(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

with uh you know a few of the churches or many of the i don't even know how many church plants they have right now but um there's there is there is a few of them and and they're doing well to the best of my knowledge and you know when you have really good strong faithful people running things it makes it a lot easier um but pray that god blesses every single one of those ministries and that they can grow and reach a lot of people for the gospel and ultimately be independent and be able to um just be their own church for you know uh and serve lord that way so that's that's exciting news to hear about another church plant being started on the next page of course here is the soul winning marathon the the information so i was having a hard time trying to find a good park to meet at and uh so we're doing a little bit different we're gonna be meeting at the restaurants where we're gonna be eating so breakfast is gonna be at panera bread you got the address there in columbia 9 a.m is the meetup time to get your breakfast and then by 10 o'clock we're gonna be hitting the streets okay so um i still need to to contact the the restaurant and make sure that there's not going to be any issue with us with having a larger group there but it is extremely important i'll just bring this up right now uh please if you haven't rsvp'd for this let me know if you plan on attending especially in the morning it's really important that i know who's coming um you know i've been i've been trying to stress this a lot at the at the chili cook-off we had a lot more people attend than what was planned for which is great i love having people there but it really you know if you're thinking oh well it's just me that's not going to rsvp and then show up but it's if it's just you and then it's just another and then another and another another another then we end up having a lot more now look i'd much rather have people at events than not i really you know like people being there but i also would really appreciate it helps us out a lot you don't even realize if you could just please let us know when you plan on attending okay and especially now with the homeschool field trips that's coming up this one in particular we have to buy tickets in advance okay so i really need you to be able to make a commitment if you plan on coming to these things or not if you plan on coming and we buy tickets for you and then you don't show up you know the church loses out on that on the on the ticket price and then if you want to come but you haven't told us in advance then we don't get the group ticket price and everything else and i can't even guarantee that you'll be able to enter at least with our group so please let us know this one coming up is going to be the stone mountain uh we do we are going to be getting those tickets in advance so please sign up for these events uh it really really really really makes a big difference for us there's a lot of work that goes on in the background that's i'll leave it at that but it's it's it's it's really beneficial for us to know these things to plan these things to have the number of seats available to have food available to have everything else that goes into planning these events you know we're going to be buying food uh for the soul winning marathon so we'd like to be able to have food for everybody we'd like to be able to provide for you i understand there may be some situations where you just simply can't commit if that's the case then please if you weren't able to rsvp and you show up to these events hold off on maybe getting some of the food or whatever else that we've bought for now we usually get more than needed generally that's what we do but withhold so that the people who actually would you know rsvp'd can be taken care of and then uh um you know you could you could participate with the rest of it so uh we have all of the sign-up sheets are either on that little desk there or up front so i believe they're probably up at that front table so please do us a favor and sign up for that here are the details and i apologize for getting this out this this late this saturday is this marathon uh it's going to be in columbia south carolina so we're meeting up at that panera bread like i said at 9 a.m and planning on hitting the road at 10 a.m this also helps by the way knowing who's coming for being able to pair up people because i'm getting communication from other people outside of our church that plan on attending and if i get a good idea for partners in advance it helps out with that as well um and then we're going to go of course only from 10 to 12 30 lunch at 12 30 to approximately 130 which we'll be having pizza for lunch and then we'll have barbecue for dinner for those of you that want to stay the long haul that's the schedule kind of follows what we've been doing and i'm really looking forward to it so hopefully you all can make it out for that and anyone i will be booking hotels tonight for anyone that needs a hotel in the south carolina area um typically families whoever you know people coming extreme you know long distances to be able to attend this event will set you up with a hotel on saturday night and then um excuse me friday night to be there in the morning on saturday and then if need be we can also set some people up on saturday night to come to church here if it's again if it's uh if that's a reasonable request of we will definitely take care of you and help you to be able to get in church on that sunday as well so appreciate everyone who's going to put in their time to attend these soul winning events november challenge bible memory challenge so i'm going to clear up a couple things i had a question already about this so the challenge for november is memorize any 25 verses of the bible that you've never memorized before okay it doesn't have to be any specific set of verses however if you let's say for example you want to memorize some disjointed verses the verses that are just not contiguous you're not memorizing all of a chapter or whatever you just want to memorize certain verses you still have to be able to quote all 25 verses essentially without stopping you know like being able to just quote and quote and quote and quote and quote and quote you know not not okay i quoted this and then like go and review this other one and then quote that you know what i mean like like you have to have these down just as much as you know if i were to start quoting all the soul winning verses that i use that i have memorized i'll be able to quote them to you that's what you need to be able to do is be able to quote 25 verses but they have to be stuff that you haven't memorized before right so it doesn't count for me to be able to use soul winning verses that i've already memorized in the past you need to have these brand new i'm also and i don't have a very solid way of doing this but i want kids to be able to participate in this so if you have children who are under the age of 13 then that want to participate in bible memory talk to me about prizes we we can do some things and and and the reason why i'm saying talk to me is because there's a difference between kids that are able to read and kids are not able to read in different ages and stuff i would like to be able to just do something fair and encourage kids to do some bible memory it's not going to be as difficult necessarily as the adult level but but it's i think it's fun and great to get kids started doing some bible memory and i like to be able to reward kids for being able to do that as well so if you're interested in that if your children are interested in that uh just just talk to me uh later on and i'll try to come up we'll try to come up with something that's a good fit for um for whatever age group your your your child is in like i said it's kind of hard to set some some rules for these and it's something i've been thinking about but i haven't formalized so i just at least want to see what the interest level is with other children uh what one good way to start is if for for children if children want to if the child can memorize a verse 25 verses just just in general like maybe one a day or something like that and able to quote of that verse back not necessarily have all 25 verses you know committed to memory to be able to just quote contiguously um i think that would be good for for younger children if they're able to do that okay be able to memorize a brand new verse every single day be able to quote it right quote it perfectly get that one down and and have that verse memorized and then uh you know maybe the next day be able to do another one so uh that's that's one option for for younger children but again the older you get the more i want to be able to challenge or expect out of kids to be able to do i mean maybe somewhere in the middle they might be expected you have to get at least uh six or seven versus contiguous for the 25 years you know something that effect so we could talk about that if your children are interested in doing that uh let me know and we'll also i'll also get some prizes that are maybe more uh in in line with with children as well so so we could come up with some children's prizes for being able to do these things so uh that is the november challenge and then of course we have the regular bible memory passage hebrews chapter five we're going through the entire book of hebrews uh we're we're almost done with chapter five so we got one more week of new verses and then you get a review week and of course you'll be able to get a prize for being able to memorize this and quote it word perfect without making any mistakes upcoming events as i mentioned this uh next friday is the homeschool field trip to stone mountain and then december 10th we've got the gingerbread house a christmas caroling christmas service is going to be moved up for the evening service we'll have a potluck in between those church services and then december 31st new year's eve fellowship from two to seven on that saturday so looking forward to having you here birthdays and anniversaries are listed there and i apologize to dakota and jake i was trying to do this off memory as i mentioned before because i didn't have the bulletin with me the birthday is not on the 24th it's on the 25th so i got that one wrong and that i think that's about it for the announcements yep i'm not seeing anyone going uh wait pass the versions so we're gonna continue on with the service i'm gonna pass it over brother peter and he'll lead us in our next song all right church we can open up your head notes to song number 17 song number 17 here at the bottom of the page song number 17 on the first man my example is one day he saved me one day, one day, one day, he's coming. Oh, glorious day. one day, one day, one day, he left him alone in the garden. One day, one day, one day, he left him alone in the garden. One day, one day, one day, he left him alone in the garden. One day, one day, one day, he left me still. Living, he loved me. Tired, he saved me. Every day, every my sins tore away, rising, he justified, freely forever. One day, he's coming. Oh, glorious day. One day, a grave could not seal him no longer. away from the Lord. Then He arose over deathly and thundered. Now He's ascended, my Lord, evermore. Then He loved me, now He's saved me. Mary, Mary, my sins are away. Why isn't He justified, breathing forever? One day He's coming, oh, glorious day on the last. One day a trumpet will sound for His coming. One day the skies with His glory will shine. Wonderful day, my beloved, will bring Him. Glorious Savior, His Jesus is mine. Then He loved me, now He's saved me. Mary, Mary, my sins are away. Why isn't He justified, breathing forever? One day He's coming, oh, glorious day. Amen. Church, great singing at this time. We'll collect our Sunday morning offerings, ushers to collect. And church, while the offering plates are being passed around, you can open up your Bibles to the book of Numbers, Chapter 15. That was Numbers, Chapter 15, as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church. We're going to read the entire chapter and ask Brother Jesse if he can please do that for us. In Numbers, Chapter 15, the Bible reads, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye become into the land of your habitations which I give unto you, and will make an offering by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a freewill offering, or in your solemn feast to make a sweet savor unto the Lord, of the herd, or of the flock. Then shall he that offerth his offering unto the Lord, bring a meat offering of a tenth teal of flour, mingled with the fourth part of an hind of oil. And the fourth part of a hind of wine, for a drink offering, shalt thou prepare with a burnt offering, or sacrifice for one lamb, or for a ram. Thou shalt prepare for a meat offering, two tenths teals of flour, mingled with the third part of an hind of oil. And for a drink offering, thou shalt offer for the third part of an hind of wine, for a sweet savor unto the Lord. And when thou preparest a balak for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice in performing a vow, or peace offering, sent to the Lord, then shall he bring with a balak a meat offering of three tenths teals of flour, mingled with half an hind of oil. And thou shalt bring for a drink offering, half a hind of wine, for a offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. Thus shall it be done for one balak, or for one ram, or for a lamb, or for a kid. According to the number that ye shall prepare, so shall he do to everyone according to their number. All that are born of the country shall do these things after this manner, an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord, as ye do, so he shall do. One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, and ordinance forever in your generations, as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord. One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land whither I bring you, then it shall be that when ye eat of the bread of the land, ye shall offer up an heave offering unto the Lord, ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough for an heave offering, as ye do the heave offering of the threshing, Lord, so shall ye heave it. Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto the Lord an heave offering in your generations. And if ye have erred and not observed all these commandments which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses, even all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations, then it shall be, if ought be committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bullock for a burnt offering, for a sweet savor unto the Lord, with his meat offering and his drink offering, according to the manner, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them, for it is ignorance, and they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their ignorance. And it shall be forgiven all the congregation of the children of Israel, and the stranger that so dearest among them, seeing all the people were in ignorance. And if any soul signeteth through ignorance, then he shall bring a she-goat of the first ear for a sin offering, and the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him. Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that so dearest among them. But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same approacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day, and they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall be surely put to death, all the congregations shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died. As the Lord commanded Moses, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue. And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them, and that ye seek not after your own heart, and after your own eyes, after which ye used to go a whoring, that ye may remember it, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. Brother Denzel, if you would pray for us. If you would pray for us. All right, so in Numbers chapter 15, I'm gonna be focusing in on the latter portion of this chapter, and it's actually really interesting. When I was reading this, just in my own personal Bible reading, it kinda stuck out to me, the ribbon of blue, and the fringes is what we're gonna be looking into. And then I also want to expound a little bit further on Hebrews 10 as well, because I believe this passage is parallel with Hebrews chapter 10. I covered this a little bit in our Wednesday night Bible study, but I specifically wanna go into a lot of the similarities between Numbers 15 and Hebrews chapter 10. It all ties in together, so that's where, if you wanna get a place in Hebrews chapter 10, we're gonna be going there in a little bit, but we'll start off here in Numbers chapter 15. And I'm not gonna reread this portion, but kinda verses 24 through 29 talk about what needs to be done if somebody sins through ignorance. Of course, ignorance means you don't know, you didn't realize that you were sinning, you did something, it ended up being wrong, you didn't know it was wrong, maybe at the time. And there's multiple ways, this gives you passage reasons, how could someone not know they're sinning? Well, one way could be if you made a promise about something and then somehow you ended up breaking, you didn't even realize that you were breaking at the time, but then it came to your mind like, oh no, I forgot. Just literally just forgetting about things, so I said I was gonna do this, or whatever, is one way of sinning through ignorance because it wasn't intended, it was something that you just had forgotten. A lot of times people sin when they don't even know all the Bible and the laws and commandments and it's not necessarily expounded, they don't really get it. Maybe they've even read the Bible, but they don't really know. Now, of course, not knowing something isn't, it doesn't absolve you of being in sin, right? You're still guilty, if you sin, you sin. And with God, God has given us his word, God has given us his laws, and he expects us to know them and to abide by them, and that's how God deals with it. It's similar to, God's expectations with the law are similar to the way that our laws of the land work, as well. It's incumbent upon the citizens of this country to know what the laws of the land are. So if you break a law, you can't just claim, oh, well, I didn't know that was a law, you're supposed to know, you're supposed to do your own due diligence to make sure you know what the laws are. That's the way the laws of the land work, but the same way with God, right? God has given us his law, and he expects us to know what his laws are. So if we sin and then know it, now, there is a difference with that, right? It definitely isn't the same as just willful, total rebellion and sinning against God full well knowing, there is a difference, but you still are in sin, okay? Either way, a sin is still a sin, you're still gonna be guilty before God, there's still an atonement that needs to be made, there's still a sacrifice that needs to be made when you sin through ignorance. So obviously, if you don't know something's a sin, okay, well, just confess it, forsake it, let the Lord know, hey, God, I'm sorry, I didn't even know this was a sin, but now I know, now I wanna get right with you, Lord, and then you move forward from there. And this is contrasted with the soul that does presumptuously. They just presume they're just gonna do whatever they wanna do with no regard to the word of the Lord. And starting in verse number 30 is where we start to read about that. Verse number 30, the Bible says, but the soul that doeth ought, ought is just anything presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Now, the verse prior to that was just saying, hey, if someone sins through ignorance, there's one law in the land, doesn't matter if they're a stranger, a foreigner, or if they're someone that's just native, born in the land, the law applies the same. So the law of being ignorant, and why would that even come up, is because, well, I mean, it's probably a lot more likely for a foreigner to not know the laws of the land. But he's basically still just saying, hey, it doesn't matter who it is. It doesn't matter if they were born and raised here, or if they just moved here, or whatever. The law still applies the same. If they're ignorant of it, they're ignorant of it. It's equal justice, regardless of the situation. They didn't know, so here's what needs to be done to cover that. And then, but the same thing goes for those who are, who know the law and still choose to break it. Well, it doesn't matter if you're a stranger. It doesn't matter if you weren't born and raised here. God's saying that my law is gonna apply to you regardless. So it's not just the law of Israel. It's not just for the, you know, which is kind of funny, because people really want to stress that these days. They're like, oh, well, that was just for the children of Israel, just for that type. Well, you know, it was for everyone that lived in the land. It was the law of the land, not just for Hebrews, physical descendants of Abraham, but everybody who joined themselves unto Israel, unto that nation, were bound by these laws, okay? And these laws, the Bible says that if someone just chooses to do whatever they want, you know, whether they're born in a land or a stranger, they're reproaching the Lord. They're disrespecting God. They have disdain for the word of God, and they, you know, they have a rebellious heart and rebellious spirit. The Bible says that that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Now, that phrase, that soul shall be cut off from among his people is pretty interesting in Scripture, because I do believe that there is cases where, when this phrase is used, it's referring to more of like a banishment of like people just being like no longer welcome in their society, that they're just gonna be outcast, but in this situation specifically, we see a soul being cut off from among our people is a soul being put to death, okay? And this is very clear. This happens, let's keep reading. It's gonna specify that that is the case. The Bible says, because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him. And we get this example that follows in verse number 32. The Bible says, and while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. So this isn't in here by, it's not just like, oh, well, this is completely unrelated story just about this guy gathering sticks. This is giving us the example of the application of this law. Okay, so if you have a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, the commandment for the Sabbath day is no work is to be done. And that includes building a fire. Everything is spelled out. I'm not gonna go back to where that command is spelled out for honoring the Sabbath day and keeping it holy and not doing any manner of work therein, but God, you know, the Bible spends quite a bit of time just saying, look, this day is holy. You don't do anything, and your servants don't do anything, and your animals don't do anything. You know, it's just like you don't perform any work at all. Even gathering of sticks was saying, nope, that is, you're not supposed to be doing that on the Sabbath day. And this is one of those things where you might, you know, some people might look at this and be like, that's ridiculous. Because what happens here is this guy gathering sticks, he ends up getting put to death. Let's read that real quick. I know we already read this, but let's go through this real briefly. Bosses, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day, and they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron and unto all the congregation, and they put him in a ward because it was not declared what should be done to him. So they didn't know exactly what to do yet. They knew he was supposed to be gathering sticks. They knew it was the Sabbath day, so they arrested him, and they said, okay, well, we're gonna find out what we should do with this guy now because we don't quite know what to do. And then it says in verse 35, and the Lord said unto Moses, so is there any doubt about what should be done to this man when the Lord speaks unto Moses? No, of course not. The man shall be surely put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died as the Lord commanded Moses, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue. And it shall be unto you for a fringe that ye may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye used to go a whoring, that ye may remember and do all my commandments and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. So we have this example where God's saying, you know what, that guy needs to be put to death, but it follows the after, literally right after the commandments of saying if you sin through ignorance, here's what happens, but if you sin presumptuously, here's what happens. And the sinning presumptuously is the commandment that said, okay, well, they're gonna be cut off because they've despised the word of the Lord, they've broken His commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off as iniquity shall be upon Him. So we can deduce from looking at this story of the man gathering sticks is that he knew he wasn't supposed to be gathering sticks on the Sabbath day but he did it anyways. He did it presumptuously. He just said, I'm gonna do what I wanna do. And nuts to the law of God, I don't care what the word of God says, I'm gonna go and do this anyways. And boldly in rebellion, just saying, no, no, I wasn't ready for this, or I wanna go make me a fire, whatever it is that he wanted to do, he wanted to do it. And you might look at it as something as simple as, well, he was just gathering sticks. Turn if you look to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 23. The Bible says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and the good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Now, I'm not gonna get into this too deep. Obviously, not forsaking and assembling ourselves together is very important, and a lot of times people say, well, what does that mean, for taking something? I'll just give you one real quick thing. If you've come to this church before, but it's been so long since you've come that people are gonna start asking you if you're saved, it sounds like you've probably forsaken the assembly. Okay, and that's if you've gone to no other church. If this is your church, you haven't been going to any other churches, and then you come back here, and people are like, oh, hey, it's nice to meet you. What's your name? And it's not just like one new person, but you're seeing this whole church full of people, and they're all starting to ask you if you know for sure if you died today, you're going to heaven and all this other stuff, you know what? You've probably forsaken the assembling. When nobody knows who you are anymore, you've forsaken the assembly. Now, right after it gets done telling us here not to forsake the assembling, it says, for if we sin willfully, and now it goes into willful sinning, okay, and people that know that you should be going to church and just say, no, I'm not going, you're sinning willfully. You're choosing just not to go, like, no, I'm not going to go, I'm not going to do it. If we sin willfully, after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Now, in Numbers chapter 15, you'll notice when we read that, when a person sinned through ignorance, there was a sacrifice, right? There was a sacrifice that they needed to do for their atonement. But when we got to the person who sinned presumptuously, it says he's despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment, the soul shall utterly be cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. It doesn't mention anything about a sacrifice. There was no sacrifice for that person. Why, because that soul's gonna be cut off. If we sin willfully, after that we receive the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fire indignation which shall devour the adversaries. And then it makes this reference here again in verse 28. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. This is definitely referring to what we just read in Numbers chapter 15. Because it says if you despised Moses' law, well it says that the soul that doeth presumptuously, the same reproacheth the Lord, he hath despised the word of the Lord. So the person sinning willfully despises the word of the Lord, and he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses, just like the guy gathering sticks died. Under two or three witnesses said, yep, I saw this guy, he was gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, and the Lord said, put him to death. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite under the spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense said the Lord, and again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now I know I just covered this a week or two ago in Hebrews chapter 10 when we went through this, but look, this ought to strike the fear of the Lord in your heart. It's what it's intended to do. Okay, the way that this is written in scripture is intended for you to take a serious look and go, wow, is there an area of my life where I am just willfully sinning against the Lord? I know that this is wrong, I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm just gonna go ahead and do it anyways because that's what I wanna do. You oughta be fearful for your life. I mean, we really oughta have a high regard for the commandments of the Lord and not play around with this as if it's some little thing or some little, look, a guy gathered sticks and was put to death, okay, under the commandment of God. Two of the sons of the high priest offered up a little bit different incense than what was commanded and they were killed, okay? Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of covenant because he just didn't want it to fall and he died instantly. All of it because God gave commandment and they didn't obey. Be careful with that. Amen. Let that sink in. Now, this is so serious. This is what brings us then to the ribbon of blue. This is what brings us to this fringe that God's commanding them because he doesn't want them to forget. He wants people to remember. Look, we oughta remember. And that's also why throughout scripture, God gives many things in his laws to help the people be aware, be remembering and have it at the forefront of their mind these things that we ought not to forget. We don't see God with our eyes, right, on a day-to-day basis. So it's important to have ways of remembering and keeping in focus the things of God and the words of God. So one of the ways that God has done this with his laws and just in the Bible is with song, right? God has instructed, okay, teach this song. You know, Moses gave a song. He said, okay, we're gonna teach this to your children, your children's children. So that way, in time to come, if the people start to stray from the Lord, hey, they still have got this song in memory, right? If the whole culture starts to shift, there's some things that can persist, right, that God still wants to have this remembrance of his word going forward. Other things like this fringe, this ribbon of blue, you know, even if people start to go away from serving the Lord, because it becomes this tradition, right, it could even become part of the culture, they're gonna continue to do these things. And then some people are like, why do we even do this? What does this mean, right? But it's meant to be this tradition that's passed on. And actually, you know, it's part of the law. It's not just tradition, but you know where I'm going with this, right? It becomes a tradition because it's part of the law, so people start to, you know, integrate this in the rearing of their children, in the teaching of all these various symbols, and say, hey, this is what this means, this is why we do this, this is why God had all the various feasts, and they had the dwelling in booths, and they wouldn't forget when they came out of the land of Israel, you know? All these things are meant to not forget. So there's many, many times in the laws, I mean, even just with the sacrifices, not to forget, hey, the shedding of blood is required for the remission of sins, right? Blood of atonement, all of this stuff. It was something that was happening all the time to keep it fresh in people's minds and to be mindful. Now, obviously, sometimes people could just end up going through the routine, going through the motions, and sort of forget the meaning, but all of these things are put in place so that we wouldn't forget the meaning. And God institutes this ribbon in order to instruct the people and help people understand, hey, look, don't forget about this. And let's look at Numbers 15 again. You can go back to Numbers 15. Sorry if you lost your place there already. But I'll read this for you. In verse number 38, the Bible reads, speaking to the children of Israel and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue. So a fringe, I mean, you can just think about something that's kind of like a tassel or the fabric that's kind of like cut up, right? And it's supposed to be in the borders of their garments. So at the edges or the ends, you'd have these fringes and then a ribbon of blue going around the fringe, right? So that particular style or that particular style or that particular fabric that's gonna be put on clothing, God instructed to put that on the clothing for a very specific reason, and it was to just make them not forget, because if it's on their clothing every day, it's gonna be right in front of them, right? It's gonna be on other people's clothing, so you're gonna see it on the people around them to just say, oh yeah, the ribbon, you know, like you could be going about your business and then maybe be tempted and think about sitting, and then like you see, you know, the thought would be you see the ribbon of blue and you go, wait a minute, what is this? It's been ingrained, what is this tied to? It's tied to the guy that was gathering sticks that was put to death, because he did presumptuously, because he knew the law and he decided to break one of the 10 commandments and didn't keep the Sabbath day holy and he was put to death as a result. So that ribbon of blue is important. It says, it shall be unto you for a fringe that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord. Don't forget the law of God, and do them, and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring. People use their own hearts and their own eyes to stray away from the Lord. That's why you say go a whoring, that's what they're using. Their eyes, their senses, their own heart even, to lead them away from serving God. That's what they use to go whoring. It says that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy unto your God. Now, the Bible teaches us not to seek after your own heart, and this is huge, okay? Because the same people that would just be shocked at hearing why in the world would God put to death a guy for gathering sticks are oftentimes gonna be the same people who are gonna say, well, just listen to your heart, and God knows your heart, and do everything according to your heart. No, don't do everything according to your heart. Don't, that's bad advice. Don't follow your heart. Say, why would you say that, Pastor Burzins? Well, maybe because Jeremiah 17, nine says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? That would be one reason why I would say not to follow your heart. Another reason would be Proverbs 28, 26 says, he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. Now, if your heart is in line with the will of God, with the word of God, that's great. That's great, your heart ought to be in line with the word of God, but what are we following? The word of God, not your heart, right? We want our heart to be in line, but don't say, well, now I'm just gonna follow my heart. No, follow the word of God. Follow the commandment of the Lord, follow the right path. We ought to be able to think about things and choose, make good choices, not from feelings, but from facts. Clear, concrete, black and white, word of God, this is what should be leading us and guiding us. Don't just trust your heart, the heart is deceitful. Think about it, this is probably the biggest cause, one of the biggest causes of adultery is because people are following their heart. Problems come up in a marriage, strife, maybe there's some bitterness, right? You're having a hard time, you're not feeling what you wanna feel toward your spouse, and then all of a sudden you're starting up this other relationship with someone else, they come into your life and they start talking to you, and now all of a sudden you have this feeling in your heart toward some other person. You know what the world will tell you, these days especially, well listen to your heart. I mean, if you're done with your spouse now apparently, just break up with them, get a divorce, and then you could follow your heart and then you could just be happy, right? I mean, isn't that what everyone wants for people today, just be happy? Oh, just as long as you're happy, then everything's fine. Well, how am I gonna be happy? Well, just listen to your heart, your heart will tell you. No, no, wrong, eh, wrong. If you listen to your heart to commit adultery or to divorce your spouse and go marry someone else, you won't be happy. That's not gonna bring happiness because you're gonna be in sin. Committing adultery is a serious sin, it's worthy of the death penalty and God's eyes, that's how bad it is, okay? The Lord hateth putting away. If you want joy and happiness and peace in your life, you need to seek the ways of God who made you, God who has a law, God who will make sure that those laws are enforced, and especially for the children of God, will make sure you don't get the peace that you're trying to seek outside of the Lord. And you have some wicked adulterous heart, you don't follow that wicked adulterous heart. Okay, we have this flesh, this sinful flesh, that's gonna drive you to sin, it's gonna drive you through the lusts of your heart to do things that are wicked. Which is why you need a reminder in your mind, a reminder with, for example, a ribbon of blue to put your heart in check and say, well, hold on a second, hold on a second. I think I've heard about this before, I think maybe I should give a little bit more respect to the word of God and not just follow these feelings and not just follow this impulse in my heart, but actually think about it and consider and compare it to the word of God and see, is this right? Is this the right choice? Jeremiah chapter 23, you can turn it if you'd like, Jeremiah chapter 23, there are people who would teach you these very things that follow your heart, they're false prophets that teach these things. We're gonna look at just one real small example of this in Jeremiah, now in Jeremiah, there's many mentions to the false prophets, so you wanna know more about false prophets, in the New Testament, you read the book of Jude, you read 2 Peter chapter two, but then in the Old Testament, Jeremiah, I mean, there's a lot of references because these false prophets were after Jeremiah, they were after the word of the Lord and they really were deceptive with the people. There was a lot of bad things going on in Jeremiah's day with these wicked false prophets, but look at verse number 16 and 17, we're gonna read right there in Jeremiah 23, the Bible says, thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you, they make you vain, they speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Watch out for the prophet that just wants to get up and talk about everything that's in his own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Amen. Now, obviously, you need to be discerning on that, you might have some people who are saved that might be good preachers that have a tendency to talk a little bit more just about all manner of other things other than what the word of God says, that doesn't necessarily make them a false prophet, but the false prophet is the one who's teaching out of their own heart and it's in contradiction to the word of God and they're just teaching whatever they want to teach because it sounds good, they'll be the ones teaching you, oh, yeah, well, I think, I mean, all roads lead to God anyways, I mean, whether you call that God Allah, whether you call that God Buddha, whatever you call that God, they're all just gonna lead to the same place. I mean, as long as you're trying to do what's right and doing what's best in your religion, look, that's the false prophet. That's really bad. And that's the false prophet that's gonna teach out of his own heart and just he has made that up. The Lord never said anything like that. That's not in the Bible. That's just completely made up out of their own heart. It says in verse 17, they say still unto them that despise me. The Lord hath said, ye shall have peace. So these guys are teaching to the people who despise the word of the Lord, they're saying, oh, yeah, you'll have peace. And what did God say? Yeah, no peace, sorry. No peace for the wicked. You shall have peace. And they say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall come upon you. Oh, yeah, just follow your heart, it's fine. They're leading people astray with their lies. That's the false prophet. That's a warning in your mind. And again, you can read all this in context and get it in, there's a lot of great teaching there, but the people are gonna tell you follow your own heart, no. Don't follow your own heart. Follow the Lord, follow the word of God. Your own heart, your own eyes, they use, they're what are used to go a whoring from the Lord, away from God. You know, the Bible says that the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, they're not of the Father, they're of the world, right? Those things are not of the Father, not of God. The ribbon of blue is meant to be a reminder so that you won't despise the word of the Lord to sin presumptuously. That was the purpose, that was the intention of that. Now, we don't have the tassels in our garments today, we're not following that aspect of God's law of putting this on our garments, but the concept still remains as a good concept to be able to put things into practice in your life that's going to keep God's word in your mind and in memory. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter six. The way that I think about the fringes that were added is, you know, if you were sliding, backsliding towards the fringes, towards the extremity, right, you're backsliding, hey, that ribbon of blue's there to catch you, to get you back on track. Whoa, whoa, hold on a second there, buddy. Don't slide too far away from the Lord. Remember the commandments, get right. You know that this is wrong, stop yourself right now before you fall off the edge, before you really go off into the fringe. Deuteronomy six, we're actually going to read this entire chapter because it's relevant here. Verse number one, the Bible says, now these are the commandments, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land whether you go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, thou and thy son and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. You look to the word of God, you look to the laws of the Lord, you look to his guidance, look to his instructions, you know your days are going to be long in the land. Why, because you're going to avoid the traps and the pitfalls and the snares and the things that are going to get you down and destroy you. You're following what's good and what's right. Verse three, hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee. See, look, you're supposed to have a fear of God, but over and over again God's saying, look, I just want you to be good. I want you to have things going well for you. Yes, you fear the Lord. He's given you the commandments. He's given you the right way and you ought to fear not following God's commandments, but understand it is not to imprison you. It's actually to say that God's rules is not to imprison you, it's to set you free. God's rules is to help you to have the most joyful, blessed life that you could possibly have on this earth and in the next. Requires faith, but I'll tell you what, man, to me it requires less and less faith every day that you put it into practice because you see the results. The results of walking in the Spirit, you know what that is. If you've been walking in the Spirit any length of time in your life, you know the difference. You can tell. You may not always be able to tell exactly at the moment, but I mean, you could look back and be like, hey, I know when you're going out sown, and you're willing people to Christ, and you're doing, I mean, you're just like, I know I'm walking in the Spirit. That great comfort and joy and peace, like that passes all understanding. It's great. And then any time you get in the flesh, you're gonna be a little bit more irritable. You're gonna have a little bit more bitterness. You're gonna have a little bit more problems. You're gonna have other things going on in your life that are not good, that are not peaceful, it's not joyful. But let's keep reading here in Deuteronomy chapter six. Hear therefore, O Israel, verse three, and observe to do it that may be well with thee and that you may increase mightily as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. It's another way to keep in memory the word of God, his commandments, his law. He's saying, you know, hey, I want them like, I mean, strap them to your hand, have them in front of your eyes all the time, be talking about it regularly, write it on the posts and in the doors, and you know, like, have the word of God in front of you as much as possible. Make this ribbon the blue, make these fringes so that you just, you know, all, at every angle, every point, you should have the word of God somehow in front of you to remind you, keep the word of God, keep the word of God, keep this a priority, keep this in front. Look, we need that. And there's ways of doing that. You know, I recommend decorating your house with scripture, with the word of God, keeping the word of God present with you wherever you go. Participating in some of the Bible memory. Okay, having flashcards or anything to that effect to be able to help you, hey, keep meditating on the word of God. Keep the word of God in your heart, in your life, or surround yourself with it to keep in memory what you ought to do to help you to resist the temptation of following your own heart and sinning presumptuously against the Lord. Because all that's left is that certain fearful, looking for, fire-indignation which shall devour the adversaries, as Hebrews 10 talks about, for those of us who are saved that are doing despite unto the Son of God and what He did for us. Okay, there's no more sacrifice for sins. Well, let's keep reading here. Verse 10, and it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou fillest not, and wells dig, which thou digest not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantest not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware, lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of land of Egypt from the house of bondage. So setting all these things in place, in your house, in your life, around you, they're designed also as a safety net, as a safeguard for when things are going really well for you. Because when God starts blessing you and everything's going really great, that's when people, ironically enough, are most likely to turn their back on God. When people are in need, they run to God, generally speaking, right? And when people are doing really well and feel like they have everything, eh, you're more at ease. I don't really need to go to church. I don't really need to serve God. That, oh, okay, I'm kind of busy. I've got all these other things going on now, right? You've gotten too busy for the Lord. It's interesting how fast people can go from being, oh, man, I need God in my life, right? I'll be there to then get a little bit of comfort. Gone. And for some people, that little bit of comfort is less than others. I mean, there's, I don't even know if I want to go into it, but it's kind of like surprise, surprise. People give you their word saying, oh, yeah, I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna show up. Oh, this is important to me. We see how important that is. You get a little bit of food in your belly, a little bit of money in your pocket. All of a sudden, the things of God aren't that important. The Bible says beware, lest thou forget. Beware, because God's not gonna hold you guiltless. Thou shalt fear, verse 13, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you. For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord your God as he tempted him in Massa. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to cast out all thine enemies from before thee as the Lord has spoken. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, and look, this is the reason, right? This is one of the reasons why God institutes this. When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, what mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded thee? What does it all mean anyways, Dad? What does it mean? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and the Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon all his household before our eyes, and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers, and the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day, and it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us. Man, you get that down in your mind. This is good for me. God's law is gonna be good for me. The rest ought to be a lot easier, right? You accept, hey, the word of God is perfect. The word of God, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. God's word is the lamp that I need to live by. Put that as the priority. Set up areas in your life, set up that ribbon of blue for yourself, whatever it is that's gonna be that reminder for you to go, wait a minute, when things start to get a little tough with temptations rising, have that multiple things in place to remind you. One of the best things to do is having God's word in your heart. Because when you start to become tempted and you have God's word in your heart, the Holy Ghost is gonna be like, hey, remember this? Remember this? Remember this? As that temptation starts to rise in your wicked heart to do these things that you know God doesn't want you to do. This concept of sinning through ignorance versus sinning willfully, it's a big deal. It's a big deal. We need to safeguard ourselves. That's what the ribbon of blue is all about, to make sure I'm not gonna go off the deep end, off into the fringe of, I know what the word of God says, but I'm gonna do it anyways. Wow. As far as that word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for your word. We thank you for your commandments. We thank you for guiding us and giving us all that we need to know in this life to live a healthy, great, joyful life here, dear Lord, as well as being able to earn rewards for our eternity. And I pray that you would please just help us to remain strong. Help us while we are in this body of death, while we do still have to deal with the lusts of our flesh. God, help us to overcome those lusts. Help us to set up safeguards in our lives, to be continually reminded of the good word from you, of the good instruction, of the right way. Lord, help us to be able to have dominion over our flesh and to mortify the deeds of our flesh, dear Lord, that we could be continually just looking to your word and be mindful, Lord, and have that healthy fear of falling into your hands, dear Lord, and that we would take all of your commands very seriously and apply them in our life. God, we love you. We thank you for saving us. We thank you for our salvation by grace, through faith, dear Lord, that for us to be saved and be with you when we die, it has nothing to do with how well we're able to obey your commandments. We thank you for giving us that great, wonderful gift. But at the same time, dear Lord, now that we're saved and we have that gift, help us to honor and regard your word and apply it in our life, dear Lord. We love you, Jesus name, we pray, amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed for the morning. Brother Peter, please lead us in our last song. All right, church, if you could open up your handles, song number 320. All right. Song 320, O To Be Likely. Song 320. ["O To Be Likely"] On the first, O to be like thee, blessed Redeemer, this is my constant longing and prayer. Gladly I forfeit all of earth's treasures, Jesus, thy perfect life is to wear. O to be like thee, blessed Redeemer, this is my constant longing and prayer. O to be like thee, O to be like thee, blessed Redeemer, pure as thou art, come in thy sweetness, come in thy fullness, stand thine own marriage, deep on my heart. O to be like thee, full of compassion, loving, forgiving, tender and kind, loving the helpless, cheering the fainting, seeking the wandering sinner to find. O to be like thee, O to be like thee, blessed Redeemer, pure as thou art, come in thy sweetness, come in thy fullness, stand thine own marriage, deep on my heart. O to be like thee, lowly in spirit, holy and heartless, patient and brave, meekly and curving through cruel approaches, brilliant to suffer others to stand. O to be like thee, O to be like thee, blessed Redeemer, pure as thou art, come in thy sweetness, come in thy fullness, stand thine own marriage, deep on my heart. O to be like thee, Lord, I am coming down to receive an anointing divine. O that I am and am and bring me, for from this moment all shall be nigh. O to be like thee, O to be like thee, blessed Redeemer, pure as thou art, come in thy sweetness, come in thy fullness, stand thine own marriage, deep on my heart. On the last church. O to be like thee, while I am pleading, for of thy spirit, filled with thy love, make me a temple, me for thy dwelling, filled with your life and heaven above. O to be like thee, O to be like thee, blessed Redeemer, pure as thou art, come in thy sweetness, come in thy fullness, stand thine own marriage, deep on my heart. Amen church, great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys.