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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Again, that's song number four, The Way of the Cross Leads Home. On the top. The way of the cross leads home The way of the cross leads home It is sweet to know as I onward go The way of the cross leads home I must needs go on in the blood-sprinkled way The path that the Savior trod If I ever climb to the heart sublime Where the soul is at home with God The way of the cross leads home The way of the cross leads home It is sweet to know as I onward go The way of the cross leads home Then I bid farewell to the way of the world To walk in it nevermore For my Lord says come and I seek my home Where He waits at the open door The way of the cross leads home The way of the cross leads home It is sweet to know as I onward go The way of the cross leads home Amen. Good singing. Let's pray a word of prayer. Dear Father, we just thank you that we could be in your house this Sunday afternoon to hear the preaching of your word. I just pray you bless Pastor Shelley and fill him with your Holy Spirit so we can edify the people here and help us to receive the word preached today and apply it to our lives. And we love you Father and we thank you for everything you do. We pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Next song is going to be song number 109, Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. Song number 109. Again that's song number 109, Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. Savior like a shepherd lead us Much we need thy tender care In thy pleasant pastures feed us For our use thy souls repair Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Thou hast bought us thine we are Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Thou hast bought us thine we are We are thine, do thou befriend us Be the garden of our way Keep thy flock from sin, defend us Seek us when we go astray Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Hear, oh hear us when we pray Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Hear, oh hear us when we pray Thou hast promised to receive us Poor and sinful though we be Thou hast mercy to relieve us Grace to cleanse and power to free Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Early let us turn to thee Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Early let us turn to thee Early let us seek thy favor Early let us do thy will Blessed Lord and only Savior With thy love our bosoms fill Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Thou hast loved us, love us still Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Thou hast loved us, love us still And down below we have our stats. I'm going to get a count for the last few days. Was there anything to report from this past Thursday? Was there anything? All right, four for Thursday. What about Friday? Was there anything on Friday by chance? All right, ten for Friday. What about Saturday, yesterday? Two. Okay, five for Saturday. And then today, what was the numbers for today? Let's see. 19 for today. Praise the Lord on that. Keep up the great work on the soul winning. And also we have our list of expecting ladies on the right-hand side. Please be in prayer for all of them as well as our prayer list. We also have the TO Easter Memorial Weekend that's coming up. There's the sign-up sheet. Please make sure to sign that up today if you are wanting to lead during that time, soul winning time. And then also we have our upcoming events, May 8th, the Ladies' Tea, May 20th to the 22nd, the men's conference. And there was two ones that I forgot to put in the bulletin, but there's a spring cleaning swap that Miss Natasha, Sister Natasha wanted to have hosted here. It's April 17th. April 17th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. here at the church. And I guess the goal is just if you have any items that are not trash, but they are no longer of use for you, that you could come and just bring them to the church, and then anybody that just wants something that was donated or brought to the church, they can have it. It's literally just bring what you have or take what looks good. And then any items that are left over will just be taken to Goodwill. And so if you'd like to participate, April 17th, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you have other questions, please ask Sister Natasha. She knows everything about it. Also May 1st, there is a baby shower in honor of Miss Kim Faye and Miss Argy. And that's going to be from 12 to 2. So from 12 to 2 on May 1st, they're having a joint baby shower. And so you get to hang out with them and bless them. And so those are on the radar. That's pretty much all that I have for announcements. Just make sure, as you're handing out invites, try to hand out these Easter invites to as many people as you go out and see and leave them on every door. We've got plenty of them. With that, let's go to our next song, 155. Brother Duncan is going to lead for us, song 155. It's going to be Doxology. We're going to sing this one twice because it's so short. Number 155, Doxology. Doxology. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Mother, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Leviticus 13, the Bible reads, And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or a bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought into Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests. And the priest shall look in the plague in the skin of the flesh, and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, is a plague of leprosy, and the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean. If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white, then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days. And the priest shall look on him the seventh day, and behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven days more. And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day, and behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean, it is but a scab, and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, as that he hath been seen of the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again. And if the priest see that, behold, the scab spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean, it is a leprosy. When the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought into the priest. And the priest shall see him, and behold, if the rising be white in the skin, and it hath turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the rising, it is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh. And the priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not shut him up, for he is unclean. And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague, from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh, then the priest shall consider, and behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean, that hath the plague. It is all turned white, he is clean. But when raw flesh appearth in him, he shall be unclean. And the priest shall see the raw flesh, and pronounce him to be unclean, for the raw flesh is unclean, it is a leprosy. Or if the raw flesh turn again, and be chained into white, he shall come unto the priest. And the priest shall see him, and behold, if the plague be turned into white, then the priest shall pronounce him clean, that hath the plague, he is clean. The flesh also, in which even in the skin thereof was a boil, and is healed, and in the place of the boil there be a white rising, or a bright spot, white and somewhat reddish, and it be showed to the priest. And if, when the priest seeth it, behold, it be in sight lower than the skin, and the hair thereof be turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a plague of leprosy broken out of the boil. But if the priest look on it, and behold, there be no white hairs therein, and if it be not lower than the skin, but be somewhat dark, then the priest shall shut him up seven days. And if it spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean, it is a plague. But if the bright spot stay in its place, and spread not, it is a burning boil, and the priest shall pronounce him clean. Or if there be any flesh, and the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that burneth hath a white bright spot, somewhat reddish or white, then the priest shall look upon it, and behold, if the hair and the bright spot be turned white, and it be in sight deeper than the skin, it is a leprosy broken out of the burning, wherefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean, it is the plague of leprosy. But if the priest look on it, and behold, there be no white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower than the other skin, but be somewhat dark, then the priest shall shut him up seven days. And the priest shall look upon him the seventh day, and if it be spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean, it is the plague of leprosy. And if the bright spot stay in its place, and spread not in the skin, but it be somewhat dark, it is a rising of the burning, and the priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is an inflammation of the burning. If a man or woman have a plague upon the head or the beard, then the priest shall see the plague, and behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin, and there be in it a yellow thin hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean, it is a dry scale, even a leprosy upon the head or beard. And if the priest shall look on the plague of the scale, and behold, it be in not in sight deeper than the skin, and that there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scale seven days. And then the seventh day, the priest shall look on the plague, and behold, if the scale spread not, and there be in it no yellow hair, then the scale be not in sight deeper than the skin, he shall be shaven, but the scale shall not he not shave, and the priest shall shut up him that hath the scale seven days more. And then the seventh day, the priest shall look on the scale, and behold, if the scale be not spread in the skin, nor be in sight deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the scale spread much broad in the skin after his cleansing, then the priest shall look on him, and behold, if the scale be spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for yellow hair, he is unclean. But if the scale be in sight at his day, and that there is black hair grown up therein, the scale is healed, he is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean. If a man also or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, even white bright spots, then the priest shall look, and behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish white, it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin, he is clean. And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald, yet is he clean. And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald, yet is he clean. If there be in the bald head or bald forehead a white reddish sore, it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head or his bald forehead. Then the priest shall look upon it, and behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish in his bald head or in his bald forehead as the leprosy appearth in the skin of the flesh, he is a leprous man, he is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean, his plague is in his head, and the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, unclean, unclean! All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He is unclean, he shall dwell alone, without the camp shall his habitation be. The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woolen garment or a linen garment, whether it be in the warp or woof of linen or of woolen, whether in a skin or in anything made of skin, and if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment or in the skin, either in the warp or in the woof or in anything of skin, it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest. And the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up it that hath the plague seven days, and he shall look on the plague on the seventh day. If the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof or in a skin or in any work that is made of skin, the plague is a fretting leprosy, it is unclean. He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, in wool or in linen, or anything of skin wherein the plague is, for it is a fretting leprosy, it shall be burnt in the fire. And if the priest shall look, and behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof or in anything of skin, then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more. And the priest shall look on the plague, after that is washed, and behold, if the plague have not changed his color, and the plague be not spread, it is unclean. Thou shalt burn it in the fire, it is fret inward, whether it be bare within or without. And if the priest look, and behold, the plague be somewhat dark after the washing of it, then he shall rent it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof, and if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything of skin, it is a spreading plague, thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire. And the garment, either warp or woof, or whatsoever thing of skin it be, which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean. This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woolen or linen, either in the warp, or woof, or anything of skins, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this time, give us here the word of God, preach to the Lord, and pray, blessed pastor, shall I renounce the Holy Ghost, so that we can all learn something new, and be edified in the faith, Lord, and all grow closer together in one accord, for the striving of the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Amen. The verse I want to focus my sermon on is verse 6, where the Bible read, and the priest shall look on him again the seventh day, and behold, the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin. The priest shall pronounce him clean, it is but a scab, and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. And the title of my sermon this evening is this, Be Clean. Be Clean. Now, when we think about the word clean in the Bible, or cleanse, or something very similar, it's often in reference to something spiritual. It's often in reference to salvation, or being right with God, or having a clean heart, or a lot of things that are on the inward. And obviously this is a spiritual book, but we have to understand about God and his infinite wisdom. He gives us carnal truths to expound spiritual truths, and the reality is both are true. And this church gets a lot of spiritual cleansing when it comes to preaching. A lot of the preaching is about spiritual cleansing. You know what? Sometimes we need some physical cleaning as well. We also need to understand the physical truth here. And so the sermon is really going to be focusing more on the physical aspect, rather than the spiritual aspect. And Leviticus has some really long chapters here dedicated to a very physical reality of being unclean, or to leprosy, and dealing with illness, or sickness, and all these different things. But one of the aspects here mentioned in verse number six is to wash his clothes and be clean. Washing your clothes is a good thing because it helps you stay sanitized. Now when it comes to being clean, I have three categories that I want to focus on this evening. And the first one is hygiene. Hygiene is something mentioned in the Bible. It is something that we should exercise. It is a good thing to do. And specifically here we have good hygiene of washing your clothes. Washing clothes is a good habit, especially after sickness. If you've been sick, or there's been some kind of a sickness, or there's some kind of an illness, you want to wash those garments. You want to put them in very hot water. If you put it in a washing machine, the goal is they get it in soap, they get it in super hot water to kill all the germs, and the bacteria, and everything in there, so that the garment will be fresh, it will be new, it won't have any of that disease with it. Look at verse 34, skip all the way down to verse 34. The Bible says in the seventh day, the priest shall look on the skull, and behold, if the skull be not spread in the skin, nor be in sight deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. Now in Leviticus chapter 13, it's giving us all kinds of different scenarios of what exactly is going on in the skin. You know, the hair color, if it's sunk down lower than the skin, the color, and all these different possible circumstances or situations, and it's helping the priest understand if this is a disease that's continuing, or if it's getting better, if he's finally clean. And notice once they've realized that the leprosy is gone, or he's healed from it, or it's getting better, maybe it's just a scab or something, then eventually they wash their clothes, and now they're finally clean. So they identify that he's already clean, they wash the clothes, and then he's supposed to be clean. Look at verse 42, the Bible says, And if there be in the bald head or bald forehead a white reddish sore, it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead. Then the priest shall look upon it, and behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish, in his bald head or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appearth in the skin of the flesh, he is a leprous man, he is unclean, the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean, his plague is in his head, and the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his lip, and shall cry, unclean, unclean, all the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled, he is unclean, he shall dwell alone, without the camp shall his habitation be. Now the Bible describes someone who's not clean, they're going through illness, they're going through sickness, specifically here we have leprosy, and the Bible's saying that someone that's unclean, or is ill, should stay away from other people. Notice the Bible says he should dwell alone, and if for any reason he had to go out into public, or he has to travel, or there's some kind of situation where he's around people, he should in fact cover his face, and even let people know like, hey, there's something off about me, or I'm sick, or something, just stay away, because he doesn't want to contaminate them, he doesn't want to get them ill. Now obviously our society has, you know, gone berserk, and they think that people that are healthy should also do the same thing, but the Bible really prescribes this for people that are sick, and obviously, quarantining yourself, or staying away from people is a biblical concept, and you know, I try to emphasize that, I try to teach that, some people have this idea that if they're really sick, they should still come to church, and the answer's no. You know, you can stay away from church, it's okay, obviously if you're not 100%, you can still come to church potentially, but if you're contagious, if you're sick, you don't want to be getting in people's face, you don't want to be getting other people sick, you know, we don't want to spread germs all around the church, we want to preserve other people, and specifically we have this principle of having good hygiene, one of those hygiene aspects is not only keeping yourself clean, but realizing if you're not, to keep distance from other people, or to not try to spread those germs to other people. Verse 47, the garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woolen garment or a linen garment, whether it be in the warp or wolf of linen or of woolen, whether in the skin or in anything made of skin, and if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment or in the skin, either in the warp or in the wolf, or in anything of skin, it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest, and the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up it that hath the plague seven days, and he shall look on the plague on the seventh day. If the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the wolf or in a skin, or in any work that is made of skin, the plague is a fretting leprosy, it is unclean. So not only is the person unclean, the Bible is saying a garment that has some kind of this illness or sickness in it, or you can see the discoloration of the garment from this illness, it itself is also unclean. What does the Bible say in verse 52? He shall therefore burn that garment, whether in warp or wolf, in woolen or in linen, or in anything of skin, whether the plague is, for it is a fretting leprosy, it shall be burnt in the fire. So one way to eliminate illness or sickness or disease is any garment or any kind of clothing article that becomes too contaminated, that has some kind of an evil disease in it. You're supposed to literally burn that garment and discard of it and get rid of it so as not to continue to spread the disease through that physical garment. And you know, there could come a point where certain garments of yours, it's just like it's time to get rid of the garment. You know, it's time to just say bye to that t-shirt or bye to that clothing because it's too infected, it's too diseased. And you know, hospitals for the most part, at least today, employ a lot of these tactics. You know, they'll get rid of certain articles that have basically been defiled too much. They'll throw them away, they'll dispose of them. They have proper trash cans that are biohazard trash cans and they'll dispose of these. Or the garments that can be repurposed, they'll put them in high temperature washing machines and they'll try to clean them. And look, all that information, all that knowledge is found in the Bible. Everything that, you know, there's no great idea that you can't find in the Bible. There's no truth that you can't find the principle taught in the Bible. The Bible already had all this truth a long time ago and I'm not really going to get into this too much but science and medicine and these type of things have been backwards for hundreds and hundreds of years and only recently do they understand germ theory and understand a lot of these things that the Bible has taught. In fact, if you look at Wikipedia and you go to the germ theory page, pretty much the oldest account is literally the Bible. They'll say, hey, here's the oldest example of people teaching the germ theory and they'll point to Leviticus, they'll point to these passages. And so good personal hygiene is, you know, taking care of your body, taking care of your clothing, making sure that you're keeping yourself clean. Look at verse 53. ...behold the plague be somewhat dark after the washing of it, then he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the wolf, and it appear still in the garment, either in the warp or in the wolf, or in anything of the skin, it is a spreading plague, thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire, and the garment either warp or wolf, or whatsoever thing a skin be, which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean. So he's basically saying, this is how you determine if the garment should be burned or preserved. You have a garment that has the disease, you wash it, and then you basically wait seven days and you check the garment, and if the disease is spreading more in the garment, you burn it. He's saying, or you could potentially cut out, maybe it was like a big blanket or something, and you just cut out an edge of it or you get rid of a portion of it, and then you shut it up seven days, and you look, if there's nothing else on the garment, you could keep it. If there's new disease or it's spreading on that garment, then you just completely burn it. You don't want to mess around with that type of illness or that type of disease. And once you wash it the second time after you've noticed it was good, now it's clean, okay? Notice they wash it even another time. So what's important? We're learning here that the Bible already taught us that we should wash ourselves, we should wash our clothes, and we should try to do this. Be clean. We should be a clean people, and it's an important concept. Look at chapter 14, verse 1. And the Lord's speaking to Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the priest, and the priest shall go forth out of the camp. And the priest shall look, and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, then shall the priest's command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean in cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel. Notice this over running water. Now, it's explaining exactly how you would clean yourself. What does the cleansing actually look like? What are you using? Now, they kill two birds, and they kill it, and they actually clean it in running water. That's a very important thing. You know, standing water, if you just had a bowl of water, and you start cleaning something dirty, blood or whatever in that water, all that water is going to be contaminated and dirty. And notice pretty much all of your house has this thing that's really great. It's called running water. You turn on the phosphate, you turn on the hose, you turn on the spigot, and notice you have running water. So it's giving you a continual supply of what? Fresh water, clean water, in order to clean things. This, again, is a concept given to you from the Bible. Now, you say, well, how did they get running water back then? Well, the Bible actually talks about plumbing in the Bible, so plumbing wasn't invented just a few years ago or anything. But another thing is they would have, basically these big livers, these big baths or whatever, and they would have like 3,000 gallons, and it's basically the same concept as your hot water heater. You know, your hot water heater, you might have, if you don't have a tank list, you have a tanked one. You have 30, 40, 50 gallons of water in there, and then with, you know, it's either gas or electric. If it's gas, they literally have fire there heating up that water. And then at whatever point you open the lever, you know, you have hot water flowing. Well, if you had a huge basin which has levers, and you keep it hot, you could have hot water or cold water. You could have fresh water. You could have running water. And look, they already had this type of technology. They already had this type of understanding without germ theory because they just trusted the Bible. And here's a good thing. Clean yourself in running water. You know, 100 years ago or several years ago, you know, back in the olden days, if you had a bath time, basically the oldest kid, he bathed in the bath water, and then the next oldest and the next oldest. By the time you get to the final kid, it's, you know, it looks like Galveston Bay. You know, it's kind of dirty looking. And the reality is, you know, running water is superior to standing water when it comes to cleaning. Even medical professionals used to clean their hands in standing water, you know, before they performed surgery or do these type of things, and it's just not a clean process. Look at verse 6. It says the same thing. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them in the living bird, in the blood of the bird that was killed, notice this, over the running water. He says in verse 8, and he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water that he may be clean, and after that he shall come into the camp and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. So the leper is also supposed to cleanse himself, wash himself, and because of the nature of this disease, he literally has to even get rid of all of his hair just to try and get rid of all of the contamination, all of the potential disease, just so he can finally be cleansed 100% and there's no other issue. You say, well, it doesn't say there he was cleaned in running water. What about a bath? Obviously, I'm not against a bath per se, but that's not always the best way to clean. You know, I prefer a shower, and look what the Bible says in chapter 15, verse 13. Chapter 15, look at verse 13. And when he that have an issue is cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean. So notice it literally tells you how you clean yourself. You separate yourself for the seven days, and then you end up washing yourself in running water. This is going to be a way to be hygienic. You know, take some showers, and especially after you've been sick, clean your clothes. You know, if you've been sick, it's another good idea to wash the bedsheets after you've been sick. You know, wash the clothing. Wash your robe. Wash your blankets. Wash whatever garments that you are using, you are around, you are touching, and especially, especially if people had some kind of an issue, whether that be blood, or whether it be vomit, or whether that be the bathroom, or anything like this. Whenever a garment gets contaminated with these type of body fluids, or some kind of illness, or sickness, or anything that's toxic, they need to be washed. They need to be cleansed, and if it's too bad, you just say, it's gone. You know, sometimes the kid have an accident at a restaurant, and I'm like, we're done with that. You know, we're done with that article of clothing. You know, that one's not salvageable. I'd rather just buy a new one. And so the reality is, you know, we need to be a clean people, and employ these principles in our lives. Go to Matthew 23, go to Matthew 23. Say, all this is common sense. Well, I hope so. I hope that it's common sense, but if you don't know it, you know, learn. Learn from the Bible. Learn from just, even the secular world, even just universities and medical fields will teach you a lot of this information, because it's true, because it's very accurate in hygiene and cleanliness, and we need to try to be clean. Now, I want to explain a couple of passages in the Bible that someone could go to a misunderstanding of being clean or the importance of being clean, but I've already showed you so many verses on how it's important to be clean, how to wash yourself, okay? So we already know that's a biblical principle. We already know God commanded that. It wasn't like a suggestion or anything like that, but you could take this to a weird extreme or end up being a hypocrite about it. Look at Matthew 23, verse 25. The Bible says, what would you scribes and Pharisees? Hypocrites. You may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Now, what is he saying in this passage? He's rebuking the Pharisees, and he's rebuking them about their cleanliness standards, but here's the thing. He's not saying you guys are clean and that's bad. What he's saying is that you guys are hypocrites about it, okay? Now, go to Matthew, or sorry, Mark chapter 6, I'm going to show you another place where this is brought up in a lot more detail, but there's nothing wrong with being physically clean, okay? And the Bible teaches this, but what is bad is being a hypocrite about your cleanliness standards, okay? And Mark chapter number 6, look at verse number, I'm sorry, I had you go to Mark chapter 6, go to chapter 7 and look at verse number 3. But you know, the Bible teaches you to bathe, and other good ideas would be things like brushing your teeth, you know, or taking care of your body. You know, the Bible talks about having a broken tooth would be a really horrible thing to happen to you, and if you don't have good hygiene like brushing your teeth, bathing, grooming yourself, doing these type of things, your body's going to, you know, atrophy, your body's going to slowly decay, and it's slowly going to ruin itself, and then you're going to be, you know, a less effective vessel for the Lord to be used. And the Bible teaches these things. You know, the Bible teaches in Matthew 6 that whenever you're fasting, to literally wash your face and anoint your head with oil so that people don't think that you're just like, oh, I haven't eaten in days. Oh, man, I'm so godly though. At least I'm godly, you know. At least I'm not like a Republican. No, it's saying like if you were to fast or you were to do these things, you're supposed to make it where no one would even know. No one has any idea that you haven't eaten, or that you're serving God, or that you're doing this for some spiritual reason. You know, if you're doing it for a spiritual reason, don't carnally tell me, all right? But here's another passage, Mark chapter 7, where we get this in detail. Look at verse number 3. ...thy disciples, according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashing hands. The answer then said unto them, Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, for laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do. Verse 9, And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Now, I want to stop, and then I'm going to explain, or I'm going to keep reading this, but first of all, the Pharisees, they have these traditions. They have these customs of how often they're supposed to wash, specifically their hands, their cups, their plates, their vessels. And to say that this was wrong is not really understanding the passage. There's nothing wrong with washing your hands, with washing your cups, with washing your plates, with washing these type of things. Now there's two problems with this. The first problem that they have with this is the fact that they kind of seem to go over, above, and beyond what would be normal, natural, or what most people do. And then secondly is the fact that they're a hypocrite about it. Now a hypocrite, you have to understand this, a hypocrite doesn't go around saying wrong things. A hypocrite is one who says and does not. So a hypocrite would say, oh, how dare you not read your Bible, but they don't read the Bible. So there's nothing wrong with them telling you, or rebuking you for not reading your Bible. There's nothing wrong with telling somebody to do something that's right, or to follow God's commandments, or to do things that are good. What's wrong is being a hypocrite about it, saying that you do it, or rebuking others, and just basically not doing it yourself, or being a liar about it. Another thing, though, is he's going to bring up, he's going to bring examples where their literal traditions override the commandments of God. They go above and beyond the commandments of God, to where they end up choosing their own traditions above what the Word says. Now, when he's going to give you an example, he's not going to give you the same example of what they brought up. He's not saying that they're embracing cleanliness standards in order to reject God's commandment, because God told us to be clean. He's going to bring up a different example, so we've got to understand this passage, because God told them to be clean. God told them to wash and have these principles. But God did not say, in order to eat, you have to wash your hands. Now, I thought about this. I'm not going to get a show of hands, but I don't think there could be a few people, but I'm just saying, I doubt there's anybody in this room that they literally will never eat a single piece of food unless they wash their hands literally. I guarantee that when you wake up in the morning, or you're out, or you grab a snack, there's times where you don't feel the necessary compulsion to go wash your hands diligently, get a sanitizing wipe. Some people might be like this, and I'm not trying to shame you, but I'm just saying that's not a very normal principle. People do wash their hands, but not before every meal, every single thing that they've ever eaten, every single snack. Now, some people are in a habit of washing their hands before dinner or washing their hands before lunch, and I'm not against that. What I am saying is the Pharisees took this as such an extreme that you're not allowed to eat, period, unless you wash your hands. Now, look, I wash my hands on a regular basis, but I do not wash my hands every time I think about eating food. If I walk by the fridge and I'm like, hey, an apple. I just grab the apple and I just eat it. I don't think, oh, I better wash my hands real quick because I've touched something or I've been exposed to something. Look, I'm not to that weird hyper extreme, but the Pharisees are so offended that anybody would eat something, Jesus or his disciples, would eat something without having washed their hands before. But that's not something that's very normal. It's going above and beyond. God never commanded you to do something like that, so that's just their tradition. But they're trying to attack Jesus by not following traditions of the elders. Well, the traditions of the elders are not the Bible. No one can say, like, you must wash your hands 30 times a day or you're not right with God. You know, that's their own decision. That's their own rule. That's their own idea. You know, if your work makes you do it because you work around food or if your company makes you wash your hands, then you should do that. But at the end of the day, there's not this specific standard in the Bible of how many times you have to wash. We saw in Leviticus, if you were sick, you need to wash, obviously. But that's up to you and your own discretion and understanding of science. But again, don't take this passage and then say, oh, I don't even need to wash my hands. Pastor Shelley's teaching the commandments of men here because he's telling you you should clean yourself when that's what the Pharisees were teaching. Look, you're misunderstanding this passage, okay? Look what it says in verse number 10. For Moses said, On to thy father and thy mother, and whoso cursed the father and mother, let him die the death. But ye say, If a man shall say to his father and mother it is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered in many such like things do ye. So when Jesus Christ is rebuking them, he's not rebuking the tradition of washing hands. He's rebuking the tradition of saying it's Corban, and then that somehow tradition ends up violating the commandment of honoring thy father and thy mother, okay? And he's basically saying your traditions suck because some of your traditions are actually in violation of God's word. So I don't care what your traditions are. And you know what? If you really cared about God's word, you would elevate God's word above your traditions. Okay? And you wouldn't rebuke people when they're not following your specific guidelines. You know, here's a good principle. Don't push your preferences on other people as a commandment. Hey, if you have a personal preference about something, that's great. If you have rules for your house, that's wonderful. But you know what? Don't enforce your personal preferences and rules on other people, and expect them to follow those rules or standards to be right with God. You know, some people, they might think that, well, you know, my wife, her dress has to go at least all the way down to the ankles. She could never have a dress higher than that. But here's the thing. The Bible says that nakedness only goes down to the knee, okay? So if you allow your spouse to wear a skirt or a dress that goes to the knee, it'd be wrong for somebody to go around and start rebuking your wife or rebuking your... Y'all are ungodly because they don't have your personal standard. You know, oh, well, he eats food and doesn't wash his hands. He's so ungodly. That's your personal preference. That's your personal standard. And by this, the Pharisees are going around also incorporating other traditions, like this is Corbin, in order to violate God's clear commandments. He says in verse number 14, And when he called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand, there is nothing from without a man that entering in him can defile him. The things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. Any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable, and he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also, do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him, because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats. Now what Jesus Christ is teaching here is he's basically teaching, like, it doesn't matter what food you eat, the food you eat isn't going to defile you. Praise God, rib-eyes aren't going to defile you. Bacon isn't going to defile you. Now obviously in the Old Testament, there were certain meats that were off-limit to them, and they needed to stay away from them to follow God's clear commandments, but Jesus is making something clear. Hey, there's nothing technically wrong with that meat, though. It wasn't like in the Old Testament, if you ate bacon, it was like magically worse for you, or magically this curse, or it's something that's going to destroy you, or anything. It was a symbol that God was using to picture spiritual truths in the future. That's why it was done away with, because there wasn't anything inherently wrong with that meat over another meat, or these different customs and these different carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. But don't take this also to a weird extreme. This is not saying that I can literally eat or drink anything, and it won't cause me any problems. It's not saying drink blood, because the Old Testament already told you never to eat or drink blood. That would be obviously wrong. He's saying meat specifically. The context here is eating food, okay? And he's saying whether you wash your hands 30 times a day and eat, or you wash your hands once a day and you eat and you're eating food, that's not going to cause you to be defiled with God. What's going to cause you to be defiled with God is the adultery in your heart, is the fornication that you're committing, the lying, the stealing, all this other stuff. And what Jesus Christ has ended up rebuking is the fact that these Pharisees, they're so concerned with cleanliness, yet when it comes to spiritual cleanliness, they don't care at all. They have this hyper, over-the-top view of being so clean, yet they're filthy, disgusting, and defiled on the inside. And it really makes Jesus mad that these guys are so concerned about being clean when they themselves are the most disgusting, filthy people on the inside. Look what he says in verse number 20. And he said, So why is Jesus so mad that they have these over-the-top cleanliness standards? Because they're hypocrites. Oh, they're so concerned if you eat a meal without washing your hands. Yet if you lie, steal, commit adultery, or do whatever, they don't care. And it's like, what kind of planet are you guys living on that you have this weird, over-the-top attitude? Go to Luke chapter 11. Go to Luke chapter number 11. Don't take this passage and then tell me, you know what, I don't need to wash my hands, or I don't need to be clean, or I don't need to bathe. You're missing this entire passage completely. Jesus Christ is also not teaching that you should just not be clean, you should be dirty, or anything like that. Think about this. Jesus literally washed the disciples' feet. Why would he be so against clean standards if he's washing the disciples' feet? And then he told other people to do likewise. And he allowed other people to even wash his feet at certain times. Jesus is not just trying to be dirty on purpose, or trying to go around and be unclean or undefiled. The Bible teaches that there's nothing undefiled about him. He's perfect, he's holy, he's spotless, he's righteous, okay? Look at Luke chapter number 11, verse 37. So notice, there was literally a meal where Jesus Christ came in, he didn't wash his hands, and he just ate, and it really just bewildered this Pharisee. He's just like, what in the world? But you know what? That tells me that it's not a sin. Because he did no sin. Because he was perfect, he was holy and righteous. Now again, don't take this and say, oh, Jesus never washed, or Jesus never washed his hands. It's just saying you don't have to be this over-the-top, you know, carrying hand sanitizer everywhere you go, and these clean wipes, and just everything just has to be so sanitized. I've seen people that have to sanitize public door handles before they use them and walk around, and they're so scared of their own shadow today, okay? And look, I'm not saying don't have cleanliness standards, but again, you could take it to a weird extreme. Go to Jeremiah chapter 2, go to Jeremiah chapter number 2. Point number 1 is this, be clean in your person. Be clean in your person, have personal hygiene, be clean in your person. Look at Jeremiah chapter number 2, and look at verse 22. Jeremiah chapter 2, look at verse 22, the Bible says, For though thou wash thee with nighter, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. Now, this is a good verse, because obviously it's a spiritual truth here, and what's the spiritual truth? That if you commit some horrible sin, it doesn't matter how many showers you take, it doesn't matter how much soap you use, how much shampoo, it doesn't matter if you use a loofah, and if you're a dude, don't use a loofah, okay? And basically, he's just saying, it doesn't matter how much you use here, it's not going to clean your sin problem, okay? And that's really the issue that he's getting at with the Pharisees, okay? He's rebuking the Pharisees because they're so concerned with that outward physical cleanliness, yet they're not worried about that inward dirtiness, that inward filthiness that they have, and Jesus Christ told them to first fix that, that the outside may be clean. Also, he didn't say, like, don't worry about the outside. He's saying, hey, you need both standards. But, you know, a lot of you are saved, a lot of you are trying to serve God, and you need to also clean the outside of the platter, okay? You also need to make sure that you have good hygiene and you're taking care of your person. Be clean in your person. Use soap. Go to Ezekiel chapter 16. God, why would he use that as an example? Because using soap is an extreme version of cleanliness. You know, soap is going to get you cleaner than if you didn't use it, and so he's saying, even if you use the best cleaning standards, you're still not going to get rid of your sin, but then let's take the carnal truth there. Soap is a good cleaning standard. God's not going to use soap in an example of it's not a good way to clean up the body. It's a great way to clean up the body is using soap. He's just teaching you there that soap is not going to get rid of your sin problem, okay? But, again, we can learn from the carnal truths that are found in the Bible. Ezekiel chapter 16, look at verse 8. Now, God is personifying Jerusalem. He's personifying Israel. He's personifying them as a group of people, and he's saying it's like a little baby, and he's saying as the baby coming out of the womb, he's washing off all the blood, and he's washing off all the human body fluids to clean it up and to make it presentable because he loves it. And so why would God use this example if he doesn't care about cleaning? Obviously, you want to clean off the body fluid. Obviously, you want to clean yourself and wash yourself, and God is literally saying that's what he does unto his people. Go to Malachi chapter 3. So I'm just picking out a few different places in the Bible that emphasize personal cleanliness or show you different tools and things that you should use. But look, you should take showers. You know, at least bathe yourself, brush your teeth, use soap, you know, clean up the body fluids, clean up your clothes. Be clean in your person. We should be a clean people. We don't want to be a dirty people. Look at Malachi chapter 3 verse 2. The Bible says, But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appearth? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. So the Bible compares the Lord under a refiner's fire or to a fuller's soap. Now, refining fire, what does that do? It cleans, it purges, it purifies things. What's a fuller? Well, if you look up fuller in other places in your Bible, you'll find it's someone that cleans clothing. It's clothing, you know, specifically garments, and they white them. They're getting them very white, like a bleach or something similar. Basically, a fuller's soap is whitening garments, and it's saying nothing can whiten a garment like the Lord. Hey, you're going to be clothed with the whitest garments, the whitest robe of righteousness, and that's a picture of spiritual cleanliness, and the Bible's liking this unto a fuller's soap. But look, the soap is used to clean a garment, to get it white and to present it. So look, the carnal truth is still there, and it's good. Go if you went to Leviticus chapter 14. Go back to Leviticus chapter 14. So number one, be clean in your person, but number two, don't just be clean in your person, be clean in your possessions. And I already spoke about your clothing a little bit, but I kind of lumped that in with your person a little bit, because most of your clothes you put on the body, you're wearing it. You know, it's kind of part of your person. It's very difficult to be clean in your person and not the clothes that you're wearing at the same time. You know, it's kind of a one-fits-all piece there. You're either one all the way clean or all the way unclean in both of those. So you need to be clean in your person, but also clean in your other possessions. You know, things that you have like your home, like your car, these certain things. Look at verse 35. The Bible says, And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is, as it were, a plague in the house. And the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest go into it to see the plague, and all that is in the house be not made unclean. And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house, and he shall look on the plague, and behold, that the plague be in the walls of the house, with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall. Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days. And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and he shall look, and behold, that the plague be spread in the walls of the house. Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city. And he shall cause the house to be scraped within roundabout, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place. And he shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house. And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered, then the priest shall come and look, and behold, that the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house, it is unclean. And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house, and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. Now this gives you motivation why you should break down all the houses of the sodomites, because it's an unclean place. But the reality is here, you know, even your house, even physical possessions, could become unclean, have disease or illness, and he's basically saying, hey, if the walls of your house have this, you know, and we think of it like mold, or black mold, or something, you need to deal with that, because that can cause a lot of problems, health issues, it can cause you to keep getting sick, and so he's saying, look, get rid of this, destroy it, have nothing to do with it, put in new lumber, new plaster, new drywall, new whatever, you know, tile, brick, whatever it is that's there, and if it continues, if that doesn't fix the problem, then you need to literally destroy the entire house, okay? And look, there's whole companies and stuff that work on these type of things, they work on decontaminating houses and areas, and it's a good principle, it's a good thing to have in a society where you're actually making sure your possessions are also not unclean, not dirty, not filthy, and you're being a good steward. Go to I Corinthians 4, I Corinthians 4, make sure that your house is clean, and I'll say this, there's a difference between these two words, okay? Tidy and clean. Tidy and clean. Now, when I was in college, I was tidy, but I was not clean, okay? And you say, what's tidy? Tidy just means things are put in their place, there's not stuff that's out, there's not just open trash everywhere, okay, that would be tidy. But clean also means that you vacuumed, you got rid of the dust, you've disinfected things, you've wiped things down, because things could be tidy but not clean, okay? It comes to your house, it comes to all the things that you have, you need both tidiness and cleanliness. And obviously having kids, you know, any of us at any moment could be guilty of all of these things, okay? And I'm not saying that your house has to be, you know, some kind of a magazine advertisement 24-7, that's unrealistic. You know what, on a regular basis, you should tidy things up and you should clean things. You know, we make our children tidy the house every day, multiple times a day. And then, you know, my wife on a regular basis is cleaning the house and doing these type of things. Why? To prevent illness, to prevent sickness, to have good habits, to be a clean person. You should try to be a clean person and it's a good job. Why should you do that? Well, the Bible teaches you the principle that you should be a good steward of the things that God has given you. Look at 1 Corinthians 4 verse 1. Let a man sow account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in the stewards that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or a man's judgment, yet I judge not my own self. For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judges me is the Lord. And so, God, everything that He's given you, He is going to judge you and He's going to look at how good of a steward you are in the possessions that you have and when you're not a good steward of the things that He's given you, it's very likely that He may not give you more. Go to Luke chapter 16. Go to Luke chapter number 16. You know, if you want the Lord to bless you with the things that you have or with more possessions or more goods, you should be a good steward of the things you have. My mom taught me this principle. You know, my mom would really instill this, that you should be a good steward of the things you have. You should take care of them. You should maintain them. You should treat them with respect. You shouldn't just treat the stuff that you have with disdain or irreverently or just take things for granted, but rather you should be a good steward of the things that you possess. It's a good principle. Luke chapter 16, look at verse 10. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Like, this is a principle that you find all over the Bible that people that they can't be clean on a small scale, guess what, they're not going to be clean on a big scale either. And, you know, your cleanliness standards are not necessarily the cleanliness standards we have at the church, okay? If you don't clean at your home, that's not how the church is supposed to be. You know, the church is not your home. It's the house of God. And let me tell you this. People that don't want to keep the house of God in order, often it's because they're also not keeping their own house in order. They're trashy in just their life, and so they end up trashing everything else. You know, people that aren't good at possessing items and possessing goods are not good no matter how big the possession gets. You need to take care of the stuff. And look, kids, you have possessions. You have toys. You have some clothes. You have all kinds of things. You need to take good care of your possessions. Your mom and dad bought them for you. They paid good money for your shoes and your clothes and your toys and all the things. You have your room, your bedding, your pillows. You should be a good steward of the things that your parents have given you. Why? Because if you want God to bless you with more, be a good steward with the little. And then God can bless you with more things. Don't just be tidy. Even be clean. Think about cleaning things up. And you know what? When you clean things up, it gives you a better mood. It makes you appreciate your stuff more. Nobody wants to come home and it's gross. It smells. It's not tidy. It's not clean. You know, if I walk into the church and it was like that, it would be disappointing. It would be frustrating. If I got into my car and it was like that, that would be a very frustrating thing. And look, some people, they just don't have any cleaning habits. They don't have any tidiness habits. And look, it's a bad habit. You're not right with God. You're not being faithful. You're not being a good steward. Go to Luke chapter 15 and look at verse 8. Either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, did not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it? And when she had found it, she called her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. And you know what I like about this story? Hey, you can find stuff when you clean. Look, when I clean stuff, I find stuff, you know. You clean out that drawer, you're like, that's where that was. Or, I didn't even realize I had that anymore. You know, you clean under the couch, you're like, that's where all the stuff was, you know. Clean out your closet. You start realizing the clothes that you had that you didn't realize. You clean all kinds of stuff. Look, cleaning will be good and you can find stuff. And you know, this woman is diligent. She's not willing to lose any of her possessions. Think about the process. She has a possession that's missing. What does she do? She cleans everything up to regain that possession. She's not willing to say, oh, I have nine, though. Who cares? Because you know what the attitude will be? Well, then she loses the ninth piece and she says, well, I have eight. Who cares? Then she has seven. Well, who cares? Six, five, it goes all the way down to one. Well, I still got one. Then she loses that and she's like, I'm too lazy to look for the other ten. Why quit now? Why start now? Look, you need to be a diligent person and say, you know what, I don't want to lose a single possession. I don't want a single possession to go to waste. I'm going to work diligently and hard. And look, she's excited when she restores one of her possessions. You know, she's not letting her possessions go to waste. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter ten. Ecclesiastes chapter number ten. We need to be clean in our possessions and take good care of our possessions. Ecclesiastes, look at chapter number ten and look at verse number ten. The Bible says, if the iron be blunt and you do not wet the edge, then must he put to more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct. You know, cleaning your sword, wetting the edge, sharpening your sword ends up making your life better, easier. You know, cleaning up your life physically, cleaning up your person will actually make you better. You know, neglecting hygiene will eventually catch up to you to the point where you're just in the hospital the rest of your life. You're just dealing with health issues the rest of your life. You know, neglecting the well-being of your possessions, your house, your car, it'll eventually get destroyed and ruined and then you won't have those possessions. You know, through much sloppiness, you know, the house falls through. It decays and it falls through. You need to make sure that you're taking care of your possessions, you're cleaning your possessions, you're not only being clean in your person, but in your possessions, and here's my last point in public. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 23, Deuteronomy 23, but look, you're not going to be clean in the public if you're not doing points one and two. You know, if you're not cleaning your person, if you're not cleaning your possessions, you're not going to be a clean person in public. And you know what that tells me? That the majority of America today is not clean in their possessions and persons because they're not clean in public. And it is an epidemic in our nation. Non-cleanliness, filthiness, disgustingness. It's horrifying what our world is turning into. But you know what? It doesn't surprise me. You know, when you neglect the Lord and you don't want to hear about the Bible and you don't want to hear about God's commandments, you know, cleanliness ends up being a problem. Physical cleanliness too, okay? And look at Deuteronomy 23, look at verse 12. Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whether thou shalt go forth abroad. Thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be when thou wilt, ease thyself abroad. Thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee. For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee. Therefore shalt thy camp be holy, that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. You know what this tells me? This tells me that the Lord is not willing to walk up and down San Francisco streets today. Why? Because they're literally defecating in the streets of San Francisco. They're defecating in all these liberal hell holes that hate God. They hate the Word of God. And look, homeless people, are they clean in their person? Nope. Are they clean in their possessions? Nope. And then guess where they're also not clean? In public. Watch the documentary called San Francisco, or San Francico, or whatever. Don't watch it if you have a queasy stomach or you're nauseous, though. It's horrifying. He literally has this one scene where this guy, he brought a dead raccoon into a McDonald's. This is like a YouTube video. This guy brings a dead raccoon into a McDonald's and he's just laying there on the table, this just rotting, dead corpse. And this guy is like screaming at him. He's like, why would you bring a raccoon? He's using colorful language, just warning, okay? But he's just like, why would you bring a raccoon into McDonald's? It's disgusting. It's filthy. Why? Because they hate God. That's why. Because they reject God's commandments. And you know what? They're a filthy hell hole. You know, it's not just San Francisco, my friend. Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon. They estimate 3,300 gallons of human waste are basically happening to be taken out of the city every year. 3,300 gallons. Someone's happened to do this stuff. And you know, if you study history, which is racist now, but if you study history, arithmetic, writing, reading, these old things are racist, right? Science. The bubonic plague and black death, you want to know why they theorize one of the biggest contributors to that? Dead animals in the streets. Dead animals and feces in the streets. And look, those types of standards. And they say, well, now that we have vaccines. Look, you can vax everybody in San Francisco and the dead animals and the filthy feces everywhere is going to contaminate people. I don't care what you jack into your arm, what toxins or evil that you're putting. Look, you're just doubly killing yourself with that junk. That's a different sermon, okay? But look, there was a video someone put. They're going into Safeway, the grocery store, and defecating in the aisles of the grocery store. Isn't that where you want to live? Isn't that where you... What a great place when you're walking up and down looking for cereal and then you find something else in the aisle. And look, don't pick it up. Don't touch it. Have nothing to do with it. The Bible told us that too. Go to Leviticus chapter number five. Go to Leviticus chapter number five. Look, they need to read the Bible. And they need to get rid of this stuff. And you say, well, how do I get rid of homeless people, Pastor Shelley? You could get rid of every homeless person in San Francisco in less than a month. All of them. You say, how? Stop feeding them. Look, no one's going to go more than 30 days without food. If you just stop feeding them, you stop giving them handouts, stop giving them money, tell them no. Say, get a job, you lazy jerk. And hey, here's a paddle. Dig up some earth and then bury it, okay? Quit defecating on my streets, you jerk. You lazy loser. You say, that's mean. No, it's actually the only thing that'll help those people. Leviticus chapter five, look at verse two. The Bible says you touch something that's dead, and you're gross. And you change that, wash your hands, okay? And again, there's plenty of places in the Bible where washing is a biblical commandment, it's a biblical precedent. So don't take the New Testament and run with this weird idea that you don't have to wash your hands ever. If you touch a dead animal, wash your hands. Maybe twice. Go to Isaiah chapter 28. Go to Isaiah chapter number 28. But look, sin will ultimately bring something with it, and it's filthiness. Disease. All this kind of gross undefiled, or defiled, you know, problems in your society. A godly society will be a clean society. Literally and spiritually, okay? And so when you look at our world, you know, if I look at America today, it's not as clean physically as it was ten years ago. It's not as clean as it was fifty years ago physically. Why? Because it's also not as spiritually clean. It's also rejecting the Bible. And the Bible says when you go into sin, you go into evil, you bring filthiness with you. Look at Isaiah 28 verse 7. But they that have erred through wine and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. They are swallowed up of wine. They are out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment, for all tables are full of vomit and filthiness so there is no place clean. You know what alcohol brings? Disgusting, filthy vomit and unclean places. Hey, you want to know the most disgusting places on this planet today? The bar. Go where there's alcohol today. And you know what, I never go to a restaurant and think, oh, I'm glad they have a bar so it can be so much nicer today. Look, the restaurants that have bars are just universally dirtier. They're more disgusting, they're more filthy, it's not a family atmosphere, it's not a clean atmosphere. I mean, whenever you go and you travel, do you usually try to find a bar to stop to use the bathroom? No, you look for a Bucky's or something, okay? And, you know, you look for some place, and look, if there was a convenience store, there was an establishment that didn't sell liquor, I guarantee their bathrooms are going to look better than the ones that do. I guarantee the restaurants are going to be looking better when they don't serve alcohol. I bet Chick-fil-A looks a little bit better than Bennigan's. Why? You bring in sin, you bring in filthiness, you bring in disease. And look, it's just like our society. You know, in America, and in Texas even, there used to be laws against selling alcohol. Called the prohibition. Sorry, that's probably racist too, I don't know. Because it affects minorities in higher proportion or something. Sorry, it's reality. You know, where I used to live in Canyon, Texas, it was a dry county for the majority of my life. And it was a very clean town. But then in my college years, I believe, or high school years, somewhere in there, they changed it to being wet. There's a slow eroding of the morals of our area, and guess what? They bring filthiness, they bring disease, they bring crime. You know, there's basically no crime in our area whatsoever. I mean, you could get pulled over and get a ticket for not, you know, like a rolling stop at the stop sign because the cops were so bored. The cops had, I mean, you basically had to drive perfectly, but other than that, I mean, it was a clean place. Now they're dealing with rape, now they're dealing with sexual assault, now they're dealing with thievery, now they're dealing with murder. I mean, there hadn't been murder in decades in my area that I lived in. Decades! Yep, they bring in the alcohol, and guess what comes with it? All the trash and all the filth and all the smut, and it just makes everything dirtier. It's more disgusting. You know, in 1903, the areas around Fort Worth and Dallas were all dry. But the southern places, which were more influenced by Germans and Mexicans, were anti-prohibition, so they weren't. That's racist. Well, that's history. Sorry, again. In 1919, marijuana was illegal in Texas. And you want to know a place that's becoming filthier and disgusting due to marijuana? Oklahoma. Oh, man. You go to Oklahoma City and everybody's just drugged out and just out of their mind and spacing, it's so disgusting and filthy. I hope they never legalize marijuana in Texas. And you say, oh, I don't know if I agree with that. Well, I've seen the effects of it and it looks horrible! Go visit Oklahoma! Go soul-winning in Oklahoma! Go to the apartment complex in Oklahoma! Everyone seems like a drug dealer! Even the white people, okay? Sorry. But, you know, there was two areas where Vice was thriving during Prohibition. San Antonio and Galveston. And we just went to Galveston, and let me tell you what Galveston looks like. A trashy, disgusting, decrepit, sinhole is what it looks like. It doesn't look great. It looks like it used to be a nice place. It looks like it used to have a flourishing economy and business. Now it just looks decrepit and destroyed and just trashy and filthy. Why? Because of sin! You know, they have these vices. Prostitution, gambling, and alcohol. And you know what that brings with it? Trash. It brings vomit. It brings filthiness into that society. You know, in America they passed the 18th Amendment, which was, you know, basically making it illegal to sell liquor. So basically the only people selling liquor are literal criminals. It was organized criminals. Al Capone, the bootleggers. You know, and Texas had their version. Benny Binion was one guy in the Dallas area, and he started the Binion Hotel in Las Vegas, which then has Texas Hold'em. He was the guy that started the World Series of Texas Hold'em and everything like that. He's from here. These are the bootleggers, these are the people selling the liquor, and they were organized criminals. And not only are they selling liquor, prostitution, murder, all kinds of horrible things. But Galveston was basically a place where they didn't enforce the law, all throughout this time. And guess what happens? They destroyed their area. Because eventually Vegas opened it up and made it legal, and then everybody just left. And guess what? Galveston just went complete to crap, literally. And you know what? These places that invite all the sin, they invite all the filth, they invite all these things coming in, it will destroy that area. It won't be a great area. Vegas, have you ever been off the strip? I'll confess my fault. I've been to Vegas one time, okay? And I was young, it was stupid, all right? But you walk off the strip, and it's the most disgusting, filthy, dangerous-looking place you've ever seen. I ran back to my hotel because I was terrified. And it was just like, there's just homeless people just laying on the, they just lay in the street and they're just everywhere. And they'll try to find the most inconvenient place to lay just to piss you off. Like, they'll have tunnels, they had these tunnels where everybody had to walk through because of construction, so everybody's walking. They'll literally just lay down in the middle of the tunnel. So like, everybody's just like, you know, over the homeless person in the tunnel, because you can't, that's the only way to get through. And you're like, why is this taking so long? Oh, because the derelict, drunk loser is just laying here. Like, that place is a filthy, disgusting hellhole. It's just a charade, my friend. It's a mirage, a mirage. It doesn't really, it's not really clean. It's filthy, it's disgusting, it's abominable. Look, don't get sucked in by the bright lights. And you know, what's funny to me is how many people in our society are like a Pharisee today where they love to virtue signal about wearing two masks while they go to a bar. Oh, you're so concerned with cleanliness, aren't you? You're going to literally go to the most disgusting, filthy place where it's full of vomit, wearing your two masks, you hypocrite, you Pharisee, you blind guy. And look, if you wear two masks, you're an idiot. There, I said it, all right? And look, obviously some of us have to wear stupid masks just to get by, but look, these virtue signalers, these liberals going around talking about how they're going these liberals going around talking about how clean they are. You know, I go to Best Buy and the lady's like running away from me. It's sick, it's gross. And you know what, Jesus Christ is rebuking these people. Oh, you're so concerned with cleanliness, are you? Okay, how about Romans 3.23? Oh, I don't want to talk about that. Look, we should be clean physically and spiritually today. And look, these hypocrites, you know, these faggots, they go into a bar and they're so concerned with coronavirus. I'm like, have you ever heard of HIV? Have you ever heard of AIDS? You know, these are the same people that like to eat dung. They literally eat dung and they're so afraid of getting coronavirus from Christians meeting in church. What a bunch of virtue signaling liars. What a bunch of hypocrites today. You know what, it's disgusting. And you know what, here's other ways people contribute to this. Maybe you're not going to the bar. But littering, I hate littering. It makes me angry. And people are just so trashy today. I find trash in my yard all the time from somebody littering. It's frustrating, it's disgusting. People litter in the church, people litter in our parking lot, people are littering everywhere. You go to Houston, it's such a dirty city. Such a filthy city. You go to LA, talk about filthy. Talk about gross today. These places, there's just so much trash everywhere and nobody even cares. And look, when you have a little bit of trash, it's easy to throw like more trash. If you go to someone's house and you visit and it's just filthy everywhere, you're just kind of like, whatever. But if it's perfectly clean, you would be like, where's the trash, I got to throw this away. You're concerned. You know, you walk outside and there's no trash anywhere, you're like, I need to find a trash can. When there's trash everywhere, you're just like, all right. Who cares? You know, if there's just a little bit of trash, you're like, you know what, I'll pick that up. But if you just see trash everywhere, you're like, I'm just going to step over that and then just go inside. And look, it's a gross, disgusting atmosphere. I don't want to live in a gross, disgusting, filthy, littered world. People need to wake up. You know, church is not supposed to look like a pig's thigh. If your house looks like a pig's thigh, listen to the sermon and fix that. But church is not supposed to look like that. Go to Isaiah 32, I have two verses and I'll finish, okay? Be clean. Be clean in your person, be clean in your possessions, be clean in public today. You know what, God's people should be different than the world today. People should come here and say like, wow, it's clean. Wow, your house is clean. Wow, you're clean, you know. As opposed to just being dirty and filthy and disgusting like the world today. Or having this hyper, over, you know, virtue situation. You're signaling cleanliness like the Pharisees of, you know, wearing 18 masks and a Hillary shirt or something. You know, the Hillary shirt doesn't make you cleaner, my friend. And inside it makes you worse, all right? Isaiah 52, look at verse 11. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing. Go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord. Hey, he's telling the priests, don't touch unclean things, be a clean person today. Go over to 2 Corinthians 6, last place I'll have you turn. Look, we should be clean physically and spiritually today. And we should not touch the unclean things. And if you have to, wash your hands. Wash your body, wash your clothes, wash your house, wash all of it. Clean yourself up. Be tidy and be clean. Disinfect things. You know, we don't want to spread filth and contamination and disease. And, you know, they want to tell us, oh, you guys aren't concerned with disease because you aren't wearing masks. Look, that's just a bunch of virtue signaling crap, okay? I do care about cleanliness standards. And I'm teaching you all about how to be clean today. And the world rejects it. The world doesn't, you know, in a lot of ways, they don't even do these type of things. And other countries, they're not employing a lot of these tactics. They're touching dead animals, and they're not washing and running water, and they're not washing their clothes, and they just have all this disease. And Bill Gates is like, we'll fix them with vaccines. No. You'll fix that with employing God's tactics. You know, if you look at, and I'm taking a little bit of time, but I want to explain one other point. If you look at, basically, disease in America, and you look at cleanliness standards, that's what caused all the diseases like measles and mumps and all this crap to go down. It wasn't the stupid vaccine, my friend, okay? Now, look, you can see, you can look at a measles chart, and they'll say, when the measles vaccine was introduced, until now, we've eliminated 99.9% of the cases. And it's true, but here's the thing that they don't tell you. Before it was introduced, it was already reduced 99% due to just washing your hands and staying away from sick people. But they don't want to tell you that. They just have this downward chart that looks like this, and they're like, here's when the vaccine was introduced. Didn't it make an obvious difference? And you're like, not really, something up here, like washing hands, running water, having cleanliness standards. That made the huge difference, and will make the huge difference in our society, okay? 2 Corinthians chapter 6, look at verse 17. Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. Obviously, I'm preaching mostly on a carnal sermon, but, you know, the spiritual truth is still more important. I just want to emphasize this tonight. You know, Sunday night, we need to learn a lot of the Bible, but we could even apply it spiritually. Be clean physically, and be clean spiritually. How? Get saved, and then get right with God. Confess your sins, turn away, and forsake your sins on a daily basis. Constantly clean yourself up. And then when you, hey, get dirty physically, what do you do? Wash your hands. Hey, when you get dirty spiritually, what do you do? Get on your knees and beg God to forgive you, and get right with him spiritually, okay? How about your possessions? Maybe you have possessions that end up getting defiled, dirty, or they have a problem. What do you do? Get up, get rid of them, destroy them. Hey, if you have a possession that's causing some kind of a spiritual devastation in your life, what do you do? Destroy it, get rid of it, clean it up, okay? And then in public, hey, don't allow the world to just be a dirty, filthy place. Keep the world clean today. And you say, how do I do that spiritually? Preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Be a soul winner. And not just that, teach them other doctrines from the Bible. Get them sermons. Go to church. We need both today. This is what? Be clean. Close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for this great passage in the Bible from Leviticus that teaches about cleanliness standards. Thank you for giving us not just spiritual truths, but even the carnal truths that we can understand them and that we can have blessing in our physical lives and in our spiritual lives. I pray that we would emphasize both today and that we would be a good representation, a good ambassador for Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. With that, let's close it out with our last song, song number 410, Faith is the Victory. Song number 410. Song number 410, Faith is the Victory. Enkempt along the hills of light Ye Christian soldiers rise And press the battle air The night shall veil the glowing skies Against the foe and veils below Lest all our strength be hurled Faith is the victory we know That overcomes the world Faith is the victory, Faith is the victory O glorious victory That overcomes the world His banner over us, His love, our sword, the word of God We tread the road, the saints above With shouts of triumph trod By faith they like a whirlwind's breath Swept on o'er every field The faith by which they conquered death Is still our shining shield Faith is the victory, Faith is the victory O glorious victory That overcomes the world On every hand the foe we find Drawn up in dread array Let tense of ease be left behind And onward to the fray With salvation's helmet on each head With truth all gird about The earth shall tremble neath our tread And echo with our shout Faith is the victory, Faith is the victory O glorious victory That overcomes the world To Him that overcomes the foe Wide raiment shall begin Before the angels He shall know His name confessed in heaven Then onward from the hills of light Our hearts will love a flame We'll vanquish all the hosts of night In Jesus' conquering name Faith is the victory, Faith is the victory O glorious victory That overcomes the world Amen. Thank you all for coming tonight. You all have a great evening. God bless.