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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["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 Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name 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 Glory to his name 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 Glory to his name 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 Glory to his name Glory to his name There to my heart Was the blood of blood Glory to his name 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. Song 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. 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. 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. Yes, Jesus loves 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. ... ... ...