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Man, Psalm 19, we have two great sources of truth, really the two only sources of absolute truth that there are in this world. At the beginning of Psalm 19, God talks about how the natural world declares the glory of God, and then later he changes gears and talks about the Word of God, the Bible itself. And these are the two sources for absolute truth, that which we can actually see and observe in the real world, and that which is written in the Word of God. Now why do I say that? Well, obviously the things that we see and experience in life are real, right? We're really here, we're not living in some kind of a simulation or something. Obviously the things that are out there, the trees, the rocks, the sky, those things really exist, they're really there, and when we look at them we can learn something about God, we can learn something about the world that we live in. And then also when we read the Bible, it is every bit as true as what we can see, feel, smell, touch, and hear out there in the world. Let's jump into this here, beginning in verse number one, the Bible reads, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Now one of the things that we see when we're reading poetic sections in the Old Testament is that the poetic device that the Bible uses is called parallelism, where it'll say everything twice. So it starts out by saying, the heavens declare the glory of God, and then it restates that same thing in a different way. The firmament showeth his handiwork. What's the firmament? It's the heavens, it's the sky. Day unto day utters speech, night unto night showeth knowledge. So you can see these little parallel couplets that go together. And it says there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. So what is the Bible saying? That at the end of verse two, we can gain knowledge from observing the phenomena that we see out there in nature, whether it be the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky. And these things all point to the Lord and glorify God. Now if you would flip over to Romans chapter one, keep your finger here in Psalm 19, and let's go to Romans chapter number one. In the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Look at Romans chapter one, verse 20. And in fact, let's back up a couple of verses just to get a little bit of context. But it says in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. And so the Bible is saying here that it's possible for anyone who wants to, to learn about God, right? Whoever wants to know the truth can find the truth. The Bible says, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. And the Bible teaches that anybody who is actually looking for the truth and searching for the Lord is going to find him. And so that which may be known of God is out there to be seen, yes, in the Bible, but also even in the natural world. We can also learn knowledge and gain truth from nature itself. That's why the Bible says in verse 20 for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. The Bible is saying that God's creation shows us something about God, something about who God is. And consequently, because everybody lives in this world and sees all of the natural beauty and all the things that God has created out there, no one is without excuse. Everyone should know that God is real. And if they seek God, God will reveal himself unto them. And if they search for God, they will find him. That's what the Bible is saying. So nobody has an excuse of saying, well, I just didn't know, I didn't realize that God was out there. I didn't realize that I needed to be saved or that I was a sinner. No, all of these things are apparent from the natural world and that should point us to seek the truth. Then we get to the word of God, which gets us all the way to the finish line of salvation. Obviously, people aren't going to get saved just by looking at nature, no matter how long they look at it and no matter how sincere they are. But that is what plants the seed in their mind. That is what actually gets them seeking and thinking. They can know something about God that can lead them to greater truth in the word of God. Now, if you would go to Psalm 8, Psalm 8, we're going to be back in Psalm 19 throughout the sermon. Let's go back to Psalm 8 as well. The Bible said the heavens declare the glory of God. So when I go outside at night and I look up at the sky and see all the stars in the sky, that declares the glory of God. That's God saying, look how great I am. Look how magnificent my creation is. Now, today we live in an age of science where a lot of people think that science somehow replaces God or replaces religion, but nothing could be further from the truth because science can't answer the questions of who we are, where we came from, why we're here, the origins of life, what even does this all mean? They can't answer questions about the soul. And so science and religion have totally different roles and functions in our world. But the fact that we live in an age of science should actually cause us to believe in God more and seek God even more because we realize now that God's creation is even more magnificent than we had previously thought. You know, the Bible talks about the stars being innumerable. But if you think about it, what you can see with your naked eye, just looking up at the sky, it's about three or 4,000 stars. If you're in a place where there's not a lot of light pollution and you can really see stars, and you can go back and look at ancient star catalogs from the ancient Greeks or the ancient Chinese, and they'll catalog something like 3,000 or 4,000 stars. That's about what you can see. That's a pretty big number, but it's not quite innumerable. But now in the age of science, we know that the stars truly are innumerable, that it literally just goes on and on and on. I mean, there are just trillions and trillions of galaxies, and then each galaxy has like a trillion stars in it. It's just incredible. It's innumerable. No one has ever found an end to it. There doesn't seem to be an end to the universe, no matter how far you look in any direction. I mean, that declares God's infinite wisdom and the magnitude of God's creation that it's just so incredibly big, no one can even begin to wrap their mind around the size of it. What a glorious creation. And then as we, that's kind of the big picture, the macro. And if we zoom in on the micro, we find out that all of the living things on this planet turn out to be way more complicated than we thought. You know, some tiny little bacteria, some little scum, or some little tiny bug or something. You know, little did we know in time past that the DNA for that thing has billions of base pairs. Even in the case of one type of paramecium, hundreds of billions of base pairs in its genetic code. And so it turns out that even the simple life forms aren't simple at all. There's no such thing as a simple life form because even a single-celled organism is extremely, extremely complicated. And there's all kinds of amazing things that we're learning through science that should just show us the magnificence of God's creation. But to the hardened heart, they look at it and see something totally different. I mean, they look at the stars and they think like, we don't even matter. We're just a speck of dust, we're a cosmic accident. You know, I look at the stars and say, praise God. Look what the Bible says in Psalm 8, verse 3. When I consider the heavens, when I consider thy heavens, it says, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou has ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and honor. And so what is David saying here? He's saying, wow, when I think about how vast the universe is, it's amazing that God loves me. God cares about me. The Bible says that the very hairs of our head are numbered. And of course, David writes also in Psalm 139, that God knows every single thought that comes into our mind. And that God looks at us even when we're in our mother's womb, even when we're just developing and he is right there forming and fashioning us according to his will. And so God in his magnificence still cares about little old me and you. And so he says, what is man that thou art mindful of him? Wow, God's glory is so magnificent and I'm so small in comparison. And then it says this, it says, thou madeest him, verse six, to have dominion over the works of thy hands, and thou has put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. The very fact that God has put us over the works of his hands, over all of the animals of this world, also points us to the greatness and glory of God. You see, we're not simply animals. We are so much beyond animals. And it's not just because we're smarter than the animals or something like that. Because you could make the case that certain animals are pretty smart, right? And you could tell me all your dolphin trivia or whatever about smart elephants or smart dolphins or whichever animal you think is so smart, whatever the chimpanzee or whatever. You know, it's not just that human beings are just a really smart animal, really advanced animal. No, no, we are totally different than animals. We shouldn't be classed as animals. Why? Because we have a soul. Okay, look in the eyes of whatever animal you want. They're not having any deep thoughts right now, okay? Start with the chicken. Okay, look at the eyes of that chicken. There's nothing there. You say, well, you know, what about my dog? Yeah, your dog's thinking about how it wants you to rub its belly and how it wants a bone and how it wants to go for a walk and how it better not go to the bathroom in the carpet or it's gonna get its nose rubbed in it. Those are the kind of thoughts that your dog is having. Those are not the kind of thoughts that human beings are sitting here and even asking the questions, why am I here? Why do I exist? Where did this all come from? The dog doesn't care. The cat, the dolphin doesn't care. It just goes around, you know, just doing whatever, swimming around all day. It doesn't have some existential crisis about who it is or why it exists. Look, we as human beings, we ruled this planet for a reason because God created us to rule this planet. God put us over all of these things that we would have dominion from the very beginning to have dominion over the animals, to have dominion over the plants, to be the lords of this creation. And we are made in the image of God. And so we have these complex ideas and thoughts and feelings. And we philosophize because we are made in the image of God. Something that animals would never even begin to do, okay? It doesn't matter how many times the chimpanzee can push the right button for the banana to be given to it or something. That isn't the same thing as human beings. No animal on this planet uses language, period. You say, well, no, that's not, you know, birds talk to each other. No, they don't. Okay, birds memorize a song that they learn from their parents and they just keep doing that same song over and over again. Same thing, they don't compose new music. Now, every once in a while, they'll accidentally change something or it'll slowly drift over time. But they don't just sit there and just start just jamming on new tunes. And certain birds are really popular cuz they're kinda the hot artists of the year coming out with the best chirps, laying down all of these new chirping sounds. No, the difference between language and what animals do. Look, animals, they can only just have the limited vocabulary of just, you know, the bad guys coming or something. Or hey, there's food here or something. They can't put things together in new ways. That's what language is. Putting things together in a unique way. Expressing thoughts that have never been expressed before. You see, the sentence that is coming out of my mouth right now is a sentence that no other human being has ever spoken in the history of this planet, the sentence I just said. And you know the sentence that I just spoke before that? No one's ever said that before either. Nobody's ever preached this sermon before. Virtually every sentence that I've spoken in this sermon from the time I started until now is a unique sentence that no human being has ever said in the history of mankind. What are the animals doing? Repeating the same things thousands of times that they've heard before. They're just like a machine playing back something that they've heard. Whereas, I am coming up with new thoughts, new ideas, new sentences. Even the dumbest per, we could find the dumbest person in the world. We could just go find some homeless, drug-addicted derelict, and walk up to them and start talking to them, and the sentences that come out of their mouth will be totally unique. They will say things that have never been said before. They probably never should have been said before, but they've never been spoken. But an animal is just going to keep making the same noises and saying the same thing overnight, because it's not language. It's an illusion of language. It's communication, but it's not language. Language has the ability to mix and match and create new sentences every time you open your mouth. No animal has that ability. None. And so the fact that we are over the animals should show us that there's something else out there. We have something. We have a soul. We have a spirit that they don't have. We're not animals. And it's so deluded to think, well, we're just a primate. We're just a really evolved ape or something. It's absurd. It's false. It's a lie. People believe it because they want to believe it because they reject the God of the Bible. But the true story is that when we look at nature and we see these things, it should show us the greatness of the Lord, and we should see that we've been made in God's image, which is why he has made us the rulers of this planet. Look, if you would, back at Psalm 19. So the Bible said in verse 1, The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There's no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. He's saying, look, even the most remote tribe with a guy with a bone in his nose has heard the speech or the knowledge or the testament of nature, showing him that there is something greater out there to be learned, to be known, that God exists. And so everybody has heard this testimony from nature. There's no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the ends of the world, right? So everybody has seen these things and that's why all of mankind is without excuse before God, he should seek the Lord and find him. Then he kind of changes gears partway through verse 4. He says, In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. Now the them is going back to the heavens and the firmament. Tabernacle is like a dwelling place, it's where you live. So the sun is in the heavens, right? So he's saying in them, that is in the heavens, God has set a tabernacle for the sun. And then the Bible says that the sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it and there's nothing hid from the heat thereof. Now, if you look at these verses about the sun, you'll notice that virtually everything listed here about the sun is actually pointing us to Jesus Christ. And then actually the sun is a picture of Jesus Christ. If you would flip over to Malachi chapter four, and I'll show you what I mean. Malachi chapter number four, last book in the Old Testament is the book of Malachi. And in Malachi chapter four, verse one, the Bible reads, for behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven. If you find Matthew, it's right before Matthew, book of Malachi. The day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, sayeth the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name, shall the son of righteousness. Now notice that's S-U-N talking about the sun, shining in the sky sun. But it's used as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Under you that fear my name, shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. So in Malachi chapter four, verse two, Jesus Christ is related to the sun or the sun is a picture of Jesus Christ. Now this shouldn't really surprise us because lots of things in the Bible picture Jesus Christ. Like for example, Jesus is called the lamb of God, right? Jesus is called the lion of the tribe of Judah, right? So Jesus is also pictured by the sun. There are all kinds of illustrations that we could use to picture the Lord Jesus Christ. Every animal that's sacrificed in the Old Testament, the goats and the doves and the bullocks, in some way are pointing us to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Now, does that mean that we should bow down and worship a lamb or bow down and worship a lion? Well, in the same way, we should not bow down and worship the sun either. Because the sun is just a ball of gas out there, making a nuclear reaction. And we're not supposed to worship that object just as much as we wouldn't worship the lamb, the animal. But both of them picture Jesus and point us to Jesus Christ. Now, how does the sun relate to Jesus? Well, if we're there in Psalm 19, it said that the sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. And rejoices as a strong man to run a race. Well, both of these illustrations are used about Jesus in the New Testament. Because in the New Testament, Jesus Christ is known as the bridegroom. Flip over to John chapter three. In John chapter three, verse 28, while you're turning there, I'll read for you from Mark chapter two, verse 19. And Jesus said to them, can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those days. So Jesus Christ relates himself to a bridegroom there. Now look down at your Bible in John three, verse 28. This is John the Baptist speaking. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I'm not the Christ, but that I'm sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. So John the Baptist is using this illustration of Jesus being like the bridegroom. And then he's like the friend of the bridegroom. What would we call that today? The best man. So John the Baptist is saying, look, I'm not the bridegroom. This isn't my show. I'm not the Messiah. I'm not the Christ. I'm sort of like the friend of the bridegroom. Jesus is the bridegroom and I'm the best man is what he's saying. So we have multiple places in the New Testament where Jesus is likened unto the bridegroom. And of course, this is because of the fact that the husband-wife relationship is related to the relationship between Christ and the church. The Bible says husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it and so forth. So that self-sacrificing love that Christ had for the church is the same kind of love that we're supposed to have as husbands for our wives. And so Jesus is the bridegroom. So when we think about the son, it says in Psalm 19 that the son is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. Now, what do you think that means? A bridegroom coming out of his chamber. What would that draw to mind? Okay, obviously we're talking about the marital chamber. A chamber is like a bedroom or a room where you'd close the door. So the bridegroom is coming out of his chamber. Basically, he's been married and he has enjoyed the wedding night and now he's coming out of his chamber. What's he coming out like? He's coming out triumphant, rejoicing, happy. Or you could say like, well, I don't think that's what it means, Pastor Anderson. I think he's talking about before the wedding, he comes out of his chamber ready to get married. Great, either way, he's coming out whether he's ready to get married or whether he just got married. However you want to interpret this, he's coming triumphant, joyous. I mean, getting married is a pretty happy occasion. At least it better be. You know, if it's a sad occasion, maybe you should rethink some of your choices in life. But when you're getting married, you're supposed to be happy about it, right? It's supposed to be exciting. And so as a man, whether it's before the ceremony, after the ceremony, before the wedding night, after the wedding night, there's joy, there's rejoicing and there's triumph. It's a victory. Let's face it, dating can be difficult. You know, finding a spouse can be difficult. Going through that whole process and getting to that finish line of getting married is a challenge. And so it's a victory when you get there. And so the sun rises in the morning and it's a triumph. It's glorious, it's powerful, it brings joy and it's like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. Right? And you get that picture of what that refers to. Jesus Christ is someday going to return in power and great glory. And he's gonna rise, the son of righteousness. First of all, he already rose from the dead physically 2000 years ago, of course. Jesus Christ rose from the dead with healing in his wings but then he's also going to rise to the throne of David in the end times, right? In the second coming of Christ and he's going to rule and reign on this earth. And when Jesus Christ comes, it's gonna be exciting. It's gonna be the greatest wedding that you can imagine when Christ returns. And the Bible talks about it in those terms. And so we have Jesus Christ as a bridegroom. We have the son as a bridegroom. But then not only that, the Bible says that he's as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. Now I've done a lot of running races. Maybe some of you have done running races. And here's the thing about that. If you're not a strong man, you're probably not gonna rejoice to run that race. You know, there are a lot of times I've taken people on different hikes and excursions. And on certain hikes and excursions, I've told people, I've said, you know what? I'm guaranteed you're gonna be able to get it done. The question is, how much fun are you gonna have? You know, for example, when we go climb Camelback or something. I always tell people, you know, pretty much anybody can climb Camelback. Unless obviously they have, you know, physical problems or something. But you know, the average person can drag themselves up Camelback. And I say, you know, pretty much anybody can get to the top, but there's a difference between those who enjoy getting to the top and those who are just like, ugh, just dying and suffering, going through a lot of pain. But think about being well-trained. You're a strong man. You've done the training. You're ready to go. Man, it's fun to run that race. That's what all of your training has led to. And you rejoice as a strong man to run a race. And again, whether it's the beginning of the race or the end of the race, you're rejoicing. Why? Because it's the payoff for all that work and training and everything has come to fruition. You've gotten the strength. You're running the race. It feels good. It's fun, it's exciting. It's a time of rejoicing. And so the sun rejoices as a strong man to run a race. Because here's the thing, when the sun comes up in the morning, you know, there's no question of whether he's gonna finish the race that day. He never stops, right? And I'm saying he, obviously the sun's not a person. But the sun does not ever run out of steam or you know, so you think the sun's gonna make it the whole circle this time? It always does. It's reliable. It's always gonna do it. There's no question about it. It's power is unquestioned. And so the sign is there's a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. Well, guess what? Jesus Christ is the same thing, right? Jesus Christ is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. He rejoices as a strong man to run a race. Where do we see that in scripture? Go to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter number 12 compares Jesus Christ to one who has successfully run a race. Hebrews chapter 12 verse one. I'll start reading it while you get there. Hebrews 12 one. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sandwich doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us and who is our role model as we run with patience the race that is set before us? Who is that great athlete that we're looking to as our role model? And you know, you think about whether people are playing basketball or whether they're running or whatever. They typically have athletes that they look to as sort of role models or heroes or people that they look to. But when it comes to running the race of the Christian life, Jesus is the role model. He's already done it. And so it says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. He's already on the podium. He's already finished. He's already secured our salvation. He lived that perfect life that none of us could live. He went through all the pain and suffering of being a human being. He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin, he finished the work which the Father had given him to do. He endured the cross. He died on the cross. He was buried three days later. He rose again from the dead triumphantly and then he ascended up to heaven and he's seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. And he's already done it. And he's the role model for our own walk as Christians, our own race that we're running. Because the Bible says that Jesus Christ left us an example that we should follow in his steps. And of course he is the ultimate example of a human being because he was without sin. And so back in Psalm 19, it says, he rejoices as a strong man to run a race. His going forth, talking about the sun again, is from the end of heaven and his circuit, notice the word circuit there. What are we talking about circuit? Are we talking about electronics? No, when we see circuit, look at the first four letters there, right? Circle is what we're talking about. A circuit is when you go in a circle. And obviously the sun comes up in the morning, goes down at night, and it goes in a circle around the earth. Now of course we know that it's actually the earth revolving around the sun, of course. But from the perspective of us on earth, the sun is going around the earth once per day from our perspective, okay? So don't be pedantic. And so the Bible says here that the sun, lost my place here, the sun, the sun, his going forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it. And there's nothing hid from the heat thereof. Now think about that last statement about the sun. There's nothing hid from the heat thereof, right? Everywhere on this planet is touched by that heat from the sun. There's no part, it's not like the moon where there's like a dark side of the moon that does not ever get hit with the sunlight, right? The entire earth, because the earth is spinning, is constantly getting hit with sunlight. Nothing is hid from the heat thereof, right? The whole earth gets a taste of it. Well, if you think about nothing being hid from the heat of the sun, what does the Bible say about Jesus Christ? You don't have to turn there. But in Hebrews chapter four verse 13, it says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. So just as nothing is hid from the light of the sun, nothing is hidden from the view of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ sees everything, Jesus himself sees everything. So you can see how all of these illustrations about the sun, they all have to do with Jesus. They all ultimately point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that the sun goes down, you could say is a picture of his death, and then it comes up again the next morning picturing his resurrection, coming up in triumph, just as Jesus Christ triumphed over death. The light of every new morning is providing hope. It's a brand new day. Anything can happen. No matter how bad yesterday was, it's a brand new day. The sun's coming up, right? And the warmth is comforting to every person on this planet, even those of us in Arizona, where maybe the sun's a little too comforting. It hugs us a little too tightly. But we still love it, right? You better love it or else go move to Alaska or something. But what does this all mean? You know, those first verses there, those first six verses about the sun and everything, it's telling us that all of nature is pointing us to the glory of God. And ultimately, it's pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a source, according to this passage, of knowledge. We can learn truth. We can learn knowledge from the way the world works from the natural world. But there's a second source of truth besides just the natural world and what we see out there. But rather, also, there is the word of God itself as a source of ultimate truth. Look what the Bible says in verse 7. So right after it finished talking about the sun, it says, the law of the Lord is perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Now let's talk about a couple of those thoughts there. First of all, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. In order for the soul to be converted unto Christ, for example, in order for the soul to be saved it's got to be done through the word of God. Now, yes, the natural world testifies of God and shows God's glory and could get people seeking. It could get people thinking about it. It could get people hungering and thirsting for God. But at the end of the day, what's going to actually convert the soul is the Bible, the word of God. The Bible says, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You cannot believe on Him in whom you have not heard and you can't hear without a preacher. You know, you've got to have the word of God preached. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And when we say preacher, we don't necessarily mean a pastor. It could be any man, woman, boy, or girl who just speaks the word of God to you. And so you've got to have the word of God to be saved. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. It's perfect. There's nothing wrong with it. There's no defect. There's nothing missing. It's all there. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony, which is another word for God's word, whatever He testifies, whatever He says in the Bible, the testimony of the Lord is sure. What does that mean, sure? It means that just as I can be sure that this pulpit's made out of wood, because I'm standing right next to it, touching it, feeling it to know that it's made out of wood, just as much as I can be sure that the sun is going to come up in the morning, just as much as I can be sure that we're all sitting here today in this room right now, I can be sure that whatever the Bible says is right. It's a sure thing. It's not a hope so. It's not a maybe. No, the Bible is for sure. The testimony of the Lord is sure. And then it says this, making wise the simple. Now what is the simple? The simple man is not necessarily a bad person, but he just doesn't know much. He's not educated. He's not smart. He's a simple man, right? He only knows just the very basic things of life. He's not necessarily a deep thinker, and he doesn't maybe have a lot of wisdom or understanding about the world or knowledge about God or anything else. He's just a simple guy. Now according to the book of Proverbs, the simple guy can get into a lot of trouble. He could be victimized. He can be supplanted and deceived and tricked. And so you don't want to be a simple person. Now all of us start out as a simple person. So there's nothing necessarily wrong with being simple, but we don't want to stay simple, right? I mean, all of us, when we were three, four, five years old, we were very simple. We could be easily deceived. You know, this kind of number, we might fall for something like this or something, because we're just simple. We don't really know how things work, right? Some kid right now is like, whoa, what just happened? You know, we all started out that way, but the Bible says that we should be henceforth no more children. It's great to be children, but we don't want to be acting like children when we're 40, right? We want to grow up. And so we don't want to stay simple. Well, guess what? We want to become the wise man. And the Bible says that the word of God makes wise the simple. Here's what that means, that if you're not a super smart person, but yet if you start reading the Bible and start going to church and listening to preaching and learning about God, you're going to get smarter. Not only will you get smarter about spiritual things, which are obviously the most important things, you're going to get smarter about everything, because the Bible is going to make you smart, period. It's just going to teach you how to think and how to reason and how to learn. And God gives wisdom to the wise. God is the one who imparts knowledge and wisdom and understanding. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And so the Bible says here that God's word will make wise the same. It's sure, you can trust it, it's right. It'll convert the soul. It can get you saved. It can convert someone from being a heathen to a Christian, but it can also convert the simple man into a wise man. It can make you wise, make you smarter. You see, the Bible is ultimate truth. The Bible says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. God's word is the truth. Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. The Bible says the statutes of the Lord are right. So whatever God has said in his word about morality, he's right. You look at the Bible and say, well, I don't know. I'm looking at this law of God here. It just doesn't really seem right. You're wrong. You're mixed up, you're confused. God's right and you're wrong. What made you God to decide what's right and wrong? God decides what's right. If he says it's right, it's right. He determines what's right. Statues of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. You know, when I read the Bible and I read all the right things in the Bible, I get happy. I get excited. It brings joy to my heart. It makes me feel good. You know, I can't understand these people who are constantly being offended by the Bible. It's like, ah, can you believe the Bible? You know, they're coming from a place where they have like a messed up heart or a bad attitude or they're filled with pride or something, because for me, the commandments in the Bible, they do rejoice the heart. When I read this, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, I'm like, yeah, that's my experience every day. That's exactly how I feel. Reading the Bible, hearing God's judgment, rejoices my heart. Commandment of the Lord is pure. You know, what does it mean to be pure? It means it's totally unmixed or unadulterated. It doesn't have like a little bit of junk mixed in. Like, you know, you gotta kinda, when you read the Bible, you gotta kinda chew the meat and spit out the bones, you know. No, my friend, it's just pure. There's nothing to spit out, it's all good. Everything in it is right, it's pure. Pure truth with no error. And it enlightens the eyes. It really opens your eyes to where you can see the world for what it really is. You can see the Lord for who He is and you can see people for what they are. The Bible says in verse nine, the fear of the Lord is clean and enduring forever. And again, you could relate that to being pure. Again, it's clean. There's no dirt mixed in. There's nothing in there that shouldn't be there. It's totally clean, it's all pure and just what we need is there and nothing else. Enduring forever. God's word endures forever. I know it says the fear of the Lord, but the context here, we're talking about the Bible in general, so it's the fear of the Lord as taught in scripture. The fear of the Lord that we derive from the Bible endures forever because God's word will never pass away. The Bible says heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. The Bible that we have today is the same Bible that people were reading hundreds of years ago and when it comes to certain books, even thousands of years ago, what we read in Exodus and Leviticus, that's the same stuff that Moses wrote at Mount Sinai and you're reading the same stuff because God's word endures forever. It will never pass away. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. They're 100% right, morally right. They're just factually right. They're just right in every possible way and they're true. More to be desired are they than gold. Yea, then much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honey gone. I mean, you'd rather have the Bible than any amount of money. If somebody said, you know, trade the Bible for a billion dollars, what's a billion dollars gonna do for you if you don't have the Bible? What, you know, what good is that gonna do? This is the ultimate truth, wisdom, knowledge. This is more important. If somebody said, you know, I've already spent my whole life reading the Bible, but if somebody said, here, I'll give you a billion dollars but you can never read the Bible again, I wouldn't just be like, well, you know, I've read it so much, maybe I can just remember what I already read. Like, nope, this is more valuable. I'll take this. I'll keep this. I need to be looking at this every day. I need the whole thing. The part that I memorized isn't enough. I need the whole thing. I gotta have every word of God. Man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God. And the Bible says here also that it's sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. No food, no meal that you could spend all that money on is ever gonna bring you as much joy and fulfillment as reading the Bible. That's just a fact. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned. You know, the Bible also warns us not to mess up our lives and make serious mistakes. And in keeping of them, there's great reward. You know, if you keep God's word, you will be greatly rewarded. And then it says in verse 12, who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. You know, the reason the Bible says who can understand his errors is because you don't know what you don't know. And if you're in error, usually you don't really know it because if you knew it, hopefully you would straighten that thing out or fix that or change your thinking. Typically when we make an error, it's because we don't know what's right. And so we can't really understand all of our errors because if we understood our errors, if we understood every error, we wouldn't be making these errors or wouldn't be thinking stupid things if we had, you know, a right view on every subject. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. So that's why he's praying to God. He's saying, look, I don't understand all my errors. I don't know all the things I've done wrong. So please cleanse me of the things that I'm wrong about that I don't even know I'm wrong about. Secret faults, things that I'm doing wrong and I don't even know that they're wrong. You know, there are the sins that we know that we're wrong about and then there are the ones that we don't even know. Secret faults. And then he says, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. The presumptuous sin would be where we know it's wrong and we're, you know, we're just doing it anyway. You know, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Because it's a great or a big transgression to know to do good and to do it not versus the secret faults that we all have. No matter how hard we try, we're always gonna have secret faults. We're always gonna have errors. That's why it's stupid for people to think that they can become totally sinless. We don't even know what all the sins are. We spent our whole lives studying the Bible and then we learned that new things are sins that we hadn't even thought of being sinful because there's just so much in the Bible. And then he says at the end there, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. God sees our thoughts, right? The meditation of our heart. Just as nothing's hid from the heat of the sun, right? God can also see everything including our thoughts. And so when we look at this passage, we see two great sources of absolute truth, right? The natural world is a source of absolute truth and the Bible is a source of absolute truth. Now, there are people on both sides that would deny one or the other of these two sources of truth. On the one hand, there are atheists who would say, well sure, nature is a source of absolute truth but not the word of God, not the Bible. We're just are gonna look at what we can see in nature and if you can't prove it to me, I'm not gonna believe in it. I have to see it with my own eyes and I believe in science and all that. That's a serious error because there are just so many questions that nature is just never gonna answer for you. And scientists, they always think they're on the verge of discovering what life is or the origin of life but guess what? They're no closer to discovering that today than they were 50 years ago. I mean, think about all the scientific advances of the last 50 years. Think about all of the technology that has come out. I mean, if we go back 100 years, think about how 100 years ago, virtually nothing was known about DNA 100 years ago. I mean, now DNA is something that everybody knows so much about. Even just your average person probably just watched a crime show and knows more about DNA than scientists knew 100 years ago, right? I mean, we know so much about the intricacies of living things and that study has come so far but yet no one today is any closer to understanding what it means to be alive. Just look at a scientific definition of life. It moves, it eats things and reproduces things it changes, it, oh, you know, but you know what? That's not telling you what life is. That's just describing living things. Living things move and they metabolize energy and they reproduce and living things are constantly changing or evolving. That's all just a description of living things but that's not really telling you what life really is. Like, what is it that makes one thing alive and one thing not alive? Nobody knows, let alone the origin of life. You know, they love to talk about all of their theories about how this creature evolved in this, where'd the first animal come from? Where'd the first living thing come from? Every, well, it came from simple organisms. There aren't any, nothing is simple. And so obviously to disregard the Bible and just say, well, everything we need to know is from the natural world, well then you're gonna walk away just saying, I'm a glorified ape, we're a cosmic accident, we're stardust, let's eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow we die. And you're just gonna end up with just this meaningless life because science can't tell you why you're here. Science can't tell you who we are. Science can't tell you about the soul. Science can't explain to you what consciousness is. Science can't explain to you what life is. Well, we're getting there, we're almost there. You'll never get there because it's supernatural and you will never get there. That's why they're no closer now than they've ever been. They never will get there. But then there's another error where some people would say, well, the Bible is the only source of truth. I don't even care what I see in the real world. It's just the Bible. Now on the surface, this could seem appealing to some Christians to just say, well, oh yeah? Well, I just have so much faith in the Bible that I don't even care what I see with my own eyes. I don't even care what I physically can see, smell, taste, hear and touch because I just have that much faith in the Bible. Now on the surface, this might seem so pious and so holy and so righteous but actually this is a foolish viewpoint because God has shown us in Psalm 19 that we can gain knowledge, wisdom and understanding and truth from what we see in the world from God's creation. God has spoken to us in the word of God but he has also spoken to us through creation. Okay, now why is this important? Because if I see something in the real world and then I see something in the Bible and they don't seem to match up, then I'm interpreting one of those wrong because they have to both match up because both are true. The stuff that's out there in the real world is true and the stuff in the Bible is true and so therefore they need to match and so if I am seeing a conflict, then that means I'm understanding one of them wrong. Maybe I'm interpreting the Bible wrong or maybe I'm interpreting the evidence that I see out in the natural world wrong but there should never be a conflict between what we see in real life versus what we see in the Bible and in fact, if you're a Bible-believing Christian, you go through your life following the Bible, you know what you're gonna find is that the word of God keeps happening in real life and you keep seeing it happen all around you in real life and it's constantly confirming the truth of the Bible. You know, when you read the Bible and it tells you things about marriage or about child-rearing or about relationships or about business, you'll find that those things actually happen that way in the real world. You know, when the Bible describes to you what sodomites are like and then you go out in the real world and see what sodomites are like, they're just like the Bible said, they'd be in the Bible. Now, sometimes people are like, well, no, because I knew this really nice, but here's the thing, you're interpreting the evidence wrong. You have a superficial viewpoint. You need to look a little deeper, my friend, because eventually if you actually study these things and look at these things and observe these things, you will find that the Bible rings true again and again. You know, I saw somebody said a while back on Facebook, they said, hey, if the Bible said that the moon were made out of cheese, would you believe it? And all these Bible believing Christians are like, yes, absolutely, yeah, whatever the Bible says, I'll do it. But here's the thing, if the Bible said that the moon were made out of cheese, then the Bible wouldn't be the Bible. You know, the reason that we believe the Bible is because the Bible's true and righteous all together. It's pure, clean, right, true. If it said some kind of crazy things like that, then it wouldn't even be the Bible in the first place. But these people thought that it was virtuous to say, well, no matter if the Bible says that red is blue, I believe it. If the Bible says that the earth is flat, I believe it. You know, it's stupid, okay? The earth isn't flat. The moon's not made out of cheese. Now, of course, the Bible does not say that the earth is flat, and the Bible does not say that the moon is made out of cheese. Obviously not. But the point is that our view of reality and our view of the Word of God should match, or we're interpreting something wrong, and don't get this idea that says, well, I just care what the Bible says, and I don't care what's happening out there in the world at all. Well, you know, you should care about both, okay? Now, obviously, in the end, if I'm a little confused on something, I'm gonna lean more heavily on the Word of God because it's probably easier for my eyes to deceive me or for me to be wrong about things in the physical world than I am wrong about things that are clearly stated in the Bible. But at the end of the day, I believe both. I wanna believe in both. God has spoken to me in both ways. God does not expect us to just ignore all the evidence around us and just believe the Bible. I mean, think about people that are in false religions. That's what they do. They ignore evidence that proves their religion wrong. Yeah. Right? I mean, how can Mormonism even exist in the age of the internet? Right, right, amen. But it's like, nope, they don't care what the evidence says. They know what they felt. I mean, when Joseph Smith created his Book of Abraham from Egyptian hieroglyphics, before hieroglyphics could have been deciphered, and now the hieroglyphics have been deciphered, and it turned out that the so-called Book of Abraham had nothing to do with Abraham, it's just some random Egyptian dude's last will and testament when he died. I mean, shouldn't those kind of facts matter? But then it's funny how we would expect the Mormons, if they see that one of their holy books has just been 100% debunked, you'd expect them to change what they believe, wouldn't you? And not to be an imbecile who would just say, well, I believe it anyway. I believe every Egyptologist in the world is wrong. And that Joseph Smith really did translate these hieroglyphics. You'd say, you're crazy. It doesn't make any sense. But yet then, are we gonna do the same thing? Where we're just gonna ignore what we see in real life, what we see in the real world, when it comes to interpreting the Bible? Also, when it comes to matters of Bible prophecy. Obviously, when we're interpreting Bible prophecy, the main thing is, what does the Bible say? Right? But at the same time, shouldn't we kind of look out the window and see what's going on in the world, and then maybe that could enlighten our view of Bible prophecy a little bit? I remember I was arguing with another pastor one time about Bible prophecy, just a friendly argument. And here's what he said. He's like, and I'm showing him all the historical things. I'm showing him what history shows us. I'm showing him what's going on in the world today. And here's what he said. Yeah, but if you put all that aside, and if you're just on a desert island, and you'd never seen any history book, and you'd never heard anything about anything, and you were just reading the Bible, wouldn't you kind of see it my way? And I'm just like, that's not how you, that's not the right way to read the Bible though. I mean, we do have life experiences. We do see things. We do learn things. We do understand things. And you know, the Bible brings up historical things. Like, it'll tell you, hey, you know, this happened when Augustus Caesar is reigning. This happened when Tiberius Caesar is reigning. This guy is Teatroc of Galilee. You know, it gives us those things. So there is a backdrop that these things really happened in real life, in history, in the world that we live in. And so, you know, for example, there are two doctrines about end times. One of them says that the world's getting better and better and that more and more people are gonna come to Christ until pretty much the whole world is pretty much Christian. And then there's another, that'd be called post-millennialism. And then we have premillennialism, which talks about how basically the world's gonna get worse and worse. People are gonna turn away from Christianity, and then Christ is gonna come and judge the world and so forth. Now here's the thing. The Bible clearly teaches premillennialism. But not only that, we could just look out there and see, is the world becoming more godly, more Christian, or not? And the answer is it's not, okay? And so therefore, that should give us pause. That should come into the equation, shouldn't it? Things that we actually see in real life. And you could apply this to tons of different things in the Bible. And I'm all for the Bible being the final authority. Amen, the Bible is the final authority. Yes, the Bible is absolute truth. Yes, at the end of the day, this is where the argument starts and stops. But at the same time though, I'm gonna look outside and if I see something, I'm gonna bring that into my understanding of the Bible. And I'm not just gonna say, well, no, no, no, that matters. Don't talk to me about it. Don't mention DNA to me. I just wanna see what the Bible says. It's like, well, wait a minute though. Isn't God speaking to us through the natural world as well? Isn't God also showing us something through his creation? That's what the Bible says. And so Psalm 19 is basically talking about the two books that God wrote in a sense. You know, there's the book of nature and then there's the book of the Bible, right? And these are two ways that God has communicated with man. And they both have their own role and you don't wanna just discard one for the other. You know, you don't ever have to check your brain at the door when you walk into Faithful Word Baptist Church. You don't ever have to suspend your disbelief at Faithful Word Baptist Church. Nobody's expecting you to ignore any evidence, ignore what you know, ignore what you learned over here or over there. No, because you know what? The truth fears no investigation. The Bible can withstand any scrutiny. And if you hold the Bible up to the real world, the Bible's gonna match. Because the Bible is true and the real world is, well, it's real. And so therefore, they're both gonna match. So I'm not afraid to compare the two and I'm not afraid to say that both are ultimate sources of truth. I'm not like, well, they might conflict so I better just say it's the Bible. Oh, they might conflict so I better say it's just the natural. No, no, they're both. They will never come into conflict. And if they seem to come into conflict, it's because we are misunderstanding something. And so the Bible and nature should both bring us closer to God. The Bible and nature should both motivate us to want to know him and to wanna serve him. That's the right way to look at nature and that's the right way to read the Bible. It should be bringing us closer to the Lord. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you also for your magnificent creation, Lord, and we pray that you would just open our eyes, that we would behold wondrous things out of your law. And Lord God, help us also to gain wisdom even just from looking at animals and plants and the natural world, Lord. Bless us now as we go our separate ways and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.