Isn't He Beautiful?

Isn’t He Beautiful?

Sermon for 11/27/2005

Psalm 27:4

Introduction:

What is beauty? Socrates began to discuss what beauty is. Plato believed that beauty only exists when you compare objects to each other. After further consideration, Plato came up the most logical of all the philosophies, that beauty cannot be defined in this world.

WBTU:

A. Psalm 27:4

1. One thing I have desired or ask of the Lord. That will I seek after.

a) Now this statement doesn’t make a lot of sense when we look at other Scriptures. David asked for many other things from the Lord.

b) No, what David is discussing what the driving motivation of his life is. What is his one all consuming passion? When all is chipped away and we examine the driving force behind David, what do we find? What is David’s goal in life?

2. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

a) David loved church, in his day it was the tabernacle or temple, but he loved to get together for worship. Many people in our day have terrible thoughts of even going to church let alone being there all the days of their lives.

b) Does he want us all to quit our jobs and come and live here at the church and just worship our lives away?

c) No, David is not talking necessarily about a physical place like a temple or a church building, but he is talking about being in the presence of the Lord. He is talking about walking in the Lord’s light forever.

d) Whatever we do needs to be done for the Lord’s glory in this life, but in heaven we will always be in the presence of the Lord.

3. To seek him in his temple, meditate in his temple, “to inquire in his temple” is used in most translations.

a) Prayer can be a frustrating experience. WE talk and we ask for guidance and the Lord does not come in an audible voice and make it plain to us what his will is. In the Old Testament he did and even in the New Testament, but today he speaks through the Bible. Beyond the Bible he communicates in the circumstances of life and the peace of our spirits.

b) Sometimes I have two directions that I can go in life and I don’t feel good about either one. Always second guess myself. Lord, was this really what you wanted me to do?

c) David wants to know the Lord’s will crystal clear. Not just to know it but to do it. In heaven that will be the case.

4. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.

a) The Amplified version says, “To behold and gaze upon the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness of the Lord”

b) Young’s literal translation says, “To look on the pleasantness of God.”

c) New Living Translation says, “Delighting in the Lord’s perfections”

Thesis: let’s talk about the beauty of the Lord

For instances:

I. Some of the elements of the beauty of the Lord

A. Perfection. Plato said that this world is a poor reflection of another world. He called the perfect world the world of Forms. This other place had perfect representations of what we see here in this material world.

B. Isn’t that what beauty is all about here? Ladies, isn’t it true for one to be beautiful, there has to be just the right dimensions, the right measurements, the right angles and the right fractions of inches on the face. No one is perfect in beauty in the body.

C. Beauty is also in the eye of the beholder. A woman might not be that beautiful in the body but with her personality and charm she more than makes up for it.

D. Now God is spirit. Therefore, the Lord’s beauty is spiritual because God doesn’t literally have a body. Isaiah said of the Messiah, God’s Son, (Isa 53:2) He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. However, the Lord is described as beautiful. The Lord’s beauty must be found in the spiritual area.

E. (Mat 5:48 NIV) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

F. The Lord is attractive, beautiful because he is perfect. He is perfect in:

1. Knowledge. (Isa 40:14 NIV) Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?

2. Holiness. When it is said that we are holy it means that we are set apart for God. When we talk about the Lord being holy it means that he is pure, free from anything that taints, impairs, infects, free from defects, faultless, free from sin or guilt, blameless. (Rev 4:8 NIV) Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."