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And the title of my sermon this morning is the exception proves the rule. The exception proves the rule. Now this is a saying that people use all the time and it's a very important concept that a lot of people don't seem to understand. And you can see this all throughout the Bible. You can see it all throughout your life, just as you look around. Even when it comes to grammar, science, pretty much any area of life, this saying rings true that the exception proves the rule. And that there are rules that govern the universe, rules that govern our lives, rules that flow throughout the Bible, but then there are exceptions to those rules. But what a lot of people do when they don't understand this concept is they get so hung up on the exception that they throw out the rule. You could show them 999,999 examples of something, but what about that one in a million? And then they just throw out the whole concept, they throw out the baby with the bathwater. It's a foolish way to think, it's a foolish way to live your life, it's a foolish way to read the Bible. I'm going to go through some specific examples of that in the Bible this morning, but let me just throw some things out there. You know, I before E, except after C. You know, if you think about science, pretty much any solid is going to sink in its own liquid, right? Because solids in general are more dense than liquids. But yet there are a few things that will actually float in a liquid, like for example, ice. And the fact that ice floats in water is necessary to life on this planet. You know, God created it that way for a reason, because if all the ice sunk, it would have catastrophic results to the fish and the planet, and that's a whole other story. All the planets in our solar system, they all spin the same way, except one. Venus spins the other way, and then Uranus is on its side, you know, almost rolling. So there are all kinds of things in nature where there's a certain rule, but then there's an exception to that rule. There are things in grammar or phonics where there are exceptions to rules. In the Bible, there are exceptions to rules. For example, on the Sabbath day, no one was supposed to do any work, but there were exceptions to that, because the priests in the temple, they were supposed to circumcise the child on the eighth day, whether it fell on the Sabbath or not. They're supposed to offer the morning and evening sacrifice. Whether it's the Sabbath or not. So there are exceptions to that rule. Or what about when Christ said, if your ox or your ass falls in the ditch on the Sabbath day, you pull it out. That's an exception to the rule. He said if you divorce your wife and marry another, accept it be for fornication, right? Then you're committing adultery. There's an exception there. There are exceptions throughout the Bible, but the problem is when people want to throw out the rule and home in on the exception, fixate on the exception. Try to make the exception fit them when it doesn't fit them at all. Now the first area that I want to talk about this morning to illustrate this concept is the area of the length of our hair. Now the Bible is pretty clear in this passage that it is a shame for a man to have long hair and that for a woman to have long hair, it is a glory unto her. Now when we read this passage, we find that it's a lot deeper than that. Everybody knows to quote that scripture, it's a shame for a man to have long hair and a woman's hair is her glory. But if you dig in a little deeper, you'll find that it's even more serious than that. Look if you would at verse number three of 1 Corinthians 11. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. So first of all, we need to establish our definitions here of who is the head of man, who is the head of the woman, who is the head of Christ, and this is where we start in verse three. And by the way, modalists, the head of Christ is God, amen? But anyway, look at verse four, it says, every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered dishonoreth his head. Now who did he just finish saying is the head of the man in verse three? Who's the head of the man? Okay, so if a man prays or prophesies having his head covered, who is he dishonoring? He's dishonoring Christ. Now that's pretty serious. I would hate for it to be said of me that I dishonored Christ. But the Bible says that if a man prays or prophesies having his head covered, he dishonors his head, which is Christ. Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. Now some people mistake this and they think that the covering is like a hat or some kind of a fabric covering, especially in Eastern Europe. This is very prevalent. Head coverings on women. The Amish will do this. The Mennonites will do this. They're even head covering Baptists and everything. This doctrine of covering with a hat or a scarf or a shawl like a Muslim would do can easily be proven to be a false doctrine. I'm going to just demolish it right now. First of all, number one, the Bible tells us what the covering is in this passage. It says right here in verse 14, did not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. So what covering are we talking about here? When we talk about being covered or uncovered, we're talking about long hair versus short hair. Now the other side will say, well, that's just a covering. But you need another covering. Here's why that's false. Because the Bible says here that it is not right for a man to pray or prophesy having his head covered, right? It's a shame. It dishonors Christ. And that if the woman prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, it's a shame to her head. Who's her head? The man, her husband. Okay. Well, then riddle me this. Why in the entire Old Testament did all the priests who prayed and prophesied wear a hat the whole time? Read your Bible. Study your Bible. All throughout the Old Testament, Aaron and Aaron's sons, they wore specific clothing. And one of those pieces of clothing was a mitre or a bonnet or some kind of a headwear. So these Mennonites and Amish and people with their bonnets on, and they say, well, we're covering our heads like the Bible says. They're wearing a bonnet. You know, the only bonnet in the Bible was worn by a man. And it was commanded by God to be worn by that man. The priests in the Old Testament, they're preaching, they're praying, they're serving God in a bonnet. That's what the Bible says, that they had their heads covered. So if this were talking about fabric on your head, that would contradict the entire Old Testament law, especially because he says right here in verse 13, judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. So if we're supposed to know this naturally, why would we naturally know that the whole Old Testament was wrong? This doctrine makes no sense, folks. It's crystal clear from this passage that the covering is the hair. Long hair is having your head covered. Short hair is having your head uncovered. If it were a bonnet or a hat or fabric, that would contradict the Mosaic law where men of God wore hats as they served the Lord. So let's keep going here. It says in verse 7, for a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. So why is the man not supposed to cover his head? Because he's the image and glory of God. Now let me ask you this, what in the world sense would it possibly make for Jesus Christ to have long hair when the Bible says the whole reason why we're not supposed to have long hair is because we're the image and glory of God? Who was more the image and glory of God than Jesus himself? Jesus himself, the Bible says, is the image of the invisible God. So if the Son is the image of the invisible God, how could he have long hair when the Bible says, hey, you're the image and glory of God, man, therefore have short hair. Why have short hair? Because God, that's what he looks like. Short haired, just like me. He does not have what the Bible calls the hair of a woman. Jesus Christ did not have the hair of a woman. Okay, God the Father does not have the hair of a woman because Jesus is the express image of his person. So they both look the same. If you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father. Why? Because they look the same. So therefore it would be ridiculous and crazy to walk away from 1 Corinthians 11, 7 with the attitude that said, oh, well, Jesus had long hair. It's madness. It's folly. There's nothing to tease. Where does this come from? Where does this teaching come from? Because we've all seen numerous pictures of Jesus Christ with long hair. Where is this idea coming from? Well, it's coming from two things. Number one, it's coming from a bunch of paintings painted by a bunch of queer little sissies in the Renaissance, a bunch of faggoty dudes painting our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to look like them. Instead of realizing that God made man in his own image, they're trying to remake God into their image. So they paint the Lord to look the way that they look. When in reality, those paintings from the 13, 14, 1500s, what does that have to do with what Christ looked like who lived 2,000 years ago? There are no images of Christ from his lifetime. There's no picture or painting or sculpture of Christ from the first century AD or from the second century AD. So it doesn't make any sense to say that he had long hair. That's where it's coming from. Number two, it's coming from a mistaken misunderstanding that says that Jesus was a Nazarite. That is not what the Bible says. The Bible says he was a Nazarene. A Nazarene is someone from the town of Nazareth. A Nazarite is someone who takes a Nazarite vow. Now flip back in your Bible, if you would, to Numbers Chapter 6. Let's look at the Nazarite vow in Numbers Chapter 6. So the Bible's pretty clear in 1 Corinthians 11. Men don't have long hair. And if you have long hair and you pray or prophesy with that long hair, that dishonors Christ. If you're a woman with short hair, that's a shame to your husband. That's dishonoring to your head, which is the man. And judging yourselves, even nature itself teaches you that if a man have long hair, it's a shame on him. Meaning just deep down you know that men are supposed to have short hair and women are supposed to have long hair. Instinctually, we're supposed to know that. That's what the Bible says. It's a shame to have long hair. Now some people will say this, well, you know, it doesn't say it's a sin to have long hair. It just says it's a shame to have long hair. I mean that's foolish and the thought of foolishness is sin. Okay, well let me ask you this. Is it a sin to dishonor Christ? You know, the Bible commands us to give him all glory and honor and praise. So therefore dishonoring him would be sin. So if you in 2017 decide, well, I'm going to grow my hair long because, you know, I just want to and it's not technically a sin, it's just a shame, well, but just don't pray or prophesy then. And not praying is a sin and not prophesying is a sin. And as soon as you pray or prophesy having your head covered, you just dishonored Christ and to say that that's not a sin would be ridiculous. Okay, now look at Numbers chapter 6 and what do we see in Numbers chapter 6? We see the exception to the rule. So what's the rule that we learned? The rule that God made crystal clear is short hair on men, long hair on women. Now in Numbers chapter 6, we're going to see the exception to the rule. Look at your Bible there, Numbers 6, 1, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, when either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes nor eat moist grapes or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree from the kernels even to the husk. Now let me ask you this, according to this scripture, is it possible for Jesus Christ to have been a Nazarite? No way. Why? Because Jesus Christ drank wine. Jesus Christ ate grapes and fruit. The Bible says that the Nazarite can't even eat a raisin. He can't even eat grape nut cereal. He can't eat a raisin. He can't eat anything that comes from the vine. No grape, no wine, no fruit juice, no vinegar, nothing. Christ drank these things, so therefore that proves that Christ was not a Nazarite. Case closed. But it's just ignorance of the Bible where people, oh Jesus was a Nazarite, he had long hair. Wrong. It's not what the Bible teaches. He was a Nazarene because he lived in a town called Nazareth. Look at verse number five. All the days of the vow of his separation, there shall no razor come upon his head until the days be fulfilled in the which he separated himself unto the Lord. He shall be holy and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. So we're learning a few things about the Nazarite. First of all, the Nazarite vow in Numbers chapter six is a temporary vow. There's a certain time period and during those days of separation, he's not to touch any grapes, no raisins, no grape juice, no vinegar, nothing, okay? And during that time, he's supposed to let his hair grow out, which is abnormal because men are normally to keep their hair short. So this is an exception where they're supposed to let their hair grow out. No razor shall come upon their head and they shall let the locks of the hair of their head grow. Now, I've heard some people try to explain this away and say, well, he wasn't told to have long hair. They just can't shave it completely bald, but that's not what it says. It specifically says let it grow. Let the locks grow and locks are large clumps of hair. So it's saying let the locks of his head grow, but these are the type of people who can't understand that there could be an exception to a rule. So in general, the rule is short hair on men, long hair on women. This is the exception if they do this Nazarite vow, they're supposed to let their hair grow out in addition to abstaining from all grapes and grape juice and raisins. Then it says this, verse number six, all the days that he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body. Now, Jesus doesn't qualify for that one either because Jesus Christ frequently came at dead bodies and raised them back to life. So during this period of time, they were to let their hair grow long, which Jesus did not do because he was the image of God. And because in the Garden of Gethsemane, they didn't say grab the one with the long hair, they said it's the one that I'll kiss. Judas had to kiss him because he looked like everybody else. Jesus ate grapes, drank wine, and Jesus came at dead bodies. Verse seven, he shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister when they die because the consecration of his God is upon his head. All the days of his separation, he's holy unto the Lord. Numbers chapter six, verse 18, and the Nazarite, this is talking about when the vow's over, when the time is up, and the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and shall take the hair of the head of his separation and put it in the fire, which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings. And the priest shall take the sodden, sodden means boiled, shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite after the hair of his separation is shaven. And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. This is holy for the priest with the wave breast and heave shoulder. And after that, the Nazarite may drink wine. So this was a temporary thing in general for the Nazarite. Okay, so an exception to the hair rule is what? The Nazarite vow. But then there's an exception to the Nazarite vow because the Nazarite vow was in general temporary that someone would willingly take upon themself this vow, go through this process, and then it's over. And then they drink wine. Okay. And there's an exception to that because go to Judges chapter 16 and we'll find the man who was a Nazarite his entire life. Here's a man who was destined by God to be a Nazarite even from his mother's womb for his entire life. And of course, that man is Samson. And again, you try to show people the clear scripture in 1 Corinthians 11 telling them that it's a shame for a man to have long hair. Well, what about Samson? And just ignoring clear New Testament scripture, well, what about Samson? Therefore because Samson, let's all grow our hair long. Wrong. That's a person who's just trying to make the Bible fit what they want to do. Samson is the exception to the rule because he was specifically told not to cut his hair. But there were a lot of people in the Old Testament who were specifically told to do strange things because they were fulfilling some kind of prophecy or giving some kind of an object lesson or trying to foreshadow something. And God sometimes uses these dramatic foreshadowings. Now look what the Bible says in Judges 16 verse 13. And Delilah said unto Samson, hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, if thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with the pin and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awake out of his sleep and went away with the pin of the beam and with the web. And she said unto him, how could thou say I love thee when thy heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three times, as not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death that he told her all his heart and said unto her, there hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. Now again, people will try to say, well, Samson didn't really have long hair. Well, he obviously did because the Nazarite was told to let his hair grow, let the locks of his hair grow. Even here in verse 13, it talks about the seven locks of his head. So basically, his hair was divided into seven sections. The seven locks of his head being weaved into a web to where he could walk away and rip the web up with him. So obviously, he had long hair. Why? He's the exception. Now, why did God want Samson to have long hair? You know, why even command him to do such a strange thing in light of the fact that it's a shame for a man to have long hair? Well, because Samson, in many ways, is a picture of Jesus Christ. And that's a whole sermon in and of itself, all the parallels between Samson and Christ. But you have to understand that every Old Testament story points us to Christ. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. So every character in the Old Testament is a sinner, but many of them still represent Christ or foreshadow Christ. David was a sinner. David committed adultery and murder. But yet, he's a picture of Christ and Christ is called the son of David. Joseph was a sinner. He wasn't perfect. But yet, he pictures Jesus Christ in so many ways. That's a whole sermon. Samson, of course, gives his life dying so that his people might be made free. He pictures Christ in that regard. He pushes the two pillars to destroy them. And that's just like Christ had his hands stretched out like this on the cross. There are parallels between Samson and the Lord Jesus Christ if you study the story. And if you remember, part of what Christ did for us when he died on the cross was that he endured great shame. The Bible says that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and it set down the right hand of God. So when Samson had long hair or when the Nazarite had long hair, any Nazarite had long hair, that's picturing shame. That was a shameful thing. When people looked at that back in the Bible days and they saw a Nazarite with long hair or they saw Samson with long hair, it didn't look cool to them. It was shameful to them that they had a woman's hair. But the reason that they had that shame was just a picture or symbolic of the shame that Christ would endure for us, not by having long hair but by dying for all of our sins and being mocked and spat upon and nailed to the cross. Now if you would flip over to Exodus 20, I'm gonna show you another rule and another exception. Exodus chapter 20, if you would, title of the sermon is The Exception Proves the Rule. Look at Exodus chapter 20 and we see a pretty clear rule here in verse number 4 of Exodus 20 from the Ten Commandments, it says, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. So here the Bible's pretty clear. Do not make unto thee any graven image of any animal or person. This is reiterated many times in the law. Deuteronomy chapter 4 says, Don't make an image of a bird in the heaven, of anything that creepeth on the earth, of any fish of the sea. Do not make a molten image. Do not make a graven image. I mean, just all throughout the Old Testament, this law is hammered. This rule is hammered. Don't do it. But let's look at the exception to this. So if you would to Numbers 21. Numbers chapter 21, we'll see that there is an exception to this. Numbers chapter 21 says in verse 4, And they journeyed from Mount Hore by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? But there's no bread, neither is there any water. And our soul loateth this light bread. Well, wait a minute. You just said there was no bread. Well, it's light bread. It just shows how when people complain, they get unreasonable, they're not thankful for what they have, and they act like they have nothing. When in reality they have something, it's just not their favorite food. Our soul loateth this light bread. Verse 6, And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We've sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Let me ask you this. Was Moses right when he made the serpent of brass? He's being told specifically by God, Make a serpent of brass. Now look, if God doesn't want us to make a graven image, a molten image of any animal, I would venture to guess that probably the last animal that we should be making a molten image of is a serpent. Because what does a serpent call to mind? The devil. And what does the Bible say about people who worship idols? It says they're not worshiping idols, they're worshiping devils. The idol represents a devil. Well if you have a molten serpent, what does that represent? I mean that's the perfect representation of the most wicked thing you could imagine, right? So you say, what in the world is going on? Why would God tell them to make the most wicked possible idolatry and hold it up on a pole and anybody who looks to it will live? Well flip over to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Now God specifically told him, make this brazen serpent. But then after this incident was over, the serpent was to be destroyed. But they ended up worshiping it. People later on in the Bible, hundreds of years later, worshiped that serpent and a godly king had to rise up and destroy the serpent and get rid of it and say, you guys need to quit worshiping this stupid thing. And he destroyed it and threw it away. But look if you would at John chapter 3. The Bible reads in verse 13 of John 3, and no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. You say, Pastor Anderson, how could a serpent of brass represent Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ, the perfect, sinless, spotless lamb of God, why would he be represented by idolatry? Why would he be represented by a serpent? I'll tell you why. Because when Jesus was on the cross, the Bible says, he who knew no sin became sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So if he became sin for us, that's why a sinful image is held up saying, look, this is an image of Christ coming and becoming sin for us. Becoming sin for us. Now, just as Jesus Christ when he was on the cross, what did he do? He endured shame. He endured shame, didn't he? What did he do when he was on the cross? He became sin for us. Now, does that mean he went around being shameful in his lifetime? Does that mean he went around sinning in his lifetime? No. Well, guess what? He didn't go around with long hair in his lifetime. He didn't live a life of shame and reproach. And he did not live a life of sin. He was without sin. He never sinned. He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. But on the cross, though, what does he become? He becomes sin for us. Therefore the brazen serpent is a perfect representation of Christ on the cross because he became sin for us and brass is a metal in the Bible that's associated with judgment. And you know, that's our sin being judged on the cross because Christ is taking the judgment for our sin when he died on the cross for us. So this is an exception to the rule because God wanted to send this powerful message about Christ becoming sin for us so that it could be used in these super famous verses in John chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 and 15 which lead us into what? The most famous verse in the whole Bible, John 3.16. It's an important passage. And so God did that in the Old Testament to symbolize something for John chapter 3. He had a purpose. Look, when there's an exception to the rule, there's a reason for that exception. God doesn't just make exceptions to the rules just willy-nilly just because he can. No, there's a reason why these exceptions are made. They have a purpose. And we should not be so foolish as to think, oh, well, there's an exception, well, let's all jump on in and just live the exception. No, you want to follow the rule. You're not Moses. You're not Samson. You're not vowing a Nazarite vow. Get a haircut and quit having molten and graven images of beasts and people. Look, the Catholics will say, oh, yeah, we're not supposed to have any molten images. What about that brazen serpent? Therefore, let's just make Mary and the saints and Jesus and let's bow down to them. Let's burn incense. Let's have idols everywhere. Let's have demonic-looking gargoyles all over our cathedrals and all over our buildings. Look, they just go nuts on idolatry. And you try to call them out on it, and they're like, well, what about this exception, right? Every long-haired dude knows the story of Samson backward and forward. But he doesn't know 1 Corinthians chapter 11. He can't quote that scripture to you. Why? Because they're focusing on the exception and ignoring the rule. That's why this sermon's important, just to get through to you. Rules have exceptions, but that doesn't negate the rule. The exception proves the rule. It doesn't negate the rule. It doesn't eliminate the rule. Go if you would to Hosea. Let me show you another exception in the Bible. I'm running out of time a little bit here, but we all know that God gives advice in the Bible about the type of person that we should marry, doesn't he? He tells us, favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. He tells us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? He tells us that we should seek after that virtuous woman, right? Stay away from the strange woman. He said, don't even go by her house. Lest not after her beauty in thy heart. So the Bible is pretty clear. Don't go after the promiscuous women. Stay away from their house. Stay away from the whorish woman, the strange woman, the wicked woman. The whole book of Proverbs drives that in. I'm not going to go on and on about that. I think anybody with a brain in their head knows that a young man is supposed to seek out a Christian woman who loves the Lord to get married to, right? That's pretty clear, pretty easy to prove from scripture. But look at Hosea. You want to see the exception to the rule? Look at Hosea chapter 1, verse 2, the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms. Now that's not the rule. That's not normal, especially a preacher should be married to a godly woman. I mean, the Bible has special qualifications for the pastor, that his wife has to be a certain way. The deacon's wife has to be a certain way. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, faithful in all things. There are even qualifications for the pastor's wife or the deacon's wife. The high priest in the Old Testament had to marry a woman who was a virgin, or she had to be a widow that had been married to a priest before. I mean, it's strict rules, not the same as just for the general population, but you'd expect men of God to have a godlier wife. But Hosea is told specifically, go marry a prostitute. Go marry a whorish woman. That's pretty weird. That's pretty bizarre, isn't it? It says, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms. For the land hath committed great whoredom departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, which conceived and bare him a son. So Hosea does what he's told. He goes out and marries a totally whorish woman. Now, is this something that we should emulate in our lives? Is this something where we should tell young men, you know what, if you want to be a great man of God like Hosea, who wrote 14 chapters of the Bible, just go out and find the skankiest whore that you can. Is that what? No. Why? Because Hosea, using simple logic, would realize, okay, this is an exception to the rule. And is there a reason for this exception? Absolutely. Why? Because Hosea pictured the Lord, and the whorish woman pictured Israel. Because Israel had gone a whoring after other gods. They'd been dirty and promiscuous, not physically, but spiritually, because they went a whoring after false gods. They were committing like a spiritual adultery. Look at chapter 2 of Hosea. Hosea chapter 2, verse 1. You know, this is after a few kids have been born from Hosea and his wicked wife. Say ye unto your brethren, Amai, and to your sisters, Ruhamah, plead with your mother. Plead. For she's not my wife, neither am I her husband. So she's left him at this point. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon her children, for they be the children of whoredoms, for their mother hath played the harlot, she that conceived them at the unshamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. Look at chapter 3, verse 1. And said the Lord unto me, Go yet. Love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulterous, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an omer of barley, and a half omer of barley. And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days, thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. So look, this woman's so wicked, he marries this whorish woman, has kids with her, she's having other kids with other dudes, she's out playing the harlot and committing adultery with multiple men, but then he's told in Hosea 3, you need to get with her again, even after all that, right? So then, in order to get back with his wife, he has to go pay for her, because now she's a prostitute, so he has to pay her handler, you know, what we would know as a pimp, he has to go pay this wicked man money to pay to hire back his own wife, and say, okay, for this amount of days, you're only for me now. I mean, this is a weird story. This is not what you base your life on, young people. But what is it? It's an exception to the rule. He's driving home just how wicked the children of Israel were. Look, the Jews, they always think they're so great. Old Testament, New Testament, they think they're just great. And God's showing them, let me just give you a real strong picture of what you're like. You're like Hosea's disgusting whore of a wife. That's what he's saying. He's saying, this is what your life, like Israel, and he says, the whole house of Israel, you're like this. So he's sending that strong message, that powerful message. Now look, Hosea, this wasn't a cool assignment for him. This wasn't like, oh cool, I get to be married to a woman who commits adultery with a bunch of men. I mean, this is embarrassing. This is disgusting. This is heartbreaking for him. This is a pretty hard thing that he had to do. The consolation is that he gets a book of the Bible. He gets to write 14 chapters. We're still talking about him. Shake his hand when you get to heaven and tell him, you know, that was rough, man. I appreciate, appreciate your obedience, brother, because that was rough. I'm sure he got a lot of rewards for going through all this garbage that God made him go through. Look, God made the prophets in the Old Testament go through some pretty rough things. What about when Ezekiel had to lay on his side, right? Lay on his side for 390 days and he was supposed to eat bread, not with Nutella on it. He was supposed to eat bread with dung on it. Now look, that's an exception to the rule because in general, God tells us not to eat that which is unclean, not to ingest that which is unclean, right? We're supposed to be clean. The servants of the Lord are to be clean, right? But why did he tell him to eat dung? Look, again, he's trying to send a strong message that he hates sin, he hates idolatry, he hates false religion, so sometimes he pulls out some of the roughest illustrations imaginable, you know, when he says that our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag. And when he says, you know, that your sins are like, you know, it's like eating dung. When he says, look, you know, you're so wicked, you're like this disgusting crack whore. He says, that's how wicked you are. You think you're so righteous, you Pharisees and Sadducees. This is what you're like to me. This is what the rabbi is like unto me. That's what he's saying. And so there's a reason why and God uses extreme examples because a lot of times if you don't say things bluntly, it goes over people's head. You know, so many preachers today, they preach so soft and I'm not saying they should go to these extremes because these are specific situations where God, you know, I'm not going to do anything weird unless God tells me to do it, amen. I'm not eating any dung or, you know, laying on my side or chopping off my hair or doing anything weird like that or growing it out, you know, because we shouldn't just take things like that upon ourselves. We're supposed to obey and do what God told us to do in the New Testament. Okay. But these people were specifically told to do these things to send a strong message. But in the New Testament, we're to send a strong message just through our preaching, just by hard preaching and lift up our voice and be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. But preachers today are so soft and here's what happens when you preach soft, the message doesn't get across. It doesn't get across. I mean, think about it. If I got up and said, hey, listen, everybody, you know, having intercourse when you're not married isn't right, it's not God's will and, you know, Iceland does that a lot. So we don't want to be like Iceland. That message doesn't get across. But when you call the sermon, Iceland is a nation of bastards and you use the biblical word bastard and you preach that and you yell and shake the pulpit and pray, you know, then the whole nation of Iceland got that message. They all got that message, even all the way from Arizona. You see, we need hard preaching that gets the message across. Why? Because people will just, blah, blah, blah. It's just wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. So sometimes God had to get people's attention with some extreme illustrations in the Bible. Okay. I mean, look, there was a time where Isaiah preached naked. That's the exception to the rule, folks, because the Bible commands against nakedness. Now, I personally believe that this was, that he was only preaching to men. I don't think that he was going out in mixed company naked just because that would be offensive, obscene unto women and children. But I believe that he was just preaching to men. You know, it was just Isaiah. But Isaiah was told to go prophesy to kings and different people and he showed up naked to preach. It's in Isaiah chapter 22. Read your Bible. Now, why is that? Because he was trying to wake them up and send an extreme message. And look, I'm not recommending that. But he was specifically telling them, look, see this right here? This is going to be you. Because he told them, God is angry, God's going to judge you, God's going to punish you and you are going to be led away captive and you, you think it's embarrassing that I'm naked? All of you are going to be naked. You're all going to be naked when you're chained up and taken into a far country as slaves. You're going to be as naked as I am. You know, and then that way, they remembered that sermon. And again, I'm not teaching that we should do anything like that. That's obviously not for us. And this is what the whole sermon's about. Just because there's an exception doesn't mean we should all jump on that exception. Let's all grow our hair long, marry a whore, let's go out and make brazen serpents and decorate our yard with them and, you know, preach naked. No, that's not what we're saying. What we're saying is that just because one guy was told to prophesy nude in one chapter, Isaiah 22, that doesn't mean that it's okay for us to show our nakedness. We need to keep ourselves clothed. We need to keep ourselves covered. Men and women alike need to be dressed in modest apparel and cover our nakedness. The exception proves the rule. It doesn't eliminate the rule. And we get into false doctrine when we start using these exceptions to eliminate clear rules. Like if somebody in the Old Testament looked at the priest circumcising on the Sabbath and said, well, he's working on the Sabbath, so can I. It would have been foolish. Samson's got long hair, so can I. Isaiah's naked, well, let's throw on the bikini and go to the beach then, ladies, right? No, wrong. Because that's the exception that proves the rule. This should be common sense. This should be in all areas of our life that we would realize that this concept applies. I literally, over the last 12 years of being a pastor, I think every single week of my life probably, in talking to somebody about doctrine, the words, well, the exception proves the rule has come out of my mouth virtually every week for the last 12 years. Well, but the exception proves the rule. Exception proves the rule. Is that a biblical concept? I know that phrase is not found in the Bible, but is that a biblical concept? Well, guess what it is? Because we see lots of rules and lots of exceptions, but in no case does the exception eliminate or destroy the rule, right? But this is how people read the Bible. You know, you can show them hundreds and hundreds of verses that tell you salvation is by faith alone and then they just want to jumble, what about James 2? Now that's not a matter of the exception proving the rule, but it's the same mentality of just saying, throw out the 99.9% and let's focus on some strange exception. You know, what about hermaphrodites? You know, everybody just wants to fixate on these weird things that are just not even relevant, right, instead of just going with the rule unless there's a compelling reason to do so. Look, I comes before E. If there's no C, then put it that way. You know what I'm saying? It's like you just follow the rules. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you so much that all the answers are in the Bible. Help us to study to show ourselves approved, Lord. Help us not to just have a superficial knowledge of the Bible, but help us to read the whole book, and especially as we come to the new year, Lord, I pray that every single person would decide to read through the entire Bible in 2018, start reading now, and finish it by this time next year, Lord, because it will only take 15 minutes a day, and people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Lord. I just pray that everyone would study their Bibles and have sound doctrine based on your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.