(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Just be honored and glorified out of everything we say and do, for it's in Jesus' name we ask all, but Amen. All right, you may be seated, and take your Mountain Baptist Song and Hymns book, and turn to Psalm number 15 in your blue folders. Psalm number 15. Who shall dwell in thy holy hymn? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that back by not tongue, nor do with evil to his neighbor, nor take up reproach against his neighbor. He that back biteth not with his tongue, in whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord, in whose eyes a vile person is content, honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that zone heard and changeth not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, he that answered to his own heard and changeth not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved, Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hell. Welcome to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday morning, and just some announcements here before we get started. I appreciate all the prayers. I appreciate everybody that's helped out, you know, making meals and all that. If you didn't get the Mario thing, there's a lot of Italian food that was given, which is not a bad thing. I like Italian food, but definitely, my diet is not going well right now, so, but, you know, to be expected. But Holly and the baby are doing well. Holly is obviously recovering, and just keep her in your prayers and everything there, but definitely a blessing that everything went well. But as far as service times today, everything should be normal. I am planning on being here today to preach and everything, so be back here at the afternoon service, and we'll be actually finishing up our series through the statement of faith, and so we'll be stabbing, you know, the dispensational cow, and then we'll be going off to another, maybe another series of some type there, but hopefully that series has, give maybe more clarification on our statement of faith, but, is that me? It's like it didn't get that. I wasn't talking to you, Siri. All right, so, as far as service times, everything's normal there. We have our soul winning time at 1 p.m. today, so between the services or right after this morning service, meet back here a little before one o'clock. We'll get teamed up to go out soul winning, and then the regional soul winning times there are on the list, and just be on the Mountain Baptist Church group there to know when everybody's meeting up or where you're gonna be meeting up. And then the final number for the soul winning marathon in Kentucky was 15, is that right? Amen, so great job going down the, was it Ashland, Kentucky? Ashland, Kentucky, where you guys were at? So, amen, that's great news there. And then we have on the upcoming events there, we just have the men's prayer meeting at the end of the month and then the women's prayer meeting on the list there as well. And on the back of your bulletin there, we have 1 Thessalonians chapter five and 1 Thessalonians chapter five is our chapter memory for the month, and 1 Corinthians 9, 17 is our memory verse for the week, for if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me, so that'll be pertinent to this afternoon's service. But it's a good verse to have memorized there, actually that whole passage there in 1 Corinthians nine, dealing with preaching the gospel. And then, yep, welcoming Samuel, David Robinson, and so he's been really good, as far as I can tell. Obviously I'm not the one that has to feed him and all that stuff, but he's been doing, he seems to be doing really well. And birthdays, we have, today's the fifth, so Tiara's birthday is coming up this week. I always have to look at the calendar, because I can't do that math in my head for some reason, to make sure that I'm not missing a birthday here. So the 11th would be Saturday, right? That means, brother Jim, you're on the list there too. So we're going to sing for these two. Sing happy birthday, and then on the pregnancy list there, be in prayer for Miss Tiara Lesko, and then for Amanda Spina. And so just be in prayer for all these, and excited there. That's all I can think of as far as announcements. Offering boxes in the back there, if you want to give a tie to the offering, the mother baby rooms for the mothers and babies only. The stream wasn't working, and I was back there trying to get it to work. It should be working now, so anyway. So hopefully, I don't know, sometimes it does things and I'm not sure why, but either way, if our stream ever goes down, we always record it, so we'll get it back up there. And I'm speaking to the people that aren't here, obviously. You guys, if the stream's not up, you're here. But anyway, Brother Dave's gonna come and sing one more song. Who's reading this morning? Brother Joseph wasn't on the ball this morning to get the troops in line there. So Brother Anthony will read number chapter six for us. All right, take your songbooks and turn to song number one. Song number one in your songbooks. We'll sing Jesus, I, my cross have taken. All right, we'll sing song number one. All right, we'll sing song number one. Jesus, I, my cross have taken. All to leave and follow thee. Destitute, despised, forsaken. Thou from hence my all shall be. Perish every fond ambition. All I've sought and hoped and known. Yet how rich is my condition. God and heaven are still my own. Let the world despise and leave thee. They have left my savior too. Human hearts and looks deceive me. Thou art not like man untrue. And while thou shalt smile upon me. God of wisdom, love, and might. Foes may hate and friends may shun me. Show thy face and all is bright. Man may trouble and distress me. Twill but drive me to thy breast. Life with trials horn may press me. Heaven will bring me sweeter rest. Oh, tis not and grieve to harm me. While thy love is left to me. Oh, twere not and joy to charm me. Were that joy unmixed with thee. Haste thee on from grace to glory. And we by prayer have's eternal day. Before thee God's own hand shall guide thee there. Soon shall close thy earthly mission. Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days. Hope shall change to glad fruition. Faith to sight and prayer to praise. All right, before you come, brother Anthony, we forgot to sing the birthdays. I know you guys were like, man, I cannot believe you forgot to sing. And we will sing for Miss Tiara and for Brother Jim. You all want to stand up, right? They're like, no, not at all. OK, we take one week off, brother, and we forget everything. So we'll sing Happy Birthday to the birthday people. Ready? Here we go. Oh, actually, actually, hold on, hold on. What day is your birthday on? 8th, which is Wednesday. Brother Jim, Saturday. Well, happy birthday to you both. All right, here we go. Ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you both. We'll have Brother Anthony come. Take your Bibles and turn to Numbers chapter number six. Numbers six, and Brother Anthony will read that for us. Numbers chapter six. 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 valley-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. In the days of his separation shall he eat nothing, that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. All the days of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head, until the days be fulfilled, in which he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his sake, he shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, or 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 is holy unto the Lord, and if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it, and on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespassed offering, but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled. And this is the law of the Nazarite. When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. He shall offer his offering unto the Lord, and one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one hew lamb for the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings, and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering and their drink offerings. And the priest shall bring them before the Lord, and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering, and he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord. With the basket of unleavened bread, the priest shall offer also his meat offering and his drink offering. 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 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 heaped shoulder, and after that the Nazarite may drink wine. This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the Lord for his separation, besides that that his hand shall get, according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his son, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace, and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for your word, and thank you for this morning where we can gather, continue to learn from it. I pray it should be of Pastor Robinson filling with the Holy Spirit. Help us be edified this morning. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So you're there in Numbers chapter 6, and I'm actually going to be preaching about the Nazarite vow. The Nazarite vow. And you say, why are you preaching on that? Because I haven't yet, so why not? But there are actually some things that are interesting about the Nazarite vow, and also I want to take down some misconceptions about the fact that Jesus had long hair, which he didn't. And I'm going to prove that with the Bible here. But I also just want to first of all state that a Nazarite is different than a Nazarene. So a Nazarite vow is Nazarite, that word literally means to be separated or consecrated. A Nazarene is someone from Nazareth, so it's a place. And you don't even need to look up the word Nazarite because that term consecrated or separation is used so many times in this passage. So it's basically just a term that means someone that has basically separated or consecrated themselves unto the Lord. But I want to get into this because the thing that we're going to see some maybe things that you never thought about. I'm going to get into the story with Samson a little bit because he's kind of the main guy if you knew someone that was a Nazarite. It was Samson, right? And kind of get into this idea of probably more so with the long hair stuff, as far as men having long hair and what the Bible teaches about that, Samson and these that are Nazarites. So look at verse 1 there. It says in Numbers chapter 6 and verse 1, it says, 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 a vow, a vow of a Nazarite, or to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord. So one thing to notice here is that women can also be Nazarites. Now, obviously we think of the men because we think of Samson, right? Or we think of others in the Bible that it is alluded to that they're Nazarites, right? I mean, you think of like Samuel, even John the Baptist. You could look at those guys and think, well, maybe they were. But the thing that we see here is that women could also do this. And this is basically separating themselves unto the Lord. So you see that term separate themselves with a vow. They separate themselves unto the Lord. And notice in verse 3, what are they separating themselves from, okay? So there's specific things that this vow is doing to where they're vowing to basically separate themselves from certain things. Now, notice what it says in verse 3. It says, 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 dry. All the things of his separation shall he eat, nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. So this hits all the things. It hits everything, I believe, from alcoholic wine and strong drink to non-alcoholic grape juice and basically anything that's from the vine that would be some kind of drink, right? But also it talks about vinegar. And vinegar is actually a second fermentation of an alcoholic beverage. And I preach on this dealing with not drinking alcohol and all that. But basically any realm of that process. It doesn't matter if it's straight off the vine, if it's been fermented to where it's alcoholic, to where it's been fermented again to now it's vinegar. You're not to have any of that. So basically anything from the vine. Also in verse 5 here, it says, All the days of the vow of his separation, there shall no razor come upon his head until the days be fulfilled, in which he separated himself unto the Lord. He shall be holy and shall let the locks of his hair of his head grow. Now what you have to understand though with this is that this vow had an end to it. So Samson's going to be the exception to the rule because what I'm going to get to with him is that he was supposed to be a Nazarite until the day of his death. But this is not a vow that's basically your whole life. This is something that is to be taken on. It doesn't really give you a time frame. And maybe you make up that time frame and say, I'm going to be a Nazarite, I'm going to be a Nazarite, separate unto the Lord for six months or a year, maybe a month that you're doing this vow to separate yourself unto the Lord. So when it talks about the locks of your hair of his head grow, think about this. If I let my hair grow for a year, typically hair grows about a half an inch per month. And that could vary. It could be less or more depending on the person. That means that if I were to have my hair, let's say like this right here, after a year it's like six inches, whatever that is. It still wouldn't be down to my shoulders probably. Does that make sense? The idea that someone who's doing a Nazarite vow just looks like a bunch of hippies or that they have hair down to their back, you know how long it takes for that to grow? Does that have to grow to be that long? So when it comes to this Nazarite vow, I don't believe most men are looking like women when this is going on. And you have to understand why this is happening or why they're even doing this to separate themselves unto the Lord. You can kind of think about like Mephibosheth, right? Mephibosheth was in a state of mourning when David had to flee the kingdom and he didn't do anything. Basically he didn't even clip his nails. Doesn't say that here. Doesn't say that you can't clip your nails. But the thing is that it's kind of like a sign of like just kind of letting everything take its course. You're not really grooming yourself. You're not really taking care of yourself. You're kind of separating yourself unto the Lord kind of thing. And so basically you're not to eat or drink anything that's of the vine. So that's very clear. You're not to put a razor upon your head. Now that's very important too because it says a razor upon your head. It doesn't say scissors upon your hair. And I'm going to actually show you a verse that shows you that same concept and the same verse meaning like a razor upon your head does not equal getting your hair cut. Now it does say let the locks of the hair of his head grow. So it is basically alluding to the fact that you're just letting it go. But the question that you would have to ask yourself is how long are you doing this Nazarite vow for? Numbers 6 and verse 6 here. It says all the days that he separated himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body. So you're not to basically touch any dead body. 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 is holy unto the Lord. This is basically saying you can't even touch your dead relative if you're not to come at them or touch them even if they die during this whole vow that you're doing. Basically, what if that happens? That's why you've got to think about taking this vow, don't you? The Bible even talks about it. It says vow not at all or swear not at all because vows are binding. Obviously, this is a vow that is legitimate just as much as the vow of marriage is legitimate. It's not saying you can never vow but you need to take that very seriously when you're taking your vows whether it's marriage or whether it's this Nazarite vow. I don't believe this Nazarite vow is a thing anymore. One big reason why is because we're not doing sacrifices anymore. In order to fulfill this vow, you have to do sacrifices to fulfill it and cap it off. Basically, there's three big things that you can't do. You can't have anything of the vine. You can't shave your head. You also can't touch a dead body. It gives this hypothetical here in verse 9 of what if it happened and it was out of your control. It's kind of one of these things like what if it's out of your control that this happens? Notice what it says in verse 9. It says, And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day shall he shave it. It's basically saying someone just happened to die right next to you. It's kind of like what are you going to do about that? It's not like someone died and you had the choice whether you're going to go to that funeral or not or go to that dead body or not. This is a case where somehow it just happened and it was out of your control that this happened. But at the same time, it happened suddenly and there's this dead body that you have to file with. Verse 10, it says, And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles. Now, this is two turtle doves, by the way. Not like you didn't bring amphibians and they slipped the throat of the turtle. If you cross-reference the New Testament, it'll show you that we're talking about turtle doves. So, bring two turtles and two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the priest shall offer the one for the sin offering and the other for a burn offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead and shall hallow his head that same day. And you say, well, he sinned. Well, he made a vow that he wasn't going to touch the dead body. And whether it happened by chance or, like, suddenly, it happened. And this is why you take a vow very seriously because when you take a vow, there's things that are out of control. Actually, I was just reading about Jephthah and he made a stupid vow about whatever came outside of his door, he was going to offer up his burn offering, and he didn't think in his head, like, what if my daughter comes out? Okay? And that's a horrific story. But if you're going to take a vow, you better be thinking about the consequences or all the different avenues that can happen in that case there. It says in verse 12 here, it says, And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering. But, notice this, the days that were before shall be lost because his separation was defiled. So, basically, imagine you did this for, like, a month, and then someone just suddenly died next to you and you got defiled by the body. You've got to deal with this whole process to cleanse that, and then you're basically starting off day one. Like, all those days before it were lost. Okay? So, there's a very strict vow when you think about this as far as, you know, the rules that are applied there. But, notice this, is that when you're dealing with an Azerite, there's an end to it. It's not like everybody's an Azerite is, like, till their death, and they're just never getting out. The whole point is that they separate themselves for a season, and then they fulfill that, and they do this offering, and you say, well, why are they doing it? The same reason, I believe, that we would fast. Okay? Now, you think about the New Testament, talking about fasting, and basically separating yourself unto the Lord for a little bit, and it even talks about with your spouse, and that with consent for prayer and fasting, but then you come together again. You don't just do that for the rest of your life. Okay? And so, fasting, you know, is kind of an example of this, and that's kind of what's going on here, is that they are kind of fasting from something. Right? They're kind of not doing something that maybe they would normally do. Okay? In Numbers chapter 6 and verse 13, we see, basically, fulfilling this separation. It says in verse 13, And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the days of a separation are fulfilled. And I just want to reiterate, it doesn't say, like, how long this is. It doesn't say that it's a minimum of a week, or it's a maximum of a certain time. It doesn't say anything like that. So, I believe there's liberty in there for this Naz- Whoever wants to do this, that they could say, I'm going to do this for- I think there has to be a limit, because there's, like, seven days that you have to do this thing before you can shave your head. Right? So there is- It's got to be more than probably a couple weeks that you're doing it. But, after that, you know, it doesn't really say any type of end date on it. But it says, He shall be brought unto the Lord of the tabernacle congregation, and he shall offer his offering unto the Lord, one lamb- one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one hew lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings, and a basket of unleavened bread cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of the unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering and their drink offerings. And the priest shall bring them before the Lord, and shall offer the sin offering and his burnt offering, and he shall offer the ram of a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, with a basket of unleavened bread, the priest shall offer also his meat offering and his drink offering. Now, could you see why this is not applying today when it comes to something that we'd be doing like this Nazarite vow? Because there are no more offerings. You know, for, you know, these type of things, these are carnal ordinances that were imposed on them until the time of Reformation. These things are done away. That doesn't mean, though, that we can't fast to the Lord. Obviously, that's, that's, you know, the Bible reiterates that in the New Testament and everything. But nowhere in the New Testament is like, Nazarite, you can still be a Nazarite, and here's how you go about it. You know, this is something that was, you know, basically something that the Israelites could do in that time when they had this covenant that was going on to basically get in good fellowship or get a hold of God. Okay. And then in verse 18 here, it says, 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 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. So in order for this thing to be completed, they have to shave their head. Okay. So at some point, the razor's gonna come upon their head. The idea here, though, is that in order to have this separation, this thing that's happening at the end here, they kind of have to have some hair to shave off. So the idea here is that you start this thing off, you let your hair grow, you don't eat these certain things, you don't touch a dead body, you're holy unto the Lord, and then at the end of the fulfilling of your days or your time there, then you basically shave your head and you do this whole offering. Okay. And that has to be incorporated into the offering. Verse 20, it says, And the priest shall waive them for a waive offering before the Lord. This is holy for the priest, with the waived breast and heaved shoulder, and after that the Nazarite may drink wine. Okay. Now, I don't believe this is talking about alcoholic wine. I believe this is, you know, the Bible talks about look not on the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself right, that means that there is a time when the wine is not red and doesn't move itself right and doesn't give its color in the cup. Okay. So I don't believe it's saying, yeah, now you can go get sloshed, you can go just drink it up now, and what in the world is that noise? Anyway, so basically, now they can drink wine. It says in verse 21, This is the law of the Nazarite, who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the Lord for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get, according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation. So you may ask, you know, like why someone would do this. It talks about the Nazarites being wider, you know, purer and whiter than snow and like all these different things. The idea is basically separation. The New Testament has this concept, you know, come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. This is a physical thing to represent that spiritual aspect of basically separating yourself unto the Lord and being holy and being clean and, you know, all that. Now, I believe this is something that was not intended to be necessarily for their whole life because the whole, if it was, then all these people are like basically on their deathbed doing this sacrifice and all this, okay. You know, from reading this, it seems like this would be something that would be a very temporary type of situation that you're doing. And maybe you do it every year, right? I don't know. Maybe they do it like every year for like two months or something like that. It doesn't say that you can't do it more than once, but it doesn't give a timeframe on it, okay. Now, reading this passage made me think of Paul, okay. Go to Acts chapter 18, Acts chapter 18. I don't know this for sure when it comes to Paul, but it seems like he was doing something to the effect of an Azarite vow. Even before James pushed him into doing it, okay. Look at Acts 18 and verse 18. Because you remember James, not James the son of Zebedee, okay. Because in Acts 21 when you're dealing with James, I mean James the son of Zebedee died and was killed by Herod in chapter 12, okay. But I believe we're talking about James the Lord's brother. He was an apostle and obviously he was saved. He was a legit apostle, but he messed up just like Peter messes up, you know, and Galatians records that. But in Acts chapter 18 and verse 18 it says, And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow. Now, whatever this is, I don't believe this is like him fulfilling the Nazarite vow because this is in Cenchrea. He's not in Jerusalem. He's not like doing these sacrifices when he's doing this. But it does kind of sound very similar, right? It's about shaving your head, having a vow. I mean show me in the Bible where you have a vow where you're shaving your head, okay. I'll show you the Nazarite vow, okay. But maybe Paul's doing something similar to that, okay, where he's making a vow to the Lord and he's shaving his head in kind of like a Nazarite would and it's kind of like his way of doing it in the New Testament. Yet the Bible doesn't teach anything like that in the New Testament. But go to Acts chapter 21 and verse 23. Acts chapter 21 and verse 23. And again, I believe James is wrong here because Paul, first of all, the Holy Ghost told Paul not to go down to Jerusalem. But Paul went anyway. And I preached on that when we went through the book of Acts, that it legitimately says by the mouth of the Holy Ghost. He was basically told not to go down there. But he went anyway. And obviously when you don't do what the Lord says, now you're in this position, now there's a different maybe path that the Lord will take you on. It's like, okay, I messed up. Okay, Lord, where are you going to take me now? But I don't believe when you get to Acts chapter 21 that was the original plan of what God wanted to do with Paul. But yeah, Paul did great things after that. And obviously he obeyed the Lord after that. But it's kind of a different path than maybe he was supposed to go on. But in verse 23 here, we have James, who I believe is the senior pastor or lead pastor over at the church in Jerusalem. It says in verse 23, Do therefore this that we say to thee. We have four men which have a vow on them, them take and purify thyself with them, and be it charges with them that they may shave their heads, and all may know that those things which whereof they were formed concerning thee are nothing, but that thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the law. What is he talking about? He's telling people that they don't have to be circumcised. And James is saying, you know, we heard this of you. And then he's like, I wrote a letter, but I wrote it to the Gentiles. I didn't write it to the Jews. And what's he doing? He's putting a separation between the Jews and the Gentiles. And then he's saying, you know, do this thing so that... I feel like fireworks are going off. Do this thing to basically put everybody at ease that you keep the law and you deal with, you do everything that you're supposed to be doing. And then he goes on to say in verse 25, As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing. So what's he saying? Well, the Jews have to observe this, but the Gentiles don't. Okay, so there's a difference between Jew and Gentile. Is that what you're saying in the New Testament, James? You know, and I'm obviously, you know, this is rebuked later on in Galatians chapter 1 when Peter comes down and he's separating himself from the Gentiles. And then certain that came from James came down and he separated himself. And Paul rebuked him to his face because he was to be blamed. So it's clear that this is wrong what's going on here, okay? By the way, this isn't the... This is just recording a story, okay? And that doesn't... So he's like, well, James did it. He must be right. Well, the Bible records Satan doing stuff. Does that mean it's right? And there's a lot of times where saved people, like David the king does something wrong, doesn't mean it's right. It's like when people are like, well, you know, David had many wives. Oh, okay. He also killed Uriah and committed adultery with Bathsheba. I guess that's right too, right? So you have to understand that there's a difference between the story that's being stated and when it's being commanded by the author, okay? And so keep reading there though. It says, as touching the Gentiles in verse 25, which believe we have written and concluded that they observed no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols and from blood and from strangled and from fornication. Then Paul took the men the next day, purifying himself with them, entering into the temple to signify the accomplishing of the days of purification. Sound familiar? Until that an offering should be offered for every one of them. Now let me ask you that. Is that something that should have been done after Jesus was sacrificed and risen from the dead? That's blasphemous is what that is. To be doing animal sacrifices after Christ came, after the time of reformation. So this is something that shouldn't have been done, but it makes me think that maybe this is the Nazarite vow that they're doing here. And Paul's, because when you read the Nazarite vow, how many, I mean there's sacrifices all over the place that are being done for this. And so I can't prove that unequivocally. Maybe there's some other vow they were doing. But either way, they were wrong. And the idea of a sacrifice being brought for every one of them, that means Paul had a sacrifice done for him. And so obviously Paul was in the wrong to begin with to even go down to Jerusalem. And then he got himself into trouble and fell into the Judaizing ways of those in Jerusalem trying to hold on to these ordinances. And again, I believe that obviously all these men are saved, but they still messed up. Now, Jesus wasn't a Nazarite. Go to Luke chapter seven, Luke chapter seven. It's a false equivalence of Nazarene and Nazarite. You know, when it says that Paul was of the sect of the Nazarenes, the reason I believe he's stating that is because he believes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And if you remember that name, he's being brought up in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And so where Jesus grew up, he's being brought up. And so therefore, it kind of got synonymous with the fact that, okay, he's of this sect of the Nazarenes. Now, that's what people said, obviously. But, you know, they're just going off geographic location. And that could very well be a hit at them, right? Oh, you know, he's of the sect of the Nazarenes. You know, Nazareth, what good thing came out of Nazareth? Even, you know, the disciples of Jesus in John chapter one, you have Philip saying like, can any good thing come out of Galilee? Right, because he's talking about him that was born of Joseph and Nazareth and all this. And obviously, Joseph wasn't the physical father, but they were of Nazareth. And he's saying, can any good thing come out of Galilee? You have the scribes or the Pharisees saying that to Nicodemus. You're of Galilee, any good thing come out of that? Talk about passive aggressive, right? Nicodemus is like, you're from there. There's nothing good that comes out of there. It's like, okay. I'm getting sidetracked. Anyway, Luke chapter seven here in verse 33. It also says, John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and ye say he hath the devil. So he's basically, he's rebuking them saying, you know, John the Baptist, he wasn't eating bread and drinking wine. So this is where you can kind of get into that aspect. Well, maybe, especially when you look at his birth with his parents and all that, it's kind of very similar to Samson. You can say, well, maybe John the Baptist was a Nazarite. But it doesn't say that he didn't do that for his whole life, though, either. But it says in verse 34, it says the son of man is come eating and drinking. What? Eating bread and drinking wine. And obviously we're talking about non-alcoholic wine here. But at the same time, he's saying the son of man is come eating and drinking. And ye say, ye hold a gluttonous man in a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. So, when you look at the birth of Jesus, and obviously we went through like all the stories this past Christmas, did you see anything in there about him not drinking wine? Or him not, they're doing anything like that or a razor not coming upon his head or anything like that? Did you see anything close to that? No, actually you see quite the opposite. That he says, well, John the Baptist, he didn't come eating and drinking wine, but the son of man did. So, I mean, it literally states that he's not doing what the Bible would state would be like a Nazarite vow. So, that right there should be enough for you to say, okay, well, then he didn't let the hairs of his locks grow. Okay. Or the locks of his head, hair grow. So, but go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. So, I kind of want to really just prove this point. That I don't believe Jesus had long hair, and one big reason is that he wasn't a Nazarite. So, why would that be a case? If the Nazarite is the exception to the rule of having long hair, okay, well, Jesus wasn't that. So, he wouldn't be in that exception. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, let's make this very clear, is that men should have short hair, women should have long hair. Okay. There should be a distinction between men and women. I mean, that's a whole other sermon for another day. But, notice what the Bible says here in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3. It says, 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. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head. Now, let me ask you a question. Did Jesus pray and prophesy? Then if he did it with his head covered, he dishonored his head. Now, if you think about this, I mean, the head of Christ is God, so he'd be dishonoring God directly. If, and obviously, the head of man is Christ, so we're dishonoring Christ. But you have a hierarchy here, right? When you think about the Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, but then there's a hierarchy of the man and his wife, right? As far as that hierarchy there, you're like, oh man, I can't believe you'd say that. It's facts. It's what the Bible teaches. And, you know, doesn't mean that it can't be a benevolent dictatorship, though, okay? It's just as much as like, obviously, do you get mad that God's the head over you? Now, in verse 14 here, it says, doth 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 we're talking about head covered, head not covered. We're not talking about garments here, okay? So we're not a head covering church, okay? What is that talking about? It's like basically where the women put on like these head coverings, okay? Listen, if you want to wear a head covering, whatever. You want to come in here and wear a head covering, it doesn't bother me, okay? But at the same time, that's not what the Bible teaches here. Basically, if your head's shorn, then let it be covered, right? I mean, if, and let's say you have some medical condition, okay, where you've lost your hair and you're a woman. Then I think that it makes sense to cover your head with some kind of garment so that, you know, obviously, I think that you would probably be embarrassed and all that, even though it's not your fault, right? That you would probably want to have something on there to basically cover your head. And so nature itself teaches us that it is a shame to have long hair. And specifically here, dealing with praying and prophesying. So Jesus is the prophet, you know, is he not the prophet that was to come, that was going to be like unto Moses? And so, and I even, when I go out soul winning, a lot of times I'll say, you know, do you believe that Jesus is God or just like a good prophet, you know? And obviously, he's not just a prophet, he's the prophet, right? He is the apostle, the prophet, he is the prophet, priest, and king, right? And speaking of priests, go to Ezekiel chapter 44, Ezekiel chapter 44. Is he not our high priest? Go to verse 15. So I think that there's a false equivalence that people do, is they go and say Nazarene, therefore Nazarite, therefore everybody in Nazareth had long hair being met. No, those that did the vow of Nazarite, and that didn't even mean that they had long hair, depending on how long they even did the vow, okay? So just because you're Nazarite doesn't mean that you have long hair, it just means that you're doing this vow, but depending on how long you do it would depend on how long your hair is, okay? But look at this passage dealing with the priests. It says in verse 15, They shall come near to my table to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge, and it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments, and no wool shall come upon them, whilst they minister in the gates of the inner court and within. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen britches upon their loins. They shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat. Now, this is another sermon for another day, but they're wearing linen britches. Now, breeches, but what do you have, a breech between the legs, right? They're like, oh, they didn't have pants back then. It's like, that's because you're looking at too much of Michelangelo and Donatello and Leonardo and all the Ninja Turtle paintings that are out there that are way after the time of Christ, okay? And just because they depicted Jesus as some like effeminate looking guy wearing a dress doesn't mean that's actually how it was. Now, it doesn't mean that obviously the Romans wore stuff that wasn't right, or you're like, well, the Egyptians, look at them. Well, yeah, because when I go to, when I look at morality, I look at the Romans, the Egyptians, and the Greeks, don't I? You know, that's what I'm looking to as far as my morality and how I should dress, okay, so shut my mouth. But the thing is that the Bible teaches that even in Daniel's day, they were wearing hosen, which is a German word that means pants, okay? And in here, the priests, even before Daniel, they had to wear linen britches, okay? And I don't care if they're on the outside or the inside, it doesn't matter. You know, if I have a coat on, good night, this thing is like really tweaking on me. If I have a coat on, let's say I have a long coat on, I still have pants underneath those, okay? I'm not just running around the park with no pants on and a coat around me, you're going to call the cops, and rightfully so, okay? Now, this isn't a sermon about pants, but it is interesting that in this passage, we're talking about the priests here, and what are they wearing? Pants. Pants, and you're like, well, they're shorts, because they go from the loins to the thigh. That's the minimum, okay? But, okay, wear shorts. It'd look weird if I was wearing shorts right now, you know, with my outfit that I'm wearing, but you know what? The Bible says that Jesus, in Revelation 1, that he had a garment down to the foot, though, okay? But guess what? They're britches, okay? They're pants. They're like, oh, you know, pants, you know, he wore blue jeans. Just because I say pants doesn't mean he wore blue jeans, okay? He wasn't wearing Wranglers, obviously, but at the same time, like, you know what I mean when I'm saying that as far as the type of garment that it is. Now, let's keep reading. That was a little tangent there, but Jesus wore pants, okay? He wore britches. And so did all the other men back then that were godly and not of some, like, pagan type of lifestyle. And so you can point to all these cultures like, well, they wore it over here, they wore it over here. Well, that's cool. Well, there are men wearing dresses today. Should we look at that and be like, well, that's the norm. That's what they're wearing. Well, you know, we don't go by the norm of the society. We go by what the Bible teaches, okay? Now, in verse 19 there, it says, And when they go forth into the outer court, that's the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments, and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments. Notice in verse 20 here, Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long. They shall only pull their heads. Now, what does pull mean? It means to cut it. If you remember Absalom, he would pull his hair every year, and it gave the weight of it, right? But even Absalom, you know, if he did it every year, what's that, six inches? Okay, every year that a normal person would grow. Maybe Absalom's some freak of nature that would just grow like an inch every month, I don't know. But either way, he'd cut it every year, okay? That's a little long for my taste, okay? As far as that goes, it touches my ears. I'm like, I need to get to the, I need to go get my hair cut. But everybody has their preferences, and the thing is that it's not wrong to have locks of hair, okay? So we don't want to get to the point where we're like, okay, everybody needs to shave their head. And I'm not saying it's wrong to shave your head, okay? This is not something to say, okay, you can't shave your head or anything like that. But at the same time, when we're talking about the priest here, I don't believe Jesus has a shaved head, okay? I also believe he doesn't have long hair. So when it says that his hair is white like wool, okay, that doesn't mean that it's long, you know, when it talks about his hair. Actually, if he's going to be a priest going into the sanctuary, then he's not going to have a shaved head, and he's not going to have hair that's long, okay? Notice that his locks are not considered to be long, okay? But he's the pullet, right? So he obviously did not keep them long, he has the pullet. So you could argue that the Nazarites were to let their locks grow, but maybe in that they were not to let it grow long, though. I'm just speaking here, you know, maybe not. Maybe it's just like you can just let it grow and don't cut it at all. But does it say in the Nazarite vow that you can't pull your head? It says no razor. Do you see the clear distinction between the razor coming upon your head and pulling your hair? It's a difference, right? Because you wouldn't be able to pull your hair if that equated to the razor being put on your head, or shaving your head, okay? I'm just talking here as far as this goes. One, I don't think that because the Nazarites probably weren't doing this vow for maybe longer than a year anyway that it would even matter, okay? But even in the case maybe with Samson, maybe he cut his hair, but he didn't shave his head, okay? Now, when it comes to this with Jesus, obviously we have verses, you know, Hebrews chapter 8, and you can turn there with me if you want. Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 1, it says, Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. Now, Jesus is the picture, I mean, he is what everybody's picturing. All these priests are picturing what Jesus is going to do. And what did they say the priests can't do? They can't shave their head or let their locks grow long. And they're wearing britches, by the way. Jesus is the one that's fulfilling that in the true tabernacle, but yet he's supposed to have long hair and wear a dress. Do you see how that's completely off of what the Bible would teach there? So, one, it's a shame for a man to prophesy and to pray with his head covered, meaning having long hair. And it's a shame for a man to have long hair. But on top of that, the Bible talks about the priests not letting their locks grow long. And that they needed to pull it. So, tell me again that Jesus had long hair. He's not an Azarite, by definition. I mean, he states he came eating and drinking. And they even called him a wine bibber because he came eating and drinking. That's not an Azarite. So, he's not a part of that Nazarite vow. But then also, the Bible is teaching about priests not having their locks grow long. So, go back to Judges chapter 13. Let's talk about Samson. So, Samson is like, if you think about the Nazarite, you think of Samson. I mean, it literally states that he's going to be a Nazarite. There's other places in the Bible where it talks about Nazarites kind of in passing, if you will. It'll talk about either them being done wrong or just talking about them in general. So, it's not that the Bible doesn't talk about Nazarites at all besides Samson. And there are cases where, like John the Baptist or Samuel, where you're like, I think that he was at least a Nazarite for a little bit. Now, in Judges 13, verse 1 here, it says, And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. I don't know what to do with my hands here. Apparently, that's the wrong thing to do. The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, and his name was Manoah, and his wife was Baran, and Baranot. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold, now thou art barren, and barest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. So, this is very similar to what we read about Nazarite, because notice what it says in verse 5. For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. So, the reason that his mother can't even have it is because, basically, from the womb, he's a Nazarite. By the way, it's interesting that, if that's not a real child there, so that non-real child is a Nazarite, right? But it's stating he is a Nazarite in the womb, okay? Because his mother isn't doing, you know, drinking or eating things that are unclean, okay? And it says, in verse 6 there, it says, Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible. But I asked him, not whence he was, neither told he me his name. But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. So now we see, okay, Samson, this is a lifelong thing, okay? This is a lifelong thing that he's doing. Now, again, it says a razor is going to go upon his head, and if you read the story, when he finally gets his strength, leaves him, they shave his head, okay? And you say, well, how do you know they shaved his head? Because it doesn't necessarily say, like, they took a razor to his head, okay? Because when he's, remember they put him, they were having sport with him, and he had him grinding at the mill, right? It says that his hair began to grow, okay? Now, let me ask you a question. I mean, if it was, if you just cut his hair, I mean, can you tell that my hair is growing right now? You're like, well, it's beginning to grow. Or if you shaved someone's head, it's like when you shaved your face, right? The five o'clock shadow that you get, and you're like, it's beginning to grow. I believe it makes more sense that they shaved his head, because it says no razor shall come upon his head. And that's when, obviously, he basically is no longer separating them to the Lord, like he was, because of what happened. You say, well, he didn't do that. Well, you know, same thing with the dead body, right? It just happened by chance that that happened. Doesn't mean that you still don't have to be consecrated for it, right? And if you remember, he did get his strength back there when he ended up killing all the Philistines and everything. So his hair began to grow, and you can kind of see that consecration that's happening there. Now, Samson, I believe, is the exception that proves the rule, okay? And let me give you another exception to the rule of being naked. Go to Isaiah chapter 20. Isaiah chapter 20, you're like, what do you mean the exception that proves the rule? That's the whole, the point of an exception is that there's a rule, okay? And let me state this. You're like, well, maybe I'm the exception. Maybe I'm like Samson. You're not, okay? You're not Samson. You didn't have an angel come to your mother and say, don't drink any wine or strong drink, and he's going to be a Nazarite from the womb. You're not that exception, okay? And I'll give you my reasons of why I believe maybe God did this with Samson, because of what it pictured, okay? Now, look at Isaiah, and I think Isaiah will give us an example here of that. Remember, what does the Bible say about having long hair? What is it? It's a shame for a man to have long hair, okay? Notice in Isaiah 20 and verse 1, now this is, I'm going to read the whole chapter, so bear with me. It's only six verses, but it says here in verse 1, In the year that Tartan came unto Ashtod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and fought against Ashtod, and took it, at the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot, and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. This is the prophet Isaiah. Now, what's interesting is this is like dealing with Ethiopia and Egypt and Assyria, right? A side note here, I thought God didn't care about any of these other countries. He only cared about the Jews, right? This whole passage is actually talking about other countries that he's doing this for, okay? Jeremiah was a prophet to the nations, the Bible says. Now, I keep getting off on side notes. I apologize. Listen, I missed the service on Wednesday because of my child being born, and you know what? I like preaching, so if there's anything that, you know, when it comes to being a pastor of the church, I enjoy doing this, and so when I miss a day, I'm just like I feel like I need to catch up or something. I don't know, but in verse three here, it says, And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation, and of Egypt, their glory. And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whether we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, how shall we escape? So why did he do it? Why did God have him do it? For a sign and a wonder. There's an exception to this rule, because do you think that God is calling me to preach naked for three years? You better pray he doesn't, because obviously that's not the case, right? But he's a prophet, and God had him do this for a sign, because it's obviously a shame. I mean, the whole point of it is the fact that in verse four there, it says, to the shame of Egypt, and they shall be afraid and ashamed. The Bible is very clear on this, that nakedness is a shame. Now, before Adam and Eve sinned, they were naked, and they were not ashamed, the Bible says. But since we have sin, and we're in a sinful world, we have shame in our nakedness. And the Bible says in Isaiah 47, verse three, it says, Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen. And just over and over again, the Bible teaches about this idea of the shame of your nakedness. It says this a couple times in the book of Revelation, dealing with being clothed, so they see not the shame of thy nakedness. And so, same kind of principle, though, when you think about the long hair. And I believe that Samson was for a sign, right? The reason that he would have long hair would be the same kind of reason why he had Isaiah preach naked and barefoot. For three years, okay? These are exceptions to the rule. I don't believe they were in sin doing this, because obviously the Lord told them to do it, and had them do that. But, if I were to just get up here and preach naked, I do believe that would be a sin. Because I'm not for a sign and a wonder to any nation that God has told me to preach to, okay? And, you know, there's many other places in the Bible where it talks about, you know, obviously, it talks about the children of priests and stuff like that not marrying those that are whores, or that are divorced, or whatever the case may be, but then he tells Hosea, go marry a whore. A whore of whoredoms, you know? It's like, that's obviously an exception to the rule, isn't it? When he says over here, don't do that, over here he's like, okay, do this. And why does he do it? For a sign, right? He has children, he's naming them, and the whole sign of what's going on there with that. But think about this, and I'm just going to give you my reasons why I believe Samson maybe had him have long hair. Like I said, you can maybe argue that he let his locks grow, but he didn't let them grow long. He was talking about taking his seven locks and weaving them in a, you know, and stuff like that. So, to me, it seems like he had long hair, but I think it's for a sign. Now, in Hebrews chapter 12, it says this about Jesus. It says in verse 2, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now, you could say that while that whole event was putting shame upon Jesus, and I would agree with you, right? Like everything. But think about this, go to Matthew chapter 27, we'll be done. Matthew chapter 27, specifically talking about it being on his head, right? Because throughout the Nazarite, Valla talked about the head of his consecration. It's like all about the head, isn't it? And about the, you know, shaving the head, that's how you're kind of ending it and all that. So, it says he despised the shame, but he was put to shame. And obviously, it wasn't simple for Jesus to be put to shame, but he was put to shame. Now, think about this right here in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 27. And the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. So, they strip him from his garments and they put on this robe on him, okay? It says, and when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. And after that, they had mocked him. They took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to be crucified. Now, it doesn't say necessarily that he was completely naked, you know, as far as like that goes, but I would say he's probably, at least partially, you know, they're taking his garments off of him. If he took all my garments off but my underwear, I would still be technically naked, right? Because you can see my thighs and all that stuff, right? But at the same time, I would say this is the shame, you know. I mean, there's other shame, obviously being nailed to the cross would be shameful, like all that would be shameful, right? Being scourged, everything, right? But if you think about the crown of thorns being put on his head and that idea of the shame that's being put on his head, right? What was his accusation? You know, I am Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And they're putting a crown of thorns on his head and then, you know, basically mocking him, bowing down to him, hitting him on the head and that shame that Christ was going to do. So you can think about like how Isaiah was doing that for three years for a sign unto these nations, right? But Samson, there's a lot of pictures of Jesus within Samson. And obviously Samson's a flawed character, right? I mean, you think about it, like there's a lot of stuff that he did wrong. And that we're not supposed to do, okay? But even when he married the Philistine, his parents said, you know, why is there not, and I'm paraphrasing here, okay? But he basically, is there not enough among your brethren, you know, like to take a wife of your brethren? And it said, and the Bible says this, it says, for they knew not that it was of the Lord. The Bible is validating that they wanted Samson, that God wanted Samson to marry a Philistine. And obviously it was God's will, you know, he wanted him to be a Nazarite unto the day of his death, okay? Not just some like period of time doing a Nazarite vow, but to the day of his death. But you know what people do? They take the exception and they make it the rule, right? It'd be like taking Isaiah and being like, well, there's an exception where Isaiah preached naked for three years. I guess we should all just be like Isaiah and preach naked for the rest of our lives. It's like, you're taking the exception and made it the rule instead of the exception to the rule, okay? And obviously I don't believe that Samson was sinning by what God told him to do with being a Nazarite unto the day of his death. I don't believe that Isaiah was sinning and when God told him to preach naked and barefoot for three years. But those were for signs, you know, those were to picture something. And if you say, well, you know, I think I'm the exception, what are you picturing? You know what I mean? Like, what are you prophesying about, okay? And also, Samson wasn't, you know, like, you can get into so much with Samson with his life. All right, I'm going to be done because I don't know what I'm going to do with this mic. But, you know, when it comes to the Nazarite vow, it's very interesting, something that they did back then. But I really did want to get into the idea that Jesus wasn't a Nazarite. Jesus didn't have long hair. And it's not just because he wasn't a Nazarite. Because the Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair, especially when he's praying and prophesying. But also, the Bible talks about being priests and not letting the locks of your head grow long. But you're supposed to pull it, okay? So when someone comes at you and be like, well, he had long hair, or he wore a dress. There's actually a Bible to negate that. You know, Jesus had, and I'm not saying Jesus had a shaved head, because I actually don't believe he had a shaved head. And I'm not saying it's as short as mine or as short as other people in here, maybe it was a little longer, right? But it wasn't long. So let's end with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for your word. And pray that you be with us throughout the rest of the day. Pray that you be with us as we go out soul winning. Thank you for all the souls that were saved this week. And just with the soul winning marathon. And just, Lord, all the men, all those that went out to participate in that. And Lord, we just pray that you'd be with us throughout the rest of the day. And Lord, we love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. All right, take your songbooks and turn to song number two. Song number two in your songbooks. We'll sing Glory to His Name. If you would stand and we'll sing song number two. Down at the cross where my Savior died Down where from cleansing from sin I cried There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to His name Glory to His name Glory to His name There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to His name I am so wondrously saved from sin Jesus so sweetly abides within 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 applied Glory to His name O precious fountain that saves from sin I am so glad I have entered in There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean Glory to His name Glory to His name Glory to His name There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to His name Come to this fountain so rich and sweet Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's feet Plunge into day and be made complete Glory to His name Glory to His name Glory to His name There to my heart was the blood applied