Fundamentals, Foundation and Attitude

I'm going to share with you some of the material that I shared with the leadership. I told Mr. Kubik, by way of anecdote, I said, you know when I was a teenager, Mr. Armstrong used to say, I'm gonna handle all the trunk of the tree items and I'll let the evangelists and pastors deal with the limbs and the branches and the leaves. And that made sense. He was way older than all the rest of them. In fact, at 14 years old, he looked like Methuselah, you know, from that perspective. At the time, he was younger than I am now, which is scary.

But I said to Mr. Kubik, I said, you know, the older I get, the more I realize that if we're going to do a leadership seminar, we need to make sure everybody understands the basics. Because if you're going to be a leader, everything rests on the basics. What's above the basics, somebody can teach you. They can teach you visiting people. They can teach you speaking. They can teach you office management. They can teach you, you know, all of those things. But if you don't have the fundamentals in place, you're not going anywhere. You can be a great office manager. You can be very personable. You can have a likeable personality. You can be an excellent speaker. But if your fundamentals are not in place, you don't belong in the ministry of the Church of God. We agreed. I gave a seminar on character. I had a seminar set aside entitled, Character and Integrity, and another one that just didn't make sense. I said, look, these are 50-minute seminars. Let me divide them, give one on character and one on integrity, because they are very different things. Then I gave another one that was fundamental on the Sabbath, and that's the one I'll share with you today.

Probably 20 years or so ago, and the way time goes, it may be longer, I first saw Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. It piqued my curiosity. I thought, here's probably one of the most brilliant men in the world today. And a physicist, I'd like to see what he has to say. Those of you that have read A Brief History of Time realize by time you get about midway into the book, and from there on, it's not really focused on time. It's focused on the search for the theory of everything. And the Holy Grail to theoretical physicists is to find a way to unite two different fields of physics under one umbrella to where there is a common uniting principle that allows all of it to seamlessly work together and be understood. And it is for physicists the Holy Grail, finding that unifying theory, or as they refer to it, the theory of everything. The search for universals is not unusual or uncommon. We don't necessarily think of it that way, but it's not too far into your formal education that a teacher sits down with you and says, now, let's learn how to add and subtract thirds and fourths. And we become familiar with common denominators. And from then on, it doesn't matter how complex the fraction is, we simply back it out far enough that we eventually come to the place where they share something in common, and now we can do the math. So, universals, common denominators, they're bedfellows. And when you think of one, you understand in principle the other. We too search for universals, but because we are called of God, given His Spirit, and moving toward the kingdom of God, our search for universals is within the pages of this book.

What great universal will God use to determine if He is going to give us eternal life?

Can you think of a more important universal?

If your eternal life pivots on this, then there isn't anything more important. What great universal is God going to use to determine whether He will give you eternal life?

The whole Judeo-Christian world has searched for that universal. The Jewish portion of the Judeo-Christian world arrived at a place where they were satisfied they had found it in advance of the days of Jesus Christ, and nothing has materially changed ever since. If you go back to the great Jewish scholar of the Bible, the Apostle Paul, he will inform you in Romans chapter 2 of the Jewish universal. Romans chapter 2.

Paul begins in verse 17 to say, Indeed, you are called a Jew and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having a form of knowledge and truth in the law. From before this was written until this very day, the Jewish side of the Judeo-Christian world rests on the law. It is the universal.

I submit to you that it is insufficient to meet that standard.

Every single one of us here knows a reality. Because I ask the question, what great universal will God use to determine if He will give us eternal life? The law cannot pay for sin. And since all have sinned, as Paul mentions in this very chapter, then the law is not sufficient to give you eternal life. I remember in the broadcast in the early years when Mr. Armstrong or Mr. Ted Armstrong, either one of them, was trying to explain to the audience the difference between an Israelite and a Jew. Their way of describing it was to say, look, Jews are Israelites, but all Israelites are not Jews. We can explain it this way. Every Californian is an American, but not every American is a Californian. In the search for a universal, you would have to use that same sort of reasoning and say, look, the law is not going to get you into the kingdom of God, but ignoring and disobeying the law can keep you out of the kingdom of God. So it is not to diminish its importance, but it is not the universal. The Christian side of the Judeo-Christian world sees love as the universal. But is it? On this part of my message, brethren, I wish to be very, very precise. Is the universal essence love? The beginnings of history are only briefly covered in the Word of God, and there are just a few snippets of information. But those snippets of information put together a picture that says this. There was a time in the history of the universe where all was in harmony, all was in peace, all was in order. That love and law reigned. And yet they were not capable of keeping it that way. And it is in that sense that I suggest to you that love is not a universal or the universal, because there was a time where those traits were universal, and yet corruption still occurred. That leads to a proposition. There is a universal quality that affects all reasoning beings. And what we're going to do is to take a walk, a walk of discovery beginning at the dawn of history. We know, if I go back to what I alluded to earlier about the snippets of information, we know the Scripture says God did not create the universe in disorder. He did not create it in Tohu and Bohu. He created it in a state of perfection. We know, because it talks about the morning stars shouting for joy at the creation of the universe, that the angels had been created before the material universe. How far back in time we don't know. But God created thinking reasoning beings and allowed them to be present to see the creation of the material universe. Again, somewhere back in time, at a point that we don't know, God allows us to see an issue rise, and He allows us to see it in Ezekiel 28.

In Ezekiel 28, we are introduced in verse 11 to the king of Tyre. Now, it would only take us a verse to realize that this is a pseudonym, and that we are not talking about the man who wore a crown on the coast of the Mediterranean, ruling over the city-state of Tyre. And we know that by what is said here. Verse 12, Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. Now, that's a high statement for a human being. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Well, the king of Tyre was never in Eden. And so we're now beginning to understand, or we're getting the first bit of understanding, that we may be talking about something other than a man. Every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, diamond, barrel, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, emerald with gold. And the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. Now we know we're not talking about the king of Tyre. In fact, we know that we moved outside of the human realm altogether with the exception of Adam and Eve, because there are no humans who were created other than Adam and Eve. The next verse eliminates Adam and Eve. You were the anointed carob who covers. I set you in that position. I established you. All of us who have seen the workmanship of the tabernacle under Moses and the instructions for duplicating the throne of God realize that over the mercy seat which pictured the throne of God were two covering carobs. And he says of this being that you were in Eden, you were created, and you were anointed a covering carob. And that I appointed, or I established you, and you were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in all your ways from the day you were created. Till, one of the most foreboding words that you can add to a conversation, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within you, or within, and you sinned. And therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O covering carob from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. What are you seeing here? What are you seeing here? If we took every one of the things that we've described so far, iniquity was found in you. You became filled with violence. You sinned. Your heart was proud. You corrupted wisdom. What one word, what one attribute could you describe that would unite all of those together? Attitude. Every single one of these is an attitude of mine. God embellished this description in Isaiah 14. This time, rather than using a figure as a type, we saw Satan here was called the king of Tyre. And as I said, it didn't take us but a moment in reading to realize we weren't talking about the physical, literal king of Tyre. The term king of Tyre was used as a type because every descriptor was of a being who was not human, who had been to the throne of God, and whose position was literally named covering Carob. In Isaiah 14, God doesn't bother with type. He goes right straight to the individual. And he says in verse 12 of Isaiah 14, How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the morning? How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations? For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, and I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of the congregation.

What have you just heard described?

An attitude.

An abominable attitude. I will ascend to heaven. I will exalt my throne above every other created being in the universe. And, oh, by the way, I will exalt my throne above the throne of God Himself.

I will sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north. Who sits on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north? God the Father, and at His right hand, Jesus Christ. I will ascend above the height of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.

The last sentence of verse 14 should not be mistaken in its intent.

You know, we look in life at people of accomplishment, achievement, or character, and we say, I want to be like that person, and that's a compliment to that person. And so we use the term, I will be like, fill in the blank, in a complementary sense. This is not such. This is a statement that when you see me, you're going to see somebody functioning exactly like he's functioning. And in order for me to function exactly like he's functioning, you know what's going to happen? He has to move. And I'm going to take his place.

Among the qualities attributed to Satan is that of usurper.

This happened to be a case where he was not allowed.

There is no more foul attitude in the universe than the one who is described as the devil, Satan, the destroyer. Christ said he is a liar. He is the father of lies. He is a murderer. He describes every attitude that is despicable in the world today and gives as their origin this being who was once the bringer of light, the morning star, the covering carob. What essence changed him from light bringer and morning star to destroyer and adversary?

Attitude.

Have you ever studied the origin of human sin in the perspective that we are currently discussing?

I don't know how much I have to read to you because we all know the story. So, let me do more talking than reading. We all know the proposition God made to Adam and Eve. I've created a garden. I put you in the garden. It's yours. All of it's yours to do with as you want. I ask only two things that you dress it and keep it and in the middle of it is one tree that does not belong to you. Don't touch it. Serpent comes along says to Eve.

Plays on her naive side in this case by saying to her something that isn't true and that he knows isn't true and uses it to bait her into a conversation. So, he says, you know, hasn't God said to you that if you eat of any tree in the garden, you'll die? And she said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, that isn't what he said. He said, just that one tree.

And of course, we know the conversation that went on from there. Well, you know, God really is taking advantage of you. He's keeping from you the goodies, the things that will make you wise. Look at it. Looks good. Tastes good. You'll be smarter if you eat it. So she ate it and gave it to her husband. And when God came to discuss with them what had happened, it is attributed to Eve that she was deceived by the serpent. Adam is not given that pass. Adam is given a charge implicitly of being weak-willed. So to the woman, her sin was that she acted in a way that she was told not to, and her basis for doing it was deception. Adam did what he was not supposed to, and his basis for doing it was a weak will. At this point in time, sin entered into the human world, and all of us have sinned since that point in time. So we're all bedfellows together. Every single solitary one of us has committed sin. Now, beyond what I've just described, the Bible doesn't take a lot of time to sit and bother with Adam and Eve. It tells you the story, tells you how it started, tells you they were the first sinners, tells you we have followed in their steps. I'll just put it this way, and that's all the flogging of Adam and Eve that you get. God doesn't just sit and bang on Adam and Eve. It states the case and gets on with it.

Adam and Eve's two sons, Cain and Abel, are another story, a story which we also know. Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God. Cain's was not. Cain, as we say, copped an attitude because of the acceptance of Abel's sacrifice. God sat down with Cain and told him, "'Get your attitude straightened out, and everything will be fine. Keep your attitude, and it will destroy you.'" And this is the way he said it. Genesis 4, verse 6, "'The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?'" You know, God, the more you look at the fine points of God and His interaction with people, the more you appreciate God's beauty and His care and His tenderness. He's saying to Cain, "'Stop a minute and look in the mirror, and ask yourself, Why am I where I am?'" And then he encouraged him. He didn't begin with a scolding. He said, "'If you do well, will you not be accepted?'" He said, "'Cain, you're not my enemy. Cain, I don't have anything against you. Cain, this is not an irreparable situation. If you do well, you and I will get along beautifully. If you do not do well,' and even here he doesn't say, then I'm going to be all over your case, he says, "'If you don't do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is to own you.'" That's what that is saying. But he said, don't let it. You rule over it. A very encouraging father-to-son conversation that said, "'Stop and look in the mirror at your attitude, and understand something. This isn't the end of the world. If you will do what you're supposed to do, everything will be well, and I will accept you. But if you don't, you need to understand that this whole thing of the dynamics of the pull of sin, and the ability of anger to rule over you, will destroy you.'" And he says, "'It wants to, don't let it.'" Cain didn't listen.

You know who's become the poster child for sin? Not Adam and Eve. Cain. Look at 1 John 3.

1 John 3.

Verse 11, "'For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brothers were righteous.' Cain, by implication, was given the same attitude as Satan, who was of the wicked one. You know, God said, you can choose which attitude you wish to have. And if you choose to remain angry and resentful and retaliatory, sin will rule over you.

And he stayed there, and the father of sin is the, quote, wicked one. And so John simply says, Cain, who was of the wicked one, he chose which way he wanted to stand. He picked his attitude, and it happened to be the same as the one who had rebelled before him. And he did so because his works were evil, and his brothers were righteous. All we need to do is go a couple of books beyond 1 John to the book of Jude. There are a lot of dire statements in this very little book, a lot of proclamations against people on the wrong side of the page, going the wrong direction, warnings.

And one of those is verse 11. It says, Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. You know, you don't see the byword of the way of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve made a mistake. They got the credit for it. They got the credit for being the mother and father of sin. But when it comes to a way, it's their older son who gets the credit for a way. Woe to them who have gone in the way of Cain, that run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit and perish in the rebellion of Korah.

Jude used three poster children for attitude. Balaam cunning. Time after time, God said, I will not allow you to curse Israel. And Balaam saying, then I will teach them how to curse themselves. Korah, I don't even have to explain to him, Korah was, I'm as good as you are. Who makes you, you know, who made you think you're better than me? He had attitude written all over him. And of course, Cain has been our poster child from the time of the creation of mankind. Attitude, attitude, attitude. Didn't appreciate as a kid growing up attending Imperial High School that of all the things, and if you asked a kid, ask about kids in Imperial at my time.

Earl Romer and I were in high school together, and there were others who were grades below us that are in the ministry today. But if you ask of all the things that the faculty at the high school and the grade school harped the most about, what would it be? And either the kids could have told you. Bad attitude. Bad attitude. Can deal with mistakes, can deal with blunders, can deal with being stupid. You know, the statement, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. You can deal with all of those things. But a bad attitude is simply a very difficult thing to work with. My family moved to Pasadena in 1957.

I was 13 years old. I started high school. It didn't take me but a few weeks to know that there were boys and girls in high school with me that were there for the reason that they believed this way. Those that were bubble-head, they didn't know what they believed, they were just there. And those who were counting the days to when they could get out of there because they had absolutely nothing in common and their attitudes were written all over them.

I've shared with you enough times I won't even go there to my favorite attitude case, Ahab. I don't think Ahab ever passed two years old. Emotionally, he never passed two. When he wanted to pout, he pouted, and he pouted big time. I'm not sure if his wife was his wife or his nanny. And if you go back and read the case of Nablus Vineyard, are you looking at a man who needs a wife or a man who needs a nanny?

The nanny needed a nanny. You can go read that one anytime you want. In Israel, they decided they wanted a king, and Samuel was distraught. God said, give them what they want. They chose a man who was head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the entire nation. There came a point in time where God said to Samuel, I've rejected him. Don't pray for him. Don't fast for him. We are finished. Why were they finished? Why did God wash his hands, turn his back, and say, I am done. I will not listen to Saul again.

If you want the answer, all you have to do is read 1 Samuel chapter 15 verses 22 and 23.

And you know why God rejected Saul? Attitude. The famous scripture that says, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is an iniquity. What are rebellion and stubbornness? Attitudes.

You watch a kid plant his heels, set his jaw, and give you that look that says, make me. And it's just attitude written all over the place. Except that it's quite a disturbance. As a bystander, it is amusing to watch a two or three-year-old that decides, I'm not going to. And here's this midget. Tiny little harebrained midget. Looking up at somebody four and five times their height and easily that much their weight, saying, make me.

There's no logic in that at all.

You can't win it by size, you can't win it by weight, and you can't win it by speed.

But it doesn't change, does it? They still sit there. Make me.

Attitude.

In one sense, the greatest...

I'm trying to think of the right word to use. For lack of a better term right now, the greatest test tube for the study of this subject is the Book of Job.

I said to the group in just outside of Brisbane, we were on the gold, what is called the Gold Coast of Australia, I said to the audience at the Gold Coast, I said, you know, the two most spoken-on topics in the entirety of the Old Testament are David after a man's own heart and Job's problem. People wrestle with the story of Job and they look for the wrong universal. The problem in understanding Job is not difficult. It is simple. People are looking for the wrong universal formula.

The story tells us chapter after chapter that even his friends looked for the wrong universal. If you go to the last chapter of Job, chapter 42, God says, and I'm adding the commentary, God says, you three guys have spent this entire book looking for the wrong universal, and if Job will forgive you, I will forgive you.

Their formula was, look, Job, no one goes through what you're going through unless they're sinning. And the sooner you confess your sin and get it over with, the sooner all of this trauma will end, and they flog him for the majority of the book.

The whole bulk of the book of Job is the dialogue. Friend, accuse, Job, defend. Friend, accuse, Job, defend. For someone who is trying to find the universal, it is a huge red herring, because God tells us the friends were all wrong. So there's no need wasting your time in what they're saying, because they're wrong, they're wrong, and they're wrong.

What was the problem?

If you want the answer, it lies in understanding the structure.

You know, there are two ways to study anything.

The microscopic and the macroscopic.

We have a phrase in our language that says, I couldn't see the forest for the trees.

When it comes to study, some people are looking through the forest to find that special tree. When, in some cases, it's not about the tree, it's about the forest.

You have eight characters in the book of Job. God, Satan, Job, his wife, three friends.

Scratch his wife simply because her part is very, very small and it's incidental. So we're not going to learn much from the part his wife plays, because the part's too small. Scratch the three friends, because God already said, you're so wrong that unless Job will forgive you, I won't forgive you. So there's nothing to learn there.

Of the remaining four, there is no question as to who is the most credible. In fact, if you had all eight, there's still no question as to who is the most credible. When you have eight characters speaking, and one of those characters is God himself, you don't have a more credible source of information than what comes out of the mouth of God. So as you weigh a hierarchy of evidence, you have to start with the voice of God, because it's unimpeachable, and everyone else must be looked at through the lens of, is their comment unimpeachable or not? We all know it begins with a dialogue between God and Satan. And in chapter 1, verses 6 and 7, we find that Satan appears at a time when the sons of God have gathered, and God asks him what he's been doing, and he says, I go here and there, and to and fro about the earth. Yeah, he does. He spends his entire time going here and there, looking for trouble, looking where I can make it, cause it, increase it.

Verse 8, The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth?

Now, none means none.

My mother was always very precise while she was alive with the use of language, and unfortunately she has left a mark on me in that regard, that every so often when I hear something abused or misused, I just grimace. And one of those words is unique.

And I hear people on the radio and television, and they use the word unique, and I go, ooh. Because unique means one. Only one. If there are two, no unique. You can't be most unique. You can't be nearly unique, because unique is one. So if it is unique, there isn't another one. Job was unique. There is none like him on the earth. A blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil. Now, this is the testimony from the mouth of God as to who Job was. Blameless.

Upright. Not another man or woman on the face of the earth at his caliber.

We know that Satan was let loose to take his possessions. He did it, came back, and Satan was our groups. God says, how did you do? And he said, I didn't do very well. But you know how it goes. A man will do anything to save his skin. Let me give him some personal trouble, and he'll spit in your face. God says, go ahead, but you can't take his life. But in chapter 2, when they enter into this discussion again, you notice in verse 3 that the Lord said to Satan, now a second time, Have you considered my servant Job? In other words, I let you loose on him. You've had a chance to observe him. Have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him on the earth? He is still unique. Blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil, and still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without cause.

Now, you can't assail the testimony of God. And by the words of God, Job is perfect. If he's perfect in his conduct and has done no wrong, what is the problem?

It's here that people spend their time looking for the right tree. And it's a total waste of time, because the answer lies in looking at the forest, not for a tree.

I want you to go back. As I said to you, once these two chapters are done, the deed is done, Job is sitting covered with boils on an ash heap, the three friends join him. Now the book, for its bulk, is dialogue between friends whose universal is, you did something wrong, you won't admit it, if you just come clean, this will be over. And Job says, I haven't done anything wrong. Job said to them the same thing God said about him to Satan, I am blameless.

They said, no, no, no, Job, nobody gets to where you are who's blameless.

Come off your high horse and admit it.

Now, see, I only take five seconds to say that. They took two chapters. As we used to say in our family, they waxed elephant. On and on and on and on. When they're finished, Job says, I didn't do it.

I am without fault. I am blameless. So Job and God are saying the same thing about his conduct. No discordant views between God and Satan regarding his conduct.

When you respect the structure, you eventually arrive at the beginning of chapter 38, where everybody's had a chance to yammer. And God says, now it's time for all of you to sit down, and it's my turn to speak.

This is where the instructive portion begins.

As I said to you, all the conversations between Job and his friends are a red herring. They go nowhere constructive.

Chapter 38, when the Lord, then the Lord, answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Now prepare yourself like a man, and I will question you, and you shall answer me.

You know how we would say it today? Sit down, dummy, and listen.

Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

You sit down, you who is without knowledge, and listen.

One of the greatest prosecuting attorney accounts in all of human history are the next four chapters.

You want a good exercise? Sit down with verse 38 and answer the question, How many unique interrogatives are there in chapter 38? And then you can do it with 39 and 40 and 41. They're somewhere in the ballpark of 30 plus in just the first chapter.

This is cross-examination, and it's cross-examination on a level that is so far above the skill level and knowledge level of the one being interrogated that they're not even on the same planet.

You ever looked at the nature of four chapters worth of questions? Where were you?

Who determined this? To what is this connected? Who handled this? Have you done these things? Have you entered these impossible places? Have you walked in areas where no man has ever walked? Have the secrets of the mysteries of life and death revealed themselves to you? Have you seen into these things? Have you comprehended the breadth and the magnitude of this? Where does this come from and where does that go to? And what's the number of this and how many of these? And have you entered this particular area and have you seen this? And have you divided that from something else? And have you begotten this and done that? And it went on, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. With Job sitting there being told, Sit down, keep your mouth shut, and listen.

And it wasn't a single solitary question he could answer. And Job was one of the wisest men on the face of the earth at that time.

By God's definition, this was one of the greatest geniuses of the day. And there wasn't a single question he was asked that he could answer. But God didn't even take a breath at the end of 38. He just was getting warmed up. And the same exact thing that I've mentioned in 38 continues all the way through 39. Two solid chapters of endless interrogation. Where were you? What did you do? What do you understand? Where have you been? How can you handle this? Tell me the answers to these things. After two chapters, God gives Job two verses.

Chapter 40, he says, Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, So two solid chapters of where were you? What do you know? How can you answer? Tell me these things. Answer these questions. Then God says, Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it. So he says, Okay, Job, you're so smart.

You know what?

Job was getting the message of the book of Job by the end of the day. And he gave a two-verse answer. Job answered the Lord, verse 3, and said, Behold, I am vile.

I know most of you are reading either the King James or the New King James, and we're all very, very unfortunate because that totally, completely misses the point. Take the time to look at any one of a dozen different chapters. Take the time to look at any one of a dozen different modern translations. Because what Job says here is, when God says, Go ahead and answer me, what Job is saying is, I am insignificant.

I am totally trivial. I amount comparatively to you who knows the answer to all of these questions as worthless.

Behold, I am insignificant. What am I going to answer you? That's a rhetorical question. He couldn't answer any of them. What am I going to answer you? I can't answer you. And so he said, I put my hand over my mouth. He said, once I spoke, but now I'm going to keep my hand over my mouth. You know, I flapped my mouth to my friends. And now that you've asked me all these questions, I realize I am insignificant, and I'm going to put my hand over my mouth rather than indict myself even more with my words. He said, yes, twice. He said, once I've spoken, but I will not answer. Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further. He said, you know, I answered once. No, no, I answered twice, and I'm just digging a deeper hole for myself.

Then the Lord answered Job out of whirlwind and said, now prepare yourself like a man, and I will question you, and you shall answer me. And so we just shift gears, and we have two more chapters of where were you, who are you, what have you done, what have you accomplished, who do you think you are?

By the end of four chapters of unanswerable questions to which Job knew that God knew every answer at a level that he couldn't even comprehend. You know, I can ask a physicist a question about astrophysics. And he can answer me something I don't understand. And as he answers me, I haven't a clue what he means by his answer. And Job had reached the place of understanding that I not only don't know the answers to the questions, I wouldn't even know what was meant by the answer.

And then he said to the Lord in chapter 42, verse 1, I know that you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you.

You ask, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?

And therefore, I've uttered what I did not understand. Things too perfect for me, which I didn't know.

Listen, please, and let me speak. You said, I will question you, and you shall answer me.

I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

You know, there's an academic acceptance of the truth. There's an academic acceptance of the way of God. There's an academic acceptance of what God says as being true and right. And then there's an internalizing of it all. There is the hearing, and there is the seeing. And he says, I've known you all this time, but now I get it. Now I understand it. And because I have gone from the hearing of you to the seeing of you, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Job's comments end in a curious way.

I repent in dust and ashes. How does a blameless man of perfect integrity, in whom there are no faults, which is how God described him twice, how does that man repent? And what is there to repent of?

You realize by a process of elimination, Job eliminated everything to repent of, except one thing.

Attitude.

He hadn't done anything wrong. There's nothing he had done with his hands. There's nothing he had done with his lifestyle. There's nothing he had done in his walk that was wrong.

It'll be interesting one day to talk to God. He must have had fun with Satan on that time. You know, there are times where you watch a yappy little dog, and he's all feisty and yappy, and you realize if you could just run a cat in front of him, you know exactly what he'd do.

You got him on a leash. He's about a foot short of that cat, and you run a cat by, and you know he's going to run out there full tilt until he gets to the end of that leash, and there's going to be a double somersault backwards, and then pick himself up and start yapping again. Satan was as predictable as that little dog.

Satan was going to look for in Job all those things he had done wrong, and he was going to come back frustrated that he couldn't find them, and he couldn't compromise him. Even worse, he couldn't compromise him. But Satan couldn't understand Job's problem because it had been Satan's problem.

There's nothing we are blinder to in someone else than what we are guilty of ourselves. The difference was that Job was pliable, phenomenally pliable, a beautiful, beautiful man, and Satan was not pliable in any way, shape, or form.

Satan, who failed because of his attitude, was used as a tool to refine Job's. He never saw it coming, and he probably never realized during the entire exercise what God was achieving.

As I said at the beginning, brethren, when we look at Judaism and its resting in the laws of the universal, it is a great and noble area, not to be diminished in any way, shape, or form. As I said, if that's going to be your universal for getting into the kingdom of God, you're not going to get there because it can't forgive your sins. But it is something we respect, and we live, and we honor, and we treat with all sacredness. As Christendom looks at love, you can't diminish the importance of love.

But how many of the millions and millions of beings that became bitter and disillusioned who followed Satan, a third of the angelic host, tens if not hundreds of millions of beings, one day loved the way of God, loved God, probably were singing the songs of joy and praise that we get a little window into in the beginning of Revelation, and then became bitter, hardened, sour, hate-filled beings. Love is absolutely, positively, as Paul said, mandatory as an attribute of all true Christians. But the universal that rides above all of these that makes or breaks is that big A attitude.