Psalm 1 is very individual. It's a picture of the believer's life. Psalm 2 is the big picture of the Lord's rule over the nations. And ultimately, this man in Psalm 1, the only perfect one, is Jesus. But in him were to be this. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." And then there's three readings in the New Testament or the New Covenant. First is Philippians 4 and verses 8 and 9. Philippians 4 and verses 8 and 9. Finally, brothers and sisters as well, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things. And the God of shalom, the God of peace, the God who brings fullness of blessing, and even the God that brings fullness of true happiness, will be with you. And in the book of Galatians chapter 5 and verses 16 to 26, Galatians chapter 5, beginning at verse 16. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law, nor the words of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warned you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. And finally, the text that is the structure for this whole conference, Romans 12, and verses 1 and 2. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual or logical worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Now I'm going to give you a little different translation of that at the end, but this is the ESV version. And the grass does wither, and the flowers do fade away. The word of our God stands forever. To which you say together, amen and hallelujah as well. Our God, how could we not say amen and hallelujah to that? The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. And we bless you for that confidence in you, our sovereign God. And we confess and we believe that you do not need to say anything else to us. We have a completed scripture, but we do pray for the Holy Spirit to take your word, opened and applied, and transform us, fulfill what you have said, sanctify them through your truth. Your word is truth. O God of truth, make us to be what we were not before we even came to this service, we pray in the glorious name of the great change agent, Jesus Christ, confirming that we desire to be heard as we say together, Amen. Hallelujah as well. Amen. Please be seated. Pastor Taylor, I made a suggestion yesterday. I know you want to raise funds for the Machen Conference Center. Suggestion, you don't need to give me royalties. Get a recording of people singing in this room and make sure Anna's playing the piano or singing a cappella too, and sell it as Machen music. How's that? But you gotta charge for it. Not a few people, and here I'm talking about non-believers, secularists, have commented on the ugliness of the modern world. The ugliness of loneliness, the ugliness of sadness, the ugliness of misery. You see it in music. the volume by Martha Bayless, who's not opposed to popular music at all. She really has a, believes in a goodness of a fusion of different types of music. But even she has admitted that in her book, Whole in Our Soul, the loss of beauty and meaning in American popular music. And she even speaks of that change toward barbarianism beginning in the 1960s and now being pretty much on steroids in much of that music. In art, Michael Lewis wrote an article recently, Yale's Art Department Commits Suicide. And he was commenting on a Wall Street Journal editorial that included these words, Yale has succumbed to a life-draining decadence perpetrated, this is my Apple watch, I don't know what it is that's triggering it. But the devil has all kinds of ways to work, doesn't he? The Lord's in control, gives him a long leash. Succumb to a life-draining decadence perpetrated by a band, this is the Wall Street Journal, of hyper-educated Visigoths. Movies and television. And you need a heart change, Apple Watch, that's your problem. She can stay alone, I'm not gonna let her bother things. We used to say in our family worship, the Lord had control over all things except the phone system, because the phone would invariably ring during family devotions. Movies and television, in which decadence is just all over the place. Social media, that in many cases is anti-social media. When you have to write a book to Christians Telling them the way, the things they ought not do because they blast one another in social media. You see decadence even in the Christian community. A certain ugliness in manners and the treatment of other people. Or the treatment of other human beings in themselves. The treatment of the human body. In 2004, the Tufts Daily from Tufts University had this article. This is almost 20 years ago. The loss of beauty in which the writer speaks 20 years ago of the triumph of the outer over the inner. How much more the loss of beauty today? I've never been able to figure why a beautiful woman or for that matter a handsome man, but especially a beautiful one, putting tattoos all over her body and defacing it. The ugliness that comes in our culture. The reason for that is because of the loss of the good. The loss of the beautiful. Why is there a loss of the good and a loss of the beautiful? Because of the suppression of the source of what is good and what is beautiful, which is God himself. God is a good and a beautiful God, and if you suppress that truth and unrighteousness, then quite frankly you'll have a lot of ugliness. This message, the fourth in the series of The Church Before the Modern Watching World, is on the goodness of biblical absolutes. along with the other texts that were read today. Psalm 119 is a beautiful exposition. It's an opening up of the beauty and the goodness of biblical absolutes of the word of God. But our particular text today, Romans 12 and the last part of verse two, let me give you the new Shishko translation, okay? Although Professor Murray would agree with this as well, so I'm in good company. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your logical, your reasonable, your spiritual service. Don't be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind to the end that you might approve, you might discover, you might find out, you might learn by experience, that you might prove by experience, that you might prove by testing that the will of God is good and pleasing and perfect. Let me say it again because I think that's probably the closest you can get to the original language, to the end that you might approve or prove by testing or to discover or to find out or learn by experience that the will of God is good and pleasing and perfect. The will of God, not the will of God's decree here, the will of God's precept. We had a man in Franklin Square, he loved the bumper sticker, the will of God is the word of God, and that's what they're talking about. What the word of God says is good, Romans 7 and verse 12, Paul says in particular, the law is holy and just and good. and what is pleasing, and what is perfect, or what is mature. And you realize we're dealing with a very immature culture. Potty jokes were things that little children would tell and blush. Potty jokes have become pretty much the standard of our culture, and that's immaturity. And man's and woman's inmost being, Christian or not, cry for these things. I didn't read the book, but I read a review of a book by feminists, secular feminists, in which she was dealing with the demise of manhood. And she said, even if toxic manhood is bad, it's better that than no manhood at all, which is what we're facing. And even she cries out for something good and pleasing and perfect. And in fact, in our culture, as decadent as it is, there is an innate revulsion at social perverseness. Someone takes a weapon to a school and shoots up children. And quite frankly, drag queens. Our whole culture, unless it's got a vested interest, sees that this is twisted and perverted. It's not good and pleasing and mature. So let me speak with you in this time that we have, and we will be done our worship at 1230. I want to speak with you about the goodness and beauty of biblical absolutes, but I'm not stopping there. The goodness and beauty of biblical absolutes. This isn't going to hurl Bible verses at you and say, this is good and beautiful. It's the goodness and beauty of biblical absolutes lived out in union and communion with Christ. I'm not done yet, even with that. The goodness and beauty of biblical absolutes lived out in union and communion with Christ, who is the truth. by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the language in Galatians. We walk and let us keep step with the Spirit. We walk in the Spirit. We're filled with the Spirit. The goodness and beauty of biblical absolutes lived out of union and communion with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, there's no way I'm going to get through all of these, and I will keep the time limit here, but I'm reminded I'd heard a very He's long since gone home to be with the Lord, but an Irish preacher. And boy, this man could preach. He was a Presbyterian, and he was used to field preaching. And he, boy, that man could preach. And I remember hearing him say more than once, I know you say that I don't complete a sermon. Well, I'll give you the outline, and you'll go home and finish it yourself. So without the accent, he was wonderful when he would read the scriptures. He'd say, God, I'm in heaven itself. Beautiful Irish brogue. And he'd get done, and he'd say, and the Lord shall stamp with his own divine seal of approval and blessing this reading from his infallible book. Let's stand on our feet. You don't do it for prayer. I thought, man, don't even bother to preach. That's a sermon in itself. So anyway, here we go. So I'll give you, we'll cover as much as we can, but these really are important. The goodness and beauty of biblical absolutes lived out of union and communion with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Number one, and this is not in a pecking order here, but for a lot of reasons, I think this order is a good one. Number one is marriage. Marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church. Isn't that amazing? All marriages, Muslim marriages, Buddhist marriages, Christian marriages, they're all reflections, in one way or another, of Christ and the Church. What is marriage? This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. And there's no doubt that a happy marriage and a happy home is an earlier heaven. There's no doubt about that. And a good marriage is beautiful. And our culture can do all it wants to try to come up with something better, and it fails. Open relationships. An open relationship is that I'm married to somebody, or at least I'm living with one person. But I feel free and she feels free to go out and, at least for a time, live with somebody else. And this is freedom. This is supposed to bring happiness. You read the Jean-Paul Sartre and his followers who promoted that, and they're miserable. There's jealousy, there's anger, there's bitterness, there's resentment, and it's ugly. Whereas the marriage of one man and one woman, in fidelity to one another and in love, showing Christ in the church, is something that's good and pleasing and perfect. Now, I realize I'm dealing with singles. And the next one is the beauty of singleness. Just to comment on marriage to you who are single. You marry someone, you better be sure that other person loves Christ more than you. Or you, you're marrying an idolater, and there is a self-destructive power to idols, and you don't want that. Make sure you marry someone who loves Christ more than you, and you see how the Reformed faith is what? It's the development of what that means. that you love Christ more than yourself. But here's the second reason you get married, is that you can serve Christ better together than you can as a single. That's kind of number one in my premarital counseling. You can serve Christ better married to this person than you can as a single person. You've got to ask that honestly. So anyway, here's the second. Marriage is beautiful, and it's not number one beautiful, but it's first on my list. Here's the second one. Singleness. I am thrilled that you singles have come to this conference. I'm thrilled that you're here. I know something of what it's like when you meet people you don't know, and you gotta get out of your comfort zone, and you may feel a little bit awkward that you're single. I thank God you don't. I'm thankful you're here, and I want you to know that my honor is to be able to minister to you as a married man, but to minister to you. The evangelical church and reformed churches do not deal with singleness the way they should. I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verses 32 through 40, and I want these verses to sink in, and I want you to think about them maybe a little bit differently than you've done. There may be, and believe me, if you've read something that has done a full treatment of this and you found it helpful, please let me know. But I frankly have read little about singleness that is really opening up something about this text. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and beginning at verse 32, Paul, who was a single man, said, I want you to be free from anxieties. That's what the word means. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife. And that's not something to laugh at. That is what it's like. Happy wife, happy life. A husband is to give himself for the good of his wife. He's anxious about that concern that's legitimate in this world. Doesn't mean worldly sinful. It's true in a created world to please his wife. And his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman, someone who is to become married but is still single, is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit. Not to lay any restraint upon you. He's not making a law here, he's talking about a principle. But to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. And again, if you know of an exposition of these verses you have found as a single person to be helpful, please tell me about it. I haven't found one. Now here's what I want to suggest as a way you look at this text. I'm assuming that all of you who are in here have trusted in Christ and He is your Savior and your Lord. You're not single. You are married to Christ. What is a profession of faith? I take you, the Lord Jesus Christ, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want. Isn't that what it is to be a Christian? Isn't that what it is to have Christ? You have Him, and everything that He has is yours. You're even made partakers of the divine nature. Well, it's marriage. He has you in His house, and He provides for you. That's marriage. He cares for you. That's marriage. He has things that He expects you to do. That's marriage. None of you in here is unmarried. Now, in the case of some of us, and this is where it's legitimate to be married twice, we have two spouses. We have our earthly spouse and Christ. And incidentally, I tell people, and I don't want to be misconstrued here, this is the one place it is legitimate for a man to marry a man, because you take Christ as your Lord and your Savior. Now the text makes sense. When you look at it that way, The one who is married, look at the language, is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman, look at the same language, is anxious about his or her husband, Jesus, the things of the Lord. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. So Paul's language here is the language of not ultimately being single, but being married to Christ, or being married to Christ and another earthly partner. Now, this, something that really, and I'm really not the one to spin this out, but this needs to be developed far more. Because reformed churches have so often emphasized marriage and family that singles have felt like second-class citizens. I don't think that's intentional. I don't think that's intentional at all. But it can be communicated unintentionally, and it's not right. And I suggest to you the book, Women of the OPC, I think it is. There's a number of those women who were single. The one I think of is Dr. Crate Reitkirk. who was a nurse, single, fully satisfied in the work that she did. Was she lonely? Yes, at points, but she had a church, a community, and she had a lot of families. The Lord takes the solitary and sets them in families, and Dr. Ray Kirk would say, I have families around the world. I don't want a family. So something like that, Dr. Craig Reitkirch, in the evangelical world, Dr. John R. Stott, who went home to be with the Lord, who was single all of his life as a pastor, and he probably has done more, at least from a man's perspective, in talking about how he could be freer to serve the Lord in that role. And one of my favorites, Dr. John Skilton, who was a professor at Westminster Seminary many years, who was just the epitome of grace. When you were with Dr. Skilton, you didn't know if you were with a man or an angel. He used to say, what's the definition of a stalemate at Westminster? It was John Skilton and a Korean trying to decide who should go through the door first. He was that epitome of a gentleman. He has a house on Olney Avenue, the Skilton House. And that whole house was given over to ministry projects. Dr. Skilton had one little room. I don't know if he had a bathroom of his own, but he had a room there. But he loved the fact that his family was the people that lived in that home and ministered to others. So there's beautiful examples, and I commend them to you. Singleness to the glory of God is a beautiful thing, and it is very easy to make an idol out of marriage. You get the right person and your marriage will be a foretaste of heaven. You get the wrong person and it will be a foretaste Okay? Singleness, beautiful. And I esteem all of you in here. And I love the fact as I chat with you, I know there's bouts with loneliness. You have a family in the church. You're not lacking family. And the Lord sets the solitary in family. It's a beautiful thing. And you know something of what it is. Yeah, you have bills to pay and you have concerns. I know that. But the fact that you are freer in various ways to serve the Lord and you're gratified in it. Praise the Lord. That's wonderful. Number three, the Lord's Day Sabbath. We're talking about the goodness and beauty of biblical absolutes lived out of union and communion with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. I love when Ken mentioned the other day, don't focus on the negatives on the Sabbath. I hope you don't say, well, these are the things we don't do on the Lord's Day. I'm sorry, I'm not going to be very attracted to your Lord's Day Sabbath. What's the Lord's Day Sabbath? It's a foretaste of heaven. It's God bringing a little bit of heaven into earth. Don't you sense it in the fellowship of the saints here? I hope you sense it in your church that you're in. The preaching of the Word of God, it's now mediated by the minister, by the scriptures. In glory, it'll be immediate. It'll still be the Word of God. The breaking of the bread, the Lord's Supper that we have here, I love to tell people, it's a foretaste of heaven. And again, I want to be very respectful. And remember, don't be iconoclasts in these things. Don't go back and say, Pastor Shishko said we need to have the Lord's Supper every week. I didn't say that. I wish you did. People say, well, it'll get old after a while. And of course, your line is, well, you say that about preaching? Our experience has been, and I have to admit, this is a struggle here for me. but I in principle believe it should be a church that has the Lord's Supper, not a gathering like, but that's neither here nor there. It's a foretaste of heaven. You know the most remarkable statement in the New Testament about Christ's work? Jesus gives the story of the master who bids his servants come and eat at table. And the master serves them. He's talking about himself in glory when the God-man serves you at the marriage supper of the Lamb. You can't make that up, folks. Those are the glorious things of the Scripture. But the Lord's Day Sabbath, rest, the reality check, the book by John Jefferson Davies, worship and the reality of God, And he does it in a very academic way, but his point is basically this. The statement has been made that God is glorious. God's glory is, the word actually in the Hebrew is weight. God is weighty. And a commentator on the current evangelical scene who wrote the same book five times, but nevertheless good stuff, he said, in our culture, God is weightless. And it is. He sits very lightly on even evangelical communities. The Lord's Day Sabbath, God is weighty. There's the reality of God in everything in our worship. That's why you pray to that end, a minister preaches to that end. That's not ponderous. It's glorious. The Lord's Day Sabbath ought to be a beautiful thing, because among other things, it's a frontal assault on distraction in the world. I have one day in seven that I don't have to be bothered with all these other things, except so much is necessary, so much is for works of necessity and mercy. But I love to be able to focus on Christ in heaven. I love it that there's one day in the week that I remind myself again I died, My life is hidden with Christ and God, and I keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. You start thinking about the Sabbath that way, and it'll change. Memorable Sabbaths. First one was when I was in college and I didn't know much about the Lord's Day Sabbath and ended up working with a church in Atlanta and there was a Dutch family, an elderly Dutch family, and they were the first ones to teach me about the Sabbath. You always went to their home. That was your family in Christ. We went to their home and the wife served. It was never really a fancy meal, but it was a significant meal. And we would talk about the sermon and the Christian life and about Christ and grace. And it was a foretaste of heaven, especially with these elderly saints. And then, I'll never forget, they'd say, okay, now, the wife would say, now, you ladies, because we had men and women in the group, you ladies, you go to that part of the house and you get a nap. And you men, you go to this part of the house and you get a nap. And it was yes, ma'am. You did. And then you had your coffee and whatever it was before, and you went to worship. beautiful. Another family on Sunday evenings who would come in, I didn't have a family in college, and every Sunday evening when I was in the town that I was in and not in elsewhere, you always came over to the house in the evening to be with the family. And again, it was the discussion of the day and what you were, and it wasn't artificial, what you'll face in the week and the time of prayer, beautiful. But I'll tell you my most memorable one. I was in Canada, and I was in a reformed church speaking up there, and the couple that had me over for lunch, it was a husband and wife and probably four or five children, it was a Dutch couple. And they lived in a trailer on a farm, very humble place, but very neat. And I remember we had peanut butter and jelly and some kind of a soup and a very hearty bread that she had made, and that was it. But boy, was it good. And the conversation was that he was a man, I don't think, he'd never gone to college. I don't know that he'd even finished high school. But I asked him, but he assisted the farmer, and he'd been brought up with farms, and he'd been brought up with animals, and he was reformed. And so this is a holy thing. And I said, tell me about your work as a farmer. He was an assistant, but as a farmer. Tell me about your work from the perspective of a Reformed Christian. Boy, do I wish I'd recorded that. His view of what you saw when you turned up the earth was a declaration of the glory of God and the way the plants grew in its seasonal way and the joy of harvest and the weariness. I learned more about the glory of God and the work of farming from that on the Sabbath. So, there again, and you can develop that the way, but see, form and freedom, when you get to the point, everything on the Sabbath, I gotta do this, I gotta do this, gotta do this, gotta do this, gotta do this, change your schedule a little bit, folks. And maybe instead of every week going to the nursing home, and I'm not taking that away, maybe doing it once a month and get one Lord's Day where you're at home and you invite your neighbors to come over and say, we want to get to know you a bit better. And yeah, you do have family worship. People say, well, don't you feel odd when you have family worship, when you have guests? I know they ought to feel odd because they don't have family worship, right? So that's what I mean. But the beauty, so you can get done a Lord's Day, say this is beautiful. This is good, okay. Work, I hinted at it, and your calling. That's the other half of the fourth commandment. The Protestant emphasis on vocation. Whatever work you do, do it heartily unto the Lord and not unto men. Don't you look down on any work that people do that's holy work. I'm not joking when I tell you this. I will tell you my favorite workers. Sanitation directors. We used to call them garbage collectors, but in New York, it's a sanitation director. I love those men. I love that they pick up our trash. And when I have an opportunity to talk with them, I'll say, you know, Your work grows out of the base of historic Christianity. And these guys have got tattoos all over, and they've got the rings in the nose, or they look at you like, where are you from, buddy? And I say, no, I mean that, yes. And I'll say, you know where your work originated? In a place called Geneva, Switzerland, where a man named John Calvin told the city council, you want to have a reformed city? You get these streets cleaned up. And that helped change a culture. Now that's not salvation, but that's the glory of God. And in the schools, when I had a Bible study in a public school, I loved to see the security guards. And I would say to them, you're as much of a minister as I am. Eventually they got it. But the Bible says that those who are in authority, and they were, they were to protect the school, they're ministers of God to us for good. And so I esteem you for your calling, and I did. And you do it too. Okay, so the goodness of vocation. Waiters and waitresses. A good waiter and a good waitress, you know what a waiter on tables is? It's the basis for a deacon. A diakonos is a waiter on table. We would take, in our pastoral theology class I do in Franklin Square for MTI OPC One night, we would take them to an Italian restaurant Oh, and if you want to come to Long Island, it is the best Don't go to an Italian restaurant in Manhattan You don't get food as good as King Humberto's in Elmont Wonderful place And so we would go there, and I'd say, now here's your assignment You watch these waiters And you see how they wait on table, and they weren't believers Most of them were Roman Catholics, and you talk with them about the Lord and so on I don't know, but anyway, but watch them And tomorrow morning when we meet, tell me what you've learned about waiting on table Number one, they learn your name Number two, they find out, in our case, they knew what we want What you needed, do you have any food allergies? They made sure you had water at your table They came to check, is everything okay? I was left saying, it's not okay. I said, it's great. But they were concerned to serve you individually. That's a high calling and esteem it. Believe me, again, you want the church before the watching world? People who esteem their hairdresser, their barber, the sanitation directors, and grounded in the scriptures, okay? Number five. Revelling in God as he makes himself known. That's a beautiful thing. That's the first, second, and third commandments. Revelling in God as he makes himself known. Over against a vacuous spirituality. And don't you get, you know, this one. We get it in New York all the time. Well, what church are you? Well, I'm not religious. I'm spiritual. Well, number one, you are religious. I want to find out what your religion is. I'm an atheist. Well, say, then you have a faith that there's no God. That kind of a thing. Well, I'm spiritual. Say, no, no, no, no. You don't want to be spiritual. Why not? Spiritual means I'm open to anything. So is a garbage can. And I say it gently, and I smile. But it's true. Whereas first, second, and third commandments, where the commandments are good, right? And we're talking about what is good. meditating on the Word of God, God's attributes, the things where God has put his fingerprints in creation, your baptism, where God put his name on you. And making that intercourse with God in all of those things, that fellowship with the supernatural, to make that very natural, that incidentally is part of Dr. Machen's brilliance. He took the supernatural and yet he communicated it as the most wonderful of things in the world. And that's a beautiful thing. Why do you think that even unbelievers, when they hear the word God, have a certain gut reverence for it? It's because God is beautiful. And God's work is beautiful. Sin is not beautiful. But what God does cleaning up sin is. And you communicate to the watching world that God is the most glorious of all, if I can use it, objects. Probably not correct. He's the most glorious of subjects. He's the most glorious of beings. The most wonderful of beings. The love of Christ is the greatest of all loves. And you take the supernatural and communicate it as real, done rightly. That's beautiful. Roman Catholics in our area who have a certain God-fearing character, but they don't really know much about the love of Christ, are fascinated when you take these things they hear about in their church calendar and you speak of them as being real parts of your life. And I've seen it. There's an attraction to that. Again, we're dealing with the goodness and beauty of biblical absolutes lived out in union and communion with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We're talking about the will of God, that when you test it, you do it, it's good and pleasing and perfect. Let me give you the rest, and then we'll close. And it's the Ten Commandments. Respect for authority is a beautiful thing. It's kind of hard when it comes to governmental authority. You work through that. But let authority begin with parents. Over the years, in nursing homes, dealing with people who never had a visit from their own children, that's ugly. It's not good. It's not pleasing. And the heart knows it. The nurses knew it in the nursing home. Believers or not. The Bible says, if anyone doesn't provide for his own, he's denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. That's talking about parents. And that care that you give, and I know there's a place for nursing homes and assisted living, you gotta work this out, form and freedom, you show piety to your parents. I don't know any other place where you have something like this. If anyone does not provide for his own, beginning with parents, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. the beauty of that kind of piety, respect for life, all lives, the lives of those whose bodies have been deformed for various reasons, the bodies and the souls of those who are autistic, have Down syndrome, a culture that wants to dispense with them. No, no, no, you have a tremendous respect and love and giving for that. Johnny Erickson, thank God for the way the Lord used that woman. She became a quadriplegic when she, preparing for Olympic swimming, she dove into a pond, pool, whatever, broke her neck. Been a quadriplegic since early years in life. God has used that woman to draw attention throughout the world to the needs of the handicapped, and it's a beautiful story. See, the good, the pleasing, and the beautiful of respect for life is life. Respect for sexual purity. The objectification of women, treating them as sex objects, creates an ugliness not only in sexual intimacy, but it creates an ugliness in the women who've been treated like garbage. the respect for sexual purity in all that you meet, your wife, your daughter, brothers and sisters in Christ. And I've wondered with ministers that have sexual relations with the younger ones in a church, you're to treat them as sons and daughters in Christ. And that's beautiful when you do it. You have sex with your son or your daughter, and that's ugly. The beautiness, respect for sexual beauty, respect for property. Not only if I borrow your lawnmower, I'm gonna return it to you and it's gonna be in as good a condition as it came, full of gas. But respect for property in that when God has given you something, you share that with others. Let him who works, work with his own hands. that he may have something to give to him who has need. And in a selfish culture, where the unholy trinity is me, myself, and I, generosity is a beautiful testimony of what is good and pleasing and mature. And don't be jerks about the way you do it, you gotta pay your bills, but you be generous. There was a man, they called him mad, The more he gave, the more he had. And that's the way the Lord works. He'll test you. And the world sees this and cannot understand it. But it's a testimony to a watching world. Respect for truth, that's a beautiful thing. It's tragic, tragic, when nobody believes anybody about anything. But when you have someone say, that's a genuine article. He says, she says something, and they do it. What are you reflecting? Christ, who is the truth, in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen. In fact, I'll tell you quite frankly, you go ahead and just be honest in our culture, people still will not believe you. They can't believe that a person is honest, at least in New York. That's okay. The Lord smiles on you. Doesn't make any difference who frowns. Truth is a beautiful thing. When you say, as I had to do recently, at a store that we were in, I had a bag. You know, in New York, you gotta pay for a bag, believe it or not. I didn't bring my bag in for groceries. So I got one, I put it on the counter, and the man thought it was mine, didn't charge me for it, came home. I don't know what it would have been, a dollar or something like that. It bothered me. So I brought the thing back the next time I went, and I said, I didn't pay for this last time, that's stealing, and as a Christian, I've got to be honest. They think you're nuts, but I did give them a dollar. That's okay. What's good and pleasing and perfect, and the world needs to see it, and then last, and you develop these yourself. Always speaking the truth, but always in love, Ephesians 4.15. Contentment. I was chatting with Mary, who's here from Maryland, who works with mental health issues, and my hats are off to her. You can sink very quickly when you deal with that. I'm glad she's here for a break. And we were talking about anxiety, and I don't want to be simplistic, but contentment, folks. Our culture doesn't know about contentment. What's marketing? It's a science of getting you to buy something you never knew you needed, and you're never content. Never content. You shall not covet is beautiful, and it's good, and it's mature. And you'll find in your bibliography, I mentioned a couple of books, and there's a lot of them, but books, please don't, the books on the commandments. The commandments say, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. Okay, I get it. God's commandments, folks, they're road signs. You're on the way to heaven, and those road signs, they're not the way by which you get to heaven. They help you from going off the rails and enjoying the trip. That's the way you look. It's called a third use of the law. But study those things. And here's your phrase, and then we'll pray. Your phrase for this is holy and heavenly beauty. Do you have a holy and heavenly beauty? where people can listen to your speech, see the way you conduct yourself with others, see the way you work, see your attitude when things aren't going your way. Do you have a holy and heavenly beauty that shows that the Lord himself is smiling at you even if the whole world frowns or seems to be against you? That's so important for the church, for the watching world, Our world feels the flames and the sparks of hell every day. And those flames and sparks hurt and burn. Give them a little bit of heaven. Let them see from the Holy Spirit given to you, it's a down payment of heaven. Let them smell a little bit of the aroma of Christ. Let them hear a little bit of the language of heaven. Let them see something of Christ in you, in your work when you speak. So that they can say what was said of the disciples. They've been with Jesus. Our watching world really, really needs that beautiful outworking of the good, the pleasing, and the perfect. And you'll know it to be good. And you simply commit yourself to do it in union and communion with Christ, constantly filled by the Holy Spirit. Let's stand and let's pray. Lord, this is so basic. because it's really the basics of the Christian life. And it's good in itself that we are those who, by testing, show that your will is good and pleasing and perfect. But in an ugly world, in a lonely world, in a discontented world, in a world that is very defaced, what a powerful testimony this is. And so may we know the goodness of your own commandments for our lives so that we can say, oh, how I love your law and your gospel. It is my meditation all of the day. We ask all of these things in the good name, the good name of our wonderful King Jesus. Amen.