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We're gonna go ahead and get started this evening if you would go ahead and grab your hymnal Excuse me grab your hymnal and turn to the first hymn this evening 429 hark the herald angels sing 429 starting there on the first verse, let's sing Glory to the new born King peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled Joyful all ye nations rise join the triumph of the skies with Angelic host proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the new born King Christ by his heaven adored Christ the Everlasting Lord late in time Behold him come offspring of a virgin's womb Veiled in flesh the God at sea Hail the incarnate deity Leased as man with men to dwell Jesus our Emmanuel Oh The herald angels sing glory to the new born King Hail the heaven Lord Prince of Peace Hail the son of righteousness Light and life to all he brings Grays with Mildly Bye Born that man no more may die born to raise the sons of earth born to give them second birth on the herald angels sing glory to the new born King Come desire of nations come Fix it us by humble home rise the woman's concrete seed Bruise in us the serpents head Adam's likeness now in face Stamp fine image in its place From above We in the state us and I love all the Jealousy glory to the new born King Amen brother mo, would you like to open us in a word of prayer this evening? Amen For the second hymn this morning turn this evening Only a little bit frazzled. I guess turn to 420 hymn number 420. There's a song in the air 424 to 0 there's a song in the air There on the first let's sing there's a song in the air There's a star in the sky There's a mother's prayer and a baby's low cry and the store rains its fire while the beautiful sing for the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king There's a tumult of joy for the wonderful birth For the virgin sweet boy is the Lord of the earth By the store raids its fire while the beautiful sing For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king In the light of that storm By the ages in the world And that song from afar Has swept over the world Every earth is aflame And the beautiful sing In the homes of the nations That Jesus is King We rejoice in the light And we echo the song That comes down through the night From the heavenly fawn I wish out to the lovely Evangel they bring And we greet in his cradle Our Savior and King Thanks for coming to Pure Words Baptist Church. If you didn't get a bullet in this morning or you need another one, just grab one. We have the Biomarmy Passage Romans 8 and we're still working on that on the inside. We have our service in so many times. I'm going to get a count for any salvations. Was there any salvations to report from the last few days? Anything else? There was two on Saturday, right? Okay. Five for Saturday? What about today? What was the count? Did we get a count? Nine total. Praise the Lord on that. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And it's obviously we're not going where we're going on Thursdays because that's a lot more receptive. But we've got to hit all the doors, right? Receptive, unreceptive, everything like that. But praise the Lord that even a small little church like ours, you can see nine people saved in a single afternoon. So praise the Lord on that. Also continue to pray for Ms. Corinne. We have our Christmas candlelight and cookie bake-off the 23rd. We have several guest preachers that are coming through. Make sure to thank them and appreciate them for coming. If you have Brother Gamino, if you continue to pray for him. Also pray for Brother Cameron's leg and also if you want to please pray for my family that they would help you soon. Pretty much all I have for the announcements. Let's go ahead and go to our third song, Amazing Grace. 244 Amazing Grace. All right, 244 Amazing Grace. On the first Amazing Grace, let's sing. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. The hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing in God's praise than when we first be blind. Amen. Good singing this evening. As the offering plates being passed around, please turn, if you would, to Numbers, chapter number four. Numbers, chapter number four. Brother Jeff will read that chapter for us. Okay, so in chapters number four, the Bible reads in verse one, it says, They shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of badger skins, and shall put in the staves thereof. And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlesticks of the light, and his lamps, and his tongs, and his snuff dishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it. And they shall put it, and all the vessels thereof, within a covering of badger skins, and shall put it upon a bar. And upon the golden altar, they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badger skins, and shall put to the staves thereof. And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badger skins, and shall put them on a bar. And they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth therein, and they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof, wherewith they minister about it even the censors, the fleshhook, and the shovels, and the basins, all the vessels of the altar. And they shall spread upon it a covering of badger skins, and put to the staves of it. And when the sons and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as a camp is to set forward, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it. But they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation. And to the office of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, pertaineth the oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and the anointing oil, and the oversight of all the tabernacle, and all that Aaron is, in the sanctuary, and in the vessels thereof. And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying, Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites. But thus to unto them they may live and not die. When they approach unto the most holy things, Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service, and to his burden. But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take also the sum of the sons of Gershon, throughout the houses of their fathers by the families, from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old, shalt thou number them, all that enter into perform the service to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve and for burdens. And they shall bear the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tabernacle of the congregation is covering, and the covering of the badger skins that is above upon it, and the hanging of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the hanging of the court, and the hanging for the door of the gate of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about, and their cords, and all the instruments of their service, and all that is made for them, so shall they serve. At the appointment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burdens and in all their service. And ye shall point unto them and charge all their burdens. This is the service of the families of the sons of Gershon and the tabernacle of the congregation, and their charge shall be under the name of Itzamar the son of Aaron the priest. As for the sons of Morari, thou shalt number them after their families by the house of their fathers. From thirty years old and upward, even unto fifty years old, shalt thou number them, every one that enter into the service, to do the work of the tabernacle of the congregation. And this is the charge of their burden, according to all their service in the tabernacle of the congregation, the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof. And the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, with all their instruments, and with all their service, and by mind, and by name, ye shall reckon the instruments of the charge of their burden. This is the service of the family of the sons of Morari, according to all their service in the tabernacle of the congregation, under the hand of Itzamar the son of Aaron the priest. And Moses and Aaron and the chief of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites after their families and after the house of their fathers. From thirty years old and upward, even unto fifty years old, every one that enter into the service, for the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. And those that were numbered of them by their families were two thousand seven hundred and fifty. These were they that were numbered of the families of the Kohathites, all that might do the service in the tabernacle of the congregation, which Moses and Aaron did number according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. And those that were numbered of the sons of Gershon, throughout their families, and by the house of their fathers, from thirty years old and upward, even unto fifty years old, every one that enter into the service, for the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. Even those that were numbered of them throughout their families by the house of their fathers were two thousand six hundred and thirty. These are they that were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, of all that might do the service in the tabernacle of the congregation, whom Moses and Aaron did number according to the commandment of the Lord. And those that were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, throughout their families by the house of their fathers, from thirty years old and upward, even unto fifty years old, every one that enter into the service, for the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. Even those that were numbered of them after their families were three thousand and two hundred. These be those that were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses. All those that were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the chief of Israel numbered after their families and after the house of their fathers. From thirty years old and upward, even unto fifty years old, every one that came to do the service of the ministry, and the service of the burden in the tabernacle of the congregation. Even those that were numbered of them were eight thousand and five hundred and four score. According to the commandment of the Lord, they were numbered by the hands of Moses. Every one according to his service and according to his burden, thus were they numbered of him as the Lord commanded man unto Moses. Let's all bow our heads for a quick word of prayer. Amen. So we're here in Numbers chapter four and it's a very interesting chapter. It talks about the service of the priests specifically in the Aaronic priesthood. You have basically three generations or three families that are kind of responsible for all the different aspects of the service of the Lord. You kind of have the Kohathites, the Merariites, and the Gershneits. You know names you've never heard before. I've never heard before, right? But essentially if you kind of understand these three families, they all have a little bit different responsibility in regards to the tabernacle in the Old Testament wilderness. So in the Old Testament, when Moses and them, they exit Egypt and they're traveling to the promised land, God ends up establishing his house for them while they're traveling but it's a movable tabernacle. Essentially it goes with them. So you know we needed a physical building. This isn't going to move anywhere, okay? If we tried to move it, it probably wouldn't stick together, right? But the house of God back then is literally like tents and pillars and all these different things going on and they have the holy instruments that they're supposed to carry and travel with and these different families are kind of responsible for different sections of that movable tabernacle, okay? Now the Kohathites, they are responsible for the very holiest of instruments. They have the Ark of the Testimony that's right there in the very center. I mean this is the center of centers. This is where the Lord would sit in, you know, it's not just in theory, in reality, okay? That's where he would actually sit is on the Ark of the Testimony. They have all these different instruments, the spoons and the showbread, the table, the showbread and everything like that. They're responsible for these very holy items but as the Bible describes it, they're not allowed to just touch these things or handle these things. If you can think of other stories in the Bible, there's a man who reaches forth his hand, his name's Uzzah and he just reaches forth his hand to steady the Ark and God just struck him dead. Because you're not allowed to just touch the holy instruments of God, you would die in the Old Testament, okay? Now there's a lot of symbolism in the Old Testament. The Old Testament, you know, we don't have this, you know, tabernacle that's traveling through the wilderness. We're not in the wilderness. We don't have all these things but the Bible teaches us that all these things were for them physically but they're a spiritual or symbolic presence for the future, okay? So we have a lot of different things that we can learn from this and look back at verse number five because the Bible says, So when they're going to move, basically they've traveled to a place, they set up the tent, they were there for a little bit, then God's wanting them to move. So in order to move, they have to cover the Ark of the Testimony with a particular veil. It says in verse six, Now this is where it's really interesting because specifically when they cover this, the color of the cloth has to be blue and the title of my sermon's actually coming from this verse. The title of my sermon is Blue Holiness. Blue Holiness. Now here is the thing. God created everything including color and colors in the Bible have significance. Why is it that he's covering the Ark of the Testimony with blue, okay? Now to understand this, we have to just, you know, study the Bible and we have to kind of look at different things. Go if you would to Proverbs 20 for a moment and I'm going to explain why he's using blue specifically. Now, they're using animal skins that's a more readily available fabric even today. You know, there's a lot of fur rugs and there's a lot of coverings that people would make of animal fur. You know, animal fur is actually a delicacy. Oftentimes it's considered a very valuable fabric, as it were. But the Bible also uses animal skins to describe certain symbolic pictures. We have in the beginning, we have Cain and Abel. And Cain offers the fruit of the ground. Abel offers the first slings of the flock, okay? And whenever they're making their sacrifice you basically have one that's offering plants and vegetables which pictures his works. And then you have another guy offering an animal sacrifice which pictures faith in Jesus Christ. Also the Bible talks about not mixing garments. Not mixing a garment with woolen and linen. Why? Because the woolen garment pictures and symbolizes putting faith in Jesus Christ. You know, that you didn't work for that animal. The animal provided the skin. The animal provided the hair. You didn't really do anything. He's just providing it to you for free. Whereas a linen based garment is a picture of, you know, going out and tilling the ground working really hard, planting crops, them growing up. Then you have to do a lot of work. You have to beat the wheat or the flax or whatever and get it into really thin shreds and then you have to get it and weave it. Like making a cloth out of a plant based fabric takes so much time and effort and energy. Whereas you can just cut it off the animal and there you go. I mean you can just have a skin right there. A fur coat. So there's a difference between these two garments throughout the Bible, okay? So one aspect is the fact that they've got to cover these holy instruments with the sacrificial piece of garment here which is an animal garment. But not only that, a blue one, okay? Now look what it says in Proverbs 20 verse 30. The Bible says this, Now, first of all, this verse helps us with our theme a little bit. But I want to extrapolate from that. What is the blueness of the wound picturing? It's picturing someone getting beaten for their sin, for their crime, whatever is a punishment, okay? And a punishment according to the Bible is to be beaten. And you're only supposed to be beaten so much. You're only supposed to be allowed up to 40 stripes or 40 strikes with a particular instrument. And even in the world today there are still governments that will administer beatings as a punishment rather than locking them up like an animal for years. And honestly, if we were to ask, I guarantee if we were to ask people in jail today, hey, would you rather take 20 strikes or be in here for 20 years? They'd be like, line me up, I'll take the 20 beatings. And some people would be like, beating, that's so horrible, that's so gruesome. Yet locking someone up is actually more inhumane. And in fact the Bible doesn't even prescribe that as a legitimate punishment. Locking people up in a cage is a very evil punishment. Basically you're not really having any mercy towards that person. The only prison you really find in the Bible is hell. And that's not a loving place. It's not a place of rehabilitation. The devil goes there for a thousand years. Not rehabilitated whatsoever. He comes back out and is still the same devil. So it really is a foolish way to punish people if you believe that they can be reformed or something is going to go well for them. Beating is actually a more biblical punishment. That's why also spanking your children is a biblical punishment. Now obviously when you're spanking your child, you don't want to hurt your child. You would never damage the child. That would not be necessarily proper. But at the end of the day, if you were to get a beating, it's possible that your skin may turn a little blue in the area that you got a beating that would illustrate kind of a bruise or the skin's tender or whatever. Because inside your blood is actually blue. It's that when it's exposed to the outside air, the oxygen and everything in the air oxidizes it and it turns it into a red color. But actually that's why your veins are blue. They're not red. It's because they're blue. So if you could get hit or hurt in some part of your body, it turns blue in that area. Picturing and illustrating a bruise. So why would God then use blue and this animal skin to then cover these instruments? Well, it's to symbolize and foreshadow what Christ would do for us. Go to Isaiah 53 for a moment. Go to Isaiah chapter 53. This is going to be more of a Bible study this evening. You guys decided to come back, so I guess you might as well get a lot of Bible, right? Isaiah 53, look at verse 5. And look how the Bible describes what was going to happen to Jesus in the Old Testament. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. So according to the Bible, Jesus Christ was bruised for us. Meaning we deserve the beating. We deserve the bruise. We deserve the blueness of the wound. But rather Jesus Christ got that bruise for us. Now he wasn't literally beaten with a rod except for one situation. He was actually scourged with a whip. But the Bible does describe him getting beaten with a rod on his head. Which would still leave a particular bruise. You know that could be a reason why when you think about them carrying, they're carrying with staves. You got staves, you got the animal skin, you got the color blue. And the blueness of the wound was supposed to cleanse away evil. Jesus didn't have any evil to cleanse away of his own. But through his bruising, it cleansed our evil, didn't it? That's the whole point of a beating would be to try to modify the person's behavior to help them realize that they should not sin or commit crimes or do the evil that they're supposed to do. So really the blueness kind of symbolizes holiness, doing that which is right, being corrected, cleansing things. Look at verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. So according to the Bible, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Now again, I kind of touched this in the morning. It's not that God wanted his son to be suffering. It's not that God likes the fact that his son suffered. What pleased him was the cleansing away of evil. What pleased him was the fact that Jesus was taking our punishment and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and how he was going to be beaten for us. So if you go to Genesis chapter 3, go all the way back to the beginning, to Genesis chapter number 3 and look at verse number 15. So this is the very beginning of your Bible and we're just kind of walking through a lot of verses here but it's going to keep getting more clear and more clear what we're talking about. Genesis chapter 3, look at verse 15. The Bible says, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. So you know the bruising was actually all the way from the beginning, talking about Jesus Christ, how his heel was going to be bruised, an illustration of the fact that Jesus Christ was going to be bruised for us, meaning he was going to go through harm. He was going to have to go through evil for us. Go to Matthew 27 now. Let's go to the Gospels and let's see what actually happened with the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Old Testament symbolizes and foreshadows and pictures things that were going to happen with Jesus in his lifetime. So a lot of times we read through the story of the Old Testament or we're leading through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, these things and they seem kind of boring or they seem kind of dry. Perhaps it's even confusing to us just because we're just kind of ignorant as far as what these things are really illustrating, what they picture, but when you kind of slow down and start putting a lot of these puzzle pieces together, you start realizing all of it's about Jesus and all of it's about the Gospel and all of it's about his sacrifice that he's going to do for us. Look at Matthew 27, look at verse 30. And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. So notice he was smitten on the head with a reed. Go to Mark chapter 15, just go to Mark, flip to the right just a few pages, Mark chapter 15 and look at verse 15. Mark 15, 15, and so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified. So notice again Jesus was beaten with the rod, with the reed on his head, but he's also scourged which would have for sure brought blood and the bruising and the beating coming. Look at verse 19. And they smote him on the head with the reed and did spit upon him and bowing their knees worshiped him. So they were mocking him. Go to Luke 23. So again we see in the Gospels he was beaten on the head with these instruments, going to cause a lot of bruising, cause a lot of blue to come upon him. Luke chapter 23, look at verse 16, I will therefore chastise him and release him. It's silly because Pilate had recently said that there's nothing wrong with him. It's like hey I can't find any fault in this guy, there's nothing wrong, I'll discourage him and then release him. What kind of justice system is that? You get a beating even when you did nothing wrong. That shows me that justice has never been fair even back then. It's never been fair. The government and these type of people, they'll just punish people when they don't really deserve it. They're over punished people and they're very wicked. Go to John chapter 19. Go to John chapter 19. I thought if you were found innocent you should get to go free, not get beaten. Hey don't be innocent again. What was the message? You get beaten up or something? John chapter 19, look at verse 1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. So we've seen a lot of places in the New Testament, in fact all the Gospels mention him either getting hit on the head, getting scourged, all the beating, the bruising that he was going through. Now of course if you're getting scourged other things are going to happen. You're not just going to get a bruise. Isn't that going to kind of rip away some of the flesh? And what's that going to do? That's going to cause blood to come out. And what color is blood? Crimson, you know reds, these other kind of colors. Well go back to Numbers chapter number 4. Go to Numbers chapter number 4. Let's read a little bit further in here. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers chapter number 4. And look at verse number 7 now. The Bible reads, And upon the table of shewbread they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put there on the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and covers to cover withal, and the continual bread shall be thereon, and they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of badger skins, and shall put in the stays thereof. And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of the light, and his lamps, and his tongs, and his snuff dishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it. And they shall put it in all the vessels thereof with a covering of badger skins, and shall put it upon a bar. And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badger skins, and shall put to the stays thereof. And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badger skins, and shall put them on a bar. And they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon. And they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof, wherewith they minister about it, even the censors, the flesh hooks, and the shovels, and the basins, all the vessels of the altar. And they shall spread upon it a covering of badger skins, and put to the stays of it. When Aaron and his sons had made an end of the covering, of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it, but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath, and the tabernacle of the congregation. So not only we have the claws of blue being mentioned, but in verse number 8 it says, and they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet. Not only do you have scarlet, but a little bit further down in verse number 13, and they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereof. So you have blue, scarlet, and purple that are all mentioned in this passage, covering all the very holiest of instruments in the tabernacle. Now, what's interesting about these colors is I think they can represent a couple things. First of all, he's getting beaten and his blood's going to be shed, right? And that's going to be more of a scarlet, purple. You know, when you get hit, and you get beat, or you get scurged or something, the colors are going to be the range of blue, purple, and red. That's basically going to be your mixture of colors that you're going to see when someone gets hurt, it goes through the healing process, whatever stage, phase that those things are in. Those are kind of the three colors you're going to get a mixture of. It's not a coincidence that God is using these colors to illustrate the holy instruments being covered in them. That's one aspect. Here's a second aspect. Go back to Matthew chapter number 27. Go back to Matthew chapter 27, and let's see some more interesting connections here. Matthew 27, look at verse 28. And it says, and they stripped him and put on him, or put on him, yeah, a scarlet robe. Now isn't that interesting? That whenever they were beating him, they literally put a scarlet robe on Jesus just like they would put a scarlet badgerskin garment on the holy instruments in the Old Testament. Now let's keep reading. Go to Mark chapter 15. And look at verse number 17. Mark 15 verse 17, and they clothed him with purple and plated a crown of thorns and put it about his head. So not only did they cover him in scarlet, they covered him in purple. Go to Luke chapter 23. Go to Luke chapter 23. We'll get even more description here. Luke chapter 23 and look at verse number 11. Luke 23 and let's look at verse number 11. The Bible says, inherit with his men of war, set him at naught and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and set him again to Pilate. So notice that the garment is also described as being gorgeous. I mean, this isn't just some cheap garment or something. This is a very highly expensive, a very costly type garment. Go to John chapter 19. Illustrating, you know, why are they using the badgers skins? This would have been, again, a more costly cloth dyed in these skins. You know, to dye an animal fur and to get at that just right. We're talking about some very expensive type of a garment. Why would God use really expensive garments to cover these instruments? Because it's picturing what's going to happen with Jesus. How Jesus is going to be brought before these men and how every part of the Bible is just testifying to what was going to happen with Jesus. Go to John 19 and look at verse number 2. And the soldiers plated a crown of thorns and put it on his head and they put on him a purple robe. So again, we have the purple robe, we have the scarlet robe, we have mentioned a gorgeous robe, and we have those blue, scarlet, and purple mentioned in the book of Numbers. Now, I want you to just think for a moment with me. Go to Luke 1. You're pretty close. Go back to Luke chapter 1. What is it that they're covering? Well, one thing that they're covering is the Ark of Testimony. What is the Ark? What does the Ark represent? Well, Moses was delivered the Ten Commandments, which is literally the word of God. And the word of God is placed in the Ark of Testimony so it pictures the word of God being the most precious thing. And so the Ark is kind of symbolizing the word of God in a sense and that's what's being covered. Additionally, you have the table of showbread. What is the table illustrating? What is the showbread illustrating? Well, bread in the word of God is considered the word of God. And guess who's considered the bread of life? Jesus Christ. Also, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. So Jesus is literally the word of God. In Revelation, he comes with a name written on his thigh and it's literally the word of God. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the word of God. Jesus Christ is the bread of life. Jesus Christ is these pictures and these elements are picturing him. Now Numbers chapter 4 in verse 15, it said they were not allowed to touch any holy thing without the covering. They're not allowed to touch it. This is interesting because look at Luke chapter 1 verse 35. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. You know it's another holy thing according to the Bible. Jesus. Jesus is a holy thing according to the Bible that cannot be touched without the covering of blue, without the covering of purple, the covering of the scarlet. Illustrating what? You can't come to Jesus without the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can't come to Jesus without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You can't touch him without faith in the gospel. Because think about it, the blue, the purple, the scarlet is picturing the gospel of Jesus is picturing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And think about throughout the word of God, we have all these illustrations about touching holy things. Go back to Exodus 29. And I'm wanting to kind of build this context and then we just keep extrapolating on it. But what's interesting is how we get holiness. We get holiness from Jesus' holiness. In the Old Testament how did they get holiness? In a sense. Well let's read. Exodus 29, look at verse 37. Exodus 29 verse 37. Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar and sanctify it. And it shall be an altar most holy. Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy. So notice by touching the holiness of the altar you got the holiness. The holiness was then applied to you by touching the altar. Which is illustrating the spiritual significance of touching Jesus and getting his holiness. Now go to Matthew chapter number 14. Matthew chapter 14. Isn't it interesting that throughout all of Jesus Christ's ministry, what is happening? People are coming and they're wanting to touch Jesus to be what? To be healed. Just like you would touch the altar and you'd get that holiness. But here's the thing. You couldn't touch it without the veil of the blue, the scarlet, and the purple. Illustrating what? Faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And it's the same thing with Jesus in the New Testament that those that touched him, they were made whole by faith. Look at Matthew chapter number 14. Look at verse 35. And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought on them all that were diseased, and besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment, and as many as touched were made perfectly whole. Notice that they were made whole by what? Touching Jesus. By touching his garment, they were made whole. Go to Luke chapter 6. Go to Luke chapter number 6 and look at verse number 19. Luke chapter number 6 and look at verse number 19. And the whole multitude sought to touch him, for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. So notice his holiness, his virtue, what is virtue? Something that's true. You know, something that's righteous. His righteousness, his virtue, his holiness is leaving his body and going into those that are touching it, and he's literally making them whole. Go to chapter 8 and look at verse 46. Chapter number 8 and look at verse number 46. And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me. For I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling. Now, why is it, for this context, I think we should slow down for just a second, okay? Jesus is walking, and according to the Bible, lots of people. Okay? And he says, Who touched me? Now, what's funny about this is, let's back up a verse. It says in verse 45, And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee, and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? So he's like, he's kind of incredulous. He's kind of like, Peter, he's like, what do you mean, who touched you? Everyone touched you. He's like, Jesus, you know, have you ever seen like a celebrity, and you've got all their like fan girls or whatever, or their fan boys or whatever it is, you know, and they're walking out in the, I mean, everybody's just all over them, touching them, just harassing them, whatever. I mean, that's what it's like. Jesus is just walking down the street, and just multitudes are just right there. They're all wanting to touch him. They're all over him, you know. And all of a sudden, he's like, Who touched me? And everybody's like, what are you talking about? Like, everybody touched you, you know. But then he said, but he said there was something different about the way someone touched him, because virtue went out of him, right? And this woman comes trembling and falling down, knowing that it was her that he was talking about. And she declared unto him, verse 47, before all the people, for what cause he had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort, by faith hath made thee whole, go in peace. So notice, lots of people are touching Jesus, nothing's happening. But one person touches him in faith, immediately healed. If you think about the instruments, the ark, Uzzah touches the ark, immediately dies. Why? Because he wasn't supposed to touch the ark. But the person that was supposed to touch the ark, in faith, immediately got that holiness, got that righteousness. And in the Old Testament, only the high priest, only the guy that's the most separated could come in and even do that. The rest of the people, they had to touch it with a cloth of blue, a cloth of purple, a cloth of scarlet. And here's the thing, Jesus has made it in the New Testament available to us to touch him through the same thing. The blue, the scarlet, and the purple. We get to touch Jesus through the gospel of Jesus Christ by faith, and immediately we're healed. Immediately we get that same holiness, and that same righteousness, and we get to handle him. Think about 1 John, go to 1 John chapter 1, all the way towards the end. Right before 2 and 3, you've got Jude, Revelation. So you're right there, you've got 1 John, chapter number 1, one of the coolest startings of a book to me. It's very similar to John chapter 1. 1 John though, look at verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. He said, what a privilege we got to literally touch the word of God. We got to literally handle the word of God in our own hands just as special and cool as it would have been for the Old Testament priest to walk in there and touch the altar, and to get that holiness is to literally just be there in the flesh, seeing Jesus, and getting to literally touch the word of God. You don't need to handle the word of God. You know what? You could do that right now if you've got a King James Bible in your hands. You're literally touching the holiness of God. You literally have the holiness of God in your hands, and you know what? He can give you that virtue. He can give you that truth. He can give you that holiness. You say, how do I get that holiness? You got to get that blue holiness. And you say, how do I get blue holiness, Pastor Shelley? Well, here's the thing. Didn't we read in Proverbs that it was in relation to chastisement? The blueness of the wound cleanseth away evil. There's two applications here. First of all, all you have to do to go to heaven is put your faith in Jesus one time, and His holiness comes to you. You're immediately healed. You're on your way to heaven. It's done. But there's another process called sanctification that God wants us to literally work on on a regular basis to continually improve and get better. And you know how you get better is by getting cleansed with the word of God. By allowing the word of God to smite you spiritually and by that blueness, getting that holiness that comes from Jesus Christ alone. You will never get holy from any other book. There's no instruction outside of the word of God. You can only get His holiness through here. And we have it. We can literally touch it. You know what? People that don't come to Jesus in faith, people that don't come to Jesus with the gospel of Jesus Christ, this won't ever benefit them. You can only touch it with faith. You can only touch it with that blue cloth, as it were, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the only way it's going to benefit you. There's just thronging the Bible, but one woman gets virtue out of it. Why? Because she came to the Bible with faith. There's a lot of people that can read the Bible that can quote the Bible, but it doesn't mean anything to them because they're not even saved, number one. Or number two, they're not even coming to it with faith. They're not even coming to it with the right approach. Go, if you would, to Isaiah 53. Go back to Isaiah 53. God put colors in the Bible on purpose, and the color blue is a very significant color in the word of God. It helps us understand certain things. Isaiah 53, look at verse number six now. The Bible says this, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone into his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. So you know what? He took that holy thing, and he laid our iniquity on him. Just like you have the altar, and then we lay the blue cloth on the altar to cover the altar there with. Just like the picture of what our iniquities, our sins, our transgressions being laid on Jesus, and that's how we have the word of God. We don't get to just touch him and handle him without it. We put our iniquities, we put our sins on him, and then he gives us his righteousness. Go to Numbers chapter 15. Go all the way back to Numbers and go to chapter number 15. So obviously when you read through the book of Numbers, it's not always necessarily the most exciting book of the Bible. I get it. But there's a lot of cool symbolism in there that you can only pick out when you start comparing it with other passages of Scripture, and you start thinking about all these different elements that illustrate Jesus Christ. Look at Numbers 15 and look at verse 38. 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. So notice that they're supposed to put a specific color ribbon on their garments. And look at what it says in verse 39. 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 notice this, and be holy unto your God. So what's going to help make you holy? The commandments of God. What's going to help remember you to remember to follow God's commandments? A ribbon to blue. What's also going to help you remember to follow God's commandments? Getting beaten. Because you get beat, and what is the purpose of getting beat? Remember. Obey. Right? Remember. Obey. The blueness of the wound cleanses the way evil. And so you'd rather just look at your garment and be like, blue, okay, I better follow God's commandments, rather than getting the cruises and getting the physical punishment that you deserve, that we deserve. You know, we gave that to Jesus. But God obviously wants us to follow the commandments. You know, it's not that you have to follow commandments to go to heaven. You know, I'm holy because of Jesus following the commandments, not me. But because Jesus saved me out of appreciation for what He's done for me, I should then also strive for holiness. You know, Jesus said, be holy. You know, the word of God tells us, be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. You know, so we're supposed to strive for perfection. We're supposed to strive for holiness. We're supposed to strive to be separated. And we're supposed to be reminded of God's holiness. We're supposed to be reminded of His commandments and to follow them. And you know what? The color blue is supposed to help remind us of that. Because we think about Him taking the beating for us. I mean, what if every single time you sinned, you had to just watch Jesus get smit one more time? Wouldn't that kind of like be like, oops. You know, that would make you feel a little bit worse when every single time you sin, you can just picture Jesus getting another just, you know. Now obviously if you get your own, hopefully that would get you in gear. But even thinking about the fact that that's what we did to Jesus, it should motivate us and it should remind us of we shouldn't be sinning. We shouldn't be breaking God's commandments. Go to Proverbs 22. Go to Proverbs 22. But at the end of the day, you know what? We all need that. We all need correction. We all need instruction. You know, and God gave us these pictures to help us. He gave us correction. You know, the Lord loves us and so He gives us correction. We also need to do this for our children. Proverbs 22, look at verse number 15. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. You have to discipline your children with the rod of correction if you want the foolishness to depart from them. And you know it's supposed to be a reminder to be holy, to do that which is right. The balloon-ness of the wound is going to cleanse away evil is what the Bible teaches. Why would God go through so much energy and effort to teach us all about the color blue and to teach us these great truths of the Bible for us to then just completely just reject them and not punish our own children? God punished His child for us. How much more then should we punish our children for the Lord and do that which is right? And you know what, when you punish your child, you actually deliver a soul from hell is what the Bible says. You know, I don't want my kid to go to hell. Well, you've got to physically punish them. Go to Proverbs 3 where since we're here in Proverbs, go backwards and we'll just kind of take a journey here in Proverbs for a moment. Proverbs has a lot of good instruction here. Proverbs chapter 3 look at verse 11. So notice chastening which is kind of an older word but it would be like spanking or punishing in that kind of sense is saying that it's coming from a place of love. And you know I taught this morning that love is not convenient, right? Because it's hard it's uncomfortable and it's selfless. And let me tell you something, spanking is in that category. Because why? Number one, it's not fun, it's not easy, it's hard. It's hard to want to physically discipline your child. Number two, it's not comfortable. No one that loves their child enjoys hurting their child. You know? No matter what level or degree of pain it is. And obviously we're not talking about physically damaging your child. We're talking about spanking them. But nobody likes to physically discipline their child. And number three you're not doing it for some kind of a selfish motivation. You're trying to help the child get better. Obviously some people might discipline their children for selfish ambition but that shouldn't be the main reason. The main reason should be because you're trying to help the child because you love the child. You want the child to do that which is right. Notice that's what God even says. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Notice that the one that's getting punished is the one he delights in. Because if you don't punish your child, the Bible warns that you don't actually love your child. Go to Proverbs 19. Proverbs chapter 19. And look at verse number 18. Proverbs 19, 18. Chasing thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Why does it say while there is hope? Because after a while your children, they're going to be who they are. They've been raised. They have their own will. They have their own wishes. A child as they go through development, eventually they become the young adults that they're going to be for the rest of their life. You have a small window of opportunity to really mold the children into the people that you want them to be. That's why I say chasing thy son while there is hope. Not only that, you know, children are very receptive to the gospel. I don't know if you know this. Children are really easy to get saved. But as people get older, it's harder, doesn't it? And so you want to correct that son. You want to love that son. You want to give him the gospel while there is still hope. Go to chapter 13. Go back to chapter 13 and look at verse 24. The one whom God loves, he disciplines. The one whom the Father delights in, he disciplines. What about the one he doesn't discipline? Well, look at Proverbs 13 verse 24. He that spareth his rod hateth his son. That he that loveth him chasten him betimes. Notice that it doesn't say that you like, well, I just love my kids too much to spank them. That's incompatible with the reality and the Bible. If you say I love my kids too much to spank them, you actually, according to the word of God, hate them. Because, you know, if you really love your children, you'll want them to do right. And you know what? God really loves us. So God gave us the commandments. God gave us instruction. God is going to discipline us because he loves us. In fact, if you're never disciplined, the Bible says you really don't even have the love of God. Because he is going to discipline us. And, you know, as parents in this room, you know, we have to discipline our children on a regular basis. We have to exercise, you know, instruction and using the rod of correction. You know, if you say I never spank my kids, my question is do you love them? Because I already know that they're foolish. The Bible says foolish is bound by the heart of John. I have kids. I know how foolish they are. It's not like, well, my kids are foolish. No. It's not just that your kids are foolish. Kids are foolish. Kids need lots of correction. Kids need lots of, you know, and in public school it used to be that the principal would spank. It used to be that teachers would spank. I remember going to school even when I was alive. When I went to school, my parents took me to a private Christian school for a little bit and I remember they said they had a form to fill out for the parents. And it says, do you give us permission to spank your child if appropriate? And my mom was like, oh yeah, for sure. She's like, I'm signing that. And I'm just thinking like, oh man, what? And she says, she's like, I'll make you a deal too. If they spank you at school, you're also getting spanked at home too. And I was like, wow. I was like, man, everybody's against me. But see, I didn't realize that it was actually both of those people loved me. Those people wanted me to do good. Those people wanted me to do right. You know, the worst thing that my parents could have said, I'll never sign that and I'll never spank you. Do whatever you want. Go and just be a troublemaker and hurt people. You know, that is a parent that doesn't actually love their child. A parent that loves their child wants their kid to do right and is going to discipline them. And you know what, God did the same thing for us. And we need to look at the picture of blue as being a little bit different than just the color of the sky. It pictures the holiness of God and how we too need to strive for that holiness. Go to Proverbs 29. Proverbs chapter 29. Look at verse 17. Correct thy son, and he shall give the rest. Yea, he shall give the light unto thy soul. Now what's the best thing about this is the fact that correction improves people. Makes them better. You know, correction obviously on an obedient ear is like a jewel of gold as the Bible says. But if the person's not really going to listen, it really doesn't change anything. They're going to stay the same. But it has the potential on an obedient ear, on a person that's receptive to it, to make them a lot better person. If we want to become better people if we want to be more fruitful if we want to be more successful, we need constant correction. And you know what, the same with our children. Withholding correction from someone is withholding their ability to get better. You know, we need constant people to criticize and to give us reason why we're not doing things correctly. You know, everybody in our society today is just triggered by anything and everything that's related to criticism. You know, they're like, don't judge me and don't say I'm doing anything wrong or whatever. But at the end of the day, all criticism, all judgment actually just makes you better. And in fact, it's gotten to such an extremity that literally you just open up parts of the Bible and if I just read them, people would be so offended people would be so triggered today because they can't handle the word of God but the word of God is only going to improve you as a person. It's only going to make you more holy and more like God. That little bit of the sting from that chastisement of when you hear the word of God being preached, that's not going to really hurt you. What's going to hurt you is rejecting God's word. And when you correct your son, he will eventually give you delight. God wants to constantly correct us. God wants to constantly improve us and you know what, that's who he's going to have delight in are those that are following his commandments. Not the ones that say, you know what, I can take the beating. No, you should be the child that avoids the beating by following the rule. Not by being the one that's like I don't even care anymore. You get hardened. You get to a point where you know, the beatings, you just don't care about them anymore. They just don't do anything for you anymore. And you've gotten so hardened in your heart, in your flesh, that you just have no desire to be better as a person. You know, a lot of people today, they've been offended by something, by the word of God, by a person and instead of correcting it they just refuse to go to church. They refuse to read the Bible. They're not interested in God. And really it's destroying themselves. If you want to be a godly person, if you want to be holy, you have to desire correction. You have to desire for people to actually give you feedback and to give you judgment. You know, I'm not afraid of judgment. I'm not afraid of criticism. You know, the truth fears no investigation. The Bible makes it clear that, you know, obviously we're supposed to judge righteous judgment. But at the end of the day, if someone's going to judge me out of the word of God, I say amen. Because the only thing that can happen is I can become a better person. That's why we should desire preaching that's coming from the Bible. We should desire what I call hard preaching. And what's hard preaching? Well, it's a little blue. You know, it's going to hurt a little bit. You know, and sometimes when you hear really good preaching it actually kind of hurts. You kind of start feeling like, I'm kind of guilty of that. You know, I make this mistake. I have this problem. You know, it used to be that people would desire it. And that would make a really great society. But today we have so many people that are offended by anything and everything in the Bible. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter number 12. But we're not supposed to be offended when we get hurt by the Bible. But rather we're supposed to appreciate it later. And to get better. And to realize it's part of the process of getting better. Part of the process of getting better is taking some of the blue wounds. You know, taking some of the... You know, I think some people they think, well, I got offended by that. Or I got my feelings hurt by that sermon. Or I don't like what that said. Or whatever. And thinking like, great, now I can get better. And I want more. Thank you, sir. May I have another? That's the right approach. Rather than saying, well, I want to go to the church where I'm never hurt. I want to go to the church where they're never going to offend me. I want to go to the church where no one's ever going to step on my toes, or tell me I'm doing anything wrong, or tell me that I'm not perfect. Well, that church doesn't love you then. And you're not going to ever get better. How are you going to get better when people are already telling you that you've already arrived? You get better by hearing about how you haven't arrived. And look, none of us have. It's not like, well, the preacher's arrived. No. No one's arrived. We're all striving for holiness. We're all striving for better perfection and to draw closer to the Lord. And you have to realize it's part of how God loves us. Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 5. So notice, what would be the tendency when God rebukes you? To faint. Meaning you give up. Meaning you quit. Meaning you hear something in the Bible that you don't agree with already, and you just walk away. And look, it happens. And often, it's kind of a blindsiding thing. Because it's real easy to sit here and be like, well, I could take it, you know, whatever the Bible says, or whatever happened. But it's usually kind of a blindsided issue where someone doesn't realize they have a problem, and then it kind of gets addressed. And instead of being like, actually, that's what the Bible says, they end up just deciding to get offended. They say, well, no, I don't think that's true, or I don't agree with that interpretation, or, you know, I don't like how you applied that to me, or whatever. And they just get offended, they walk away. They faint, as it were. We should have the stamina to say, you know, whatever God's going to rebuke me with, I need to just learn how to take it. If I can get better. Why? Because that's whom He loves. Verse 7, if ye endure chastening, meaning that it's not easy, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the father chastened him not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Now, this is an interesting parallel. Because he says, the ones that don't get chastisement are the bastards. Okay? The sons get the chastisement. And you know what? You want to know what's wrong with America today? There's a lot of bastard children in the world today, and their fathers don't give them any correction. You want to know some of the worst people on the planet are ones that don't have a father. They grew up in a fatherless home. Why? Because they weren't getting chastisement, they weren't getting corrected, they weren't getting constantly disciplined from a loving father, and so they end up just being this bastard child that's really devoid of wisdom. That's just foolish. And you read the book of Proverbs, and it's constantly talking about the importance of disciplining your child and focusing on this child and loving them by scourging them. Who are the opposite? How about Proverbs chapter number one? You have a group of just a bunch of thugs going around lying in wait for the innocent, lurking for blood, going around you know, it makes me think of gangs, it makes me think of all kinds of hoodlums and just criminals getting involved. You know, in California there's a bunch of groups that have been organizing, and they're just going around and looting stores. Just 60 people, 20 people, there's huge groups just walking into Louis Vuitton and walking into all these different department stores, just looting and rioting because the police won't you know, be able to enforce it because, you know, they're getting involved in these groups. You know, where was their father to teach them not to steal? You know, you look at some of the worst psychopaths the worst serial killers, people that do school shootings, a lot of times they don't have a father, come from a broken home, they have these kind of horrible situations, and you know what, God's painting a picture saying, look those that don't get punished are like the bastard kids. The ones where a guy just hooks up with a girl that he doesn't care about, gets her pregnant, and then just walks away, and that child's just left to fend for itself. Where the mother's stuck with the child, and the dad's just doing whatever, doing it again, and doing it again, and again, and again. You know what, that destroys a society and it destroys all the children in its path. We need fathers to be in the home, we need men to raise their children, to love their children, and you know what, maybe if society would actually give them some blue wounds, they'd realize they need to give blue wounds to their children, but without the blueness of the wound you know, without blue wounds, without this type of punishment society just keeps caving in on itself, and being destroyed, and ruining you know, we need to, as Christians, set the example and say we're going to discipline our children, and we're going to be different. And I find that people that come to a church like ours, and that discipline their children you know, when they go out in the world, when they go out to the restaurant, the grocery store or whatever, people are constantly complimenting them on their children. Saying, oh wow, y'all's kids like sit appropriately, and they're nice and they're kind, and you know, I've seen a lot of people just get constant compliment, you know, when they're out there with their big family. Why? Because they don't discipline their children, and they don't know why their kids don't behave. Because all they do is give them a phone. Just give them a tablet, just give them, you know, that's how they just appease them. I get it. Okay. You give a kid, a kid's just running around screaming and doing whatever, you just hand them a tablet, and it's just like five days pass by. You know, it's just like, I mean it sounds real, it's easy. But remember love is not easy. Love is not convenient. You know, it's not loving to just hand your kid a TV all day so they can just, and look I get it, I was a kid and I watched TV and video games I remember my mom made a policy when I was young. She said that I could only play video games for three hours a day. And it felt like the worst punishment I've ever had. Because I was so addicted to like video games, in fact my parents also had a rule I wasn't allowed to play on Monday through Friday, or well during school. So as soon as it turned Friday at like 4.30 I could play. And what I would do is from like Friday at 4.30 till Monday morning I'm just playing video games just like constantly because I was just so addicted to it or whatever. And in the summer she made the rule that it was only three hours a day. Because you know, it wasn't restricted on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And if it was you know, up to me, I would have done it every single hour probably. Because it's just so addictive. It's just so, you know, easy and it's cheap entertainment. But you know, it just rots your brain. It's worthless. It doesn't add any value to you. And really it's just a distraction for your kids. You know, a parent that actually loves their kids is going to put time, effort, energy into their children. They're going to discipline their children. They're going to make them behave. They're not going to use all the cheap substitutes. And look, I'm not saying that you can never let your kids watch TV. Don't hear me wrong. I'm not saying your kids can't watch stuff or give them the tablet every once in a while, right? When you got something really important, you're just like, here. And my kids love it. They're just like, Dad, can I watch? That's what they call it. They're just like, can we watch? And I'm just like, no. But if you say yes, I mean, it's just like, they're just so elated. They're just so excited. And in fact, you know, because we don't do it that often, it's such a joy anyways that you don't, you know, get waste, you don't waste time with it. Because if you let your kids watch TV all the time, whatever, they start getting bored with it. And they start watching stupid shows. You know, they start watching all kinds of crap. I remember especially growing up, there was plenty of times I'd turn on the TV, not because there was anything I wanted to watch, just because it's your habit, right? Now it's your habit. You just turn the TV on and you're just like, is there anything good? And you're just kind of like, no, no, no, no, no. And then you're like, I already got to this channel. I'll just watch it now. You know, I'll just watch this weird show about burgers. Burger sounds good, you know. You know, you just start watching stuff that you didn't even want to watch, you weren't even interested in, and then it starts affecting you. You know, we need to learn how to discipline our children and love our children and spend time with our children. Look at the next verse, verse 9. ...for they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our prophet, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemed to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So a few things that he says here that are really interesting and it kind of wraps us all the way back to the beginning. By getting chastised, what does that help us do in verse 10? That we might be partakers of His holiness. So notice we get blue holiness. By the chastisement, we get holiness. From Jesus' chastisement, we got holiness. However you slice it, it's a picture of holiness, and you know, that should change your perspective on blue. And they wear the ribbon of blue, help remind them of the commandments of God, to follow the commandments of God. You know, we think about punishment and we think about punishing our children. We should teach them about what Jesus did for us. We should teach them about the striving for holiness and righteousness and realize that God is doing this for us, for our prophet. It makes us better people. You want to have a good family? Discipline them. You want to be a good Christian? Allow the word of God to discipline you on a regular basis. Go to a church where they're going to actually preach the word of God and step on your toes every once in a while, hurt you, your feelings a little bit, make you a better person. You know, people that don't go to church don't end up following God's commandments. Let's just be honest. Right? You name for me the person that's just like, I don't go to church at all, but they're just a model Christian. They don't get involved in sin. They're not getting involved in drinking and alcohol and drugs and vanity and the love of money and all these. No, of course they are. When you get out of church, you get backslidden. You start doing all manner of sin, all manner of evil. We need to constantly come in here and get our butts kicked. We need to get spanked by the word of God on a regular basis so that we follow His commandments. Rather than saying like, ah, I don't like going to church. It's boring and, you know, all I hear is that I just need to improve and I need to get better and thou shalt do this and thou shalt not. You know, I've heard some of you like, church shouldn't be a bunch of thou shalt nots. And I'm thinking like, yes it should. I just want to come and be told how great I am and how wonderful I am and, you know, come as you are and leave as you are. No. You need to get better. We all need to get better. We need to strive for perfection, strive for His holiness and realize, verse 11, it's not going to be joyous. Right? You know, getting punished is not a good feeling. So don't get confused. Don't think like, some people like to get hurt. You know? Like, no. No one likes to get hurt. No one likes to find out that they have screwed up. They've done something wrong. But every time you figure out that you've got something you need to work on, instead of getting mad about that, allow yourself to fix it and then realize there's going to be a fruit that comes from that. You're exercising yourself and becoming more holy and more righteous and better and you should start getting better and better and better and closer to the Lord and more holy and more righteous and then you require less beatings. You know, if you're a child and you say, man, my parents spank me all the time. Well, let me help you out. Start obeying. When I come to church, it hurts every single service. Well, start being a good Christian. You know, the more godly of a Christian you are, the more you're doing right, the less church hurts. It's the people that aren't going to church very much that get backslidden. They start coming to church like, ah, that one hurt. Ah, that sermon hurt a little bit. Yeah, because you've been out of the fold for a while. You know, when you've been in the fold for a while and you're following all of God's commandments, you know, it's less and less beatings. It's less and less of the pain and a lot more of just the joy and the fruit of doing that which is right. When you get out of the will of God, though, sometimes you need a lot of beatings to get back in. Sometimes you need a lot of punishment to start serving the Lord again. That's why it's important to just stay in the fold. And not have to have Him, you know, constantly beat you back in the right direction. You know, we are sheep and we need that guiding rod to, you know, basically direct us and lead us so that we don't run off a cliff. We don't run into the lion's den. We don't run into the wolf's mouth, you know. We want to make sure that we're following God's commandments and we're following His blue holiness. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this chapter, Numbers chapter 4. Thank you for taking all the beatings for us. Thank you for sending your Son to just be bruised and beaten and just all the mocking and the scourging and just the reed on the head and just all the evil that happened to Jesus Christ. Thank you that He took that for us. Not only did He take the physical beating, He took a punishment of hell that we deserve so that we could go to heaven. And I pray that we would see the example that you've set for us of physical punishment that we would also model that with our family. We would punish our children in obedience to the word of God. We would teach our children to love the Lord, to love the commandments and that you would bless our children, you would bless our families and you would bless every person's heart in this service that we would not be offended by the word of God but rather we would take it as an opportunity to get better. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Then our last song, 120, Jesus Save Your Pilot Me. Alright, 120, Jesus Save Your Pilot Me. On the first, let's sing. Jesus save your pilot me As a mother stills her child Thou canst hush the ocean wild Poicious waves obey thy will When thou seest to them be still Wondrous saw Over and above the sea Jesus save your pilot me When at last I ne'er the shore And the fearful breakers roar Twixt me and the peaceful rest Then while leaning on thy breast May I hear thee say to me Fear not, all art will pilot me Amen, and with that you are dismissed. Have a good night.