["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Let's turn to song number two.
Glory to his name.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Song number two.
And down at the cross
Where my Savior died
Down where the flames
Came from sin I cried
There to my heart
Was the blood of blood
Glory to his name
There to my heart
Was the blood of blood
Glory to his name
I am so wondrously saved from sin
Jesus so sweetly abides with him
There at the cross
Where he took me in
Glory to his name
There to my heart
Was the blood of blood
Glory to his name
Oh precious fountain that saves from sin
I am so glad I have entered in
There Jesus saves me and leads me
There Jesus saves me and leads me clean
Glory to his name
There to my heart
Was the blood of blood
Glory to his name
Come to this mountain so rich and sweet
Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's feet
Plunge him today and he may complete
Glory to his name
There to my heart
Was the blood of blood
Glory to his name
Thank you for the opportunity to come to church. Please bless the service and fill the pastor with your spirit.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Let's turn to our next song. Song number 96.
God leads us along. Number 96.
Song number 96.
In shame he has turned so rich and so sweet
God leads his children along
Where the fires won't flow in so very once we
God leads his children along
Some through the water
Some through the flood
Some through the fire but all through the flood
Some through great sorrow
But God gives a song in the night season
And all day long
Time to numb down where the sun shines so bright
God leads his dear children along
Sometimes in the valley in darkest of night
God leads his dear children along
Some through the water
Some through the flood
Some through the fire but all through the flood
Some through great sorrow
In the night season and all the day long
Those roads befall us and stay to the post
God leads his dear children along
Through grace and comfort in feet of our foes
God leads his dear children along
Some through the water
Some through the flood
Some through the fire but all through the flood
Some through great sorrow
But God gives a song in the night season
And all the day long
Away from the fire away from the clay
God leads his dear children along
In glory, eternity's day
God leads his dear children along
Some through the water
Some through the flood
Some through the fire but all through the flood
Some through great sorrow
But God gives a song in the night season
Alright, 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 10.30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we will be in chapter 10 of Ezekiel.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page are the birthdays and anniversaries for the month of October.
And then below that a couple birth announcements. Congratulations to the Davis family
on the birth of Maximilian Solomon.
Born Sunday September 26th.
8 pounds 12 ounces 21 inches.
And we've got a great picture there. And in this corner weighing in at 5 pounds 8 ounces.
Congratulations to the Jeffrey family.
On Andre Joshua born Saturday October 2nd.
19 inches long. So congratulations to both of them.
And be sure to congratulate them. On the back we've got
all ladies invited to a bridal shower in honor of Chandler
Young. And that is going to be on October 23rd
Saturday from 2 to 4.30 right here. Be sure to RSVP
to Grace Young at the number provided there.
And plan to bring a dish to share. Nurslings only preferred.
Meaning that you know definitely bring your nursing baby but
don't necessarily bring a whole bunch of little kids if you can pass
them off. But it's preferred so if you've got to bring them you've got to bring them.
And then below that we've begun taking portraits for the annual yearbook.
So please sign up at the rear of the auditorium. Don't put this off because
you know how time flies and before you know it that ship will have sailed
and you're going to be that guy or you're going to be that family
that's not in the yearbook. Alright so be sure to get that done ASAP.
Keep praying for the Sierra Leone missions trip. A bunch of
our people are already there. There's a little bit of a snag
that has already been run into so definitely be praying.
Is anybody going on the Sierra Leone trip that's still here? Eric I see
you. Anybody else? Daniel? Come see me after the service just so I can keep you
guys in the loop on everything that's going on.
So be praying for that trip and then that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next
song. Come lead us.
You should find the sheet for Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah.
Guide me O thou
great Jehovah
Guide me O thou
great Jehovah, pilgrim through this
barren land. I am weak
but thou art mighty. Hold me
with thy powerful hand. Bread
of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I'm on the warm.
Feed me till I'm on no more.
Open now the crystal fountain,
let the healing stream not
flow. Let the fiery
pillar make me all my journey
through. Strong deliverer,
strong deliverer, lead us to my
strength and shield. Lead us to
my strength and shield. When I
tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside.
Bread of death and hell's destruction,
let me say God came inside.
Songs of praises, songs of
praises, I will never give to thee.
I will never give
to thee.
Song number 187, Jesus Loves Me.
Number 187.
187.
Jesus loves me
this I know, for the Bible
tells me so. Little ones
to Him belong, they are
weak but He is strong. Yes,
Jesus loves me. Yes,
Jesus loves me. The Bible
tells me so.
Jesus loves me, he who died.
Heaven's gate to open wide.
He will wash away my sin.
Let his little child
come in. Yes, Jesus
loves me. Yes, Jesus
loves me. The Bible tells
me so. Jesus loves
me, he will stay close
beside me all the way. Now has
bled and died for me. I
will henceforth live for me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Alright, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates around. As the plates go
around, let's turn our Bibles to Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus
chapter 19, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number
1. Leviticus chapter 19.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads. Is it you, brother
Dan? Come on down.
Brother Raymond Cooper is, of course, with the crew in Sierra Leone.
So, Leviticus chapter 19, starting in verse number 1.
Leviticus 19, the Bible reads,
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 in the 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 and hallowed 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 death, nor put a stumbling
block before the blind, but shalt 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 ye shall bring his
trespass offering unto the Lord, under 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 heads, 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 dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you,
and thou shalt love him as thyself. For ye 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.
Father God, we want to thank you for all the birthdays we have this month, Lord.
We want to thank you for all the church members that are overseas, Lord. Bless the soul winners,
Lord. Bless all the feet of the soul winners, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. So this morning I'm going to be continuing
something that I was preaching on the last couple Sunday nights, where I've been preaching
through chapter 19 of Leviticus, one of my favorite chapters
in the book of Leviticus, and it's part of what is
often called the holiness code within the book of Leviticus, because there's a lot
of talk about being holy. And God says at the beginning of that
chapter, I'll just give you a few kind of theme verses for these three sermons that I've
been doing. In chapter 19, it says in verse number two,
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. And obviously in the New Testament,
that's a theme that's carried through most of the books of the
New Testament, and this exact verse is quoted a few times,
be holy, for I am holy. And then another verse that I've
taken as kind of a theme verse is 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 1,
where the Bible reads, 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 in the New Testament, the Bible tells us
that we should be perfecting holiness in the fear of God,
and perfection in the Bible is referring to completeness
or wholeness. So what that's saying is that we should be looking for areas in our
life that are wrong and fixing them, and finding areas
in our life that are ungodly or unholy and making them
holy as we perfect holiness and the fear of God by doing what?
By cleansing ourselves from the filth of the flesh and of the spirit.
Now, we're going to pick up where we left off in
Leviticus chapter 19, because so far we've gone verse by verse all the way
through verse 22, so we're going to jump into verse 23 as a
starting point. It says in Leviticus 19, 23, and when ye shall have 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 ye be 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. So before we talk about this couple of
verses here, let me just again define for you what the word holy means.
Holy means set apart. It's not just common
here every day, but it's something that is different, something that's peculiar,
something that's set apart. Specifically in the Bible, it's talking about being
set apart for God, set apart unto
the Lord. So you've got the holy place. It's not just an ordinary place, it's a place
that's specifically for the Lord. And so when God tells us to be
holy, he wants us to be a peculiar people.
He wants us to be different than the unsaved
or non-Christians. He doesn't want us to be like unto the heathen.
He wants us to be different. He wants us to be holy.
He wants us to be distinctively Christian. He wants us
to be like Christ and following the word of God
and following these commandments. Now, the Old Testament law
does not necessarily directly pertain
to us all the time as New Testament believers. You know, the New Testament says
that the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change
also of the law. And that the carnal ordinances,
meaning the meats, the drinks, the divers washings, the carnal ordinances,
the Levitical priesthood, things like that, were only imposed
on them for a short period of time relatively,
you know, 1500 years until Christ
came. And so the book of Hebrews deals with that. I'm not going to re-preach all that
because I dealt with that in the previous sermons. But in this passage,
we have this law that God's giving the children of Israel that when they plant
a tree, the first three years, they don't eat any
fruit off that tree. Now, this might seem like, whoa, what a waste.
But what you have to understand is that when you first plant a tree, it only
produces very little the first few years anyway. You know, for those
of you who've planted trees, you start out with that little
sapling or whatever that you plant in your yard. The first couple years, you
get excited when there's like one piece of fruit on it. Or maybe
eventually it's five or something. And then it really blows up.
You know, after several years is when it really starts to blow up. And then all of a sudden
you've got hundreds of pieces of fruit on the tree. But it takes patience. You have to wait for that.
And so what he's saying here is the first three
years, any fruit that does grow on it for those first three years,
which is going to be minimal, you just leave it alone. You don't eat
it. You just consider it unclean. You just don't mess with it. You just let
it stay on the tree, fall, die, whatever. Let the animals
eat it, et cetera. And then it says that in the fourth
year, all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the
Lord withal. So in the fourth year, you're going to take all that fruit
from your new tree that you've planted and you're going to give it unto the
Lord. Okay. Now you say, well, how do they give it to the Lord? Well, they take
it to the house of God and they would give it unto the
Levites and the priests and the ministers who served in the house of God.
And this is the first fruits that they're being given.
And then in the fifth year, now you can start eating from your tree
and every year thereafter. So this is not talking about existing
trees that are already growing. This is talking about the times that you actually
plant something new. Okay. Now this principle of the first
fruits is something that occurs all throughout the Bible
literally starting in Genesis and going all the
way through. And if you would just keep your finger in Leviticus 19, but go to
Proverbs chapter three. We're going to come back to Leviticus 19, but go to Proverbs chapter
three. The idea of the first fruits
going to the Lord is the idea that in
all things, he must have the preeminence. He needs to be
number one. And so part of the way this is symbolized is this
thing with the tree giving the first fruits from a new tree
plant unto the Lord. The first harvest goes
to him and the way it gets to him is through his ministers. Now
the thing about that is that
we are not in the New Testament obligated if
we, for example, planted a tree in our yard, we're not going to sit there and go,
okay, it's the fourth year. Now let's bring it down to faithful word and
give it unto the Lord as an offering and then, okay, now we can eat it in the fifth
year. We're not under the law in that sense. So therefore
if we plant a tree and it produces one piece of fruit in the third year,
we're pretty much just going to pop it in our mouth and eat it because this falls under
Old Covenant, Old Testament laws
that are carnal ordinances that are no longer imposed upon us.
But the principle, though, is a principle
that transcends the Old Covenant or transcends
just the Mosaic law. It's just a biblical, all-time
eternal principle of giving the first fruits unto
the Lord or putting the Lord first in our life and always
giving him the preeminence. Now if you were to go all the way back to Genesis,
you'd see Abel. Remember Cain and Abel?
Abel offers unto the Lord the firstlings of his flock.
So there's that principle right there. Okay, and this is
often connected with tithing. Okay, now look down at your Bible
in Proverbs chapter three, verse number nine. It says,
honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first
fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled
with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new
wine. So the principle given here is that if we put God first, if we honor
him first, if we give him the preeminence, if we give him the first fruits,
then we're going to be blessed. We're going to have more because God's going to give us
abundance. So in the book of Genesis, of course, we have
the firstlings of the flock with Abel. Then we have
Abraham confronted by Melchizedek. And the Bible says that Abraham
gave Melchizedek tithes of all. He gave him a tenth part of the spoils.
Then we have Jacob setting up a pillar and
calling it Bethel, which means house of God, and saying,
of all that you give me, Lord, I will give the tenth part unto you.
Okay, then we have the Mosaic law, of course, containing
the tides and they're supposed to bring the tenth unto the Lord and so forth.
Now, in the New Testament, the house
of God is the local church. We don't have Levites and priests,
but we do have full-time ministers that work in the
local church. Now, here's the thing. In the Old Testament, you've got the
12 tribes of Israel and the tribe of Levi
did not inherit land like the rest of the tribes did.
Okay, so they were supposed to just be full-time working
in spiritual things. So they're going to be running the
tabernacle, running the sacrifices, teaching the people the Bible.
They took care of the music and the teaching and the
preaching and just, you know, menial things like just setting up the
tabernacle, taking it down, carrying the ark on their shoulders.
All of the different things that went into the religion
of ancient Israel is taken care of by the priests and the Levites and
they have no other livelihood, meaning they don't have their own
lands and flocks and herds that they inherit
in order to provide for themselves. So the Bible says the Lord
is their inheritance and so they live off of
the tithes of the people, the sacrifice of the people, the offerings of the people
and this example right here in Leviticus 19, the first fruits.
You know, it goes to them. That's how they get produce. That's how they're going to get
fruits and vegetables because they don't have any orchards. They don't have any land.
They only just have the stuff that comes in as an offering.
Now, obviously we're not under that system in the Old Testament of the Levitical priesthood
but the New Testament analog of this is the
local church, the local church of the house of God and in 1 Corinthians chapter 9
the Bible says that the Levites live of the things of
the altar and the things of the tabernacle and even so hath the Lord
ordained that those that preach the gospel should live
of the gospel. Those that preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
So there are religions out there that teach that ministers
should not be full time. The Mormon church for example.
Of course the people running their religion, their prophet and
their people running the religion are multi-millionaires. The Mormon
prophet is living in a multi-million dollar mansion but then he says,
oh, you know, these preachers that are getting paid, you know, they're teaching
lies because they're getting paid. Meanwhile, he's a multi-millionaire for being
one of the biggest devils in the United States of America. The prophet of
the Mormon church is going to split hell wide open. Okay. But
at the Mormon church itself, the guy who's preaching down there
is not being paid. He's not a full time minister.
What it is is they just rotate their people through. So basically
the headquarters in Salt Lake City dictates
a message that's going to be preached all over America in every Mormon church
and then he just gets handed that sermon and that's what he's going to
deliver and he might do that job for a year or two and then cycle out.
Like for example, Mitt Romney, who some of you bozos
voted for, even though he's a Satan worshiping Mormon. But anyway, sorry,
didn't mean to say that. Sorry to hurt your feelings. But anyway,
you know, Mitt Romney basically did that
job. You know, because they cycle through. So there was a time when
Mitt Romney was getting up every Sunday and preaching
the sermon at his local Mormon church
is basically about as true as the stuff he said on his campaign. You know,
the stuff that he's teaching. So he's practicing lying in front of an audience and
making it believable by getting up every Sunday morning and lying to the Mormons
and teaching them satanic Mormon doctrine and garbage
of the Latter-day Satan church. Let me tell you how I really feel.
So anyway,
so they are ones who believe. But here's the thing, it's not biblical.
Because if you study the Bible, the apostle Paul
often worked a secular job
like he talks about him making tents and working day and night.
He often worked a secular job. But in 1 Corinthians 9
he states that he and Barnabas are the only ones doing that.
So you have 80 some other apostles, including
obviously Christ's original 11 disciples,
but then he ordained 70 others also. So you have literally
at least 80 apostles who do not work a secular
job, who are 100% just living off of
the gospel. You know, they preach the gospel, they preach the word of God, and the
church supports them. Paul and Barnabas are the exception to that.
And Paul even said, you know what, I have every
right to stop working a secular job and to just be
full-time. But he just said, well, I'm not using that power, but I could do that. You know,
like when I started the church for the first four and a half years, I worked a full-time secular job
for the first four and a half years. And then for several years after that, I worked part-time
and did both. And ever since 2014 January,
I've been full-time pastor of the church. But that is biblically the way it
is supposed to be. When Jesus called his
disciples, you remember he specifically told Peter, you're
going to be a fisher of men now. And he forsook fishing, he forsook
the nets. James and John, Peter and Andrew, they forsook
their secular job and followed Christ full-time.
And that was required of them. It wasn't like, hey, is it alright
if I do this day job of fishing and then just follow you in the evenings, Jesus?
It was like, no, they need to be full-time. And remember, when Peter
gets backslidden and he's not right with God, what does he do? He takes a bunch of
the disciples and they go out fishing. And then Jesus shows up and
corrects him and puts him on a guilt trip about it in John chapter
21. And so all throughout Scripture, the Bible is clear, those
who preach the gospel should live of the gospel and
that working a secular job is not the
ideal for a preacher. Now, again, if you're starting a church or something
and the church is too small to support you, then yeah, obviously
you'd work a full-time job. Or if a pastor chose and just said, I want
to keep working my secular job and pastoring, you know,
then he would have every right to do that. But it's not the plan.
God's main plan is that not only
pastors be paid full-time, but also deacons and other
workers and servants in the church be paid full-time. It is
their job. And that's why the apostles in Acts
chapter 6 specifically said, it's not meat for us to leave the word of God and
wait tables. So if we're supposed to be
working a full-time job and pastoring a church, wouldn't that be waiting tables,
for example, and pastoring a church? He's saying, no, no, no, we want to
give ourselves to the ministry of the word and prayer. And so,
you know, we're going to have other people take care of these menial things. And so
that's what the Bible teaches. And so this idea of honoring the Lord
with your first fruits, giving the Lord the first tenth,
or tithing, putting him first, it still has a New Testament
analog in your tithes and offerings to the local
church, okay? Now, here's the thing about that, is that
we're talking about holiness. What does this have to do with holiness?
Well, because the world out there, in many cases,
they are driven by money. That is their favorite thing.
That is the most important thing to them. That is something that they often
idolize and make a God out of. And so they're going to have a pretty hard
time understanding why you go to church three times a week, first of all,
why you would take the which day of the week? The first
day of the week, and dedicate that to, you know, coming
down and worshiping the Lord at his house. Also, taking the
first tenth of your money and giving it to the local church would obviously be
something that they would also just be aghast at. Like, what in the world?
You know, how can you do that? Because they love money. They wouldn't want
to let go of money. They don't want to give up their first day of the week. They don't want to
give up any money. They don't want, because of the fact that that's what they
live for. We as God's people should loosen our grip on the things of this world
and not be money-driven people. Why? Because the love of
money is the root of all evil. The love of
money is the root of all evil. So we want to make sure
that we do not become a person who sits around
fantasizing about nicer house, nicer car,
nicer clothes, and vacations all over the world, and just fantasizes
about these things. That's called covetousness. Now look, if you have the money
to do those things, great. Enjoy. But if you don't have the money
to do those things, be content with such things as you have and don't
covet those things or fantasize about these things. Why? Because the Bible says
they that will be rich, they that want to be rich, fall
into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition because the love of money
is the root of all evil. And so we don't want to ever fall into that trap of
idolizing money and so one day to learn this from a very
young age is through tithing. You know, I grew up as a kid.
My first allowance was 30 cents a week.
You know, you kids today probably think that that's just nothing.
You know, but my allowance was literally 30
cents. I got a quarter and a nickel and it was my job
to turn that nickel into five pennies so that I could put three
of them into the offering plate. And that's what I did as a kid. I put
three pennies into the offering plate, okay, every
Sunday. That was my tithe that I paid. Later I got
upgraded to 50 cents. I threw in a nickel. Eventually
I got a dollar and I tied 10 cents. I went to my mom
one day and I said, Mom, I would like a raise in my allowance
and she said, what did you have in mind? I said, I would like to receive a dollar and 11 cents.
And she was like, what? Like, why do you want
a dollar and 11 cents? I said, well, because
here's the thing, you know, right now I'm getting a dollar and by the time I pay my tithe
I've got 90 cents. It's not really a full buck.
But if I could get a dollar and 11 cents, you know, then
you know, the 11 cents will cover the tithe because I understood if I'm adding 10
cents, well, now the tithe is 11, you know. Looking
back I really should have asked for a dollar and 12 cents because I don't know if God
wanted me rounding down like that. So, you know,
I've grown in wisdom over the past 30 some odd
years. Now I know it should have been a dollar and 12 cents, okay.
But anyway, you know, I grew up with that lesson and
learning that and practicing that and that is a good way
to learn to seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.
And you know what? I've been blessed financially for putting God first
and honoring the Lord with my first fruits because of the fact that God
has promised that in scripture and that is what has happened in my life
and many other people's lives. And so I don't want to spend the whole time on that because I want to get
through more of this chapter. But that's the basic principle here is
just honoring the Lord with your first fruits. Giving Him the first day
of the week. You know, and what do we do first thing in the morning?
I mean, to me, my sharpest time, my most
productive time, my best time is
first thing in the morning. Now you teenagers, I know that's a rough time for you, okay.
Maybe your first fruits is like late at night or something. But I'm saying like,
you know, evening and the morning were the first day, amen. But when I wake up in the
morning as an adult, you know, that's my sharpest,
my best time that I have to give. And you know what? I give that time to the Lord
to where I spend that time reading my Bible because I want to make sure that I'm
starting my day with the Lord. And then when the week comes around,
I want to start my week with the Lord in church Sunday
morning. You're all here so you can check that box. You got that down. All right.
So let's move on here. The next thing in this chapter about
this, verse 26, is you shall not eat anything with the blood,
neither shall you use enchantment nor observe
times. Now eating something with the blood, at first blush
you might look at this and say, well, the meat and drink rules are all done
away in Christ. And this is true that as far as food being
clean or unclean, that is done away in Christ. However,
I would say that the prohibition on blood still stands and here's
why. Because of the fact that it's right here in the
same verse with using enchantment
and observing times. This makes it seem satanic in nature
if it's being associated with witchcraft or sorcery.
Eating blood is in the same breath in the same context.
So I don't think that this is so much of a dietary rule
as just, hey, that's something that you don't do.
Not only that, here's more proof that the prohibition on blood transcends
the Mosaic law is that it showed up before the Mosaic law because
when Noah gets off the ark, he's told, don't eat any blood.
Kind of a good rule of thumb is that things that show up before
Moses probably transcend the old covenant or the Mosaic law.
Again, that's not always, but in general
this is a principle that transcends that and goes further than that.
So no blood sausage for me or blood tacos or anything
like that because it's something that's associated with
that which is devilish here, right? And then enchantment,
I think we all understand what enchantment means. This is talking about
using some kind of spells or witchcraft or anything like that. And then
what does it mean to observe times? Well, observing times has to
do with superstition. So there are a lot of ancient
documents like this where it'll give lists of days
that are lucky and unlucky. You know, a real famous one is
Works and Days by Hesiod and he lists off, oh, you know,
you don't want to give birth to a boy on this day. If you give birth to a girl, that's okay.
But hey, don't conceive a child
after a bad funeral because it's just all these weird
superstitious things. Or, you know,
the third day of the month is good for this. The fifth day of the month is good. Oh, but watch out
for the seventh and eighth days, you know, and all these kind of things. These are
things that God does not want us to observe. Don't pay
attention to those things. Don't believe in these kind of superstitions
of, you know, walking under a ladder and a black cat
crossing your path and spilling the salt, breaking a mirror, whatever.
Now, if you swallow your gum, it is going to be there for seven years, okay? But I'm just
saying, like, you know, some of these other just kind of superstitious observing
of times and thinking about different days being
lucky or unlucky, he's saying, don't do that.
This is occult stuff that we should stay away from.
And then he says in verse 27, you should not round the corners
of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
And this is one of those verses that often gets goofed up by atheists because
atheists newsflash don't understand the Bible because they're not saved.
But they like to tell us what the Bible means all the time, don't they?
So a lot of atheists and bozos and
other people who don't understand the Bible will try to say, oh, the Bible says you can never trim
your beard. Bible says you can never get a haircut. You can never trim your beard.
I see you're trimming your beard there, buddy.
And sometimes you'll see Jewish people with strange
like superfluous locks of hair that aren't getting trimmed
or cut. But let's actually carefully look at what the Bible says here.
Okay. It says thou shalt not round the corners
of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
Now, what does it mean to mar something? Well, to mar something
would be to take a chunk out of it or
gouge it. It's basically to damage something. So if I
marred your vehicle, it would be like putting some kind of a dent
in it, taking a little chunk out of something. So when the Bible says not
to mar the corners of your beard, it's saying don't take
a chunk out. And I believe that what he's getting at here when he says don't
round the corners of your head or mar the corners of your beard is just
don't have a strange haircut or a strange beard.
Don't cut weird shapes because, again, mar
is like taking a chunk out in a way that is unseemly where you've
damaged it. So it'd be like carving weird shapes
and having strange haircuts or beards.
That's what he's going to, he's not saying don't trim your beard, don't
keep it short or, and look, if you want to grow your beard long
go for it, you know, and you, you know, it's not very practical
having a long beard like that, but hey, go
for it. But you know, there's nothing wrong with trimming your beard either.
There's nothing wrong with shaving your beard all the way off either. But what you shouldn't do
is have just like weird hair and weird beard.
And you say, why would God command that? Well, I don't know, look around at the way some people
do their hair and their beard and there's some weird stuff out there and God doesn't
want us looking like some kind of a freak,
some kind of a cannibal or something, you know, with all of these
strange haircuts, strange piercings, you know, all kinds of marks
upon our body. Oh wait, that's still coming up. We'll get to that. That's the next verse.
So isn't it interesting the context? Look at the next verse.
You should not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor
print any marks upon you. I am the Lord. Now again,
some people would say to this, you know, that's only
saying you don't do tattoos for the dead or something.
Now, first of all, a lot of people are doing tattoos for the dead even in 2021
because what's one of the most popular tattoos that you'll see people have, you know,
R.I.P. and then a date and then what date that person
died, the name and who's seen a tattoo like that?
I've seen, I've seen scores of tattoos like that. So that, I mean,
that's literally printing marks upon, that's literally making cuttings in your
flesh for the dead and printing marks upon you. But notice the Bible
says don't make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead. This is a type of
mourning where when people are mourning, they would cut themselves as a way of mourning.
We as God's people should never be chopping into ourselves
because we're depressed. Now you say, who would do that?
I don't know, a bunch of teenage girls down at the local high school, for example,
because you've got all these Goths or I guess they're not Goths anymore. Are they emo
now? Who cuts themselves now?
The emo? When I was a kid they were called Gothic.
And you'd have these girls, they wore all black, they had black fingernail polish
and they would cut themselves. They'd have all these scars from where they cut themselves
and what's going on with that? Well, it's satanic
because the prophets of Baal cut themselves as they're weeping and
crying out to their God. The demon-possessed guy in Mark chapter 5
cuts himself with stones. So you have multiple wrongs
to people cutting themselves as either being demon-possessed
or worshiping Satan. And I'm not saying that all these teenage girls are demon-possessed
or worshiping Satan, but I'll tell you this, they're being influenced by people who are demon-possessed
and worshiping Satan. Again, I'm kind of going back to
my time, but the ones who were listening to the Nine Inch Nails
and Marilyn Manson and those type of things,
they're the ones who were doing this. And I'll guarantee you,
that those kind of people are demon-possessed and worshiping Satan.
I don't think there's any doubt about that. So yeah, some people who cut themselves
are demon-possessed, but I think many could also just be emulating
or trying to be cool or something to fit in with a certain
crowd by being like unto these heroes that they have
that are literal devil-worshippers. So again, eating blood,
using enchantments, observing times,
carving strange shapes into your hair and beard, making cuttings in your flesh for the dead.
Somebody dies and you mourn by cutting yourself. No, I think crying
will suffice, alright? Crying is good enough. You don't have to start
cutting yourself and harming yourself because self-harm is of the devil.
And then it says, nor. So don't make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead.
Nor. This is something else.
Also, don't print any marks on your body.
I don't care if you're printing a Bible verse on your body. Don't print any marks on your body.
Now again, I'm not mad at you if you have tattoos because they're permanent.
So obviously, you know, they're
probably, I wouldn't be surprised if half the adults in here have a tattoo
or something just because it's so prevalent in our society. So I'm not
obviously trying to chastise you for something that you did a long time ago,
but those of you who have not done this yet,
don't do it. You know, I'm speaking to the children, the teenagers, the young adults.
Don't be like, oh, I turned 18. Time to go out and get a tattoo.
Wrong. Don't print any marks upon your body. Be different.
Be holy. Be set apart. Don't be like the heathen
who tattoo themselves.
Verse 29. Do not prostitute thy daughter
to cause her to be a whore. Let her be a whore.
So do not pimp out your daughter to be a prostitute.
Do not, uh, you know, I mean, what else do I need to say about that verse?
Don't do it. Amen. All right, let's move on. Verse 30.
You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
And again, there's a difference in the New Testament. Back then, they had a literal
sanctuary, a tabernacle, a tent, and
the, uh, the, uh,
the most holy place and the holy place and the Ark of the Covenant.
Obviously, that's all done away in the New Testament. But there's still a principle
here of just having respect for the house of God. And the Bible says
in the New Testament, and that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth. And so we should know how we have to behave ourselves
in the house of God. So we should have respect and reverence for the house of God.
What is the house of God? Is it this building? No.
The house of God is the assembly. Now, a lot of people will say,
the church is the people. And I agree with that. Amen. But with this
caveat, the church is the people when they're actually
assembling. Because we don't want to just say, oh, the church is the people,
so I can never show up for church, and I can just kind of go out hiking
every Sunday in nature and talk to God out on the lake while I'm fishing,
and I'm the church. You know, like, I'll knock on people's doors,
and they'll be like, hey, we're having church right now, man.
You're talking to me right now. This is church right now. But no, that's not church.
Now, and people will say, well, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there are mine in the midst. Amen. Doesn't make it church, though.
Right? I mean, two or three of us, we could get together in the name of Christ this week,
and we could sit down and have a meal this week in the name of Christ,
we can go out hiking together in the name of Christ, and we can spend time worshipping the Lord
up on the mountaintop of Mount Humphreys or something, but that's not church.
The church is the congregation. That's what the word church
literally means, congregation, assembly.
And so, yes, the church is not a building. This building
is not the church, but we are in church right now.
And the reason we're in church right now is because we're in this group right now.
Okay? And the people who actually assemble here make up the church.
So, you know, if I saw someone during the week,
I could say, hey, we are part of the same church.
He and I are part of the same church. Okay, but that's because he shows up here.
Somebody who else who's listening online, you know,
God bless them, I'm glad they're listening online, I hope that they're learning a lot,
I hope it's helpful to them, but they are not a part of this church.
People who are part of this church are the people who are physically, actually coming to the church.
Does everybody understand that? Because it's an assembly. And a lot of people
listen to my sermons, but they're part of another church. They attend their own local church
and that's their church, that's their pastor, that's where they go.
This is where we go, but it's a place.
So, just because we say it's not a building, it's the people, doesn't mean it's not a place.
It is a place, but it's a place.
Doesn't mean it's not a place, it is a place. It's a place where the people are gathered.
So we could be outside right now, we could be at a park right now,
you know, let's say we didn't have a building and something went wrong and we're just meeting
in somebody's backyard or meeting in a park somewhere or something, we would still
be having church, because it's the people that make the church.
But if it's just me and a couple buddies somewhere hanging out and praying
and talking about the Lord, that's not church. Church is the general assembly.
Okay, so we want to make sure we get that definition right. We should respect the church,
reverence the church, and treat it with dignity and know how to behave
ourselves in the house of God. Verse 31 says this,
regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek
after wizards to be defiled by them, I am the Lord your God.
And again, some people would look at this stuff and think that it's outdated, but oh no, it's still going on
because you drive down the road and you see all kinds of what? Psychic
readers and all kinds of mediums
and people that are doing seances and all these different things. Now, a lot of these
people are of course just charlatans and just fakes and frauds, but
there are actually a lot of people too that truly are demon-possessed.
There are people in this world that are demon-possessed and the familiar spirit
is synonymous with the unclean spirit or devil
possessing someone. When it says familiar spirit, that's what it means.
It's talking about demons. Wizards or whatever.
You know, we might look at that and think it sounds like something out of a
comic book or something or some kind of a fantasy
tale, but again, there are still people today that are using dark
arts, the occult, voodoo, psychic readers. You know,
you go to New Orleans and my daughter and I bicycled
through the streets of New Orleans after a preaching event there and we
were just on Saturday morning riding our bikes around and you couldn't even count
how many voodoo stores there were. And I mean, if these stores
are in business, somebody's buying. Somebody's going there. And I've never
seen a city more satanic than
New Orleans. In all of my travels and all of my life,
New Orleans is truly a satanic place. I mean, you drive down
those streets and they were selling voodoo dolls of
President Trump too, by the way. But they're selling all these
voodoo dolls and it wasn't, but not all of it was a joke
because obviously that's a joke. Or maybe it's not a joke.
I don't know, you know. But the point is there were lots of just
places that just catered to the occult and just sold all
kinds of like devil worshiping paraphernalia, voodoo
paraphernalia, dark arts, occult, whatever.
You can find a lot of that stuff in Arizona too, especially if you go up to places like
Sedona and Jerome and everything. And I love visiting those places. There are a lot of good
people up there. But there are also a lot of weirdo establishments up there.
And New Orleans seems to be kind of the hub for
voodoo in the US. But anyway, it's out there folks.
Familiar spirits, wizards, sorcery, witchcraft, enchantments,
it's out there. Verse 32, thou shalt rise
up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear
thy God, I am the Lord. Hoary there, h-o-a-r-y, just
means white in color. And so it's saying the white haired man
rise up before the hoary head, honor the face of the old man, and fear thy
God, I am the Lord. So you give your seat to an elderly person.
Somebody elderly walks in, you treat them with respect, you stand up,
you offer them your seat, etc. Having respect for your elders.
Verse 33, and if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land,
you shall not vex him, but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall
be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him
as thyself. Now, remember earlier in the chapter the famous
verse, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself? You remember that?
Love your neighbor as thyself. Now in the New Testament, Jesus draws
attention to this, and he says the most important commandment in the law is to love
God. And he said the second most important commandment is to love
your neighbor as yourself. And if you remember in the book of Luke, there's a guy there
who, willing to justify himself, he said, well, who is my neighbor?
And then Jesus proceeds to tell the story
of the good Samaritan, and about how the Samaritan, who's
a foreigner, he ends up helping the guy out who's a Jew,
even though the Jews and the Samaritans have no dealings with one another, even though they're
enemies, even though one of them is a foreigner, he still reaches out
to him, and Jesus says, well, which one of you do you think was neighbor
to him that fell among thieves? And of course they answer, the one who showed mercy
on him, and he says, go and do thou likewise. So
Jesus interprets this as don't think so much about
who is your neighbor as much as think about how you can be a neighbor.
You know, who was neighbor unto him? Think about what you can do
for other people to be their neighbor. But here's the thing, it's not like Jesus
is completely just reinterpreting Leviticus
19 by saying, well, it's not just your neighbor,
now it's even people that are further out or
other nationalities, because that's already in Leviticus 19.
Does everybody see that? Because in Leviticus 19,
it specifically is saying that loving your neighbor as yourself,
you don't stop there, you also love foreigners
as yourself. And so this is not some new teaching that Jesus
is rolling out in the New Testament, although obviously there are new teachings that Jesus rolls out,
but this is something that was already present in
Leviticus 19. Leviticus 19 already taught
that you love the stranger as yourself. Now what does stranger
mean? It doesn't mean the way we use stranger.
When we say stranger, we just mean somebody that you don't know personally. But in the Bible,
the word stranger means foreigner. Love the foreigner as
yourself. That's what's actually being referred to here. Like for example,
when Moses said, I've been a stranger in a strange land.
He's not saying, man, this place is weird. He's saying a strange
land, meaning it's foreign land. He's in a foreign country.
He's a foreigner in a foreign country. That's how we would say that in our modern 2021
vernacular. I've been a foreigner in a foreign country is what he's saying.
Stranger in a strange land sounds more poetic though, doesn't it? So the point is
that when we have foreigners living around us,
we should not despise them because they are foreigners.
Oh man, these stinking immigrants, stinking foreigners
and whatever. And you ever seen that attitude before? You think that's
out there? Okay. But God tells us to be holy.
He wants us perfecting holiness. Well, guess what? If I'm going to be holy,
I'm not going to have this xenophobic attitude
that's hostile toward foreigners or that says, hey,
I want everybody to be my same race. You know, everybody needs to be white
or black or whatever the race. No, we should be
holy. Let me tell you something. Throughout this world, there are people
who take great pride in their nationality. They take great
pride in their race. And guess what? It's not just white people that do it.
You know, there's this other, you know, group of people that has
a publication called La Raza. Hmm.
Sounds like they're taking a little pride in their nationality too there.
And you know, you've got the Native American pride, the black
pride. You got the Chinese versus the Japanese
versus the Koreans and the Asian pride. And you
got black people that hate white people. I mean, you know, but
obviously, you do also have a lot of white people who
hate people of other races. You have white people that would treat
black people poorly or treat other nationalities poorly.
But here's the thing. That's worldly stuff.
In the house of God, the Bible says it's a house of prayer for all nations.
And whenever I preach this, people are like, no,
you should be proud of your family heritage and proud of your
nationality and proud of your country and proud of your ethnicity.
And it's okay to be proud to be white even if you love other people.
You can still be proud of it. But you know, the Bible says, let him the glory of the glory
of the Lord. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. So no, I'm not going to glorify my
ancestors. I'm not going to glorify being American
or being white or whatever, you know, or speaking English. I'm just going to
glorify the Lord, glorify Christianity. And I have
100 times more in common with somebody who's black
that loves the Lord Jesus Christ than a white person who
doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ. Who am I going to have more in common with? Who's my brother?
Think about that. But people
get very tribal and we as Christians should not have this
attitude. We should want to welcome people into our church from all
nationalities and not have these attitudes
that says, hey, we don't want people coming here from other countries. Now I will say this,
the people who come here from other countries should assimilate into our
society. I don't believe it's right for people to come from some
messed up, you know, whatever Trump would call a bleephole
country and basically come over here and then try to
turn our country into their failed country.
And look, I believe it goes both ways. If I went to another country,
I wouldn't demand that everybody speak English and eat my
food. No, I would go there and I would
speak their language, I would try to fit in with their culture, but obviously
ultimately Christianity is my identity. And here's the thing about
Christianity, you can take Christianity into other countries
and you can still adopt their culture, but still be Christian.
You know, you could be a Christian in Germany, you could be a Christian in Mexico, you could be
a Christian in Canada, you could be a Christian in South America, you could be a Christian
in Brazil. I'm always going to be a Christian wherever I go, but I'm not going to
demand that everybody cater to my American
culture. When in Rome, you got to do as the Romans do.
And so this attitude
that says, we're the best, America's the best, we're
awesome, you know, that's not coming from God. That's not the
Holy Spirit that's making you feel that way. When you're
crying about the flag and the fireworks and the national anthem, hey, I'm glad you
love America, but you're not having some kind of a spiritual epiphany right now.
Okay? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is not American. Okay? The Lord Jesus
Christ is probably not white when he was on this earth as a human being.
Now the Bible doesn't tell us what he looked like. Why? Because he doesn't want you to
fixate that or become obsessed with that. People are already making too many pictures
of him even with no description. Imagine what they'd do if there was a description.
But honestly, Jesus Christ is probably a
Middle Eastern look. He probably would look like the Palestinians today or
somebody like that who's probably the most related to him. So who knows?
Right? I mean, he's probably a light brown or whatever.
You know, we could argue about what shade of brown if you want to be an idiot.
If you want to waste your time. Because I don't care
if he's as black as the night or if he was so pale that he looked
like an albino. That's not the point. And
the Lord Jesus Christ transcends race. He's the God of the
whole earth. Is he the God of the Jews only?
Or is he the God also of the Gentiles? He's the God of the whole earth.
So it doesn't matter what, when he was physically on this earth, what his race was
at that time. It's irrelevant. That's why the Bible doesn't mention it. Here's a little
rule of thumb. When things matter, the Bible talks about them. When they
don't matter, the Bible doesn't mention them. So don't get hung up on
things that don't matter. So the point is that we
should not have an attitude that Americans are better than other people.
Now look, obviously I don't like the fact that
foreigners would bring Islam into our country. Because
Islam is an evil religion. So obviously I see
people bringing Islam in, but I feel the same way about people bringing Roman
Catholicism in. Because historically our country has for the most part
hated Catholicism. And people were mad at people bringing
Catholicism from Ireland. And they were mad at Irish people.
Italians and Spanish people for bringing over
Catholicism because they were sick of that garbage from back in Europe.
They came here to get away from that junk in many cases. And so they don't like
that either. Obviously I'm against
false religion. But you know what? If there's a Muslim that immigrates
here, I'm not going to hate them. I'm going to love them and try to win them to Christ.
I'm still going to love them as myself. Even though I disapprove of their
religion. Even though I believe they should learn English, assimilate,
and ditch the outfit, and ditch the
Quran, and all that stuff. You know what I'm saying? I'm still going to love them
and witness to them. You know, if I see Muslims,
my first thought isn't like, oh man, stinking.
You know, my first thought is like, man, how do we get these people saved?
How do we get them to understand the Gospel? How can we reach
these people? That's what I'm thinking.
I interacted with Muslims this week.
And gave them a copy of Beyond Jordan. And said, oh, you guys are from Palestine?
Well, you might enjoy this because it's all about
Palestine. And I said, hang in there through the first part where we're pretending
like we're in Israel and get to the second part where we're actually in Palestine
and you're really going to like the second half. And I
took that opportunity to talk about the things of God,
talk about Jesus Christ, put a movie in their hand, right? I mean, we're out
witnessing the Muslims every chance we get. We knock a door. It's not like, oh, you're Muslim?
We'll see you, sucka. No, when we knock on their door, if they're Muslim,
what do we do? We say, hey, can I take the Bible and show you
what it says how to go to heaven? And, you know, I was just out soul winning, what,
two, three weeks ago and knocked on a door from a guy from Turkey.
And I was able to get through the entire plan of salvation with a guy from Turkey.
And he listened to the whole plan of salvation. Now, obviously,
I don't like Islam flooding into the United States or flooding
into Europe and these other places because it's sad to see them take over countries
and destroy them. I don't believe they're ever going to take over America because there's just too many of us.
And I'm doing my part to populate the non-Muslim population.
But basically, you know, I don't like to see
them flooding in. But when it comes to the individual, though, you know, I
look at it like, well, I'm glad this guy's here because now I can give him the gospel
because he's here. And people coming from
hardcore Muslim countries, you know, it's not like I could go to that country
and witness to them because if I went to that country and tried witnessing, in many cases
I could get arrested, right? So isn't it better to do it here?
On our own turf where we can say what we want and do what we want
and have freedom in America. So, you know, look on the bright
side. Obviously, yeah, we want to fight Islam, we're against Islam,
we're against Catholicism, we're against these things. But have a good attitude about the stranger
themselves. Because let me tell you something about the strangers in the time that this is written
in Leviticus. You think they're all just coming in and they're already worshipping Jehovah?
The foreigners that he's talking about. When he says, hey,
love the strangers yourself, what religion are these strangers that he's talking about?
You think they're all just coming in and they're just Jehovah worshippers all the way? No,
they're probably coming in and they worship the gods of the Philistines, the Ammonites,
the Moabites, Babylonians, Persians, whatever that are coming
in, and he says love them.
Love them as yourself. Because in many cases you could reach
these people with the gospel. So if I look at the individual from
Palestine, I'm going to say I'm glad you're here because then I can witness to you
effectively. Because you're here, right here, I give you the gospel. A guy from Turkey,
this is a great opportunity to give you the gospel. I'm glad you're here
for that. Have a good attitude, not just hating on everybody who's here.
And you know what? Here's the thing. People are constantly hating on
all these illegal immigrants from Mexico and blah, blah, blah. But you know what?
A lot of them end up being great neighbors and great workers and great people
to be around. They're not just these horrible people that maybe the media
sometimes demonizes them to be. And I'm sure that there are some rotten people coming up here,
criminals and whatever. But you know what? The interactions that I've had with
illegal aliens, they were just pretty cool, normal people that I got
along with and won them to Christ in many cases or had a good
experience. And I hire them every chance I get, amen? But anyway,
we should all strive to be undocumented.
What's with all this documentation? I thought this was America.
So, you know, don't just get brainwashed into some
right-wing view that's just hating on immigrants or whatever.
You know, we go out, we knock doors, we win people to the Lord all the time.
We don't check their green card or anything. We just love them and win them to Christ.
We've had illegal aliens come to our church for an extended period of time. And you know what?
You know what we treated them like? Exactly like every other church member.
You know, we didn't be like, you're undocumented, church discipline.
You know, whatever. It is what it is. You know,
you say, well, how could you?
Because I'm not obsessed with the political fight that some of you are obsessed with.
I'm obsessed with the gospel. I'm obsessed with the word of God.
So I don't really care about all these political things
as much as I care about getting as many people saved as I can.
Now, are there some rotten people coming up here? Sure. But you know what? By loving
the vast majority of the people are coming up here, where the vast majority of people coming up here
from Mexico are good people, nice people. They're some of the cleanest
neighbors that will actually keep their property clean. They put me to shame.
They embarrass me with how good their yard looks. You know, hey,
if we can get as many of them saved as possible, then we're making America a better place.
Because I'd rather have a bunch of saved illegals
than a bunch of white, leftist, libtard,
atheist, gaytheist fagnostics. But at least they're
white Americans. Hey, I'd rather have
a fundamental Baptist that just
swam across the Rio Grande.
Amen? So don't hate on foreigners.
Right? I mean, look, I'm preaching the Bible right now.
The word of God says don't hate on foreigners.
Right? Love the stranger as yourself.
That's how to be different from the worldly people out there is to love
the foreigner as yourself. And he says you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
What's he saying? Put yourself in other people's shoes. Put yourself in
other people's position instead of just, ah, go home.
Why don't you think about their situation and put yourself in that
position. What would you be doing in that situation? Or, you know, I wouldn't do that.
But what about all the other junk that you've done in your life? Okay, just, you know,
empathize with people, understand where they're coming from. Verse 35,
I'm almost done with the chapter, so I'm just going to quickly crank this out, and we can
finally just put an end to this little trilogy here.
You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meat yard, in weight,
or in measure, just balances, just weights, a just
ephon, a just hen shall ye have. I am the Lord your God which
brought you out of the land of Egypt. He's just talking about being fair in weights and measures, not ripping
people off in business or short changing people. Therefore,
shall ye observe all my statutes and all my judgments and do them. I
am the Lord. So again, God wants holiness.
Holiness is not just an Old Testament concept. It's all throughout the New Testament.
We should be perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Okay, how do we figure out
how to be holy? Even though we are not
legalistically following the letter of the Old Testament
law when it comes to carnal ordinances, the principles are still
valid. And so if we want to perfect holiness in the New Testament,
we could look to the Old Testament as a guide. Now the
moral law is still in force, but even the things that are not
part of the moral law or criminal laws, even things that are part of the ceremonial
law or the carnal ordinances, we still
can use them as guideposts as we perfect holiness
in the fear of God. So if we look at something about, oh, don't take
the fruit off the tree for the first three years and then the fourth year, the first
harvest goes to the Lord, that just reinforces a principle for us
of honoring the Lord with our substance and the first fruits of all
are increased, putting God first, giving Him the preeminence, first
day of the week, first thing in the morning, et cetera.
When we see things about not eating blood, not using
enchantment, not observing times, God obviously still doesn't want us to
be superstitious and into all these occult things.
Okay. He still doesn't want you having a stupid haircut.
He still doesn't want you getting tattoos. You think He wants you to prostitute your daughter
to make her a whore? Of course not. It's absurd. You still need to have respect
for God's house. You still need to abstain from
the Ouija boards and the voodoo and the séances.
We should respect elders.
Give up your seat to the old man. Respect the hoary
head. Don't vex a stranger. Don't mess with strangers.
But love the foreigner as yourself and have just
weights and measures in your business. Be honest and
righteous in your business. And you know what? If you do these things, if you just think about
some of the things that we talked about this morning, last couple Sunday nights, you know what?
You're going to be different than the people out there. God's going to look down and say,
this is a holy people. These people are holy. Why? Because they're different.
They're set apart. They're peculiar. And they are following God's
Word, which makes them distinct from the heathen
that just do whatever and don't care what the Word of God says.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, please help us all to perfect holiness.
We're all sinners. None of us is perfect. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But Lord, I pray that you would please just help us to grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And help us to put these principles into practice in our lives
so that we can be godly servants of yours. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, let's turn in our
song books to song 343. Revive us
again. Song 343.
Song 343.
Praise be, O God, for the Son
of Thy love, for Jesus, who
died in His town, run above.
Hallelujah, bind the glory.
Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah,
bind the glory. Revive us again.
Praise be, O God,
for thy spirit of life, who has shown
us our Savior and scattered our
night. Hallelujah, bind the glory.
Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah,
bind the glory. Revive us
again. All glory and praise
to the Lamb that was slain, who has
borne all our sins and has cleansed every
stain. Hallelujah, bind the glory.
Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah,
bind the glory. Revive us
again. Revive us again.
Fill each heart with thy love,
they so be rekindled with fire
from above. Hallelujah, bind the
glory. Hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah, bind the glory. Revive
us again.
...