes what it's made out of.
Plastic, tin, wood, whatever it might be, the efficient cause is how the mechanic or the Carpenter or the designer puts the thing together with his hammer and his nails and his saw and his chisel and his drill press and this blowtorch or whatever it is that he needs for the job.
But the final cause is what is this thing for?
What are we going to do with this?
What is its purpose?
I know that some things that are made may not have a final cause.
But they all have a formal cause and efficient cause.
And a material cause.
But if you're going to do away with the first, 'cause.
You have no designer? Well, it just happened.
In the first verse of our 144th Psalm.
We're going to address the first 'cause if you will pardon me for.
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Using that.
Statement in reference to the God that is.
And I will tell you, by the way, that nothing in the whole history of everything that is.
Has just occurred without a first 'cause.
Efficient cause. Material cause.
And in God's case, final cause nothing ever just happened out of nothing. The odds of that happening are 00. Never has happened, never has been observed, never has been duplicated, replicated, or observed.
You know that if you program things back if you look at a couple of frames.
Scientific procedure of how things are going study if you raise and you program back to matter.
And the laws of physics at a point of singularity. And they label that The Big Bang.
Where it all started?
I say a point of singularity. All the laws of physics have broken down at that point. They don't work.
There is nothing material there. There is an intense concentration of energy. This is the theory.
God spoke.
And he said.
In Genesis 11 in the beginning.
God, the intelligent designer, the first 'cause.
He created out of nothing ex. Nilo out of nothing. All that is.
The heavens, space and all that's in them, and the earth, this little place where we live that is designed.
For our shelter, for our livelihood, for our existence, it's suitable for us.
It's miraculous everything is so fine-tuned to get us to this point.
The distance between the planets, the elliptical orbit of the planets around the sun, the distance of the earth from the sun, the distance of the moon from the earth, the orbit of the moon around the earth. All of these things have to be.
In perfect perfect numerical order for the whole show to work.
Evidence, I might say, of an intelligent designer, a first causer.
Bless it, be the Lord my strength.
Now David, he just in one sweep is the Psalm of David. David lived in the 11Th century BC, some around 10:40. Perhaps he began to rain.
That dates on this very a little bit. I'm not going to quibble about it, but I just want to give you some historical perspective because the scriptures.
Apart from, all contenders of inspired work have an historical background and take us on a timeline down through history.
They do that other pretenders came out of somebody's hip pocket while he was riding on the ground in some kind of utterance and some immanuances was copying down what he was writing, what he what he was saying when he was writing around there and they call it an inspired word. Not only is this.
Following an historical timeline, all of the events are coordinated.
So that in Leviticus 26, I think it's 10 or 11, you may eat the old store and bring forth the old store because of the new.
And so we look at the Old Testament and we see all these historical events and these activities that are happening and these ceremonies and these sacrifices, and then we get to the New Testament and we see how all of these things are fit together.
And it's written by 40 authors over 1500 years who didn't collaborate with each other.
Well, these are evidences and so David doesn't spend the 1St 10 minutes of his address here.
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Giving the evidence.
He accepts it and there are things that we do accept.
Intuitively.
Blessed be the Lord, my strength, now this God.
That I have just conclusively proven to exist.
As first 'cause.
It's personal.
Blessed be the Lord, my strength.
Which teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight.
The weapons of our warfare.
2nd Corinthians 10/5.
Are not of the flesh.
They're not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now get this, because a lot of what we're going to talk about in this 144th Psalm is in verse five. You're casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted exalted itself against the knowledge of God.
And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
We really need that.
This isn't nebulous. This isn't just, this is what we need. This is very practical. We need the Word of God, the Spirit of God.
To teach us, or we'll come up with all kinds of harebrained ideas.
And chase them right down to their end, which is the Pit.
These are the weapons of our warfare, typically in the Old Testament.
He teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight.
These little.
Opposable digital things we have at the end of our arms. They're clever. You button your shirt with it. Chimps can't do that.
You write letters with that, you invent things with those clever little things that you got.
Fingers and thumbs, these opposable digits. Chimps can't do it.
We speak to each other here. I am just bringing out these abstract thoughts. And you're capable of understanding these things. I don't know that I am, but you are. This is another feature of **** sapien.
Foreign to chimpanzees, they they tell me that chimps have 99% the same genomes as we do our species. You ever thought about how much you get out of that 100th genome? Here we are articulating gripping things, speaking to each other, dealing in these ideas.
More than that, chimps are not moral creatures.
But we are so that if God speaks to us, he's going to bore right down into our conscience. Can do that with a chance.
So what we read a lot of times in the Old Testament, we transpose to what is revealed in the new and make application of it. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're spiritual. And we need, we have some strongholds that we need to pull down.
Verse to my goodness, Oh my goodness.
And my fortress there is such a thing as good.
Metaphysical naturalism has no definition of good and therefore has no definition of evil, so there's no use there complaining about anything that happens. World Trade tower events, Columbine events, Katrina events, gratuitous evil things that happen out of nature. The whole world convulses because.
Of sin.
There is such a thing as good.
If you're going to take God out of the formula.
You're going to lose.
The ability to solve the unknowns in the equation.
And one of them we have here is good and evil.
No use even including it in your vocabulary.
Another one is purpose.
Another one is judgment.
You think about that? He is my fortress. Not just a fortress. My fortress. That's protection. My high tower. What a view.
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What a view of reality and truth we have.
In Christ, our high tower, giving us a perspective of what is reality.
Nowhere else. That's why David makes it all personal here.
My deliverer. We need a deliverer. We're in a hostile scene. The enemy came in and overthrew, and it's still being overthrown.
And God allows it to be overthrown, overthrown, overthrown, till it shall be no more, and he shall give it to him who's right it is.
Ezekiel, I think it's 2127.
There is an end to this.
But rather than clean up and people ask why God allows evil, the answer is He has not come yet in judgment, but He will. And you can be thankful he hasn't, that there is still evil here because it gives us opportunity.
We have another day of grace in the midst of this evil to make something out of our lives by accepting the provision that God has given in love.
Hightower What a perspective. My deliverer. We need to deliver my shield. We need a shield. We have the fiery darts of the wicked one when we need a shield. Here is Davidde, armor of faith, he in whom I trust he.
Person in whom I David.
Not the God in whom man puts his trust. More personal than that. He in whom I trust, who subdue with my people under me. Lord, what is man? David asked that question. And probably three or four different places in the Scripture.
It's been asked since.
Some have tried to engineer an answer. The English poet Alexander Pope. He said Know thyself, think not God to scan the proper study of mankind as man.
He got it wrong.
But there's something else that Pope said. This fellow lived. He was a Catholic in Protestant England, Reformation England in the early, late 17th, early 18th century.
Another thing that he said.
An honest man.
Buddy know it.
Is the noblest work of God.
That's true.
We're not going to set about ourselves to make ourselves honest and clever, perceptive, embracing truth.
We're going to have to pass through this article of repentance.
Repentance toward God.
That's the work that it takes to make an honest man repentance.
That's a hard work. In fact, it's too hard for us.
Spurgeon said be alright to quote Spurgeon here, Spurgeon said.
It is impossible for you to repent.
And the knowledge of that ought to cause you to repent.
Well, God is always sovereign, but in His sovereignty.
And every work of His sovereignty puts us in the place of responsibility.
I'll give you 2 examples, one in the old, one in the new. How did? How did we get?
A message from God in Deuteronomy 30.
We'll start at verse 11.
For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. God gave the word, What's the prophet of being a Jew much in every way to them, or given the oracles of God?
And it wasn't that they sought it out.
Or ask for it is that God gave it.
One of the historians, I.
Had studied under, said the Jews were a brilliant people here. Over in the Greeks you had polytheism, they had a lot of gods. Over here in the Hindus they had pantheism. Everything was God and the and the Jewish thought.
In their genius.
Gave us a sovereign, single God.
I don't think he got it right. The Jews didn't get that by inquiry, they got it by revelation.
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God gave it to them, they didn't get it from their own mind.
God is sovereign in revealing Himself.
Verse seven. That thou should say, Who shall go up to for us to heaven? Nobody did that. And bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that we should. That thou should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? Nobody has done that. Nobody could do that. We cannot part the heavens and discover God.
He reveals himself to.
Hagar in a heap.
Realize that when God met her in her distress, just as He meets each one of us in our distress, and we come to Him in our distress, in our need, in our want.
And in Genesis 16, she is out there with child cast out of the home.
Sarah is envious. Cast her out of the home.
And God presents himself to her. And her final statement is, thou art the God that reveals thyself. You may have learned that thou art.
Thou God seest me, the new translation says. Thou art the God that reveals thyself. This is vital.
Hagar wasn't even out there beseeching God, but God presented himself to her just as He does to each one of us. In our need. Not our philosophy, not our mind, but in our need.
And Hagar laid hold of it.
So see, I have set before thee now the word isn't very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. This isn't just here to contemplate.
That's here and it puts us in a place of responsibility.
God gives the Word.
Very detailed and intricate the way he goes about it over these many those many years.
Perhaps 1500 years of time, 40 different authors or so.
Beginning, perhaps, with Moses.
And here we have in our hand what a precious deposit.
And he puts them in the place of responsibility. That's what he says. See.
I have set before thee this day life and good. There's that word good again. Death and evil. There's that word evil again.
In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways and keep His commandments, statutes, judgments that don't. May us live and multiply, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land where the digestible asset.
Verse 19.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life.
That both thou and thy seed may live, and that is that you know I can do that for you.
Moms and pops can't do that for you.
Your brother and sister can do that for you.
This is directed to individuals.
Choose Life.
So they were put in a place of responsibility because of the sovereignty of God. Now go to the New Testament. You get the same quote in Romans 10, but it's a little different.
And it's right that it should be a little different after all.
The author of the book has liberty.
To take his paintbrush.
Just as my wife does as an artist. And maybe.
Add a few strokes.
To a painting that she's already done. I don't have the right to do that. To my wife's paintings. She does. She's the artist. And we're dealing with the artist of this book. And this is an artistic work, a very intricate and artistic work. You ought to read it sometimes and you'll find out that that's so, and I'm sure you do.
In Romans 10.
In verse 6, the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise.
Don't you be saying in your heart.
Shall ascend into heaven.
This looked familiar to Deuteronomy 30. Who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, because the whole Old Testament is pointing to that one.
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From above we didn't ask for him. He came. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, for God so loved the world he gave.
And the son willingly came.
And this isn't a reactive thing, it's a proactive thing. This is, this is, this is the councils of God. Before a stone was set into place, he knew what he was doing and what it would cost.
God is never caught by surprise.
Who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, Or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead?
God raised him from the dead, Jesus said. I lay down my life. I take it up again. He is quickened by the Spirit.
The Trinity involved God in three persons involved in the resurrection of Christ.
What's the responsibility here now then?
If there was a responsibility in Deuteronomy 30, certainly there is one here. When we get Christ, God manifest in flesh.
The word is nigh thee, continuing the quotation, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the Word of Faith. We receive it by faith.
As it is preached.
In the heart.
Not just the mind, although the mind is engaged. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength.
You don't check your mind at the door and you come into a gospel meeting.
You don't have to do that. Don't let anybody ever tell you that you do.
Here is the responsibility now.
We're not going to get off free for nothing.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. You're never going to be ashamed.
And that face which is that either the terror.
Of the whole world or the unspeakable joy of the redeemed is going to appear in one form or the other, depending on how you're going to deal with the responsibility that you have.
As a responsible human being before gone.
It says.
The mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Now we're the only ones that can communicate.
At least in the intricate way that we do. I know that animals have limited capability. I I saw where they were doing an experiment with, I was a neighbor, a chimp and they they were teaching at sign language and in some measure they could communicate with it.
But we're talking about totally different level here.
A gap that can't be breached.
The mouth confession is made unto salvation. Look down at this book. You're just this book you're holding in front of you at that verse right there. And what you'll notice is a whole bunch of little figures in definite order there. We call them letters of the alphabet. We have 26 of them. Some of them do double duty.
We have a complexity of figures to work with.
This is just going to be a brief explanation of communication just for the reason to give you. The only reason is to give you.
An impression of the complexity of what we're doing here and what you do, what you learn and do. Second nature. You will notice too that where it says for the Scripture saith verse 11.
The alphabet are put in an aperiodic sequence.
That is not just like periodic sequence like the periodic table is always the same might be BABABABA Bah Bah Bah Bah and from that we get Baba LON.
Confusion of speech doesn't say anything.
So it won't do to just put these down in a periodic way, but in a periodic way. And the letters weren't just taken in a handful and thrown on there.
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Complexity, and certainly.
Random.
But they have to be put down in a specified sequence as well.
For us to be able to read.
The scripture saith and all that it's saying in these many pages.
And then we.
To speak before we learn to write and read, and we take these sounds and we represent them by these letters of the alphabet.
And out come these words and these things that we're assimilating.
That we've been doing for 35 minutes.
With I hope.
Some integrity and meaning.
This is a marvelous thing. No wonder, David says. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Let's see, I was back in Psalm 144.
Man is like to vanity in verse 4.
Maybe an answer to his question in verse 3.
And man by himself is that way is empty. And Solomon recognized this vanity and vexation of spirit. Emptiness, no purpose, no end. His days are as a shadow that passeth away. And if he is without God, he is that way.
Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. And he did.
And he came down right to Calvary's cross, and the earth did quake, and the rocks were ramped. Touch the mountains and they shall smoke. This is the coming of Christ into the world. He has come down.
He goes to the cross, verse 7.
Send thine hand from above, rid me and deliver me out of great waters and.
How beautifully we had this morning that he entered into those great waters.
And now leads us by still waters. He calmed the waters.
Great waters to mold.
Tossed seeds.
From the hand of strange children.
They opposed him, you know.
Everything. How would you like it if you got up in the morning every single step you took?
The whole world was opposed to everything you said and everything you did.
That's the way he was here.
But he delivers us out of great waters.
All the waves and billows float over him.
Man whose mouth speak at vanity in the right hand is the right hand of falsehood.
Then he redeems us, the sovereign work.
We respond, Do we?
It's our response ability. He gives us all the tools.
By His divine power, giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who has called us by glory and virtue all those things that we have need of, we're not short changed.
We're singing a new song, the old song, vanity, shadows passing away, vexation of spirit, sorrow, grief. We're singing a new song and we're singing it unto thee, unto God. We did that this morning. Oh God, upon a psaltery and an instrument of 10 strings will I sing praises unto thee.
What a delight, what a privilege, what an invitation.
To remember the Lord in his death, in the breaking of bread, is praise and worship.
It's a salt tree. It's an instrument of 10 strings.
I remember a brother coming to meeting once with a guitar doing the Sunday school and he was played the guitar.
Al up in John Dahey.
He showed us that the I don't know how many strings, how many strings on the guitar, 5 strings, so they got to be in tune.
You strung that thing and if they're not in tune, it's not a very good sound.
And we're that way.
Our life has to be in tune.
Well, we happen to have a tuning fork.
This be it.
This tells us the mind of God and how to be in tune, how to please Him.
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He gives salvation to kings. He delivers David as servant from the hurtful sword. Then David says again, as he said in verse 11/7.
I just mentioned in that.
Psaltery, this instrument of 10 strings. I mentioned it before, it's in Mark 1230. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.
How are we going to come up and answer to that? Well, it's a command. It's the epitome of all the law.
It's the love of God that's going to capture our heart.
We are the subjective.
It's the wonder of God that will embrace our soul. Chimpanzees don't enjoy sunsets, by the way, or Beethoven's symphonies, or Mozart's sonatas. They don't do that.
I've gone out at the edge of the lawn and watched the moon.
Come up over the Sacramento River. This is a tremendous sight.
I've done this. We moved there when I was five years old. I've been doing it a long time.
I had a dog named Gus.
I take Gus outs. A good friend of mine, sit her down there. She perched beside me and I would say look at that guys. Look at that, Gus.
Could careless.
Oh, it's the wonder of God, why asketh thou my name, saying it is wonderful. Not just wonder, full of wonder.
All that our soul could wish. How about the mind?
One of the.
Unknowns in the equation that I have mentioned, if God is not on the right side of the equal sign, all the unknowns on the left cannot be answered is true.
You'll have no definition of truth. People run around chanting their mantra. Truth is relative. Oh, is that a true, absolutely true statement?
Does it meet itself going the other way?
Is that statement inclusive or exclusive? It's is it inclusive? It meets itself going the other way. You cannot use an absolute statement to prove a relative position. Truth is, is an absolute premise. Relative is a subjective.
Conclusion.
People say you can't.
There's there's not anything that you can know really. Do you know that for sure?
The truth of God will embrace the mind.
And we can take it, as they say, to the bank.
Strength.
Our will.
We're very intricate.
Instrument.
Heart, mind, soul, strength.
Able to articulate.
People who love, people who hate.
What about our will?
If the imagination gets into controversy with the will, the imagination usually wins.
Unless.
The purpose of God has captured the will.
If you really think about the purpose of God for your life.
What do you? What am I?
And I have to answer this thing. I have to answer this question.
You know, like the guy says. Is it pointing out three are coming back? Damn.
The purpose of God for me picked me up and redeemed me.
Do the strokes count?
What am I thinking I'm going to get away with? Maybe God won't notice.
What about the purpose of God? Is everything I do line up with that? And if it doesn't?
Does it matter?
Does it really matter?
What we're doing that doesn't count.
Verse 11 Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children. These are the guys with the letters after your name. They oppose you now.
The opposed Christ who went through the deep waters, there they were.
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In verse seven and now.
If I can apply it this way the same verse.
Same statement in verse 11 as verse seven, with the exception of the waters.
He went through those waters for us, but here we are now to represent Him and God has formed us or made us in His likeness and image. Likeness to communicate all this little intricate stuff I was talking about. God is a communicating God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is introduced in John chapter one as the Word is always the Word. He didn't become the Word in incarnation. He is always the Word because God in Trinity is a communicating being.
God is love. The Father loves the Son.
So rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children whose mouth speaketh vanity in the right hand is the right hand of falsehood. But you know that these guys when they present this with their grade book in one hand and all their all their epaulets and stuff on their epaulets on the on their shoulders.
They're very intimidating. Why? They hold your life in the balance. This great book is going to determine your income, eh?
And so they are intimidating. And besides, they've been around the block and they know answers. They have answers that they have formulated.
What if we come to today because God is not in the right hand of the equation, on the right hand of the equal sign, and He's the only being there on that right side of the equal sign. Turn around on this side.
Right side.
What do we lose? What have we come to? What are our resources? Secularism. No Religion.
We want to talk about God.
Will do away with the idea of God or God being just an idea. Will settle for that.
That's secularism.
That will be the abandonment of all morality.
You have nothing left on which to hinge moral action.
Pluralism.
All religions are the same. They only differ in their definitions of God, Christ, salvation, heaven, hell, redemption. Otherwise they're all the same. Pluralism will just put them all the same.
This is an abandonment of all reason. Secularism is the abandonment of morality. Pluralism is the abandonment of reason once you settle for that.
That all religions are the same. You've lost the ability to reason.
Because the truth is such that it cannot accommodate what opposes it. It cannot.
Succumb to the laws of non contradiction.
I don't know if you followed that.
That cannot accommodate what opposes it. If we understand this, we understand this.
In John 14, six, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. That is an extremely exclusive statement.
So there's no use saying in pluralism. Well, yeah, you know, I But, you know, here's the way we get to.
And all that stuff.
Whatever objections. Well, here's people that sincerely believe over in India and here are some people that sincerely believe something else and we don't want to ruffle anybody.
You just throw all reason out the window.
And the third thing that characterizes.
A life in 20th century man, 21St century man without God and we can't live without God is individualism. Families have broken down for the most part.
Our kids have had friends come over. We all sat down at the table and had a meal. They wondered what was going on. They said we never do this.
It's every man for himself.
Husband and wife apart, she does her thing, he does his thing. It's the breakdown of relationship. Individualism is the tragic breakdown of all relationship when it's taken to the end of its course.
This is what we're going to sacrifice. Morality, reason and relationships absolutely sacrifice when we take God out of our lives. That's why David says blessed be the Lord and my strength. He says, my God.
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We're going to have to, a brother said. Give up the lie if you expect to embrace the truth.
You will have to sacrifice the law. You cannot have it your own lost, fallen, degenerate way.
And still embrace the truth. And as children of God, you know that.
This is what you had to come to grips with to get in. It's called repentance.
Now the positive, the 11Th is the negative and you may have to go through certain occasions at school.
Maybe with your coat pulled up and your hat pulled down.
And it may not be your job description to stand up and challenge these people with the letters after their names.
Some people have the ability for that.
Their whole worldview paradigm way of looking at how things are is 180 out from reality.
But then verse 11, the defense, verse 12, the offense, the positive that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth, that our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace, plants grown up in their youth. A plant is productive, it may be, a flowering plant it may be.
A food plant.
It is serviceable for God and man.
To be a worshiper of God and a help to our brother.
Plants growing up beginning in their youth don't let it go and think you can put it off until.
You've chased around the block a few times in your hot rod.
Our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace. I went through San Simeon Castle. It's been.
Over 40 years ago, went through with the guide. It's down there on the coast north of LA.
Randolph Hearst built it. He brought stuff over from Europe. It's beautiful and some of you may have been through it. It's really beautiful and a guide took us through it. And sometimes you'll notice a sign says no spitting and the guide will. He may enforce that unless you do it behind his back. Then you see the beauty of all these polished stones in this castle.
Cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace.
I think that if you had a chance to go see this artwork, we'll call it the Mona Lisa, it's a classic.
If they hung that up.
In the latrine, at the football stadium or in the subways of New York.
People would come along and they would probably write their graffiti on it.
And this is not what we want, for our daughters to be exposed in such a way to this world that they will come along and write their graffiti all over you, or spit upon you or degrade you or take you down. You are precious, polished.
After the similitude of a palace. What a beautiful analogy.
That our oxen may be strong to labor. That there may be no breaking in or going out. One who breaks in steals, and one who goes out leaves it there.
I'll let you think about that and I'll not elaborate on it.
No breaking in.
No going out.
We locked the doors because we have our valuables in there.
That there be no complaining in our streets.
You know, for all we have, and I'm guilty sometimes.
Will complain, maybe to my wife, to the brethren, to one another.
Whoever we think is gullible enough to listen.
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We'll have our complaints and we'll think they're valid.
No complaining in our streets.
Our streets.
Fellowship.
Now we come to this thing that.
Aristotle.
Aristotle called. It's a Greek word.
It's the first word of verse 15.
And it's an attraction.
But you know, Aristotle, he was trying to figure out how you get to there.
We'd like to be happy. We would prefer to be happy than sad.
And so he proposed this course to get to it, and it's kind of intricate and it always seemed to be something that pursue was just carried on a stick. It was out there.
Happy will that people be.
Is.
We have no right to be unhappy.
Is that people you don't find the word very often in scripture. This is one of the few places.
Where Paul and Silas?
Dependent on circumstances for their joy and happiness. Could they sing in prison after having been beaten with stripes? Yes, they could. So this is not going to be dependent on circumstances. It's going to be dependent on our state of soul. And I hope that where we've got from verse one through verse 14 will be some tools that we can use to get us there happy as that people.
That follow Aristotle's plan, no.
That who have given up all truth.
And God and relationship. Oh no, no.
And you only have to look around to see the proof of that.
We don't have to prove this one with a formula. This is what works itself out in the experience of life.
Happy is that people? Who is in such a case? What case?
Verse one through 14.
You can go back over that.
Yeah, I say again, happy is that people?
Who's God?
Is the Lord Jesus?
Christ.
Hymn #192.