Be a Sheep and Not a Horse — Duane Troyer

May grace be with you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want to greet everybody in Jesus name and express my thankfulness to be with you all again. It just kind of seems like a long time since I've been with you.

And it has been a few weeks is a long time. Let's pray. Oh God in heaven we thank you for your love and your mercies that are new every morning. We thank you for your kindness and for the long suffering you have toward us for salvation.

Help us to lay hold of this and follow your ways, guide us and direct us. We pray for your presence here today in this meeting. Pray that you would give us understanding of your will. Help us as we look into your word that we be edified, learn more of your ways.

Be with the brothers and sisters that aren't with us today and minister to their needs. We pray for Harvey in Mexico. We pray that you keep him safe and guide him. Be with Lloyd. Keep him safe on the road.

Pray that he could have profitable conversation with Chris. We just pray again be with us, help us and let your words and your spirit speak to us and convict us of all evil. In Jesus name, Amen. I too just want to express my appreciation for the opening message this morning and just a lot to, not just a lot to think about but a lot that we can pretty, pretty, I was ready to say pretty easily but I mean like pretty frequently apply to our lives daily I would say in real ways.

Righteous Judgment and Leaving Final Judgment to God

One thought I had about having this attitude of, as Buddy said, this attitude of I'm done. That's it. Over the years I've thought a lot about the seeming, not contradiction, but just I've puzzled over Jesus' words about judge not, that you be not judged.

And other scriptures that we have about making righteous judgments and that the righteous will make judgments and so forth and so on. And I'm still gathering thoughts and information about this. I think I told Buddy recently, I figure maybe once I'm an old man I'll have a good concept of this.

But one of the things I've thought about is like I think that attitude is one, it kind of fits into like judge not, that you be not judged. To have this, as you're working with a hard situation to finally get to this point like that's it, I'm done.

It would be as if you were one side of a door and you're dealing with something on the other side of the door. And there's conditions. It's not wrong to judge that something must happen before we can, before this other person or this other thing you're dealing with can come through the door or however, yeah, something like that.

But to get to the point where you're like, that's it, I'm slamming the door shut, like that's where I think Jesus would be saying, don't do that. That's for me to do. As Buddy said, he will come. He will put the foot down finally.

He will shut the door, but let's let him shut the door. Meanwhile, we can rightly discern the situation. We can know something needs to change, but shutting the door is God's business. I also thought of, you know, as Buddy said, this thing gets heavy.

This thing gets burdensome when you're just clinging to something that's hard and you've just suffered for so long and it's like, you know, how those pressure cookers have those little release valves and they rattle and they're super annoying and you'd finally just be like, just shut up, turn it tight, get rid of that sound.

But what will happen? You'll have a great big explosion. We need to be willing to endure. Oh, I just, I want to read a psalm today and share some thoughts I had about that. This morning, I had some thoughts that I, earlier in the week or from last week that I thought I'd like to share and I couldn't, I just couldn't quite get a message together that linked everything together.

And although some of those thoughts I might end up sharing today, it's less of a, less of a message on a certain topic and more thoughts about psalm. It's psalm 31 if you're using a Septuagint, psalm 32 in the Masoretic text.

Forgiveness and the Blessing of Confessed Sin

Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not take into account and whose mouth and in whose mouth there is no deceit. Because I kept silent, my bones grew old from my groanings all day long.

For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. I became miserable when the thorn pierced me. I made known my sins and I did not hide my transgressions. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the ungodliness of my sin.

For this cause, everyone who is holy will pray to him in a well-fitted time. Surely they will not draw near to him in the flood of many waters. You are my refuge from the oppression of those who surrounded me.

Oh, my exceeding joy, redeem me from those who encircle me. I will give you understanding and I will teach you in the way you should walk. I will fix my eyes on you. Don't be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.

You squeeze their jaws with a bit and bridle, lest they come near you. Many are the scourges of the sinner. But he who hopes in the Lord, mercy shall encircle him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice greatly, O righteous ones.

And boast all you upright in heart. I'd just like to go back over that. Verse 1. Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered. You know, sin is one of those things that generally, generally people recognize it needs to be covered.

That the first sins that were ever committed when Adam and Eve sinned, like the first thing they recognized, somehow they need to be covered. They went and got a bunch of fig leaves and they covered themselves.

And in a way, sin is kind of like nakedness. It's a shame. It's, you know, it's anybody with a conscious awareness of this shame does not want to be found like this. It's, it's, it's, I don't know if this happens to everybody, but I can think of multiple times in my lives when, when I've had a dream at night that I, I found myself in public naked.

And it was, it was horrifying. It was a nightmare. It was dreadful. Like you'd scamper around, you'd look for clothes, you'd look to hide. And, and it's, it's, it's so dreadful. We know this needs to be covered.

Um, like, and, and in a sense, that's how sin is like, um, and, and it's, it's actually, even though, even though what Adam and Eve did, didn't help, like, it's a good thing that it's right, that they recognize that this thing has to be covered.

It, it's too shameful. It's too bad. Um, this, uh, and, and, and it's good if we treat sin with that same way that we would, you know, that we would treat the shame of, or that Adam and Eve treated the shame of their nakedness.

It, it's so, we, we would frantically, desperately do something. This thing has got to be covered. We can't bear to have it exposed. Uh, the human's way of, of, of dealing with this is, is often to, to hide it from other people.

Uh, we'll cover it up. We'll, uh, sometimes, sometimes we lie about it and thinking we can cover it up. And, and all we've done is we've, we've added sin upon sin. We, we see this, any of us, I'm, I'm sure any of us who, in fact, Buddy touched on this, like any of us who have raised children have seen this thing happen where a child does something.

Uh, something may be mildly wrong. Maybe, uh, maybe just did something rude. Uh, and, and you ask them, did, did you do that? And they, then they lie about it. Now this, this thing that, to, to cover up what the, this, this thing that would have maybe needed a stern admonition now needs a spanking.

A lie is far worse than, than this, this other little thing they did. And maybe as you press it, they'll lie again or, or whatever. Like, and, and this is what humans can tend to do is like try to cover a sin with a sin that's greater.

Um, and you know how, how, when you, when you start a pile of something, if you have a pile of something and you try to cover it, you need something bigger than the pile to cover it. And if you want to cover that, you need a bigger thing yet to cover it.

And you need a bigger thing yet to cover it. And that's what happens when we try to cover sins that way. King David, King David started himself a pile of sins when he, when he sinned with Bathsheba. And, and I, I have wondered sometimes if, uh, you know, you know, David could have, here, David was, David was the king.

And it was in the time of the wars. It was, it was in the time when the kings went, or the nations went out to war. Why was King David at home anyway? Why was he not in the battlefield? Why was Uriah and Joab and all these people out fighting the battle?

And he was at home. Like maybe, maybe that's where it all started. Um, the Bible doesn't really express why this was, but I, but I tend to think like, maybe he already took like a, a little bit of a, like something that maybe couldn't be pointed as directly as this is sinful, but just like, uh, uh, a slacking off type of attitude.

And there, there he found himself up on the roof of his house. And he, and then he lusted after a woman and this, this obviously was a sin. And then, and then, and then he found out this woman was his child.

And he tried to figure out a big coverup plan. He brought Uriah back out of the battle. Um, at, at the end of it, he, he sends Uriah out, uh, with a note to Joab. Uriah doesn't even know what this note says, but it says that, that they should put Uriah at, at the front of the battle where the, where the, where the battle is the fiercest.

And, and David's whole plan was to get, to get, uh, Uriah killed so that he could take Bathsheba for his wife and everything would look nice and good. Um, and, and that's what happened. And once, you know, once, once Uriah was dead and David fetched Bathsheba to be his wife, I, who, who knew about this?

Uh, probably maybe just David. Um, he, he might've thought he did a pretty clever coverup job. Um, but, but as he, you know, as he did this, as he, as he tried to cover up this pile of sins that he started, you know, he, he added worse sin upon worse sin upon worse sin until he had this great big pile.

And the only good thing, the only good thing with this, when people do this is that you can tell that there is still a conscience there. There is still an awareness there that this, this shameful thing has to be covered.

It's, uh, like there are people whose conscience is so dull and so seared and they sin so boldly and so open and they're so proud of it. It's, it's, uh, it's a, it's a little bit of a different story.

We, we meet people like that. Um, but, but when, and, and, and in a way, there's a sense in which that is not necessarily worse, maybe not even as bad as somebody who just keeps their sins covered all their life because this person ends up being a hypocrite.

That person's at least not, not a hypocrite, but, but at the same time, like there's a conscience here that can still be worked with. This person has this very, very, uh, very much an awareness of, of something needing to be covered.

He just, he just has not come to the place yet where whether he knows it, he hasn't, he hasn't done anything about the fact that God sees right through that pile. God sees right through those fig leaves.

Uh, there is, as, as the Hebrew writer says, there is everything is bare and naked before his eyes. There is nothing, nothing that we can do like that, that will hide those things from God. God wants these sins covered as well, but he wants to cover them.

And like so many other things in, in God's realm, uh, human's way of thinking about how to achieve something is not the same way as God's. Uh, we die to live. We are humbled to be exalted. We are broken to be whole.

And in that same way, we must expose our sin for it to be covered. Uh, in Proverbs 28, he says, he that covers his sin shall not prosper, but who so confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy. And 1st John 1 is that passage I like real well, where he says, uh, if, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of his son cleanses us from all sin.

And then maybe another, maybe two verses down. It says he that confesses his sins, if, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Um, it, it is only, you know, this verse here in Psalm says, blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

It is only blessed when, when, when these sins are covered under the atoning blood of the lamb of God. And, you know, there's a, there's a significance. There is a great significance, I dare say about, about blood, uh, that I don't, I just don't really comprehend all that well.

Um, it's something I have meant to like do a, do a study on, but, but, but I don't feel like I have to understand it to believe it. I like, you know, how in, in, in, in the old covenant, there's, there's all these things about the sprinkling of the blood.

And as, as the Hebrew writer says, and according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Like there's so much of that.

Uh, and then, and then, and then it talks about the blood of Christ as, as an atoning sacrifice. And, and I think probably even there, um, you know, Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves, but, but God apparently killed a, uh, I don't know if it says a goat or if it was a sheep or some kind of animal.

And, and he took those skins and covered them. Um, again, there's, there's a shedding of blood. Um, there's, and it's not, it's not because, it's not because now God can't see through skins any more than he can see through fig leaves.

Uh, but, but God has a way. Man has a way of his own in dealing with something. And God has a way of dealing with something. And, and, and God's way works. God, uh, and it, it, it involves, it involves sacrifice.

It involves the shedding of blood. The life is in the blood. I think that's a big part of it. Um, the, the Bible says, um, anyway, some, some of that might be a subject for, for a later message. One thing that I do understand, and that is that the blood, this, this all important blood for our salvation, we cannot just claim it because we name it.

It, we don't just have it like there's conditions. The, the, I think it would be safe to say that the blood of Jesus, that, that, that Jesus gave it. Okay. The, the all famous verse that, um, God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Like God, Jesus died for the whole world, but not the whole world will be saved. Uh, there's conditions he that believes, or there's conditions like even, even that passage I liked there in John, where it talks about the blood of Jesus Christ shall cover, uh, um, the blood of his son shall cleanse us from all sin.

There's a condition. If we walk in the light, uh, in, in the passage in Hebrews, where he talks about the suffering that Jesus went through and, and how, how he, how he bled and how he died and how he suffered.

And, and, and then it says, therefore he has become the author of eternal salvation to a certain group of people, to those who obey him. Like there's conditions in, there's conditions for us for that blood to be applied and understanding the significance of that blood is, is less important.

I think it's pretty safe for me to say is less important than, than understanding the condition, which I must meet for it to apply. Uh, if, if, if there is no, if, if without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, which I believe the Hebrew writer says that, uh, maybe I don't understand that all, but I, I think I understand what Peter says when he says, repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.

Like, and, and we can do that. Um, what one thing as I was thinking about confessing, confessing our sins, exposing our sins, revealing our sins. There's a lot of, there's a lot of verses that, that, uh, that I would understand to be like confessing our sins to God.

And, and we might wonder, what about confessing to one another? There's, there's at least a passage in James, uh, where, where he says, confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed. Um, and, and maybe I used to think, I used to think that if, if the sin that you committed, uh, involved anybody else, like it, it had, it had hurtful or negative effects to anybody else.

And definitely you have to confess it to that person. And if it's not, if it's a personal sin, if it's something just solely between you and God, then it only needs to be confessed to God. And okay, that, that might be true, but I would encourage us to realize that this, the sins that we think are just between us and God can, can farm, can, can much more easily have effects on other people that we, that we like indirectly have effects on other people.

We don't think if we're, if we're going through our, if we're carrying, uh, uh, let's think of an example. If we've, if we've done something, um, a personal sin, uh, and it, it kind of, we carry this thing or we carry the guilt of this around for, for a whole week or a month or years or whatever.

Um, and we think this thing that we've done hasn't really affected anybody else. Just, just recognize that the effects of this sin on our lives, the, the, the guilt that we carried that made us, um, uh, react in a certain way to our wives, to our children, to our brothers, to our sisters.

It did affect them. Um, and, and, and then I would also, aside from that other thing that I used to think, I've also recognized that there is accountability involved in us. There's, there's something we can do kind of lightly, and that is in our closet, go and confess something to the Lord and save our reputation.

Um, and, and not really like, uh, not, not really, uh, let me put it this way. If, if we, if, if it still bothers us, if we think we don't have the healing that we would like to have, then, then I think for sure we should consider that James said, confess your faults to one another and thereby be healed.

Um, there is a healing that comes with that. And, and there's a lot at stake. I mean, there's maybe, you know, the adversary hates confession. And he's going to try everything he can to get us to not confess, because he knows that there's, there's victory and healing in that.

And so he'll convince you of all kinds of things. He'll convince you nobody's going to understand this. Nobody else has ever done such a bad thing. Um, but you know, I've, I've been in church all my life and I've, I mean, I've heard just some very, very, very bad sins being confessed among, among church going people.

But I have yet, I have yet to hear somebody voluntarily, repentfully and remorsefully confess a sin, no matter how gross it is, uh, that, that I, that I just like lost respect for that person. It's a different thing if, you know, if, if the person tries to deny it until he finally can't deny it anymore.

Um, but it's, yeah, I just, I just don't, I just don't think that's ever happened that I remember. The Didache says in the church, you shall acknowledge your transgressions and you shall not come near for your prayer with an evil conscience.

This is the way of life. Later, the Didache says, but every Lord's day, gather yourself together and break bread, giving thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure, but let no one who is at odds with his fellow come together with you until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned.

Confession, Judgment, and the Mercy of God

So we can either, we can either go through this life and try to, try to save our reputation, try to, try to keep from being ashamed of everybody or ashamed to everybody by, by using fig leaves or whatever else to, to cover our sins, to, to finally come before the Lord on judgment day and have him peel it back and expose it.

Or we can be willing to take whatever's at stake and face the shame and confess these things now to have, to, to come before the Lord on judgment day and have them all covered before everybody. There's a huge difference.

There's an eternity at stake. Let's keep reading. Verse, going to verse two here. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not take into account and whose mouth and in whose mouth there is no deceit.

Because I kept silent, my bones grew old from my groanings all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. I became miserable when the thorn pierced me. I think some of the translations say instead of, I became miserable when the thorn pierced me.

The Masoretic text makes it sound more like my, my moisture evaporated as a drought. Or, or I think what it would be saying is like my, my strength is all gone. My bones are weary. I'm, I'm groaning with inside me.

The Lord's hand is heavy upon me. If, if that is what unconfessed sins are doing, if they're wearing you down, if they make your bones seem like you're old and, and, and, or a thorn piercing you or your strength is evaporating.

Consider, consider seriously that God is being long suffering with you for now. For now, God is like, at, at least you still have this conscience. And, and, and, and this, this heavy hand that God has on you is, is really his long suffering.

And, and as he says in the next verse, I think it's the next verse. Well, it's verse six, but like in this day, he can still be found. If this is what's going on, healing can still be found. But, but that day will end someday.

In verse five, then in verse five, this is what he says. I made known my sin and I did, I did not hide my transgression. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord. And you forgave the ungodliness of my sin.

And then he says in verse six, for this cause, everyone who is holy will pray to him in a well-fitted time, or while there is still opportunity. And then he says, surely they will not draw near to him in the, in a flood of many waters.

Today is the day things can be made right. Once the floodwaters of judgment come in, this day is over as, as the people in Noah's day found out. I remember hearing this, this story that when I was growing up, that preachers would preach, whether it, where it originates, I have no idea.

But that like, that, that the devil counseled with his servants or with, yeah, with his servants and said, how, how will you go about to deceive the people? And, and the first, first guy says, I'm going to convince them that there's, I'm going to convince them there's no heaven, I think.

And the devil said, no, that won't work. And the second guy says, I'm going to convince them there's no hell. And the devil said, that doesn't work. And the third one says, I'm going to convince them there's plenty of time.

Seeking the Lord for Understanding and Holiness

And he said, you, you go, you will deceive them by the thousands. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Let's keep going here in Psalms. Verse seven, you are my refuge from the oppression of those who surround me.

Oh, my exceeding joy, redeem me from those who encircle me. I will give you understanding and I will teach you in the way you should walk. I will fix my eyes on you. I will give you understanding. And I will teach you in the way you should walk.

That is surely all our desire, that he would give us understanding and teach us the way we should walk. But, but to whom does he give understanding? Uh, the, the Proverbs say, an evil man does not understand judgment, but those who seek the Lord will understand it in everything.

Those who seek, those who pursue, uh, um, it is not in the pursuit of great knowledge that we get understanding. Again, unlike what the world would think. Uh, but, but in the pursuit of the Lord himself, there is nothing that we should seek more than the Lord himself.

Um, if, if, if I would ask you, uh, concerning your faith, what, what is it that you hope for? What's ultimately like at the very end of this faith that you're holding to, what's your hope? Get to heaven?

Uh, is your hope to enjoy, uh, eternity on streets of gold, trees that bear fruit all year round? Uh, just to be no longer miserable? Um, like what, what would your answer be? It's a good question for you to ask yourself.

Like what ultimately, what am I hoping for? If, if those things that I mentioned are your answers, I, I think you should reconsider what, what is your faith about and consider what, what, what the, uh, what the apostle John said in first John, he says, we know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.

And everyone who has this hope fixed on himself, purifies himself, fixed on him, purifies himself just as he is pure. There should be no greater hope that we have that then that we can be like him, like Christ.

If we have that hope, we're purifying ourselves. We're getting us ready for it. Like, um, beyond, beyond everything else that we could think that we might enjoy, uh, there should be nothing of greater hope to us than that we can be like him.

Back to like, who does he give understanding? In Psalms 111, he says, a good understanding have those who do his commandments. Again, like, it's not, it's not a good understanding have those, have those who know his commandments.

Not a good understanding have those who hear them, who believe them, who comprehend them. It's those who do them. That's why there is more godly understanding in a, there is more godly understanding in in a poor, illiterate peasant who has, who, who has heard and is doing the commandments of God than, than in some highly educated guy who's gone through seminary and knows the ins and outs of scripture, but it's not doing it.

There's more understanding, more, there's more reason to, to, to walk with this poor guy who, who, who, who maybe, you know, doesn't have much scholarly knowledge, but he, he's doing, he's doing it. He has more understanding.

He will have more insights on how to act when, when you don't know what to do. Uh, on how to, how to, how to respond to a situation that you've never thought about before, that you've been, a crisis you've come into that, um, you never, you never realized that you get into.

Following the Shepherd Rather Than Being Driven by Rules

There's more understanding there. Jesus said he has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Verse nine, do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.

You squeeze their jaws with a bit and a bridle as they come near you. Horses are big, strong, magnificent animals. Uh, they are, uh, but, but don't be like that. They, you have to put a bit in their mouth to control them rather be like a sheep.

They're pretty humble looking animal, like horses. They are prized for their speed and their strength. And they'll put them in races and they'll put them in, they'll put these big draft horses in horse pools and, and their muscles ripple all over their bodies.

And, and, and it's a scene to behold, but behind every one of these horses or in every one of these horses mouth is a bit. And from that bit go, go reigns back to someone who is turning that whole body wherever this governor back here wants them to go.

Uh, God is saying, don't be like that. Um, be, be like a sheep. There's no reigns in the sheep. There's no bridle. There's no harness. They can be turned this way with their head down eating grass, but they have an ear that knows the shepherd's voice.

And as soon as they hear the shepherd's voice, it turns their whole body around and they go another direction. That's what we need to be like. That's, that's these, these, these sheep of their own will, though they could do whatever they want to do.

Uh, there's nothing to keep them from checking out the next mountain. Like they're there with an ear ready to hear and of their own accord. They'll, they'll go wherever the shepherd says a really big difference between a horse and a sheep.

Um, the sheep knows, and he has learned that his, his whole existence depends on following the shepherd. So instead of being driven like a horse, we need to be led. When I was down in Mexico several weeks ago, I, I marveled how sometimes just along the shoulders of pretty busy roads, you would just see a shepherd out there with a flock of sheep, uh, just, just grazing them along the road.

There was no fence, uh, and cars zooming by. And, and, but, but I have no doubt. And I watched, yeah, I watched a shepherd take a whole flock of sheep right down through the, right down through the streets between the markets where there was, he was, must have been taking them out to pasture.

Um, but these, these sheep just followed him. Um, that's what we ought to be like. You know, our, our will is what God wants. If, if he doesn't have that, he doesn't have us. He may, if, if there is such a thing, if he gets our alms, if he gets our sacrifices, if he gets our service without our will, again, if, if, if such a thing is possible, like I tend to think it could be, he still doesn't have us.

And us is what he wants. Uh, I think we do well to ask ourselves, like, what, what does govern our lives? All, all things that we do in our life is because of some, some governing power, uh, makes us do it.

I, I think that's safe to say. And, and, and we should ask, like, what is that? Because, uh, because we, we can choose, uh, we can choose to take this will, which, which is, is like the governor of our lives.

With, with our will, we do, we end up doing what we want. But, but with that, like, we, we, we can choose to like, uh, turn it like these sheep to turn it to wherever the shepherd and whatever the shepherd wants.

Or, or we can turn it to the whole host of other places we can turn it to. Um, I think there's many people in churches who are, who are governed by those around them, uh, more than they are governed by the Lord himself.

And don't get me wrong. Like it's, it's beneficial to be around godly people. In fact, we should, we should seek that. Um, it's, it's good for us. There's even something about Christianity that is not complete without it.

Um, uh, but, but unless we, unless we purpose in our hearts that we will follow the Lord, like we may very easily get deceived on who God's people are. Like there could be a lot said, a lot good said, and God will judge all this at the end.

But there can be a lot said about someone who just, who just identifies God's people. And he, he, he decides this is where I want to be. And maybe you wonder about a lot of things in his life and, and yet he can identify that.

And, and, uh, again, like, like some God, God will sort all these things out at the end. But, but, uh, but unless, unless we hear the shepherd's voice, know the shepherd's voice, I should say, and hear it and purpose in our hearts to follow it, even when nobody else follows it, uh, God still does not have us.

He, he still does not have us, at least doesn't have us where he wants us. Uh, you know, there's, there's kind of two sides to this thing. Like there's, there's this, I recently came across the, there's this, there's in the song of Solomon, there's, there's the, the lover speaking and then the beloved speaking.

And they're, they have this conversation with each other. Uh, they, they, they long for each other. And it's a, it's a type of Christ in the church. Um, and, and in one place that the beloved says, tell me, uh, tell me, oh, you who my love where you feed your flock.

And, and then, and then the lover says, if you do not know, oh, fairest among women, follow in the footsteps of the flock. Um, and that, that is where we'll find where Christ feeds. The flock is if we follow in the footsteps of the flock.

So, so that's one side of it. Like, um, uh, God is found the fair, the, the, the one that we long, he is found with his people. That's where we'll find him. Um, the other side of the story is, is that if C C in this scenario, there's, there's already this relationship.

There's already this, this, this woman, this fairest of woman, who's, who's, who's wanting this, uh, this lover and they're, they're wanting each other. And, um, but, but if, if all we want is the flock and we want the benefits of the flock, um, without, without the shepherd or knowing the shepherd or knowing his voice, I think, you know, I think we'll very likely, we'll very likely be deceived about who the flock even is.

Daniel’s Resolve and the Limits of External Rules

Um, there's this, uh, uh, there was a French naturalist, um, whose name was Jean Henry Fabry. And he did this experiment with, with caterpillars. Um, I didn't even know this, but, but caterpillars get their names because they follow each other.