 All right, keep your place. Exodus chapter 28. So we're looking at the garments of the high priest. So we've already looked at the robe of the high priest and we looked at all the different details and characteristics of the robe and how that applied to us and the things that that symbolized. Tonight, what we're going to look at is we're going to look at Exodus chapter 28. We're going to look at verses 36 through 39, just four short verses here. And what we're looking at is the mitre, the mitre of the high priest. That's what we're looking at this evening. So the first thing is, you know, what in the world is a mitre? What is a mitre? Well, for now, what I'm going to tell you is that it's a headpiece. Okay, it just goes on the head of the priest. I'm going to get into a little bit more detail about that at the end of the sermon. But for now, it is a piece that goes on the head. Okay, so first of all, remember the sermon of the robe. And I don't know if you, when we read through Exodus chapter 28 again and again on this, in this series, I want you to notice how important it is when you see these sermons and you see these studies on these pieces of clothing, how important it is where the clothing goes on the priest. That's super important to each piece of clothing in this chapter, not to give away anything, but remember the robe covered the whole priest. A robe goes across your whole body, of course, that pictured the righteousness of Christ covering us. Okay, it's not by our own righteousness, it's by Christ's righteousness that we are saved. Okay, now the headpiece, the mitre, look at verse number 38. Look at verse number 38. I'm going to jump around just a little bit, but first I want to talk about the location of the headpiece itself. Okay, look at verse number 38. So it's talking about this piece, these materials that go on the head of the priest. Look at verse number 38 and it says, and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead. Okay, so first of all, the location of this mitre of this piece is on his forehead. Now you say, why the forehead? He's like, maybe that's just random. There's nothing random in the Bible. Okay, there's always a meaning to everything in the Bible. Turn to Revelation chapter 7 and let's look at what the significance is of the forehead. First of all, in verse number 36, as you turn to Revelation chapter 7, we have to notice in verse number 36 it says, and thou shalt make a plate of pure gold. So we're talking about this, we're not really talking about a hat right now or a headpiece. We're talking about this plate of pure gold that has the words holiness to the Lord on it and it goes on the priest's forehead. Okay, it doesn't go on his chest, it doesn't go on his arm, it goes on his forehead. Look at Revelation chapter 7. There's no accidents in the Bible. Everything that is in the Bible is there for a reason for us. Look at Revelation chapter 7 and look at verse number 3. In Revelation chapter 7, in verse number 3, what we're seeing here is the beginning of God's wrath upon the earth in the end times. Okay, so the rapture has already happened and God is getting ready to pour out his wrath on the earth. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 7 in verse number 3 it says, saying, hurt not the earth, neither the seed nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Okay, so the Bible says that before God, because when God pours out his wrath, he's going to hurt the earth. He's going to hurt the earth, he's going to hurt the trees, he's going to hurt the sea, he's going to hurt everything. He's pouring out his wrath upon, look there's no more believers, they're gone and God's wrath is now coming upon the earth. But he says, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And then in verse number 4 it says, and I heard the number of them which were sealed and there were sealed in 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel of the tribe of Judah and then from verse 5 all the way through verse 9 we see that the 12 tribes in each 12 tribes there's 12,000 that are sealed. Okay, now I believe that these are Old Testament saints that are sent down to the earth but they're sealed, they're marked so that they don't get hurt in God's wrath. Okay, that they don't get hurt in God's wrath, they're sealed, they're marked. But where does he seal them? He seals them in their foreheads. He seals them in their foreheads. Now what does it mean that he seals them? God is getting ready to come down and destroy man and destroy the earth and destroy the trees and just really wreak havoc on the earth that we'll read on, you'll read about if you read past Revelation chapter 7 but what he's saying when he seals them is he's saying they're mine. He's saying they belong to me. Here's a better way. They're on my side. They're on my side. So these are 144,000 people that are going to the earth that are on God's side. Remember the believers are gone. My guess is they're down there to witness to people as God's wrath is going on. It would be nice if there were some soul winners while God's pouring out his wrath to kind of pick up the pieces of people that are ready to believe at that point. So these people are, but God doesn't want to hurt them so he seals them, he marks them. He's like, those are mine. They're on my side. He seals them. Okay. So here's the thing though. Here's the thing you have to realize about Satan. So Satan copies God. Satan never comes up with his own stuff. He just copies what God does and changes it just a little bit. That's how Satan himself operate us. I mean, the nice thing about Satan, I mean, if there's a nice thing, the nice thing about him is he's unoriginal. It's not like Satan has all his own ideas and all this. He's doing what God does except changing it slightly. You see that all over. That's how he operates. Okay. So that's why, look, that's why it's important that you know the Bible. That's why it's important that you know because you will meet people that sound very spiritual. You'll meet people that sound like maybe they know what they're talking about. Turn to Second Timothy chapter two. Turn to Second Timothy chapter two and let's look at a couple things here on how Satan operates. So we see that God uses the forehead to seal his people. That's where the four, that's the significance of the forehead. Look at Second Timothy chapter two and look at verse number fifteen. Look what the Bible says here. This is why, you know, the Bible says, you know, there's a lot of churches, the Catholic Church throughout history is like, you know, don't have a Bible. The Catholic Church would kill people for having a Bible. Here we want you to have a Bible. We want you to read the Bible. I mean, I mean, I, I encourage you, I exhort you to read the Bible, know the Bible. The things that you hear preached here. Hey, study those things out. Study those things out in the Bible. Look at Second Timothy chapter two and verse number fifteen. The Bible says, study to show thyself approved unto God. That doesn't say, just listen to the pastor. That says, you read the Bible. That says, you study the Bible to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed. Then look what it says, rightly dividing the word of truth. So that implies that there's people that could use the word of truth, not rightly divide it and twist what it says. This is what Satan does. This is what Satan does. James chapter two is a perfect example of this. We brought one up this morning. Go ahead and turn to James chapter two. I'll give you a couple examples of this just from James chapter two. Go to James chapter two. Let's look at just a couple examples of this, how people could just twist what the Bible says. Look at James chapter two and verse number ten. I brought this one up this morning, but let's look at it again. James chapter two and verse James chapter two period is talking about somebody who's saved. He's saying, you are all saved here tonight. He's talking about, first of all, how are men going to see that you're saved? The only way I can see your faith is through your works, because I'm just, man, I'm not God. I can't read your heart. The only way I can see your faith is through your works. And guess what? The only way that your brothers and sisters and people in this world will benefit from you, from your faith, is what? It's through your works. You don't have to have any works to go to heaven. We know that. But the only way you're going to profit other people is through your works. James chapter two and verse number ten, we looked at this one this morning. Look at what it says. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. People use that verse to say all sin is equal, to justify all sin. We talked about it this morning. But that's not what it says. We need to rightly divide the word of truth. I mean, you have to know the Bible. So when someone says something stupid, all sin is equal, some wicked person who's trying to justify evil in their life or evil that's happening, you can say, that's not what the Bible says. Show me that in the Bible, because you know it's not there. Very few people on this planet have read the Bible cover to cover. Yet the Bible, for some reason, for some weird reason, it's the one book that people who haven't even read a page in it will claim to know. Isn't that crazy? Nobody would do that with any other book. Nobody would go and say, oh, you know, I'm an expert on the book animal farm and talk to people about that when they've never, they don't even know what it's about. No one would ever do that, but they do it with the Bible all the time. Now go to verse seventeen. I'll show you another example. So you need a study to show yourself approved, because what the devil does, what Satan does, he doesn't have his own Bible. He takes God's words and he twists them. He changes them and he uses men to do it. So you're going to find spiritual sounding people that are going to twist God's words to try to deceive you in your life. Look at James chapter two in verse number seventeen. The Bible says, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. See, you have to have works with your faith to go to heaven. Is that what that said? Look at the verse before it. All you really have to do, like 99% of the time, if you have somebody like twisting some, all you have to do is like read two verses before and two verses after to get the context of what it's saying. So look what the Bible says in just the verse before James chapter two, verse seventeen. In verse number sixteen, it says, actually go to verse fifteen. Let's use my own rule. Go to verse fifteen. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food. So here you have a brother or sister. They don't have any food and they don't have any clothing. They're cold and they're starving. Okay? Look at verse sixteen. And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace. Be warmed and filled. Notwithstanding, you give them not those things which are needful to the body. What doth it profit? You just need to underline those words in your Bible. What doth it profit? If I have a brother that needs food and he's cold and I go up to him and I say, I hope you get filled and I hope you get some clothes. Have a nice day. Does that help him? Does that profit him? He's like, thanks, man. He's like, thanks, buddy. You know, you didn't help me at all. He's still sitting there and I'm like, I pat him on the back and I'm like, best of luck to you, brother. This is what this is saying. It's like it doesn't profit him. It doesn't benefit him at all. But then look at verse number seventeen. It says, even so. It means just like that. Just like that situation. It says, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Does it say it doesn't exist? No, it says it's worthless to other people is what it means. That's what those two words even so mean. Even so means just like the example, I just, your faith will put no one. Doesn't that make perfect sense? You have to be like, you have to have faith plus works to go to heaven. That's not what it says. To rightly divide the word of truth, we need to study to show ourselves approved. Because Satan just takes what God does and twist it just a little bit. He's in disguise. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 says that he'll disguise himself as an angel of light. Like another thing I said this morning, it's not like he's walking around with horns and a tail before going, I'm the devil. No, he's going to use men to twist God's word to deceive us, to deceive people in this world. There's a lot of people deceived. It's working very well. Now back to the point, just like God turned to Isaiah chapter 14, or actually turned to Revelation chapter 13, the last book of the Bible. So all that to say this, Satan, he doesn't come up with his own ideas. He just uses what God did and he changes it slightly. So if you come up with something, or somebody's saying something, that you're just like, yeah, the Holy Spirit is like, that doesn't really sound right. Maybe go look up in the Bible or ask your pastor or ask somebody what's going on. Because that's what the devil does is he twists God's word. He did it from the beginning with Eve. He didn't say to Eve, hey, I have this better idea. He said, hath God said, you know what he said to Eve? God really say that. He changed what God's word was. Of course, God said that. Look at Revelation 13 and verse number 16. So we see that God seals people, God marks people that are his, that are on his side in their forehead. Look at what Satan's going to do. Look at verse 16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. The antichrist who's working for Satan is going to mark people in their foreheads too. Why? Because he mimics God. Because he imitates God. And people are, look, people are going to, the Bible says, if you're not saved, you're going to go for it. You're going to fall for it. You say, why the right hand? I did an experiment on this. Here's my theory on why the right hand. First of all, 95% of people are right-handed. Did you know that? I'm not. But 95% of people are right-handed. So why, why the mark in the right hand? Well, you can't buy or sell if you don't have the mark. So it has something to do with purchasing and doing, you know, some kind of transactions. The mark of the beast. So I did an experiment. We had a church gathering at No Surrender here in Fresno, I don't know, two years ago or something like that. And a whole church came and I asked the lady at the desk, because you had to, we were going to play laser tag and they have to give you a wrist band. So I told the lady at the desk, I got there and I took care of everything and then everybody was going to come and just get a wrist band. And I told the lady, I said, don't tell them what hand to put forward. I don't know if you do it usually on the right or the left. I was like, does it matter? She said it doesn't matter. I said, so everybody that comes from, you know, it was Verity Baptist Church at the time, everybody from Verity Baptist Church, I said, don't tell them what hand to put forward. Just hold out the wrist band and let them offer the hand. 100% of the people in the church put forward their right hand. Isn't that interesting? Even the left-handed people did. So that's my theory. Okay. That's just pastor's opinion. Okay. But the point is, Satan mimics God and God seals people in their forehead. So what's he doing? He's got this gold plate on the priest's head. Turn to Isaiah chapter 13. Turn to Isaiah chapter 14. I'm sorry. Isaiah chapter 14. Yeah, let's just look at this Satan mimicking. Let's look at one more verse about Satan mimicking God. Isaiah chapter 14. Look at verse number 12. Isaiah 14 verse number 12. Isaiah 14 verse number 12. Why does he mimic God? Because he wants to be like God. That's why. The Bible says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut to the ground which is weak in the nations? For thou has said, this is saying, Satan is saying, this is what Satan says in his heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. And here it is right here. This is why Satan mimics God right here. I will be like the most high. He mimics God because he wants to be God. The Bible tells us right here. So study the Bible. Read the Bible. I can't read the Bible for you. Come and listen to preaching. But study the Bible. Read the Bible on your own time. You should have a Bible reading time every day. You should sit down for 15, 20, 30, 40 minutes every day and just read the Bible. We do a Bible reading challenge in January. If you read nine chapters a day in January, you will read the entire New Testament in the month of January. You should do that every year. You'll read through the New Testament. At least, we even have a chart for you to track. It takes like 40 minutes a day. You know, most people have never, the vast majority of people have never read through the Bible cover to cover. I would guess that most pastors have not read through the Bible cover to cover. But the Bible says that you should study to show yourself approved. Then you're not going to be carried away with all this garbage where people try to deceive you. The devil tries to deceive you. All right, go back to Exodus chapter 28. Exodus chapter 28. Let's get back to the mitre. Okay, so now we know why it's on the forehead, right? So what's he doing? He's sealing that high priest. He's saying, you know what? That priest is mine. He's like, he's saying, this guy, he's like, no matter what the people do, this guy's on my side. This guy's with me. Look at Exodus chapter 28 and verse number 38. The Bible says, and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead. We just looked at that. Then look at, we see something else here. It says that Aaron, this is the high priest, the first one, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in their holy gifts. He's talking about the sacrifices that are going to come forth, and it shall always be upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. So the Bible here is saying that someone's much bear the iniquity of the sacrifices or they won't be accepted by God. This is a picture of Christ here. This is a picture of Christ. This is a picture of the high priest being a shadow of Christ. Turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews, the entire book of Hebrews, the main theme of Hebrews is how all the priesthood, the sacrifices of the Old Testament, they were just a shadow, a picture of what Christ completed. Christ was the real thing. They were just symbolizing the coming Messiah. Look at Hebrews chapter 4, and look at verse number 14. Hebrews chapter 4, verse number 14. So Aaron's the high priest, and he is pictured as to, he needs to bear the iniquity on him. Okay? We know Christ did that for the entire world. But look at verse 14. It says, seeing then that we have a great high priest. Jesus is the high priest now. Okay? That is passed into the heavens. This is Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. Look at Hebrews chapter 9, and look at verse 25. Just a couple of chapters over. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse number 25. The Bible says, nor yet that he suffered, he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others. Okay? This is an important verse right here. Now this is, when he says high priest here, he's talking about Aaron. He's talking about the Levitical priesthood. It says, it says though that Jesus, because in Leviticus chapter 16, we see that yearly day of atonement where the high priest goes in, and I've studied through the whole chapter with you already, where he goes in with the bull and two goats, and it's the whole thing. But they do that every year. That did not take away the sins of the people. That was just picturing the coming Christ. That was just a shadow of things to come. And the Bible says here, it says not that he should offer himself often. Jesus doesn't have to do that. He doesn't have to go and die once a year for us. Just one time was good enough. Look at verse number 26. For then, because it says, if he would have, for then he must have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away the sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. The Bible says that Christ was offered once. If Christ had to come once every year, it said he would have had to have done it like since the beginning of the world. He came one time. It was a better sacrifice. All this Levitical priesthood, all these temple sacrifices, Jesus pictures the whole thing. Leviticus chapter 16, he pictures everything in Leviticus chapter 16, everything. So this, the priest bearing the iniquity here is just more of a shadow, a picture of Christ. Look at Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14. Towards the end of the Old Testament, you get into those minor prophets, you'll see those Z books. Zechariah chapter 14. Let's look at this idea. So he pictures Christ. We kind of already know that from Leviticus chapter 16 that we've studied through. But in verse number 36, we see that these words are put on the gold plate. So we see that the gold plate goes on the forehead. We see that the reason God puts it on the forehead is because that's where he seals his people. That's where he goes and says, my side, this guy's with me. You know, Jesus team. Right? So that's where he seals people, he seals them on the forehead. But notice the words here. Notice the words in verse number 36, I'll read it for you. You turn to Zechariah chapter 14. The words say, holiness unto the Lord in big capital letters. It's pretty important on that gold plate. This gold plate that says holiness unto the Lord, by the way, it's the whole point of the mitre. It's the whole point of the headpiece is that gold plate. And it says holiness unto the Lord. Look at Zechariah chapter 14 and verse number 20. The Bible says, in that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord. That's like, they're capitalized because it said these words are going to be on there. And the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. So here we see that holiness unto the Lord is to be on the horses here of these people. And it's on the bells of the horses. So what are bells? What did we learn from that? Bells are there to be warnings. So every time the bell rings, you look at the bell and you see a holiness unto the Lord. Whoa, and it's on a horse. Why? Why is it on a horse? What's the deal with horses? Turn to Job chapter 39. Now we have to study horses in the Bible. Look at Job chapter 39. Job chapter 39. So we see that the horses have bells on them, which is supposed to draw your attention, give you a warning, you look at the bells and you see holiness unto the Lord on the bells. What do horses picture in the Bible? Look at verse number 19 of Job chapter 39. The Bible says, Hast thou given the horse strength and hast thou closed his neck with thunder? Here Job is talking about God creating creatures and creating animals. And the first thing it mentions about the horse is how strong it is. I mean, I grew up with horses. And if you're not scared of horses, you know, horses can like hurt you without even like on accident, they can hurt you. I remember my dad and my grandpa trying to load some horses into a horse troll. I still remember this day. We didn't really have trained horses. We had the horses that people brought to us to be trained. And it's a 1200 pound animal of solid muscle. And if it doesn't want to go somewhere, it's not going to go. So here even Job is saying that the horse's first attribute that he has is his strength. And that's true. They're extremely powerful. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 17. Horses in the Bible are used to measure, if you would, the strength of a nation. Horses many times in the Bible are used to measure the strength of a nation. And Deuteronomy chapter 17. So I'm going to show you why God as holiness to the Lord put on the bells of the horses. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 17 and look at verse number 15. Deuteronomy 17, look at verse number 15. The Bible is giving the king, it's saying, if you're going to have a king, he's talking to the nation of Israel. If you are going to have a king, these are two things that the king should not do. And look at verse number 15. It says, Thou shalt in any wise set a king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose, one from among thy brethren, thou shalt set a king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother. He's saying, you better find somebody who worships the Lord who's saved to be your king. That's the first thing. And then look at verse 16. It says, but he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should, what, multiply horses. For as much as the Lord has said unto you, he shall hence forth return no more that way. He's saying, first of all, there, he's talking about getting the horses from Egypt. He's like, but don't go back to Egypt and buy a bunch of horses and get, and just multiply horses to yourself. Did he say having a horse is bad? No, he's like, don't multiply horses to yourself. This is a very similar philosophy to why God got mad at David for having a census in 2 Samuel chapter 24. Because David wanted to find out how strong he was. He wanted to find out how strong his kingdom was. How many people were in his kingdom? Horses equal strength of man. Horses equal how strong your army is. Many times in the Bible they'll be getting ready to go up to war against somebody. You're kind of checking out the strength of a nation. They're like, they have this many chariots. Because it shows the strength of the nation that they're going to go up against. And the Bible says, God says, don't get a king that's going to multiply horses. Why? Why do you get so upset at David for counting the people? Because God wants you to rely on him. That's why. He doesn't want you relying on the strength of your army. God says, there was many times where the army of the Lord went to battle and God's like, that's too many there. He cut down Gideon's army to 300 men. It was like, too many. Send them home. Send more home. Because God wanted the people to know that he won the battle. Not them. He didn't want them like trusting in their own strength. And that's what this king that would go and like, hey, maybe the turn to Psalm chapter 20. Maybe the nation's going well. Maybe the economy's good. He didn't want the king just like spending all the money on multiplying horses and taking his trust off of God and putting it on himself. Putting on the strength of his own army. It's the same reason he got upset with David for counting the people. Because it was a lack of faith in the Lord. It was a lack of faith in the Lord. Even Joab, as wicked as Joab was, warned David. But he's like, why would you do something like that? Just have faith in the Lord. Look at Psalm chapter 20 verse 7. This is the problem right here. Psalm chapter 20 in verse number 7. The Bible says, some trust in chariots and some in what? And some in horses. But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. So the Bible is saying, you know, some people are going to trust in the things of this world. It's like, but we'll rely on the Lord. That's why God said with these horses, he's like, hey, have some horses, but you put bells on them. So when you hear those bells ringing, you see it says, it's holiness to the Lord. That horse is from God. And that's what we have to remember. Go to Jeremiah chapter 2 and look at verse number 3. That's what we have to remember. God is saying here again with the bells, again with the warning, he's saying, don't trust in these material things. Don't trust in these material things. Even with a nation. In Jeremiah chapter 2, look at verse number 3. This is super important that you understand this. In Jeremiah chapter 2, look at verse number 3. The Bible says, Israel was holiness unto the Lord. So Israel, what the Bible said here is Israel belonged to God. Israel was what? On God's side. Israel was on God's side. And the first fruits of his increased, all that devour him shall offend. Evil shall come upon them, say it to the Lord. So hey, if a nation is on God's side, nobody can come against that nation. This is what the Bible is teaching us here. God's saying, basically, don't trust in material things. When he says, when he puts this holiness of the Lord on these horses. I mean, look, you can have a horse. But don't multiply horses because then you're trusting in those horses. Okay, so for us, just remember, all your things, there's nothing wrong with having stuff. There's nothing wrong with having a car. There's nothing wrong with having some success. But the Bible says that all good things come from the Lord. You can have those blessings in your life, but the first thing that you need to do is not be trusting in those things. Because then they're not holy to the Lord. Here's a little test for you with all your things. Okay, so you can have things, you can have success, but they need to be holiness unto the Lord. Meaning you realize where they came from. You don't trust in those things. You don't trust in your job, your car, your house. You're appreciative that God has blessed you with some things in your life. But first of all, just ask yourself this, are your things holy? Are your things holy? I mean, can sinful things be holy? No. I mean, just think about the things in your house. Could you put holiness to the Lord on your TV? That's nothing but garbage coming out of your TV. Could you put holiness to the Lord on the internet device in your house? I sure hope so. I'm not saying don't have the internet, but there's too many people out here today. They got just free internet in their house and they got little kids running all over the place and they're all over the internet and they got no idea what they're doing. You can't put holiness on the Lord at that desk or whatever in front of that computer. Can you put holiness on the Lord to media that's coming into your house? Can you put holiness to the Lord on books that are in your house? Could you put holiness to the Lord on anything filthy that's in your house? You couldn't. You need to get rid of those things. You need to get rid of those things. If you couldn't say, I can put holiness to the Lord on this. Now, could you put holiness to the Lord on your car? Sure. You can say, I thank God that I have this car. This car is from the Lord. You know this car. I thank God that God allowed me to work hard, that God allowed me to save up money and that He gave me the financial advice from the Bible that I could go and I could buy a car that I can reliably drive around or my wife can drive and all these things. Look, you can put holiness on the Lord on things like that. Could you let a car completely take over your life? Put holiness on the Lord on your stuff. Think about your hobbies, your things, your career, your cars, your houses, people. Are there people in your life where you couldn't put holiness to the Lord on them? This is where the doctrine of separation comes in. This is a big problem for Christians. Like, oh, but I've known this guy for 10 years or whatever. I've known this guy for 15 years and he's just nothing but a dirtbag that's just dragging you into sin. This is dragging you out of church, just dragging you away from the Lord. Look, if you can't put holiness on the Lord on it, you're rid of it. That's the idea of separation. That's the idea that God wants us to be a peculiar people. Like, we wouldn't be a peculiar people if we were just like everybody else. And let me tell you something. It's going to get worse and worse and worse and people are going to think we're more peculiar and more peculiar and more peculiar because as the world keeps walking that way and we keep standing right here on the Bible, people are going to be like, how come you're not coming over there? We're going to be like, because you're nuts. You're crazy. You're disgusting. Keep walking. If you can't put holiness on the Lord on it, get rid of it. This is what the Bible is telling us here. And guess what? God's basically saying that if you can't put holiness on the Lord on it, if you can't realize it's a blessing from the Lord or it's just sinful and you're starting to trust in it like that king would trust in horses, he's basically saying that's an idol. That's an idol to you. And you know what God will do to your idols? Turn to Ezekiel chapter 30, I'll tell you what he'll do. Ezekiel chapter 30. What is God? What did we learn last Sunday about jealousy and envy and the difference between jealousy and envy? Envy is bad. Envy is where you want something, you covet something that somebody else has that's not yours. Jealousy is godly. As a matter of fact, it's one of the names of God. The Bible literally says, my name is jealous. He's jealous over you. He's jealous over you. So when something, horses, money, cars, whatever starts taking you away from him, it's no good. Look at Ezekiel chapter 30 and look at verse number 30, verse number 13. Thus saith the Lord God. I mean, is this hard to understand right here? I will also destroy the idols. And I will cause their images to seize out of them. There should be no more a prince of the land of Egypt and I will put fear in the land of Egypt. He's like, I'll destroy your idols and I'll destroy where they came from. God says anything that turns you away from the Lord. Like this is super simple. This is super simple. This is like Christian 101 right here. All you have to do is just think about things and just say anything that takes me from the first works. Anything that takes me or my family out of church, away from, if you're a soul winner, look, if you're not a soul winner, you should be. And once you're a soul winner, Satan's going to come after you even harder because you're effective. Because you're fighting him now. Anything that takes you away from church, takes you out of soul winning, takes you out of this Christian life, God's going to go after those things because he wants you back. He wants you back to be what? James chapter 2. To be profitable. Look, God's not just coming down here and just getting everybody saved. He already did the hard part. He said, you go out and do it. He gave us the commission of being ambassadors. Anything that takes us away from that, God's coming after it. God will chastise us and God's coming after those things. He'll destroy your idols. Keep it holiness to the Lord. And if anything's leading you into sin, wrecking your Christian life, I mean, God is jealous. It's one of his names. Satan can use these things as a snare. Go to Psalm chapter 106 and look at verse 36. All these blessings in your life, look, I hope you all do well. I've said this before, I hope you all do well. I hope all the men in this church work hard, have success. I hope that your finances, if you follow what the Bible says, I hope your finances do well for you. But here's the thing, if those things become a snare to you and start pulling you out of the Christian life, I hope that you don't do well. If something that you think is good for you is crushing your Christian life, I pray that God takes that away. But I don't have to pray that because God tells us that he's going to do that. Look at Psalm chapter 106 and verse number 36. The Bible says, and they served their idols which were what? They were a snare unto them. Everything that's a blessing in your life that God gave you can become a snare to you. And if you just think about how a poor character that is, when somebody gives you something that's good and then you use it to hurt them, that would be very poor character. But that's what people do to God all the time. God blesses them. They start doing things. Don't get into this cycle. Don't be this Christian that's like on this roller coaster ride your whole life where you get some, you start studying the Bible, going to church, being effective in Christian life. God blesses you for it. And then you take those blessings and you turn your back on God. And then he's got to knock you down. And then you're like, oh, you know, I'm being chastised. And then you figured out again. And then you get right. And don't be this, just take the blessings and give God the credit and keep doing what you're supposed to do. That's it. Beware of those tricks. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Here's another thing that needs to be holiness unto the Lord. So we see that like the things need to be holiness unto the Lord. God, you know, God's going to give us some blessings in our lives, but they better be holiness unto the Lord. They better be, you know, things that we just realize are blessings from God. Okay. They better not cause us to turn on God. Here's another thing though. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Here's another thing that needs to be holiness unto the Lord. You know what it needs to be holiness unto the Lord? Your body. I mean, like your physical body. Your flesh. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse number 18. Your body, you were bought with a price. Look at first, verse number 18 says, flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he has committed fornication, sinned against his own body. So here, this is another thing that's not talked about today. It's just becoming normal in our society today. Just like, just people just having all these physical relationships outside of marriage. But the Bible saying like, look, if you do that, that's a special sin. Why? Because you're literally sinning against yourself. You're sinning against your own body. Like it's not even hard to figure that one out. Go just, go look up like on the CDC website for like two minutes and you'll be disgusted and like, I mean, how many people have diseases out there? It's ridiculous. But if we just listen to the Bible, people wouldn't have these problems. So you got to keep your body holy. Look at what it says in verse 19. It says, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost, which is in you, which you have of God and you're not your own. The Bible is saying your body isn't yours. If you're saved, you are not your own. This is why nobody could tell me that I have to get a vaccine. Like, this isn't my body. Have a nice day. You know, I mean, why? Because you're bought with a price. Because Jesus Christ bought me. Because Jesus Christ bought me with His blood on the cross. That's why. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So look, everything must be kept holiness unto the Lord. That's the point that the mitre, the whole mitre, now look, the whole mitre is go back to Exodus chapter 28. I want to leave you with one thought on the mitre. If you look up, this is why you need to just have a Bible and just let the Bible define words for you. Let the Bible just read the Bible. The Bible defines words for you. The Bible defines things for you. You can't really go and trust even the English language anymore. But if you look up, if you look up what a mitre says, what a mitre is, let's just read the verses real quick. The Bible says in verse 36, now shall make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it the like engravings of a signet holiness to the Lord. So we got a plate on his forehead and now shall put on it blue lace. So blue, we know from the robe means holiness. That's why it's blue. Put on it blue lace that it may be upon the mitre. Upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. So it's like, it's got lace around the border of the gold plate and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead. We know why it's on his forehead, that Aaron may bear any iniquity of the holy things. We know that, which the children of Israel shall hallow in their holy gifts and shall be always upon his forehead that may be accepted before the Lord. And now shall embroider a coat. So that's talking about a coat of fine linen. And now shall make the mitre of fine linen. So here's what we've got. We got a gold plate. We got some lace around it and we got some linen. If you look up what a mitre is in the, you know, Wikipedia or whatever, if you just Google what a mitre is, it'll say a tall pointy hat. Does it, you see any like wire structure in here or that it's two feet tall and it's pointy. What they're doing is they're just like, they're defining what a mitre is by what the Catholic Church uses. Okay. Now, and if you look up like what the Pope wears, for example, he wears this tall two foot tall pointy hat. But here's the thing. It's got all these designs on it. But here's the thing. There's no plate. Isn't that interesting? There's no plate on the Pope's pointy hat. This big showy thing. And here's another funny thing. Turn to John chapter 19. One of the Pope's pointy hats that they would call a mitre has something very interesting on it around the bottom part of the, where the forehead would be. So it's this big elaborate pointy hat with all these designs on it. It's almost like it's to not show like holiness to the Lord, but to show like holiness of himself, to point at him self. But there's no plate. There's no plate that says holiness unto the Lord. Go to John chapter 19 and look at verse number two. Here's what's interesting. On one of the Pope's pointy hats, around the border of the forehead is a, so instead of the gold plate that says holiness unto the Lord, which means I'm on the Lord's side, who had the crown of thorns? Look at verse number two of John chapter 19. The Bible says, and the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe and said, Hail King of the Jews. In verse number one says, Pilate therefore took Jesus. This was Jesus that wore the crown of thorns. So instead, instead of having a plate that says, I belong to the Lord, the Lord seems to imply that he is the Lord. Only Jesus wore the crown of thorns. That's Jesus' place. The plate on the priest said, I'm on the Lord's side. I belong to the Lord. It was like a name tag that God used to identify him. It was instruction to put that plate on there. When the Pope makes up this big, you know what that is? It's vanity. It's vanity. It's not saying, I'm with the Lord. I belong to the Lord. He's saying, I am the Lord. And that's actually what the people believe about the Pope is that he's this infallible, that he has no sin, that he's this infallible representation of Christ on earth, to the point where he has the arrogance to wear a hat that has a crown of thorns around it. How blasphemous is that? The mitre is there to show that the priest is a picture of Christ, but he belongs to the Lord. He is on the Lord's side. He's sealed in his forehead by the Lord. It's interesting that the Pope has no plate on his hat because he doesn't belong to the Lord. That's why. All right. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.