Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church, it's good to see everyone here on this Sunday night.
Let's all take our seats, please, as you take your song books.
We'll begin with our evening service.
Let's turn to hymn number 23.
There is power in the blood.
Hymn number 23, it begins, would you be free from your burden of sin?
Twenty-three.
Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood, would you or evil of victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the precious blood of the Lamb.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood, one for one, let us give you power inside.
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the precious blood of the Lamb.
On this chorus, on this third verse, when we get to that chorus, whenever you see one
power, you do four powers, so it's power, power, power, wonder-working power, got it?
On this third verse.
Would you be whiter, much whiter than so?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood, let us give you power, sin and time give you
flow.
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the precious blood of the Lamb.
On this last verse, you do eight powers for each power you see, on the last now.
Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood.
Would you do daily praises to sing?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the precious blood of the Lamb.
Man, that was good.
I saw some spit flying out there, but I'd ask for the Jason Furbe if you would open
some prayer.
Oh, we need the thanks and the opportunity to be part of your precious word.
We ask that you bless the music that is pleasing to your ears, and we humbly and greatly give
you thanks for this night.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
We're going to come across page number 22.
Are you washed in the blood?
Hymn number 22.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Hymn number 22.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace and sound?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood?
In the soul, there's a blood of the Lamb.
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you walking daily by the Savior's side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood?
In the soul, there's a blood of the Lamb.
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
When the bridegroom's coming, will your rose be white?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for the pension's bride?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood?
In the soul, there's a blood of the Lamb.
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Lay aside the garments that are simply same.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood?
In the soul, there's a blood of the Lamb.
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week will be in Ezekiel chapter number 8 this week.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page is the note about the Mount Graham camping trip,
and that is coming up this Thursday for those who've signed up for that.
And it has a little information here that the campsite's equipped with porta potties and a fire pit.
There's drinking water available on site.
But just be advised, I Googled the weather, and it's like low 30s at night on the coldest night.
It's either high 30s, low 30s for the low, and then the highs are in the upper 60s.
So you want to prepare for that.
Sometimes it's easy to forget, living in Phoenix, that winter exists.
But this isn't winter.
It's only September, but because it's high elevation, it's already down to the 30s at night, and that's really cold.
So you've got to have a lot of warm blankets or something figured out.
So just warning you about that.
And then there are a couple of meals that are involved in that.
But for the most part, you're going to be bringing your own food on this camping trip.
But those meals are indicated.
Brother Raymond Cooper right here in the front row is the guy to talk to to get more details.
He's running the thing.
All right, and then we're going to start taking yearbook portraits beginning next Sunday.
Make sure to sign up.
It says please sign up if you would like to be included.
I would rather that that had been worded a little bit more strongly.
Like, just sign up, okay?
Don't be that guy who just doesn't show up to get your picture taken for the yearbook, okay?
That's what I would have said.
But anyway, that's coming up.
It's going to start next Sunday.
It's going to go for several weeks.
So it's kind of over before you know it.
So be sure to sign up.
Get those good time slots by signing up first.
And here's the thing.
You're getting a really nice portrait of your family, and it's totally free.
It gives you the high quality digital images.
And so it's a good opportunity because you know how it is.
Years go by and you kind of just forget to take those family portraits.
You don't really think to do it.
To just kind of all pile into the minivan and go to Olson Mills or JCPenney or something.
And so this just kind of reminds you to do it.
At least you get one nice family picture per year.
It's all part of the package here at Faith Forward Baptist Church.
And so I encourage you to be involved in that.
And if you don't, then I'm just going to kind of shake my head at you why you don't do it.
Anyway, just kidding.
So the Sierra Leone missions trip is coming up October 6th through 12th.
If there are any just kind of last minute people trying to get on board with that,
be sure to talk to Brother Raymond Cooper right away.
And otherwise just be praying for them that they have a fruitful trip.
On the back, there are going to be no small town soul winning trips during the month of October.
God willing those will start up again in November.
Keep praying for our ladies that are listed there that are expecting that they'd have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
Also, if you want to help out with a meal for the Ventura family following the birth of baby Julie,
please speak to Mrs. Amanda Wright.
Other upcoming events are listed down below.
That's about it for announcements.
So let's go and count up our soul winning from the past few days.
Going back to Thursday.
Anything from Thursday.
Okay.
Anything else from Thursday?
What about Friday?
Okay.
Any other soul winning from Friday?
Okay, gotcha.
Anybody else?
I thought I saw some movement.
All right.
And then what about Saturday?
Anything from Saturday?
Oh, 10 for the big group that went to Payson.
All right.
Good job on that.
And then anything else from Saturday outside the Payson group?
Okay.
And then what about today?
Brother Scott?
Two for the main team with Brother Scott.
Got one.
All right.
Five for that group.
Any other groups?
Any other teams?
All right.
Very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that?
Oh.
All right.
For North Phoenix.
All right.
Very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning.
All right.
We're going to sing Psalm 24.
You should find the answer to your hymnal there.
If you don't have one, please raise your hand.
Psalm 24.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
The world and they that dwell therein.
For he had found it in upon the seas.
And established it upon the floods.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands and of good heart.
Who hath not lifted up his soul.
Unto vanity nor soreness in flame.
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord.
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of them that seek him.
That seek thy face, O Jacob, see him.
Lift up your hands.
Let all ye gates and ye lift up the everlasting doors.
And the king of glory shall come in.
Who is this king of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty.
The Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your hands, all ye gates.
Even lift up the everlasting doors.
And the king of glory shall come in.
Who is this king of glory?
The Lord of hosts.
He is the king of glory.
See, Lord.
Amen. And your hymnals now.
Please turn to hymn number 380.
He was not willing that any should perish.
Hymn number 380.
It's a new song, so if you know it, sing it out.
If you don't, let's learn it together.
Hymn number 380.
He was not willing that any should perish.
She is the syndrome and the glory above.
Sorrow for fallen world pain.
Our sorrows pour down his life for us.
Wonderful love.
Perishing, perishing from you.
All ye are fat with hearts big with burdens.
Too heavy to bear.
Jesus was saved, but there's no one to tell them.
No one to lift them from sin and despair.
He was not willing that any should perish.
Blown in our flesh with his sorrow and pain.
Aiming to seek the lost.
Comfort the mourner.
Feel the heart broken by sorrow and shame.
Perishing, perishing, harvest is passing.
Reapers are peeling the nitro and air.
Jesus is calling the hasty to rethink.
Thou shalt have souls precious, souls for thy heart.
Plenty for pleasure, but little for Jesus.
Time for the world limits, troubles, and toys.
No time for Jesus' work feeding the hungry.
Lifting the souls to eternity's joys.
Perishing, perishing, our coming home.
Bring us your savior.
Oh, tell us of him.
We are so weary, so heavily laden.
And with long beaming, our eyes have broken.
He was not willing that any should perish.
And can I live longer at ease with a soul going down?
Were it lost for the lack of the help I must give?
Perishing, perishing, thou was not willing.
Master, forgive, and inspire us anew.
Vanish our worldliness, help us to bend.
Live with eternity's values in view.
Amen.
Good singing's coming.
All right.
This time, we'll quickly pass our offering plates,
in case we missed you this morning,
and turn our Bibles to Leviticus chapter 19.
The third book in the Bible is Leviticus.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus.
Leviticus chapter 19, as we always do,
we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads.
Leviticus 19, starting in verse 1.
Leviticus 19, the Bible reads,
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel,
and say unto them, Ye shall be holy,
for I the Lord your God am holy.
Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father,
and keep my Sabbaths.
I am the Lord your God.
Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods.
I am the Lord your God.
And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,
ye shall offer it at your own will.
It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow.
And if ought remain until the third day,
it shall be burnt with fire.
And if it be eaten at all on the third day,
it is abominable, it shall not be accepted.
Therefore, every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity,
because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord,
and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
And when ye reap the harvest of your land,
thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field,
neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard,
neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard.
Thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger.
I am the Lord your God.
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely,
neither lie one to another.
And ye shall not swear by my name falsely,
neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God.
I am the Lord.
Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor,
neither rob him.
The wages of him that is hired
shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
Thou shalt not curse the deaf,
nor put a stumbling block before the blind,
but shall fear thy God.
I am the Lord.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment.
Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor,
nor honor the person of the mighty.
But in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not go up and down
as a tail-bearer among thy people.
Neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor.
I am the Lord.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.
Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor
and not suffer sin upon him.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge
against the children of thy people.
But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
I am the Lord.
Ye shall keep my statutes.
Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind.
Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed.
Neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woolen
come upon thee.
And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bondmaid,
betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed,
nor freedom given her, she shall be scourged.
They shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord,
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
even a ram for a trespass offering.
And the priest shall make an atonement for him
with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord
for his sin which he hath done,
and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.
And when ye shall come into the land,
and shall have planted all manner of trees for food,
then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised.
Three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you.
It shall not be eaten of.
But in the fourth year, all the fruit thereof
shall be holy to praise the Lord withal.
And in the fifth year, shall ye eat of the fruit thereof,
that it may yield unto you the increase thereof.
I am the Lord your God.
Ye shall not eat anything with the blood.
Neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
Ye shall not round the corners of your beards.
Neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead,
nor print any marks upon you.
I am the Lord.
Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore,
lest the land fall to whoredom and the land become full of wickedness.
Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary.
I am the Lord.
Regard not them that have familiar spirits,
neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them.
I am the Lord your God.
Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head,
and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God.
I am the Lord.
And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land,
ye shall not vex him.
But the stranger that dwells with you shall be unto you
as one born among you.
And thou shalt love him as thyself,
for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment,
in meat-yard, in weight, or in measure.
Just balances, just weights, a just ephah,
and a just hen shall ye have.
I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Therefore, shall ye observe all my statutes,
and all my judgments, and do them.
I am the Lord.
Dear Father in Heaven, please fill the Pastors with your spirit,
and please give us all ears to hear, receive wisdom,
and our standing from the Sermon, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Man, Leviticus chapter 19 is one of my favorite chapters
in the Book of Leviticus, and it starts out in verse number 1.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel,
and say unto them, Ye shall be holy,
for I the Lord your God am holy.
Now, the first thing that I want to point out here about this chapter
is that it's part of what a lot of people would call the Holiness Code.
That's what some people would refer to this section of the Book of Leviticus
as starting around chapter 17 and then into these chapters toward the end,
because it just talks so much about the holiness of God
and how his people need to be holy.
And I want you to understand that this is not a concept
that's limited to the Old Testament.
We wouldn't even have time to look at all of the New Testament passages
that tell us to be holy and that God wants us to be holy,
but let me just give you a couple of quick highlights.
Turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians chapter 7.
We're going to come back to Leviticus 19,
but go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 7,
because over and over again, the New Testament tells us
that we need to be holy as Christians.
And 1 Peter chapter 1, you're turning to 2 Corinthians 7,
but 1 Peter chapter 1 actually pretty much quotes Leviticus 19,
and it says in verse 15,
but as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,
because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy.
And that's what he said there in Leviticus chapter 19.
He said, ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
And that's reiterated in the New Testament saying,
hey, look, you need to make sure that you're holy
because God said be holy as I'm holy.
So this is not a difference between Old and New Testament.
We still need to be holy in the New Testament.
Now, in 2 Corinthians chapter number 7,
the context of this is that we're just coming off
of the famous passage at the end of chapter 6,
where he says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
And he talks about the differences that should exist
between us and the unbelievers.
He says in verse 14 of chapter 6,
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
And what communion hath light and darkness?
You know, what he's saying there is,
we as Christians shouldn't have a lot in common
with the unsaved where we just have all this fellowship and communion.
There should be some difference between us and the heathen.
And so he says that we should come out from among them
and be ye separate, sayeth the Lord, touch not the unclean thing.
It's a famous passage.
You probably know it, but in verse 17,
touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you.
Now, when he says there, touch not the unclean thing,
this is spiritual application.
You know, in the Old Testament, you got a lot of physical objects
that are being clean and unclean.
Obviously, in this passage, he's using that as a metaphor
for things that are sinful or ungodly or wicked, you know,
touch not the unclean thing, be separate, be holy.
Now look at verse one of chapter seven.
This is what I really want to home in on.
It says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
So the New Testament is telling us to perfect holiness in the fear of God.
What does perfecting mean?
It means making it complete, right?
Finding things in our life that are unholy and making them holy, right?
Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Now go back if you would to Leviticus chapter 19.
What does the word holy even mean?
Because it's not necessarily a word that non-Christians would use
or that the unchurched would use.
So sometimes people in our modern American society
might not even be familiar with that word or know what it means.
But the word holy literally means set apart.
Set apart.
And it, in the context of the word of God,
means that it's set apart for some kind of a divine purpose or divine use.
So if you think about it in the Old Testament,
there's a holy place.
There's a most holy place.
There's a holy tabernacle.
There's a holy temple.
What God's saying there is that it's not just any old building.
You wouldn't just go there and do whatever there.
Remember how Jesus got so angry
because they're selling things in the temple?
They're buying and selling.
And he said, make not my Father's house a house of merchandise.
That is a holy place.
It's set apart so you don't want to just use it for a common everyday purpose.
You're not just going to go there and just do whatever
and set up your little booth
and somebody's walking around selling cotton candy
or plush animals or something.
You know, you want to have it set apart and holy unto the Lord
where it's just being used for that divine purpose.
That's what holiness is.
It's basically something that's different,
something that's special.
Those are some words that you could use to also understand the word holy, right?
Something that's different, special, set apart, reserved for a divine purpose,
not just common or everyday or profane.
That's what it means to be holy.
So when God is telling us to be holy, he's telling us to be different.
You know, don't just be identical to this world
and follow them in all of their sinful practices.
By following the Lord, you're automatically different
because this world newsflash doesn't just automatically follow God's commandments.
You know, think about where we live, right?
Arizona, 2021.
The average person today is not living this clean, separated, godly kind of life.
They're going to have different ideas about right and wrong
than we're going to have as Bible-believing Christians.
They're going to possibly think that it's okay to sleep together before you're married,
whereas the Bible calls that fornication.
You know, they're going to have different standards of right and wrong.
They're going to have different ideas about what it means to succeed in life.
You know, to them, success is what?
Making money, being popular, everyone liking you, or maybe achieving something in sports.
But to us as Christians, success to us has nothing to do with how much money that we make
or being loved by the world or popular or achievements out on the sports field.
You know, to us, success has to do with winning people to Christ
or raising a godly family or just being faithful to church and doing what's right by God.
So we're different than this world.
God says that we're to be a peculiar people.
We are to be holy because he's holy.
Now, in what way is God holy?
God is set apart because he stands apart from all other gods.
All the gods of the nations are idols, the Bible says, but the Lord made the heavens.
God is unlike any other god.
The Bible is unlike any other scripture.
Christianity is unlike any other religion.
These things are set apart.
They're different.
They're holy.
They belong to God alone.
God's name is holy because his name alone is Jehovah, right?
So that's a holy name.
You know, Jesus Christ.
You know, someone could call themselves Jesus Christ, but, you know, that's not really who they are.
You know, that's God's moniker there.
You know, so I would not name my child Jesus Christ.
That seems weird.
And I don't know what's going on with Hispanics naming their kid Jesus, but, you know, I don't know what to say to that.
It seems a little strange to me.
But just don't put Christo in there and we'll be okay, maybe, you know.
So what's that?
Blasphemous.
Yeah, it seems blasphemous to just make that name common.
You know, it seems like we should reserve that name since it's the name above all names.
Now if your name's Jesus, I'm not mad at you or anything.
You know, you can't control that.
I'm just, go by your middle name around me.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, I'm just joking.
The point is that holy means set apart.
God wants us to be set apart.
How are we set apart?
In what way are we set apart?
It's because of the fact that we're following God's rules for how we live our life.
And we're living our life also just according to biblical principles.
So if we're going to perfect holiness, it sounds to me like we would go to the Bible,
figure out the kind of things that we should do and we should not do in order to be considered
a holy people unto God and make our life conform to those principles that we find in the Word
of God that's a pattern for holy living.
Okay.
Now, Leviticus chapter 19 is a great chapter for this because it's a chapter about holy
living.
It's a chapter about being holy in the sight of God.
Now, some of these things are Old Testament things.
Most of these things would still be totally unchanged in the New Testament.
But even the things that are Old Testament things can still help us be holy because of
the fact that even if that particular physical carnal ordinance is no longer in place, the
principles are still there.
The principles still apply.
So let's jump into this.
This is such a great chapter.
I want to see, you know, how much of it we could do tonight and figure out how to be
holy as Christians.
But it says in verse number three, you know, he just said, hey, you got to be holy because
I'm holy.
I want you to be holy.
Now he's going to tell us how to be holy.
And as I said, this is part of what's known as the holiness code.
That's how many people would refer to this whole section of Leviticus.
It says, ye shall fear every man, his mother and his father and keep my Sabbaths.
I am the Lord your God.
So the first thing that we see right away is obedience to parents, fearing your parents.
You know, the Bible says honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment
with promise.
I'm quoting the New Testament now that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live
long on the earth.
And so right away to be holy, you want to be a holy people.
You say, hey, we as Christians, we're supposed to be different.
We're supposed to be set apart.
We're not supposed to be conformed to this world.
We're supposed to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.
Hey, why don't you start by respecting your parents?
Why don't you start by fearing your mother and your father?
This is the kind of fear that shades toward respect, not necessarily terror, but the fear
that shades toward respect, honoring, referencing them, fearing them.
You know, we live in a day, the Bible says there's a generation that curses their father
and does not bless their mother.
And in many ways that's the generation which we're living, where people would talk bad
about their parents behind their back, where people would criticize their parents to other
people outside the family and just disrespect their parents, talk back, mouth off, disobey.
You know, if you want to honor the Lord, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you better
love and honor and respect your parents because that's the first thing that comes up in this
particular passage on the holiness code, right, is hey, your parents honor your brother and
mother, very important.
The next thing he brings up is he says, and keep my Sabbaths.
Now, this is not a New Testament thing.
In the Old Testament, they had a lot of different Sabbaths.
They had, of course, the weekly Sabbath where the seventh day was a day of rest unto them.
But then not only that, every seven years, they took a year where they did not sow the
field and they didn't trim the vines in the vineyard, but they just allowed it to go wild
and grow on its own.
And then anybody was allowed to eat from it, the servants, the free, the bond, the owners,
animals, everybody could just kind of walk in and just eat the stuff that grew by itself.
But there was no sowing and there was no harvesting.
The land was allowed to just go wild for one year, and that's a good agricultural practice
anyway to give the land a break, allow the animals to come in and eat, and then they,
of course, defecate and fertilize the ground and so forth.
So there was also every 50 years, there's a jubilee, and then you had other Sabbaths
throughout the year where you had holidays.
Like you have the Day of Atonement, and you've got the Feast of Tabernacles, and you've got
these different Sabbaths that they kept.
Now, we're not under that system of Levitical law where we would follow those Sabbaths.
In the New Testament, the Bible says, one man esteemeth one day above another, another
esteemeth every day alike, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
You know, so some people treat Sunday as a special day in the New Testament, and they
say, hey, Sunday's the Lord's day, and there are certain things we're not going to do,
or we're going to have a special time of just focusing on the things of God that day.
But other people, and I would put myself in the latter category, other people would just
treat all seven days alike, and this is how I live my life.
I don't really look at Sunday as anything special.
You know, back when I worked a secular job, I would work on Sundays between the services.
I didn't want to miss church, and I didn't miss church, but if I needed to do a service
call or something on a Sunday afternoon, I'll do it.
You know, if I needed to catch up on paperwork or something, you know.
And God says he's okay with that, because he says, look, you know, you can either serve
God every day the same, or you can set apart a certain day and that's special unto you.
He says, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
You know, that's a personal choice that God gives us, how we want to do that, because
not everybody's the same.
And he talks about in, also, Colossians chapter 2, how the Sabbath days and the meats, the
drinks, the carnal ordinances, the divers watching, he talks about how those are a shadow
of things to come, they're done away in Christ, so we don't follow that particular system.
Not only that, but Jesus Christ is our rest, Jesus Christ is our Sabbath.
By virtue of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, we've entered into rest,
according to Hebrews chapter 4, because we're resting on the finished work of Christ as
our salvation and so forth.
So if you want to talk about it in the sense of holiness, then keep my Sabbaths as, you
know, well, the holiness that we have in the New Testament is that we're in Christ and
Christ is our Sabbath, according to Hebrews chapter 4.
Then he says in verse 4, turn you not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods,
I am the Lord your God.
And obviously this is important to us in the New Testament, the Bible tells us little children
keep yourselves from idols, amen, flee idolatry.
The Bible says in verse 5, and if you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,
you shall offer it at your own will.
It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the morrow, and if ought remain unto
the third day it shall be burnt in the fire, and if it be eaten at all on the third day
it is abominable, it shall not be accepted, therefore everyone that eateth it shall bear
his iniquity because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord, and that soul
shall be cut off from among his people.
Now this is another thing that's an Old Testament only thing, because we don't do animal sacrifices
unto the Lord.
This is an animal sacrifice.
And Jesus Christ, just as he is our Sabbath, Jesus is also the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world, and he doesn't need to be offered often, he was offered once
for all, he died on the cross for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures, and so he has already fulfilled that, and so we are
not going to offer peace offerings unto the Lord, and when he talks about if ought remain
unto the third day it shall be burnt with fire, what he's talking about is the meat
from the offering.
So, when they offer the animal in sacrifice unto the Lord, typically they're going to
eat that sacrifice.
Now, parts of it are burned on the altar unto the Lord, you know, they burn the fat and
they're not going to eat the blood and a lot of the organs and, you know, in the early
part of Leviticus it talks about how they butcher the beast and goes into great detail
about what to do with each body part, but when it comes to the meat of the animal, the
priests would eat that meat of that sacrifice.
And so when he says don't let ought of it remain until the third day, he's saying, you
know, don't eat the meat when it's three days old because they don't have a refrigerator
and so, you know, the meat after three days, you know, just get rid of it at that point.
Now, there's an exception to this, there's an offering in the Bible called the whole
burnt offering, and this is where the entire animal is just burned on the altar, completely
burned up, but that's not the typical offering.
The typical offering involves eating the meat from the animal, and that's what we see
here about this principle.
So, you know, if you want to apply this to your life, then, you know, just go through
the fridge every once in a while and throw away stuff that's old.
So verse number nine says, and when you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly
reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest,
and thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of the vineyard,
thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger.
I am the Lord your God.
This is just another good principle that we could apply in our lives to just think about
the poor and helping other people, being considerate of people that are less fortunate and don't
have what we have.
Now, this is really a beautiful system that God had in the Old Testament for people that
were down and out, they're poor, they don't have anything going for them, is the system
of gleaning the fields.
So, in the Bible, what it means to glean is that when they first come through and harvest,
you know, you're just kind of coming through and just moving quickly because you want to
be efficient and you only have a little bit of time to harvest a field, so you're in there
just cranking through the field, harvesting as quickly as possible.
Well, in the process of that, you're going to miss things.
You know, a leaf is over a fruit or something and you don't see it right away as you're
picking the strawberries or whatever, you're always going to miss some if you're moving
quickly and, you know, they have to move quickly and get as much done as they can, so you're
going to miss things or you drop things or whatever.
So, what he's saying is don't glean your field.
So, if I have a field and I'm growing crops, I'm not going to reap it and then hire another
guy and say, okay, now go through and get everything you miss, get everything you drop.
God's saying, don't do that, just leave it there.
And the reason that you leave it there is because then poor people, people that are
down on their luck or don't have anything, they can come through and glean your field
even though they don't own the field, even though they didn't sow the seeds or water
it or do any of the work.
This is a charity to allow them to be fed, to get what they need and to be able to get.
Now, but here's the great thing about it, they still have to actually do some work,
don't they?
It's not just, hey, just show up at the welfare office and just get a check.
And folks, human nature is such that many people want to do just as little work as
possible.
And we've seen it with this COVID thing because with the COVID thing, you have an
extension of unemployment benefits that just went on and on and on and all the
statistics have shown that people just stayed on unemployment the whole time and
they're not even looking for a job because the benefits were higher and they lasted
longer.
People are just like, sweet, let me just live off this.
And if unemployment lasts for 16 weeks, they start looking for a job around week 15.
But if it's extended to 24 weeks, then they're going to start looking for a job
around week 23.
This is just human nature.
This is what people do.
You know, I saw some article that somebody posted to Facebook, it cracked me up, but
it said that some university was funding a study to figure out like why when
unemployment is extended, people stay unemployed longer.
And so they're going to have like an academic study to figure out why.
I'll tell you why right now.
It's called human nature.
It's called being lazy.
It's called I'm getting money for free, so why should I go to work?
I might as well just get this money for free and do nothing and play video games
and binge watch the television and everything else.
That's what human nature says.
And so the problem with having a society that's a welfare state and just giving
money to people to do nothing, you know what you're going to get?
A lot of people that just decide to do nothing because they're just lazy.
Okay.
Now, going out and working in the sun and going out and gleaning the fields,
yeah, it's free stuff.
But at least you got to go pick it yourself.
You got to go out and do some work.
And this is beautifully illustrated in the book of Ruth,
because when Ruth shows up from the land of Moab with her mother-in-law,
Ruth is out there gleaning the fields of Boaz,
and that's how she takes care of herself and her mother-in-law,
by gleaning the barley harvest.
And they're not going to necessarily have wealth or abundance,
but this allows them to have something to eat and survive,
that they can glean the fields.
And then not only that, as I said earlier,
every seven years the entire land rests,
and every single day anybody who wants to can walk around whatever fields
they want and they can just pick the fruit that grows,
whatever's ripe at that time.
The only thing that they're not allowed to do during the Sabbath year is
they're not allowed to have any kind of a container or vessel.
So they can't go out with a backpack and fill up a backpack of stuff,
but whatever they can just pick and put in their mouth,
they can do that during that sabbatical year.
And during the gleaning period, they can actually use a container.
You know, they could go in with a container, as Ruth did,
and load that thing up.
Once the owner has already harvested it,
now they have the right to come in and glean after him.
And Boaz, being a godly man that he was,
was following that law and allowing them to glean.
I'm sure there were a lot of greedy field owners who gleaned their field anyway.
Just because the Bible says something to do something,
do you really think everybody followed all this?
These are the rules.
A lot of people followed them, a lot of people didn't.
And maybe even few people followed them.
We don't really know, but we know Boaz did it.
We know he was a godly, righteous man.
And so he allowed the gleaners to come in and he encouraged the gleaners
and was good unto them.
He loved and cared for the poor and helped them out in that way.
And so that's what we see here.
God's plan for taking care of the poor in this gleaning system.
So he's saying, you know, leave some stuff for them.
You know, think about them so that they can be fed.
But again, when you're just giving people free money,
they don't even appreciate it anyway.
You know, I ride my bike a lot.
That's how I typically get around.
My wife and I share a vehicle.
Of course, we have some church vehicles that I can use for church stuff.
But when I'm doing my own personal business and going places,
I will typically ride a bike.
And so I bike around the city quite a bit.
And when you bike around the city, you really get to know the city
a little bit more than kind of from your car.
You kind of slow down and see how things are.
And, you know, it's incredible, the homeless problem in Phoenix and Tempe.
And it's just, it's incredible to see how many young people now.
They're young, they're healthy.
These are not disabled people or elderly people or what.
I mean, it's just young, able-bodied, healthy people just refusing to work.
And they're just getting handouts by the side of the road.
But let me tell you what I saw this week.
So I'm riding my bike.
And I come to one of those pedestrian overpasses.
And I've always thought those were so cool.
Maybe I'm just kind of being a nerd or something.
But like when I was a kid growing up, I remember just being in my car
and seeing those and I was just like, I want to walk on that so bad.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
It's just like a pedestrian overpass.
I was like, I want to walk on that so bad, that is so cool.
I don't know why I felt that way, but I did.
So I kind of still feel that way a little bit.
You know, I like those things.
So I'm riding my bike getting from point A to point B
and I see one of these pedestrian overpasses and I'm like, oh, cool, you know.
So I head into this thing on my bike and it was just a tunnel of doom.
It was just disgusting.
The whole thing was just filled with garbage.
And let me tell you, I mean, there was a lot of garbage.
You know, we could talk about it piece by piece, but we don't have time.
So I'm just going to home in on one piece of garbage that just really blew my mind.
And there were no homeless people there because they were out, you know, hand handling.
So there's all the junk in the tunnel of doom and I'm riding my bike through this thing
and I see, I kid you not, an entire Little Caesar's pizza, okay,
boxes open, one piece removed.
And the thing was just all old and nobody was going to eat it now
because the thing had been left out.
You know, it's the third day, you got to throw it away.
But the thing had just clearly been left out for a long time
and it was just kind of dirty and exposed to the elements.
And I kid you not, there was one piece removed.
And I'm just thinking to myself, like, what in the world, like, how wasteful.
But you know what the Bible says?
You say, I don't like that you talk about this.
Well, what does the Bible say?
It says, he that is slothful in his work.
You know, slothful means lazy.
A sloth is a really slow animal, so slothful means you're lazy.
The Bible says, he that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.
So the guy who's slothful and the guy who's a great waster are the same guy.
Why? They don't appreciate the value of something that they didn't earn.
You know, here I am at home with my kids, like, are you going to eat that?
You better finish that. You got to eat that.
You know, we want our kids to eat it and if they don't finish it, man,
we're throwing saran wrap over it, stick it in the fridge
and we keep pulling that thing out and make them eat it.
Because I don't like to see food go to waste and you know what?
I'll even eat my grubby little toddlers, you know, they grub up their food and don't finish it.
You know, a lot of times I'll finish that plate even though it's grubby.
I'll finish that plate just because I hate to see it go to waste.
Why? Because I'm paying for it.
And you know, us men who are out working hard and you women that are out there
trying to find the deals at the supermarket and you know, your husband brings home a certain amount of money
and you want to make it last and you know, you've got stuff that you want to buy for yourself
and so you know, you want to buy the family's food and everything like that.
You don't like to see it go to waste. I don't like to see it go to waste.
You know, I guarantee you, we're not just throwing a whole pizza in the trash at our house.
Are you kidding?
I mean, one slice? You ate one slice of that pizza?
What's wrong with you?
You say, well, maybe they just had an overabundance of food.
What in the world? Then why do we keep giving them money if they just have more food than they even know what to do with?
They don't have any bills.
I mean, it was incredible to me, but you know what, that's not an isolated incident.
We've, you know, we've had bums like sleep outside the door of our church and everything
and you know what, whenever they leave, you know what there always is left, is a giant pile of trash.
And there's a trash can right there.
I mean, there are, there's a dumpster right there.
They can't even just, after they've already just laid on our property and laid on our doorstep
and then you know what else I found in their pile of trash right outside the door here?
A half-eaten burrito.
Why didn't you finish that burrito?
Why didn't you finish that pizza?
Pizza, pizza, pizza.
It's Little Caesars, you eat both.
You eat the whole thing.
I mean, come on.
It's dirty, it's disgusting, why?
Because it's people just refusing to work.
They're so lazy that they can't even put their trash in the bin.
And there are public bins everywhere.
You know, I've been to some foreign countries where they don't have public trash cans
and you're like searching for a trash can.
But folks, this is the United States of America.
There are a lot of public trash cans everywhere.
On every corner.
And yet, just on the way to church right now,
just a little over an hour ago when I was driving here,
we drove by that spot on Baseline and I-10
where they're always there and there was a mountain of trash there.
Just a mountain of trash.
And I'm just like counting the garbage cans.
There's a garbage can there, garbage can.
It's like they can't even just walk over.
I mean, what else do they have going on?
Just walk over and put it in the trash.
And you know what, if you litter, shame on you.
I don't care if you're homeless or not.
Put your trash in a proper receptacle.
Be holy.
Be different.
Be clean.
Don't be a bum and just throw your trash on the ground.
It's disgusting.
And finish your food, for crying out loud.
And if you don't finish your food, burn it.
That's what the Bible said in verse 6.
Don't leave it on that overpass that I like and ruin it for me.
Burn it!
He says, you know, leave them for the poor and the stranger.
The stranger is the foreigner.
You know, foreigner, somebody who's just traveling through, passing through.
Right?
Hey, they can go in the field, little gleanings.
That helps them out.
Don't be greedy.
You know, you're reaping the whole field.
You got all this great harvest.
Don't be greedy like you have to just get every little strawberry and every little thing.
You know, leave that stuff for the poor.
Leave it for the fatherless.
Leave it for the foreigner.
Leave it for the guy who's passing through.
Leave it for the down and outer.
And you know, that's how we should be also.
If we're going to be holy, right?
Perfecting holiness.
We should be people who are not greedy,
who don't just have to just squeeze and pinch every dime out of other people
and just make money off of other people's backs and give them as little as possible.
You know, we should think about poor people.
You know, if you run a business, you should think about your workers
and make sure that you're paying them a fair wage, right?
I mean, you know, you should not just like, you know, when I was running my business,
this thought never entered my mind.
How little can I pay people and still get them to work for me?
That's not how I operated.
I didn't think like how little can I pay.
I thought to myself, you know, what's the going rate for this?
What's a fair price?
And then I gave them a fair price and then I gave them a little extra, you know,
just to make sure that I was being right.
Because I don't want God to look down on me
and look at me and think that I'm a jerk or something.
You know, when I was running my fire alarm business, you know,
I didn't want God to look down at me and think,
why are you so stingy like you're making all this money?
Why aren't you paying people a decent wage?
Okay, so this principle still applies, thinking about the poor.
And how I would define a poor person from studying scripture,
a poor person is someone who's willing to work
and someone who does the work that they can do,
but they still struggle to make ends meet.
That's a poor person.
A person who's trying, they're working, they're doing what they can,
and they're still struggling to make ends meet.
That's a poor person.
That's who I want to help.
I want to help people like that.
But you know who I don't want to help?
People who are not willing to work.
Because the Bible says if any man will not work,
neither should he eat.
That's what the Bible says.
He says in verse 11, you shall not steal,
neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
Be honest.
This is part of being holy, is to be honest.
Verse 12, you shall not swear by my name falsely,
neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God,
I am the Lord.
These are people saying, you know, I swear to God,
and then they lie about it.
I swear by the Lord that this is true.
Now, in the New Testament, again, this is one that has been updated
in the New Testament, and the New Testament just says,
swear not at all.
In the New Testament, we're not supposed to swear at all.
In the Old Testament, it was, perform your oaths.
Okay, in the New Testament, it is, don't swear at all.
But the principle still stands of being honest and truthful
and let your yea be yea and your nay be nay.
You know, if you say you're going to do something, you do it.
Even if it hurts you, even if it's to your detriment,
you do what you say you will do.
It says in verse 12, you shall not swear by my name falsely,
neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God.
I am the Lord.
Don't profane the name of God.
Don't make it common.
Don't use it as an expletive.
Do not say, oh my God, oh Lord, good Lord.
Do not say those things.
Those are names.
God is a name.
We might think it's just like a word, but, you know,
that God with a capital G, I mean, it's a name.
I mean, it's translating a Hebrew word that's a name, right?
Elohim.
It's God.
That's a name, God.
Sometimes even an all capital, capital G, capital O, capital D.
You shouldn't say, oh my God.
And you say, well, I'm not talking about the God of the Bible.
You just said, oh my God.
So are you saying you're worshiping Satan or what?
Because if you say, if you said, oh my God,
you're blaspheming the God of the Bible, okay?
Oh Lord, that's a name.
The name is the Lord, right?
The Lord is his name, the Bible says.
And so do not throw around words like Lord and God,
and especially not the name that is above every other name.
Don't throw around the name of Jesus.
Do not use Jesus as an expletive.
And you know what?
The world does this, don't they?
And you know what?
It irritates me more than any other expression that people use.
You know, the television will censor out profane words,
but then they'll leave in the blasphemies
unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
Which bothers me more than anything
is the dropping of Jesus Christ's name in vain.
It's something that should never be done by Christians.
And you know what?
If you hang around with people that are doing this a lot,
you could accidentally pick up this awful habit
and maybe accidentally repeat that.
You dare.
Keep that name sacred, right?
Hallowed be God's name.
Let that name be holy, let that name be set apart.
Set apart for what?
Only use it when you're talking to God or about God.
That's when you use the name of God.
When you're talking to God or when you're talking about God,
not just as an expletive to just yell out some interjection.
Just, you don't have anything else to say,
so it's just God or Jesus.
No, that is wrong.
You're taking God's name in vain.
God's name should be used with a purpose
and it should be kept in reverence and respect
and hallowed and not just become a profane word.
What does the word profane actually mean?
The word profane literally means common.
So it's just that every day you just throw it out there
for no reason.
That's what you don't do to God's name.
You keep it sacred, you keep it special,
you keep it holy, and don't use it as an expletive.
It says, don't profane in the name of the Lord,
the name of thy God.
I am the Lord.
Verse 13, thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor,
neither rob him.
The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee
all night until the morning.
Now, this again has to do with people who are wealthier
or maybe they own businesses treating their workers well
and taking care of the poor, thinking about them.
Because typically the people that own a business
have more than the wage earners.
Now, they also work harder and they had to pay their dues
to get to that point, but they're going to typically
have more.
And so the Bible's saying, you know,
don't rip off the people that work for you.
Make sure that you pay them what is owed.
Don't rob them, don't defraud them.
And it says, the wages of him that is hired
shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
He's saying, don't delay their paycheck.
Don't just hang on to their money
and make them wait to get paid.
Now, you know, I've thought about this verse a lot
and obviously we're living in kind of a different time
than in the Bible times.
In the Bible times, you got paid at the end of the day
because it wasn't a matter of getting like a paycheck
or a direct deposit or anything like that
because there's no banking, right?
At this time, it's just coins
that are the main form of money, right?
Just coins.
So basically, at the end of the day,
you line up and you get paid, the boss gives you coins.
What he's saying is don't hang on to his money
and make him wait for it.
Now, I can understand why today businesses
would not want to pay their workers every single day
because of the fact that, you know,
with all the checks and the direct deposit and everything,
it doesn't really work that way anymore.
But, you know, when I ran a business,
I still wanted to follow this principle.
And so, you know, I used to, I told my workers,
I said, look, I said, as long as you don't abuse this,
I said, you know, if you're ever in a bind for money,
like if you ever need money
and you're in a point where you're in a bind for money,
like then I will give you an advance on your paycheck,
you know, or I will get, you know,
I'll deposit money in your account immediately
to give an advance.
Because I didn't want to like let their wages
be with me overnight when they needed it
and I had it to give to them
and it wasn't payday or whatever, you know,
and maybe that was a little bit radical of me to do that,
but that's what I did, you know,
because I'm looking at this thinking like,
this is what God says is right.
And obviously, yeah, we're living in a different world,
I understand, but I just didn't want to be guilty of,
you know, hanging on to people's money
that they had already earned.
Because I'm talking about work that they'd already done.
Because, you know, typically you're getting paid
for stuff that you did like a week ago, right?
Like you finish the pay period on Friday
and then you get paid like the next Friday.
So, you know, and believe me,
some of my employees took me up on this
where they'd call me up and be like,
hey, I need to get paid right now, you know,
is that okay?
And I'm just like, okay, you know,
and I went down to the bank and put money in their account,
you know, the business owners are mad at me right now
for saying this, but I'm just saying, you know,
and I'm not saying you have to agree with me
or that even that what I was doing is the only way to do it
or the right way to do it,
but I think that you should read this as a business owner,
you should read this and think to yourself,
you know what, am I taking care of my workers?
Are my workers desperate and struggling
and they don't have money
because I'm just paying them as little as possible
and hanging on to everything and, you know,
obviously if you're paying people well enough,
they wouldn't have to get it every day
because they wouldn't be in a bind
because they're getting what they need
and they should obviously plan and I get all that.
I'm just saying that I think you should take verses like this
and not just ignore them and say, oh, that's outdated.
You should try to think of, you know,
how could I apply that today?
How could I bring that into my life
so that I can please God with the way that I live my life?
Or at least bring it into your attitude
and say, you know, God cares about the little guy.
God cares about the workers.
God wants employers to treat their employees well
and take care of them and do right by them.
And speaking of, you know, looking out for the little guy,
he says in verse 14, thou shall not curse the deaf
nor put a stumbling block before the blind,
but shalt fear thy God, I am the Lord.
You say, well, you know, I can mess with deaf people
and mess with blind people
because what are they gonna do about it?
But God is their defender.
And so he said, if you fear God,
you're not gonna mess with deaf people
and you're not gonna mess with blind people
because God's gonna hurt you.
And obviously this is talking about, you know,
blind people and deaf people,
but you could even apply this
to just picking on somebody who's small or something.
You know, some guy who's small and you push him around
and beat up on him and kick him around.
He can't do anything.
Yeah, but what if God sees you doing that?
And he sees you picking on people and bullying people
and hurting people that are just because they're small.
You know, God has got a pretty big stick to beat up on you.
And so you better watch out who you mess with
because, you know, God can look down
and see the way that you're hurting other people
and he can decide that you need to be in for a world of hurt
and you need a taste of your own medicine.
And so we need to fear God.
And that's what keeps us from hurting other people.
Obviously love also should keep us from hurting other people.
We should love our fellow man anyway.
But if we were ever tempted to do this, we should think,
you know what, God's got this guy's back.
God could protect these people.
He says in verse 15,
you shall do no unrighteousness in judgment.
Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor
nor honor the person of the mighty,
but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
He's saying, look, don't treat people differently
based on how much money they have.
If there's an issue of right and wrong,
if there's an issue where two people go to court
and one person is suing the other person,
you know, how do you judge?
Who's right?
Well, it shouldn't matter who has money.
Or if it comes to a felony and it's being judged,
you know, who are we going to listen to?
It shouldn't be like, well, this guy's got money,
so we're going to side with him
because maybe he can do something for us.
No, no, no.
We need to be fair and impartial,
and poor people should get justice
just as much as rich people should get justice.
Unfortunately, the way our legal system works in America,
it's virtually impossible to get justice without a lawyer,
and lawyers are very expensive.
So this makes it very hard for poor people to get justice
because poor people have to rely upon the public defender.
They're not able to bring lawsuits
because they often just don't have the money
to hire a lawyer, of course,
and even if they were accused of a crime,
they have to rely on the public defender,
and a lot of times the public defender
is just kind of phoning it in,
and he's not necessarily a zealous lawyer.
You know, and if there is a public defender
that's actually working hard to represent people,
then God bless him.
That's the right thing to do
because a public defender should be defending people
just as hard as a high-priced lawyer
because of the fact that
we shouldn't respect persons in judgment.
Everybody has a right to a fair trial and justice
and having their cause to be heard.
And so it's a shame that a lot of justice in America
is bought with money
because the way the system is so complicated
you have to have a lawyer.
But, you know, thankfully we do at least
have the public defender for what that's worth
depending from person to person.
It says, but in righteousness thou shalt judge thy neighbor.
Don't respect the person of the poor.
It means don't look at the person of the poor and say,
well, he's poor, therefore he's guilty.
Or he's poor, so I'm not going to listen to him.
Oh, you know, you need to listen to the facts
and treat people impartially.
He says in verse number 16,
thou shalt not go up and down
as a tail-bearer among thy people.
Neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor.
I am the Lord.
Now, you want to talk about relevant.
You know, a lot of people, they say,
oh, the Book of Leviticus, it's not relevant.
It's Old Testament.
But haven't we found a lot of relevant things so far?
I mean, I feel like this is as relevant as anything
I read in the New Testament.
I mean, I'm reading Leviticus chapter 19
and he's talking about not cursing the deaf,
not putting a stumbling block before the blind,
not mistreating workers and holding onto their wages
and ripping them off on their paycheck
and, you know, thinking about the poor,
respecting no persons in judgment,
honoring your parents, don't worship idols.
I mean, it's a lot of good stuff.
Like I said, it's one of my favorite chapters in Leviticus.
And, of course, we know it's one of Jesus' favorite chapters, too,
because when Jesus was asked,
what's the greatest commandment in the law,
he tags on the second greatest.
He says, well, the greatest, you know,
that's Deuteronomy chapter 6,
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength.
But he said the second greatest commandment
is in Leviticus 19, where it says,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
in Leviticus 19, 18.
And it's funny how the Libtards
completely want to throw out chapter 18 of Leviticus
and chapter 20 of Leviticus and most of chapter 19,
but then they quote, they say,
well, Jesus said, love thy neighbor as thyself.
No, Leviticus said that.
Jesus didn't come up with that.
Jesus, I mean, he did before the world began,
but I'm saying, like, as a human being on this earth,
Jesus Christ did not originate that.
Obviously, Jesus Christ eternally is the Word of God.
So, forgive me for that.
But the point is, Jesus Christ was not bringing out some new quote.
That's not a Jesus quote, friend.
That's a Leviticus quote that Jesus was quoting from Leviticus.
So, give credit where credit is due
that the Book of Leviticus is what brought this wonderful statement
to our world for the first time around 1500 BC,
before Christ, that's what that stands for, by the way,
1500 years before Christ, love thy neighbor as thyself.
Jesus is quoting that.
He's quoting this chapter.
He knew this chapter.
He liked this chapter.
He is this chapter, okay?
And so, we need to understand that these things are very applicable.
Thou shalt not go up and down as a tail bearer among thy people.
Boy, do we need that advice today in 2021.
And the Book of Proverbs tells us this over and over again.
The New Testament reiterates this.
But let me tell you something.
There are certain people that are just drama mamas,
drama queens, just gossips.
And it could be dudes as well.
You know, women get the rap for this,
but it could also be dudes who like to do this,
where they just love to kind of stir the pot
if they find anything negative out about someone,
if they hear some rumor,
if they get a little bit of scuttlebutt
or a little bit of dirt on somebody,
man, they just love to just pass it around
and just try to get a rise out of people.
And they're just bored.
So this is what they do for kicks.
They spread rumors.
It's wickedness.
It is a major sin being a tail bearer
and going around and just stoking these fires of bitterness
and repeating people's sins and so forth.
Now, here's, you know, what we need to understand about this.
We've often talked about, and, you know,
all godly Christians feel this way,
that, you know, when some horrible sin is committed,
like, say, there's some kind of a molestation of a child or something,
that shouldn't be covered up like the Roman Catholic Church,
where they'll cover that up and sweep that under the rug.
Some priest that molested children
and then he's just moved to some other parish or something.
Or, like, let's say there's a pastor that, you know,
commits adultery with the church secretary
or he's using hookers or, you know, whatever, right?
We would say don't cover that up
because this guy must be removed from office
and he should never hold that office again, you know,
because that office needs to be a respectable office of bishop.
Of being a pastor.
You don't want to defile that by having some guy who's an adulterer
or whatever and doing these horrible things.
You know, or if he's stealing, you know, mass amounts of money from the church.
You don't want to cover that up because of the fact that these are major sins.
You know, like, you know, there was a pastor I heard about many years ago
that had embezzled, like, $150,000 for online gambling.
You can tell he wasn't winning.
Okay? Because he lost, like, $150,000 on this online gambling.
It's, like, that's wicked.
You know, you have to deal with stuff like that
and, you know, you don't want to cover that up, okay?
You don't want to cover up the pedophiles.
You know, you don't want to cover up pastors who are adulterers
and doing these things because those things need to be dealt with.
But here's what blows my mind is when people will say, like,
you know, hey, we don't want to cover this up.
And it's basically some minor sin.
Well, the answer is, yeah, we do.
Because the Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins.
Okay? Why would I?
And think about this.
Let's say someone commits a sin or commits a crime
and they've already been punished.
Should we ever bring that up again?
Because I don't think we should.
I believe that our country is 100% wrong to have criminal records
that follow people around for the rest of their life.
That is ungodly and unbiblical.
If you have been punished, it should be forgiven and forgotten
and never mentioned.
And, you know, every once in a while, people will mention to me
sins of other people for which they've already repented.
They've already gotten it right.
They've already fixed it.
They've already changed whatever needed to be changed.
And I'll just tell people, no, do not bring that up again.
Stop talking about that.
Don't bring that up to me and don't bring that up to anybody
because you know what?
That guy said he was sorry and he already fixed it.
That's over.
That's done.
Forget that.
When someone commits a sin and they repent of it and it's over,
it should be forgiven and forgotten.
Now, obviously, that does not go for a pastor
in the sense that the pastor has qualifications
and it's possible for a pastor to permanently disqualify himself.
So if a pastor does something that permanently disqualifies him
from ministry, we can't forget about that because we don't want to go,
whoops, we made him pastor again.
You know, if I go out and sleep with some other woman other than my wife,
guess what?
I'm permanently disqualified and I should never pass her again.
And so we have to remember, don't let this guy pastor a church.
Does everybody understand that?
But here's the thing, you know, Joe church member commits a sin
and you know what?
We've had many people that we've even thrown out of the church
because it was to that point where they had committed something serious
and we dealt with it and we threw them out of the church
and they repented, they got right with God, they came back to the church
and you know what?
We need to forget about it.
I don't care if they were kicked out in the past,
if they've been brought back, if they've been reinstated,
if they've been forgiven, let's just forget about that.
Why ever bring that up?
Not like, well, we gotta watch that person.
You know, we gotta watch them, they're on probation.
I mean, in a sense, obviously we should be careful around everybody
in the sense that I'm not just gonna like, you know,
I don't just leave my kids with whoever or just, you know,
here, hold my wallet or whatever, you know.
I mean, obviously we don't necessarily, but you know what?
No, we should not have this attitude of like, let's watch them,
let's keep an eye on them or they're, you know, here's the thing.
You know, if people have done something wrong in the past
and they've gotten it right and they're back at church,
we should totally forget about what they did wrong in the past
and just give them another chance and just, you know,
just treat them like everyone else.
And here's the thing, you know, if you personally,
and you know, I wasn't really planning on talking about this,
but you know, it just kind of comes up in the Scripture
as we're talking about these things, I think it's important to think about this.
You know, if there's someone in the church that you have concerns about
and you think like, well, you know, the church decided that they're okay
and brought them back, but I have my doubts about that person.
I think that's a bad person. I don't like that person.
You know, if you feel that way about somebody,
if you just feel that a certain person is just bad news
and you don't want to be friends with them and you don't like them,
you know what, you are perfectly entitled to feel that way in your heart.
If that's how you feel, if you say, hey, I think Pastor Anderson's wrong
because I think that person is a bad person,
I don't think that they really repented
or I don't think that they're here for any good reason,
if you feel that way in your heart, you know what,
you are welcome to feel that way in your heart,
but you know what you're not welcome to do is to go tell other people that.
You need to keep your mouth shut and say, hey,
and maybe there's someone that you don't want your kids hanging around
with that person for whatever reason.
Hey, you know what, you can reserve the right to let your kids hang around
with certain people and not with others.
They're your kids. That's your decision.
You're not forced to be friends with anyone.
You're not forced to have anyone over at your house.
You're not forced to have your kids playing with their kids.
You're not forced to have your kid dating their kid.
Those are your decisions.
And in your heart, you can feel that way,
but how dare you go around and tell people,
yeah, well, you know, they got kicked out, right?
I mean, you know, here's a bad thing they did a year ago.
I just thought you should know what they did 18 months ago,
or I just want you to know that I have a bad feeling about that person.
Shut your mouth.
You're a tale bearer.
You're gossip.
You're unforgiving.
That's not right.
If you have concerns, great.
And you know what?
Look, I've had certain people in church over the years
where I just kind of had some red flags about that person,
and I just kind of made a note to self, like,
I'm wary of this person.
I have red flags about this person.
I have doubts about this person.
But you know what I did, though?
Even though I was worried about a person,
thought that they might be a bad person,
you know what I did is I still smiled and shook their hand
and was polite, and I sure didn't go telling other people,
hey, I'm a little bit suspicious of so-and-so.
You just shut up and don't ruin somebody's reputation
over your gut feeling.
Hey, you want to trust your gut feeling?
Amen.
Follow your gut.
But don't just go telling everyone else about your gut, okay?
And trying to get everyone else on your side
to ostracize people in the church, okay?
You don't have to be friends with that person,
but don't try to stop other people from being friends with that person, okay?
That's up to them.
Well, I've got to warn them.
You know, that is not a biblical way of handling things, okay?
And by the way, everybody's a sinner.
Amen.
Everybody's a sinner.
So yeah, certain people have maybe, you know,
done stuff that was public or they did stuff
that got them church disciplined or something
or they got, you know, thrown out of the church
or maybe, you know, they did something that was just
became manifest to everyone.
But you know what?
Every single person in this building tonight,
myself included, is a sinner.
And every single one of us,
there are things that we've said and done over the years
that we would be very embarrassed if people know.
I mean, who here would just say I've never said or done anything
that I would be embarrassed for the whole church to know right now?
I mean, every single one of us have said and done things
that we would be embarrassed for the church to know, right?
So okay, we'll do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.
If someone found out something that you'd done wrong in the past,
would you want them repeating that or criticizing you to other people?
No.
So you need to do unto others as you would have them do unto you
and don't go up and down as a tail bearer among the people.
You know, and look, here's the thing.
When someone commits a minor sin,
why would you feel like this has to be exposed?
What in the world?
That's ridiculous.
That's absurd.
We'd all be getting exposed every day.
That makes no sense.
Okay, but it's just idiots who, you know,
they see that we expose a pedophile.
You know, we call the cops on some pedophile and say,
we're not going to cover this up.
We're going to deal with it.
And they're just like, yeah, let's not cover anything up.
Let's just expose everyone's sins.
It's like, what in the world?
That makes no sense.
And you know what?
Even if, let's say I found out something bad about one of my pastor friends.
You know, what if I found out that they sinned?
But if it wasn't a big deal, if it wasn't a big sin,
if it wasn't something that would disqualify them as a pastor, right?
I mean, think about it.
You say, well, yeah, but they sinned though.
Hey, I've sinned.
Hello?
Is anybody home?
Every single person is a sinner, okay?
If I found out that a pastor friend of mine had made a mistake
or committed a sin or done something,
if it was minor, meaning minor in the sense that it's not disqualifying,
or even if it were a little more major,
but it's not something that would disqualify him or anything,
then you know what?
I would just try to help restore him to repentance.
Now, if he's out committing adultery, getting drunk,
taking drugs, stealing from the offering plate or something,
then yeah, that's a big deal.
That's grounds for him being terminated, okay?
But if it was something smaller,
wouldn't I try to just help restore him to repentance
and work with him and help him?
And I sure wouldn't be blabbing his business to other people.
Folks, use a little discernment.
You should have a little common sense to understand the difference
between the Roman Catholics sweeping stuff under the rug
because there's pedophiles in their midst that are abusing children
versus just, you know, whatever the sins that church members commit.
And by the way, as a pastor, people come to me all the time
and confess sins to me, not because I'm asking them to.
You know, I'm not like a Roman Catholic, like, you know,
come confess all your dirty laundry to me, my child.
I don't have a confessional booth.
I don't take confessions.
But let's just face it, as a pastor,
people come to me and they tell me stuff because they want help
or they're looking for answers.
And so people will frequently, both from our church and from other churches,
they'll freak because I, you know, obviously,
I know a lot of people all over America
and I've had a ministry all over America for a long time.
And so people are constantly coming to me and telling me their problems
and confessing their faults to me, looking for help, looking for advice.
And so, you know, when I'm told those things, you know what,
it's my job to not repeat those things to anyone,
to not repeat those things to anyone because, you know what,
people need someone that they can talk to
and they need to be able to tell someone sometimes
what they're dealing with, what they're going through,
and they need to know that if they talk to me,
that I'm not going to repeat those things.
But, you know, there are some people where if you told them stuff,
you just take it to the bank,
you might as well broadcast it to the whole world
because they have such a big mouth.
And you know what, if there's anybody in the auditorium tonight who that's you,
you know, don't get upset or think that I'm, you know,
I bet he's thinking about me right now or something.
You feel that?
Are your ears burning?
You know, you feel me thinking about you?
No, no, here's the point.
If it's you, you know what you should do?
You should say, you know what, Pastor Anderson's right,
I need to start practicing keeping my mouth shut.
Right?
And look, I'm not saying you're a horrible person because, you know what,
there's no temptation taking you but such is his common demand.
Human nature is to be a tale bearer.
It's part of our sin nature.
Isn't there a little part of all of us that likes to repeat juicy tidbits or whatever?
But you know what, those of us who are mature Christians,
we've worked on that, right, and said, hey, this isn't right.
It's just like any other sin.
It's something that we need to deal with in our lives.
If we're a tale bearer, we need to fix it.
And so I don't hate you if you're a tale bearer.
I'm just telling you, you need to fix it
because, you know what, you're going to alienate your friends
but more importantly, you're dishonoring and displeasing the Lord
by being a tale bearer.
You're disobeying scripture.
You're being unholy by being a tale bearer.
And so get that right.
Get that sin right with God.
But, you know, the thing is that people tell me all this stuff.
I don't repeat it to anyone because it's my job.
It would be so unethical.
It would be so immoral.
In fact, there have even been people that turned out later to be horrible people.
They turned out to be people that are just horrible people
thrown out of the church, the worst damnable heretics.
And, you know, I knew things about these people
but, you know, I would never repeat those things
because it's my job as a pastor to keep people's confidence.
Even if they're bad people, even if they're horrible people,
if they told me something in confidence, then you know what?
I'm not going to repeat that to anyone.
Even if they're my worst enemy, I must be ethical as a pastor.
I must be moral and keep those things, you know, where they belong
because they were told to me in confidence as a pastor.
And so I would never repeat.
And by the way, I don't even repeat those things to my wife
because a lot of people are like, well, I'll tell everything to my wife.
Well, you know what?
I'm not going to because of the fact that if someone comes to me
and tells me something sinful or tells me something wrong or something,
you know, I'm not going to go repeat that to my wife.
And then, you know, and obviously I trust my wife
and would believe that she wouldn't repeat that to other people
but, you know what?
I'd rather just be responsible for myself
and just because I know I'm not going to repeat anything no matter what.
And I believe that about her as well but at least I have control over myself
and not only that but I don't think that it's even right
for my wife to necessarily, to hear everything
because did these people who told me something,
did they really want her necessarily to know?
Plus let me tell you something about the difference between men and women.
Men are much better at forgetting stuff.
You know what I mean?
Like we have been blessed with a short memory.
Women have a better memory than men.
For better or for worse, their memory is better.
So, you know, if I hear something bad about someone,
if I hear something sinful about people,
if, you know, if I hear that somebody's, you know,
if somebody tells me they're looking at pornography
or if I hear somebody tell me about somebody's drinking
or taking drugs or, you know, or whatever
and I hear these things or even other, you know, things,
you know, five years from now I'm not going to remember that.
Two years from now I might not even remember.
And you know what? Because I, you know, I deal with it
and especially if it's, if it's dealt with and it's over,
man, I just push that, I make a point to just push that stuff out of my brain
and I think that's part of the skill of being a pastor.
You got to be able to compartmentalize
and be able to deal with these things
and not hold any grudges against people
or remember everybody's sins and everything.
You know, because you want to be able to just love your people
and see the best in them
and not meditate upon their worst moments.
And so, you know, I push those things out of my mind
and I think that it's easier for men to do that than women.
Women tend to remember things a little bit more than men.
And I'm not criticizing women, I'm just saying it's a fact.
You know, this is, by the way, this is why women make great archaeologists
because they're so good at digging up the past.
I'm just saying.
I'm just saying, you know, men tend to just kind of forget stuff by nature
and I think that that's a good quality
when it comes to helping people who are struggling with sin
because I don't want to just for the rest of my life think to myself,
hey, it's the recovering drunk, hey, recovering drug addict,
hey, Mr. Porno, how's it going, hey, you know.
I don't want to think that way about people.
I want to just forget those things.
And by the way, 1 Corinthians 13, which is a charity chapter,
you know, and charity means love.
It's about having love and charity in your heart to other people.
And you know what, it says, rejoice is not an iniquity.
If you enjoy finding out the dirt on someone
and finding out the sordid details of somebody's messed up life,
you know, there's something wrong with your heart
because when I hear those things, they grieve me
and because they grieve me, I don't want to dwell on them anyway.
I want to deal with the problem.
I want to help that person, pray with them, give them advice,
quote scripture to them, and then I just want to push that out of my mind
and move on, you know, and I think that that's you.
And by the way, if you're going to be a pastor someday,
you have to be able to do that.
I had a pastor in the past who, this guy just repeated stuff.
He was a tail bearer.
There's a church that I went to where the pastor had a reputation
for being a tail bearer.
And I remember there were even times that he even told me stuff
and I'm just thinking to myself, like, why are you telling me this?
Like, you shouldn't be telling me this.
This is none of my business.
Why are you telling me this?
But you know what, if a pastor has that reputation,
he's going to burn a lot of people.
He's going to make a lot of people mad.
He's going to hurt a lot of people's feelings.
A lot of people are going to quit the church and be disgruntled
because of the fact that he's a tail bearer.
Or they're just going to feel like, well, I can't talk to him.
If I have problems, if something's going on, I can't go to him.
He's going to freak out.
Or he's going to tell everybody about it.
You know, you have to be able to forgive and forget.
And you know, obviously, you guys aren't pastors.
I'm the pastor.
You guys aren't pastors.
So your situation might be a little bit different.
You don't necessarily have people constantly coming to you with things
and kind of unloading stuff on you and having to deal with it.
But you know what, there are going to be times when you hear about stuff
or where you find out about stuff.
And you know what, you need to just practice just keeping your mouth shut
and just forgiving, forgetting, letting things go.
And by the way, let's say I'm out in public somewhere.
Sometimes I run into people from church when I'm out in public.
And sometimes they might be doing something
or wearing something that I don't approve of.
Right?
You know, it's possible that I could catch them, you know,
because I'm out on my bike all over the city, man, and I see everything.
No, I'm just kidding.
But you know, if I'm out there, you know, there could be times, you know,
when I see someone and maybe they look a lot different than they look in church.
Or maybe they're doing something or whatever.
But you know what?
It's not my place to sit there and say, hey, you know, you're busted
and I caught you.
And then go tell other people, hey, you know, I saw Sister so-and-so
and she was down at the whatever and Brother so-and-so.
You know, now look, obviously, you know, if I see you out there
and you're totally drunk or something, then I would approach you
and say like, dude, you're drunk.
Go home.
And we'd have to deal with that.
Okay.
But you know what?
If I see somebody who's dressed wrong or something, you know,
or maybe they're bumping the wrong music or whatever out of their car,
you know, I'm not here to be the morality police and neither should you be
because you're going to run into people too.
Well, I ran into so-and-so and you want to know what they were listening to?
You want to know what they were watching?
You want to know what they were wearing?
You know where they went?
You know, it's just a junior high mentality is what it is.
You know, you want to live the rest of your life like a junior high girl?
Go ahead.
And you're 20 and you're 30 and you're 40 and you're still acting
like a little junior high girl like, oh, did you see what she did?
Oh, can you believe what she's wearing?
Oh, oh.
You know what?
You need to grow up and be holy.
Be different.
And part, you know, you say, what's it mean to be holy, Pastor?
And I said, what's it mean?
Well, according to this verse, it says it means not being a tale bearer.
You want to be holy?
Honor your parents.
You want to be holy?
Care about other people.
Love other people.
Be honest.
Don't steal.
Work hard.
Don't rip people off.
You know, think about deaf people.
Think about the blind.
Don't do unrighteousness and judgment.
Don't respect people more because they have money.
And don't be a tale bearer.
Going up and down is a tale bearer among the people.
This is holiness.
It's what God wants us to do as Christians.
And so do we cover up pedophiles and adultery and, you know, renegade
pastors that are snorting coke or gambling away the church's money
online or something?
Obviously, those things have to be dealt with.
Love covers a multitude of sins.
Charity covers a multitude of sins.
Okay?
And so if I catch somebody doing something, you know, I want to help
them.
And if I find out a sin about a pastor or about a church member,
unless it's something that needs to be dealt with publicly because it
falls under one of these major things that we have to deal with
publicly, you know what?
Then we should just fix that and cover it up.
The cover up.
You know, Sister so-and-so was wearing pants.
Massive cover up.
It's like, what in the world?
That's stupid.
Okay?
Every single person is a sinner.
Every single person makes mistakes, myself included, yourself included.
So don't become just the sin police and just delight in basically just,
you know, telling, did you see something wicked in your heart if you
feel that way.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you
specifically for Leviticus chapter 19 because, Lord, this chapter is
relevant today, Lord.
And it's sad today how people shy away from the book of Leviticus and
they want to just throw it out.
But, Lord, we know at this church that all scripture is profitable for
doctrine.
And, Lord, help us as we perfect holiness, help us to think about
Leviticus 19 and meditate upon these things and incorporate these
things into our own personal holiness code in our own lives.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Take your hymnals, please, and turn to hymn number 127.
127, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
Hymn number 127.
127.
You're playing dromineer.
There we go.
127, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
Just to take him at his word.
127.
You're playing dromineer.