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man Deuteronomy chapter number 10 we're continuing the part of Deuteronomy where Moses is preaching to the people right before they enter the Promised Land and he's going over some of the history of some of the things that have happened last week we talked about how Moses had gone up into the mount and then he had broken the Ten Commandments in anger he broke the literal tablets and it says in verse number one of chapter 10 at that time the Lord said unto me hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first and come up unto me in the mount and make thee an ark of wood so he has destroyed the stone tablets so God's telling him to come back up into the mount in order to receive another copy of the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets and it's kind of funny because the first time he's given the Ten Commandments and he breaks them so now he's being told you need to make a carrying case for the Ten Commandments you know it's sort of like you break your phone and the next time you put a case on it all right you break your tablet you put a case on it so he says hey let's make another set of two tablets but why don't you make an ark of wood and then we can put the tablets into that ark of wood the ones that you broke and thou shalt put them in the ark it says in verse 3 and I made an ark of shitim wood and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first and went up into the mount having the two tables in my hand and he wrote on the tables according to the first writing and then notice these words the Ten Commandments so the Ten Commandments is not a made-up term the Bible actually calls it the Ten Commandments which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly and the Lord gave them unto me and so what we see here is that even though he broke the tablets God has absolutely no issue producing another set so that the words can be preserved and we know that God has promised to preserve his word unto all generations God has not and will not ever allow his word to be lost there are no lost books of the Bible okay anything that is God's word is going to be preserved anything that's not preserved is not God's Word okay and you have all of these fake books that pop up from time to time one of the biggest examples that you hear a lot about is the book of Enoch right and people will pull this out and say hey this is a lost book of the Bible and it's been discovered and of course the very fact that it's being discovered at this late date proves that it is not the Word of God because it was totally gone totally forgotten nobody cared about it until the 1800s and then it was in Amharic which is language of Ethiopia and then in the Dead Sea Scrolls they found a couple little scraps of it here and there tiny fragments of it but really what you have is the Ethiopic version that's the big one and the whole thing is a bunch of baloney like you can just look at it and see that it's not God's Word because it's full of baloney and it's an interesting that when we read the Bible we've got 66 books of just awesomeness and just profound powerful scripture and the book of Enoch just a lot of crazy wild things that don't match the tone or the content or the doctrine of the rest of the Bible that's a big red flag right there but even if it did sound like the Bible even if everything in it seemed legit the very fact that it was gone for you know the vast majority of the history of the New Testament that shows right there that it's not God's Word because God preserves his word and he doesn't allow it to just disappear and be gone plus just think about this from a practical standpoint if Christians were actually using this book preaching it teaching it how could it disappear it couldn't the only way it could disappear is if it's some obscure rejected thing that people aren't really that interested in you know you stop and think about which animals are endangered species let me name for you some examples that are not endangered the cow the cow is not on the endangered species list the chicken is not on the endangered species list the pig is not on the endangered species list why is that because the best way to make sure an animal is never endangered is to kill and eat it because if people are using that animal it's never going to be endangered right because you're copying it and copying it and copying it and people are breeding cows and breeding pigs and breeding chickens because they want that product well if anybody wanted the book of Enoch guess what it'd be copied and copied and copied people be preaching it and using it it'd be impossible to destroy wouldn't atheists love to just destroy the Bible from off the face of the earth when the devil just love to just see the Bible destroyed off the base here but it cannot happen because of the fact that God's people are preaching it memorizing it copying it using it even if some dictator came along say we're going to burn all the Bible's it would be impossible to eradicate is interesting how something like the book of Enoch can be eradicated why is that because it's not God's word God's word is I can do a rock anything that comes up against that rock is dashed upon the rock and smashed upon it and anything that the rock falls upon it crushes to pieces but yet seems like the book of Enoch was overcome by these forces of history and so forth why because it was just some weird quirky apocryphal literature that apparently no one cared about now all of Christianity rejected all the denominations rejected with the exception of one the Ethiopian Orthodox Church so and by the way they're a false religion that's teaching a false gospel they're teaching work salvation just like all the other East Orthodox churches they're just like Roman Catholicism wait actually they're worse than Roman Catholicism and they they're everything you don't like about Catholicism with some other weird extra heresies and then just sprinkle a little book of Enoch on top and you've got the Ethiopian Orthodox Church okay this is not biblical Christianity and so don't ever be fooled by these new discoveries of God's Word God's Word so powerful people will keep it around and even if people didn't keep it around God would keep it around God will preserve his word but even just from a human standpoint any book that people care about isn't going to disappear if enough people care about it and how many people on this earth right now care about the Bible how many people attend church every week in America how many people read their Bible every morning millions and millions and millions and millions of people and so just as the chicken will never be an endangered bird neither will the Bible be an endangered book because there are plenty of people using it every single day and so this is a nice little picture of the preservation of God's Word that even if man seeks to destroy it or does something destructive to it God is able to just respawn that thing right away and nothing's lost there's no issue the Word of God is preserved it's saved it's not gone now a lot of people will try to say well yeah but you know Jude quotes the book of Enoch but that is not true Jude does not quote the book of Enoch I don't believe that for one second and here's why I don't believe that because first of all the Bible doesn't say it's written in the book of Enoch I mean all throughout the New Testament you'll have statements about it's written it is written the scripture saith and so forth it just says Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied so this is just something that Enoch the person preached so then of course some bozo comes along and writes some crazy wild-eyed book and just inserts that quote into the book okay now some people will try to claim that that part of the book of Enoch was written before the book of Jude which isn't actually a hundred percent certain if you look at the evidence it could be that it was written after the book of Jude but let's and and it's very likely in fact but let's just say let's just say that it was written before the book of Jude this fake counterfeit book of Enoch was written before the book of Jude that really doesn't change anything because of the fact that that just means that that quote that prophecy of Enoch was just something that was current in the collective memory of Israel was just something that prophets were preaching because remember originally the Word of God was not always a written word it was spoken by the prophets God who had sundry times in a divers manners spake and time passed under the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son now we have it all written down and it's in this nice leather-bound volume the whole thing Genesis to Revelation but for many years it's just the Spirit of Lord is coming upon prophets and they're preaching and so that just because that quote is is floating around as an oral thing and eventually God made sure that it made it into our Bibles because we've got it right where it belongs in the book of Jude you know it's immortalized there as part of the Word of God but that doesn't mean that it came from this other crazy book that is obviously just built around one legitimate quote you put in one legitimate quote that does not validate all of this other stuff so Jude is not quoting the book of Enoch he's quoting the person Enoch and then there's a fake counterfeit pseudepigraphical book called the book of Enoch and we don't believe in it for one second and so I hope that all makes sense to you I hope you understand what I'm saying but God did speak orally through prophets in the past now we have the written word where we've got it all and it's so much easier this way to have the truth at our fingertips and we're very blessed to be living at this late date here in 2023 in the year of our Lord 2023 and we've got Bibles sold at virtually every store you know Walmart you could probably buy one at the gas station for crying out loud so we're blessed and it's on the internet it's everywhere and the earth has truly been filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea that's gonna be even more fulfilled in the future and so he goes up into the mount he hues out the two tables of stone and then God wrote upon them verse 4 according to the first writing the Ten Commandments which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly and the Lord gave them unto me because remember this is where the children of Israel actually audibly heard the voice of God themselves with the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 and I turned myself and came down from the mount and I put the tables in the ark which I had made and there they be as the Lord commanded me and the children of Israel took their journey from Biroth of the children of Jayakun to Moserah there Aaron died and there he was buried and Eleazar son ministered in the priests office in his stead now it's important that Moses and Aaron die before the children of Israel enter into the Promised Land because this is symbolic of the fact that Jesus has to bring them into the Promised Land because remember Joshua the New Testament version of that the Greek version of that Hebrew name Joshua is Jesus that's why two times in the New Testament Joshua is called Jesus so like for example Elisha from the Old Testament is called Elisius in the New Testament Noah in the Old Testament is called Noah in the New Testament Hosea in the Old Testament is called Ozy in the New Testament because names change right if I go to Mexico I'm Esteban if I go to Germany I'm Stefan if I go to Hungary I'm Istvan if I go to Japan I'm Stieben and so my name is gonna change a little bit in these different places and so the name Joshua when it gets to the New Testament becomes Jesus and so that's great for the symbolism of Jesus leading them into the Promised Land which Moses can't do what does Moses represent the law of God the law cannot get you into the Promised Land that's what we've been talking about in Galatians right you cannot be saved by the works of the law and remember the works of the law also includes not doing the things that the law tells you not to do so if you don't steal don't kill don't commit adultery don't bear false witness you are fulfilling the law you are doing the works of the law and by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God the law can't save us the law could never save anyone because no one could ever live up to the righteousness found in the law which is why we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ to save us and so Moses can't get them into the Promised Land just as the law can't get us into heaven okay that's the symbolism there right and not only that it's not just Moses that can't go into the Promised Land because he represents the law the law was given by Moses grace and truth came by Jesus Christ but also Aaron representing that Levitical priesthood right the Levitical priesthood this is just the symbolism can't get you into heaven either right it's got to be Jesus that gets you into heaven and so that's what Joshua represents Joshua represents Christ Abraham are sorry not Abraham Aaron represents that Levitical priesthood in the New Testament the Levitical priesthood is no longer a thing because the Bible says the priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change of the law also for he of whom these things are spoken pertain it to another tribe of which no man gave attendance at the altar for it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah right Judah is the tribe of Jesus not Levi so he is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and he's the Bible specifically says in Hebrews he's not called after the order of Aaron and so Aaron can't enter the Promised Land Moses can't enter the Promised Land because neither law nor Levitical priesthood can get you to heaven Jesus has to get you there and so that's why Joshua has to be the one to lead them it says in verse number eight at that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister unto him and to bless in his name unto this day wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren the Lord is his inheritance as courting as the Lord thy God promised him now what does this mean when it says that Levi has no part with his brethren he has no inheritance well the land is divided up according to the tribes and then within that tribe each person each family each head of household is allotted a certain portion of land they inherit the land when they take over Canaan the land you know the tribe of Judah is gonna inherit a certain land and it's gonna be divided up amongst all of those Judah Heights and they will each have their parcel and then they're gonna pass that on to their children and it's gonna be inherited and it's gonna kind of stay in the family stay in the tribe and so forth it could also be purchased and there are all kinds of laws about that that we will talk about at another time but the important thing to realize is that Levi does not inherit tracts of land like everyone else does all of the other tribes are inheriting farmland right because throughout history 90 some percent of people have been farmers and that's the way it's been until recently now of course it's a tiny percentage of the population that's farming because we have machines doing the farming and big industrial farming operations and so 90 some percent of us end up doing something else but throughout history most people are gonna be farming the land well guess who's not farming the land in Israel the Levites are not farming the land they're not supposed to be they don't inherit any farmland now they do have some cities to dwell in because obviously the Levites need a roof over their head they need a place to live they live in cities whereas the farmland the countryside is inherited by the tribes because they're the ones that are gonna till the land work the land and so forth so how is it that the Levites make a living how do they get paid how do they get fed and clothed and put a roof over their heads is that the Lord is their inheritance and what that means is that the tides and offerings of the children of Israel are what actually pay for them now if you remember in the book of Nehemiah there's a time where the tides are not being gathered and the the storage area where all of those things are supposed to be stored is being used by the enemy and so forth and what happened the Levites had fled to their fields so they're basically having to go out and get a secular job and figure out a way to make money but that's not God's plan God's plan is that they would actually make money serving God it's actually a full-time service for the Lord and the thing about that is that if the nation of Israel were to go into apostasy and worship false gods and get involved in other religions whenever they would do that the Bible talks about how they would make other people priests and and ministers that were not the Levites because if they're not following the Bible anymore then it's not about the Levites or the sons of Aaron because the sons of Aaron or the priests and then the Levites are doing a lot of the menial tasks of the tabernacle tearing it down setting it up maintaining it doing animal sacrifices as far as just the menial side of it versus the consecrated side where the priests are actually carrying out those sacrifices but then here's the thing about that is that they also had a role of teaching the Word of God to people but then when they go into false religion you know the Bible says for example that Jeroboam made the basest of people into priests you know he's just grabbing the the lowest of the people and you know consecrating them as priests even if they're not Levites even if they're not of the sons of Aaron so if you stop and think about it there's actually a motive even a monetary incentive for the Levites to actually do their job and not only just do the physical work of the tabernacle but to preach and teach the Word of God because there's the thing if they preach and teach the Word of God they get paid whereas if they don't teach and preach the Word of God and their area goes to the devil well then what do you think is gonna happen they're not gonna get paid because people aren't coming to church people are worshiping Satan people are worshiping Baal people are worshiping Asherah and if you study the scripture the Levites are spread out throughout the nation of Israel they've got some cities over here cities over here the cities of refuge where the Slayer could flee to if he accidentally killed someone and he flees to the city of refuge well those are Levite controlled cities okay and so the Levites are distributed throughout the nation and yes they do the physical work of the tabernacle but they're also preaching and teaching the Word of God they are supposed to be making sure that people are worshiping the Lord and guess what if they don't make sure people are worshiping the Lord they're not gonna get paid anyway I mean imagine now with that in mind think about the New Testament analog of this okay if you would go to 1st Corinthians chapter 9 the New Testament analog of this would be pastors and other employees of the church full-time Christian servants whether they be deacons evangelists or just whatever the workers at the church the Bible has a similar setup in the New Testament in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 where it talks about the Levites and compares the New Testament minister to the Levites and it says in verse number 1 of chapter 9 1st Corinthians am I not an apostle am I not free have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord are not ye my work in the Lord kind of reminds us of Galatians 1 a little bit where Paul is defending himself against people that are doubting his apostleship if I be not an apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord my answer to them that do examine me is this have we not power to eat and drink he's saying look I'm an apostle I'm a preacher do I not have a right to eat food and drink water have we not power to eat and drink have we not power to lead about a sister a wife and a sister in Christ we're not inbreeding here as well as other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas he say look the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord so we're talking about guys like James that we're reading about in Galatians the brethren of the Lord Peter himself they're all married sorry Roman Catholics Peter wasn't the first Pope because Peter was married in fact one of Jesus miracles in the four Gospels is to heal Peter's mother-in-law his mother Peter's mother or excuse me Peter's wife's mother mother-in-law laid sick of a fever well guess what everybody who has a mother-in- law has a wife nobody just adopts a mother-in-law okay that's something that comes with the wife whether you signed up for it or not and so his wife's mother laid sick of a fever the Roman Catholics don't care what the Bible says they say oh Peter's the first Pope no the Pope is the representative of Satan on earth okay but that's another sermon that shall be preached at another time it says here don't we have the power to lead about a wife like Peter's doing like all the apostles are doing like the brother the Lord are doing so look are Jesus 12 disciples in general married or single according to this in general they're all married John's married Peters married you go down the list right Andrew Thomas they're all married everybody's married or I only verse 6 and Barnabas have not we power to forbear working he's saying look everybody else is eating drinking everybody else is married they have a wife and everybody else is forbearing working now obviously they're working they're doing the work of the Lord but what he means by forbearing working he's saying forbearing having a secular job he's saying these guys don't have a secular job James and Peter they're preaching full-time now this is really important because if you remember the story in the four Gospels these guys all started out with secular jobs Jesus did not go around recruiting full-time workers from the tap from the temple I should say he actually picked guys that were fishermen and tax collectors and all manner of trades and so he picked blue-collar guys typically but once he picked those guys he expected them to give up their secular employment and to follow him full-time that's why he said follow me to the fishermen right James and John Peter and Andrew the four of them are fishermen he said follow me and I'll make you fishers of men he says in the book of Luke from henceforth meaning from here on out thou shalt catch men and then if you remember when Peter gets discouraged after denying Christ what does he do he goes back to fishing he has quit on serving God he's back to fishing and of course Jesus Christ shows up the resurrected Christ shows up and says Simon son of Jonas love us thou me more than these and I don't think he say hey do you love me more than the other disciples I don't think it's a popularity contest about who loves Christ more but I think he's saying you know do you love me more than these accoutrements of fishing or do you love me more than these the fish this lifestyle all of these and of course he's being told don't go back to fishing be a fisher of men why because Christ during his earthly ministry is a full-time guy Jesus did not have a secular job Jesus is not doing carpentry on the side the Bible specifically says that there are women that followed him that ministered unto him of their substance there were wealthy people that were ministering unto him of their substance and Jesus was preaching full-time the disciples are relying on people's hospitality and they're receiving people's free will offering and so forth as they're preaching and teaching the Word of God full-time was it God's will that Peter also be fishing no absolutely not but yeah you have people like the Mormons come along and say oh it's it's unbiblical for pastors to be paid it's unbiblical for a preacher to be a full-time preacher he needs to work a secular job you know meanwhile their profit is sitting in you know 20 million dollar mansion in Salt Lake City or whatever but don't let that bother you their local pastor in your neighborhood isn't paid so if you went down to the local Mormon Church because you're an idiot and you went down there it would be a pastor who's not being paid and what it is is that they don't do that for their whole life they just do it for like a year I believe and so they're constantly cycling through the pastor and so it's an unpaid position like for example Mitt Romney was you know he did it for he did a shift as the pastor of his local whatever House of Satan and and basically they actually get their messages so Mitt Romney didn't have to stress and and worry about what am I gonna preach on Sunday because it's all handed down from above there's this big skyscraper in Salt Lake City it's like the brain of the Latter-day Saints it should be like a shack in size because it's so stupid but anyway you know but it's like the brain of the Mormon religion is this skyscraper there's like the temple and then there's like the headquarters next to it and and that's where the sermons are coming from so basically if I walked into a Mormon Church in Arizona versus California versus Utah it's the same sermon no matter where I am in America or probably even all over the world because the guy is just there to deliver the sermon that's being handed down from the spiritual rulers of the darkness of Mormonism at the top they handed it you can kind of tell how I feel about this religion a little bit but you know they hand down that sermon and then I've had Mormons when I'm out soul winning confront me and say oh you know oh you're getting paid to be pastor that's why you're teaching lies because you're getting paid whatever you know but my friend at the end of the day what does the Bible say you know the Bible is teaching here that Christ and his apostles and them you know they're not working a secular job they are eating drinking and raising a family because with a wife comes what first comes love then comes marriage then comes usually with the baby carriage or 12 and so that's the way the world works have your parents explain it to you later but it says or I only and Bartabas have not we power to forbear working who goes the warfare anytime at his own charge who planted the vineyard it needed not of the fruit thereof who feed of the flock and eat it not of the milk of the flock say I these things as a man or say it not the law the same also for it is written in the law of Moses thou shalt not muzzle the are the mouth of the ox that treaded out the corn does God take care for oxen is he is he an animal rights kind of a god or say if he had all together for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and that he that threshed at the nope should be partaker of this hope if we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things if others be partaker of this power over you are not we rather so let's just stop right there here's what he's saying look if we sown spiritual things it makes sense that we would reap carnal things what does he mean by that he's saying look the Levites let's go back to Deuteronomy in our minds for a second the Levites in the Old Testament they're teaching and preaching the Word of God and they're helping keep the system of sacrifices of the temple going tabernacle first then temple and as a result they receive the tides from the children of Israel now stop and think about how the math works out you've got the twelve tribes of Israel okay so if one of those tribes isn't producing agricultural output how do they get fed well if all the other tribes give a tenth right then basically the Levites are gonna have what they need because the Levites are approximately one tenth of the situation does everybody understand that so you know ten guys are farming over here they give one tenth of their increase and then basically that supports one Levite right ten farmers supports one Levite that's the idea that's why the math roughly works out twelve tribes one of the tribes receives the tithe okay and then the tithe of the tithe goes to the priests specifically within the Levites because the priests are you know a more separated sanctified set-apart group than just the Levites in general but all of the Levites are set apart for the Lord and serving God the Lord is their inheritance and so the Apostle Paul is explaining a similar idea here in 1st Corinthians 9 now he's going to explicitly bring up the example about the Levites because he says if others be partaker of this power over you or not we rather nevertheless we've not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ he's saying look just because me and Barnabas are the only ones who are not receiving you know tides and offerings and forbearing working it doesn't mean that we can't it just means that we've chosen not to use that power so think about this 2023 what if a pastor just decides to go out and work a secular job and not take a paycheck from the local church is that okay for him to do that yeah now that's not God's normal way of doing things the the plan a the ideal situation that God has ordained and designed is that the pastor be paid by the church to be a full-time minister and even that there be other full-time ministers not even just necessarily one person but if a pastor wants to work a secular job or if a pastor just you know is pastoring a church that's too small well then yeah he's gonna work a secular job there's no issue with not using that power but that power is still there the power to eat and drink lead about a sister a wife and to forbear working a secular job and so that's what we see here that Paul and Barnabas forbear that now now let me ask you this did Paul and Barnabas never get paid did they never serve the Lord full-time and see this is where a lot of people get mixed up they just always talk as if Paul was just by vocational 100% of the time that he was just 100% of time making tents that's not true if you actually study his epistles and study the book of Acts you will find that sometimes in some places he's plying his trade as a tent maker but then other places the churches are supporting him and so he does a mix of both but here's the other thing to remember is that Paul's not married so it's a little easier for him to just move quickly and he's traveling light and he doesn't have to worry about the wife and kids and taking care of them he's just cruising from place to place and whether he's in jail or he doesn't have to worry about what's happening with them and he even talks about that's kind of one of the benefits for him of being single is that he doesn't have to think about those things whereas some of the other apostles they're not going to be able to operate in the same way that the Apostle Paul is operating as a single man and so Paul and Barnabas are the exception not the rule how many apostles are there at least 82 at least the Bible specifically talks about at least 82 apostles being ordained maybe even more than that okay but we know we say a minimum of 82 and how many of them are not married and not working too and notice that or excuse me how many of them are not married and working a secular job too and those things kind of go hand in hand because they have the ability to do that they don't have to worry about as much money because they don't have a family to take care of look what it says in verse 13 do you not know that they which minister about the holy things now who in the Old Testament are the people who minister about the holy things the levites right the levites minister about the holy things do you not know that they would minister about the holy things live of the things of the temple right the Lord is their inheritance they don't inherit land they don't farm they don't work in agriculture but they live of the things of the temple and they which wait at the the altar are partakers with the altar. So when they're sitting there and assisting in an animal sacrifice, they eat the meat off that sacrifice. The fat and certain portions of the animal are burnt on the altar and the smoke goes up as a sweet savor to God. But what about the meat itself? It's eaten by the priest that's actually part of the process of sacrificing. Now there's something called the whole burnt offering, also known as the Holocaust, okay? Don't ever say that I denied the Holocaust, you know. The Holocaust is a whole burnt offering, okay, and it happened all the time. And so there's no, you know, no Holocaust denial here, folks, okay? The whole burnt offering is when they would burn the entire animal upon the offering, okay? But that's not the normal animal sacrifice, is it? That was an exceptional sacrifice. The whole burnt offering, the holo part means all and the cost is burning. Like if we said someone was very caustic in their tone, they had a very burning speech, right? So holo cost, the whole thing burnt up, whole burnt offering. You read this in Spanish Bible as olo costo, right? But in our King James Bible, it's just called conveniently whole burnt offering. So you can kind of figure out what it is, burn the whole thing. But most animals, read the book of Leviticus, how are they sacrificed? Is it a whole burnt offering? No, no, no. They cut it open, they take out the liver and they take out the spleen, it goes into great detail about butchering the animals and which part is eaten by the priest and which part is burned on the altar. So those who minister at the altar are partakers with the altar, right? They end up eating the meat off of that altar, which in some ways is like, you know, cooking the food, right? Even so, in the same way, had the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Okay, so Old Testament, the people who minister about the holy things, that's the Levites in general, not necessarily the priests, just Levites and a whole tribe of Levi. Those who minister about the altar, they are the minister about holy things, they partake. But then also those who actually are working the altar itself, which is like the priest himself who's actually doing the animal sacrifice, he partakes of that altar. And in the same way as both the Levites and the priests are taken care of in the Old Testament through tithes and offerings, he's saying, even so, had the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live off a secular job, no, should live of the gospel, okay? So that means that the preacher of the gospel lives of the gospel. And then he says, you know, but I've used none of these things. He's telling them, look, I work the secular job, not because we have not power, he explains in Thessalonians, but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow. He was just modeling a good work ethic. He's just showing them how to work hard by working day and night, he's gathering straw by night, he's making bricks by day, he's showing them how to work hard, how to get things done. But at the end of the day, in general, God's will is that those who preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Now stop and think about this though. If a preacher is not preaching the word of God, if he's not preaching the gospel, if he's not evangelizing, if he's not soul winning, if he's not winning people to Christ, how's he going to live of the gospel if you think about it, right? Because let's say he's just not doing that work, well then he's not going to get paid if you think about it. Because you see pastors who are not reaching people and maybe the church is getting smaller and smaller, well eventually there's going to be nobody there to even support him, let alone other staff. So just like in the Old Testament, the Levites are teaching and preaching the word of God, people are then serving the Lord and then they sow the spiritual things to the people by teaching them and preaching them the word of God and then it comes back around to them that they are physically taken care of through the work that they do for God. And it's really a great analogy for what we see in the New Testament. Same type of deal where you have pastors and not only pastors because if you think about the pastors up here preaching but in a large church, you have other staff, you have other ministers on staff, not just the pastor, well then you could use an analogy of some of those people maybe as Levites as it were, right? Like priests and Levites, you know, pastors and also just other staff, right? If you have a big church, other people are getting paid to do various things and so this is all very biblical according to 1 Corinthians 9. And so we're reading Deuteronomy chapter 10, you know, we, yes, understand the situation back then but then also want to bring that into 2023. Whenever we're reading the Bible, it's not like just we're reading history just for kicks here. Like, oh, isn't that interesting what they did back then? We just want to bring it into today and the New Testament helps us do that by explaining to us how do we interpret this for today. We see how God dealt with the priests and Levites back there. Here's how he deals with them in the New Testament. Now look, when I first started Faith Forward Baptist Church, I worked a secular job for a long time. I worked a secular job until the end of 2013 and I started the church at the end of 2005. So I worked a secular job for eight years. And for the first four and a half of those years, I was not paid at all by Faith Forward Baptist Church. I was just putting money in and just out there working my job and doing that. And you know what? I enjoyed that. I liked that lifestyle of working the secular job and pastoring the church but in a lot of ways, it wasn't really sustainable for the long haul. It was very difficult, especially as the church grows, to be able to really give your best to both of those things. Now a lot of my pastor friends are still in that situation where they pastor smaller churches and they're not to a point yet where they can be full time. But ideally, we want to see them in the long run full time so that they can do the best job that they can and expand and do more rather than be trying to burn the candle at both ends and juggle those things of the secular job and the church. And of course, biblically, it's God's will that they be full time. And again, if anybody chooses to want to work a secular job, there's nothing unbiblical about that. I think Paul leaves the door open for that, that the pastor can work on the side as well if he wants to. But at the end of the day, serving God needs to be the most important thing to us as pastors and ministers so that even if we are working a secular job, church has to come first. You can't pastor a church and just be kind of half in and half out about it. Even if you have a secular job, you've got to give the church the priority. That's really what your life's work is really supposed to be about. As a pastor, the job has to take a back seat sometimes. And so that can be a difficult juggling act sometimes. So quickly, just wrapping up here, back in Deuteronomy, chapter number 10, we see that the Levites are separated, set apart, consecrated, made holy, verse 8, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord, to minister unto him, and to bless in his name unto this day, verse 9, wherefore, Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren. The Lord is his inheritance according as the Lord thy God promised him. Now why is this box, why is this tablet case, if you will, why is it called the ark of the covenant? Why is it called the ark of the covenant? Because the word ark is simply just referring to the shape of the box, right? It's just a box. It's an ark. The word ark simply means like chest or something, right? We would probably call it like a wooden chest, okay? So why is it called the ark of the covenant? What's inside? The tables of the covenant. Why are they called the tables of the covenant? Because they have the Ten Commandments written on them. What does that make the Ten Commandments? That makes the Ten Commandments the covenant, which makes them part of the Old Testament Old Covenant. Now, stop and think for a minute. And if you would, flip over to Jeremiah 3 and I'll be done. Jeremiah chapter number 3. We've got the tables of the covenant and the ark of the covenant. Then we have 2 Corinthians chapter number 3 explaining to us that the Old Testament, the Old Covenant was engraved in stone. And of course, that's a reference to the two stone tablets because God did not engrave in stone the entire book of Deuteronomy or something like that. Only just those Ten Commandments are engraved in stone. Now, that makes that covenant that we're talking about, whether we say tables of the covenant, ark of the covenant, and when we're talking about the Ten Commandments, we are talking about the Old Covenant or Old Testament. Look at Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse number 16. It says, and it shall come to pass when ye be multiplied and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall no more say the ark of the covenant of the Lord, neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done anymore. So according to Jeremiah 3.16, there's going to come a day when the ark of the covenant will no longer be relevant, right? People aren't going to say, the ark of the covenant of the Lord. And it's not even going to come into their mind. They're not going to be thinking about it. They're not going to be worried about it. Neither shall that be done anymore. It's just not going to be a thing. The ark of the covenant's not going to be a thing. Why not? Because we're in the New Testament. And in the New Testament, the ark of the covenant is not a thing. It's done. It's over. Why? Because the old covenant has been, here's a good word for you, replaced by the new covenant. The new covenant replaces the old covenant. And so whenever you hear about this thing of searching for the ark of the covenant, and I'm not talking about Indiana Jones or something. I'm talking about like real, you know, biblical archeologists talking about, you know, where the ark of the covenant's hidden, and it's going to be pulled out by the end times. It's bogus. It's a lie. It's fraud. It's not real. You know, supposedly the ark of the covenant is hidden underground in a cave under Jerusalem, and you know, there's all these guards guarding it. But you know, these biblical archeologists went in all cloak and dagger, and you know, they're in there like Mission Impossible style or something, getting in there and getting the ark of the covenant, snapping a secret photograph. It's like a Bigfoot photo or something of the ark of the covenant. It's a crock, is what it is. It's a bunch of garbage. Okay? It's just a bunch of charlatans trying to make money off of you falling for their gullible health. Oh, they found the, you know, they found the blood of Jesus. Folks, this is the same stuff that people have been doing in the Roman Catholic Church for the last couple thousand years. You know, here's a splinter from the true cross. There's so many splinters of the true cross floating around. You could literally build a ship out of it that could sail around the world. There's so much, like, they can't all be real, folks. But it's like, hey, here's a knuckle bone from John the Baptist, you know. We can bow down to that for a while. The Roman Catholics and the East Orthodox, they have all these things called relics. Relics. And it's like, this is the pelvis of Elizabeth or something. And it's just like, whoa, okay. You know, give it a great big kiss and bow down to it. And you see these Orthodox guys with a bunch of skulls and bones. And then these bones, like, go on tour. And it's like, hey, you know, St. Peter's kneecap is coming to town. And so we're going to have a big party about that. And you think I'm kidding, but this is, I mean, people literally throughout the dark ages, they got excited about these relics. And splinters of the true cross are a big thing, you know. You carry that thing around, you kiss it, you put it next to your rabbit's foot. You know, maybe we can make, like, a new edition of Lucky Charms cereal with marshmallows in the shape of, like, skulls of saints and splinters of the cross. And you know, I don't know, get a splinter from Noah's Ark while you're at it. And the Ark of the Covenant. And the Ark that baby Moses was floating in. Why not, you know? It's fake. It isn't real. When I heard one of these bozos, they said that, you know, they found the blood of Jesus and they studied the DNA. And he only had 23 chromosomes instead of 46. You know, because he had, you know, no father. So it's just, he just had Mary's half of the genome. You know, what if I told you that Jesus did have a father? God. You know, and this never ceases to amaze me. And I don't know, this never ceases to amaze me. I'm sorry, I gotta say this and then I'll be done, okay? Bible's over here, all right? Almost done. I gotta just get this up. I don't know if this is just, like, a lack of understanding of biology or spiritually or spiritual blindness or what is up with people, like, you know, I don't even wanna name the names, not because I'm afraid to name the names, but because these people are so inconsequential, I don't even wanna give them publicity because they don't matter. Okay, but, you know, like, for example, the bozo deacon of our church who was many years ago spreading heresy about, you know, where he was denying the Trinity and everything and he got fired, this bozo now has just a week ago said, quote, it's not correct to say that the cells in Jesus' body are divine. Now, you know, and when I hear a statement like that and, you know, it's kind of, it's the same junk from that other bozo of, you know, well, you got the God part and you got the human part, his body is the human part, his soul, spirit, that's the God part. Now, I don't, like, I get it. I get it that different people have different levels of understanding about things like biology and genetics. I'm not expecting anybody to be some kind of a geneticist to understand this. You know, somebody help me out after the service if I'm expecting too much because I don't think I'm expecting too much to understand what I'm about to say right now, okay, because I don't think this is that complicated and if I'm wrong, come up to me after the service and just say, Pastor Anderson, you know, the biology got a little rough there. You got a little complicated because I don't think I am. I don't think, I feel like this is the kind of stuff that you could literally learn in like an elementary school classroom or a middle school classroom, what I'm about to say. I don't think this is super complicated, okay? Hang out with me for one second here, okay? The fact that half of your genes come from mom and half of your genes come from dad. If you just got all the genes from one parent, you're just going to be a clone of that parent. Everybody understand what I'm saying? So here's the thing, my brother and I, and we talked about this the other day, again, we didn't go super deep. We don't have to, keeping it real simple here, okay? We talked about this the other day, how my brother and I, on any given locus on our genome, there's a 50-50 chance that he and I have the same gene there and a 50-50 chance that we don't, you know, because we've got half the genes from our mom, half the genes from our dad. You know, when it comes to like a cousin, it's like a one out of eight chance that we have the same gene on a particular locus, okay? But here's the thing, with all that aside, I'm already getting too complicated, I'm sorry. Think about this, you got half of your DNA from mom, half of your DNA from dad. Everybody get this? Okay, and this is inseparably linked. It's not like in my body I've got these like separate dad genes floating around and separate mom genes. Everybody understand that like my dad's and my mom's genome have become interwoven to the point where they cannot be separated. It's not like, well, I got, the only chromosome that totally came from my dad is the Y chromosome, you know what I mean? But all these other chromosomes are like a mix from mom and dad. Does everybody understand that? Tell me, raise your hand if you need me to slow down, okay? I don't think you do, but I'm just, I just don't even know anymore. I think it's just these guys though, huh? So you have, if you have half the genes from mom and half the genes from dad, and this is your DNA, and it's in every cell of your body, okay, well, if Jesus is born of a virgin, the only way that that's gonna work for him to be human, he's gotta have DNA to be a human being. His body can't even function without DNA. I mean, is he a real life human or not, or is he just like an apparition? Wasn't Jesus a real flesh and blood human being? Is everybody following me? He's a real flesh and blood human being. Well, he can't just be walking around with 23 chromosomes. That just isn't gonna work. He needs the full complement. He's gonna need all 46 chromosomes. Don't just say he just has Mary's, because then he's gonna be a clone of Mary, and he wasn't a clone of Mary. Is everybody following this? If he just has only Mary's, no, he has basically God's DNA and Mary's DNA. Everybody following? He didn't have an earthly father, but he does have a father. He's not just fatherless. His father is God the father. So that's where half of his genome comes from God the father, half of it comes from Mary. This makes him the son of God and the son of man and the son of Mary and made of a woman, the Bible says, born of a woman. And there's no God part and human part, because just like there's no like, well, this is the dad part and this is the mom part. I got my mom's nose, this is the mom part right here, this is the dad part right here. No, because it's all so inextricably linked that every part of me is both mom part and dad part. So for our disgraced former deacon to get up and say, well, it's not biblical to say, it's not correct to say that the cells of Jesus' body are divine, okay, well, then what are they? Then how is he even walking around? Are you saying that he has a human father? Because if his father is God, if he's the son of God, physically the son of God, then I would say that his flesh is divine. His flesh has to be divine, because otherwise how do you explain the virgin birth? Like what am I missing? Can somebody explain to me where the disconnect is happening? Because how can you say, well, it wouldn't be correct to say that the cells of his body are divine, you know, because that's the human part. How is it human if it's born of a virgin? Because it's both human and divine. But if you take the divinity from Christ's flesh and just say, well, the divinity is just his soul, the divinity is just his spirit, you know, his flesh, the cells of his body, I mean, you can't say that those are divine. I just did. Because if his cells aren't divine, then there's no virgin birth. If there's a virgin birth, then the cells of his body are divine. You know, Dr. Sharma, am I missing something here? I mean, help me out. I mean, Jesus Christ is born of a virgin. That means that his physical body is divine. Otherwise, it can't come out of Mary's body, because it has to be something supernatural. And he's not just walking around with 23 chromosomes like the guy who went, you know, he went under the cross. He went in a secret catacomb under the cross where there was a little crack in the ground where the blood dripped onto the secret hiding place of the Ark of the Covenant. You know, he couldn't, he couldn't, you know, there were too many soldiers and he was dodging too many bullets to get the Ark, but he was able to, you know, swab some of that blood off the Ark and take it to a DNA lab and find the magical 23 chromosomes, it's crazy. Ron Wyatt is that guy's name. Anybody ever heard of Ron Wyatt? Hands all over the building. But folks, to sit there and say that the cells of Christ's body aren't divine just shows that you're a heretic or that you don't understand biology as much as like, I don't know, what grade, what grade do you, what grade do you think you would learn that in? Just like sixth, seventh, high school, okay. It's all stuff that you should know by the time you graduate high school, just the real basics. Nothing too crazy about any of this, okay. So that didn't have anything to do with the sermon, that was a little bonus material. At the end of the sermon, but Christ is 100% God, 100% man, and we're not just talking about spiritually, we're talking physically. And I heard some other bozos, I saw some other bozos leaving comments like, I don't know, you know, because when Pastor Anderson started talking about Jesus, DNA being divine, that sounded kind of weird to me. What in the, what, ah, if he's born of a virgin, DNA's coming from somewhere, it ain't coming from Joseph. I don't know, man, that just sounds, you start talking about DNA, man, it's just kind of weird. Well, you know, what if we talk about his ear or his nose or his mouth? Well guess what, DNA is part of your body, right? Is a body part in every cell of your body. It came from God. I don't know, if anybody needs help, see me after the service, but I don't think anybody here needs help, because I don't even think it's a biology issue. I think these guys understand the biology, I think that they're just suffering some kind of spiritual blindness or spiritual dementia for them to say these things, because these things that they're saying don't make any sense, they're not biblical, they don't jive with the Bible's teaching on the Trinity or the divinity of Christ. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you so much for the miracle of the virgin birth, the miracle of the incarnation of Christ and how the word was made flesh and dwelled among us. And obviously, Lord, we can never understand all these mysteries, but one thing we know is Lord, when Jesus died on the cross, we know that that was God dying on the cross. We know that that was the Son of God, and we know that Jesus was God as well, and it's in his name we pray, amen.