 Hey man, keep your place in Genesis chapter 40. We're gonna get there in just a moment. We're gonna look at this story. I've always liked this story and hopefully I can explain to you why I like this story. There's a lot of things in this story that are interesting. So we're gonna look at that tonight, but we're talking about God's numbers in this sermon series. We're looking at numbers in the Bible and we're looking at what they mean and we looked at the number seven last week tonight. We're gonna look at a different number. I'll get to that in just a minute. But first of all, I wanna talk for a couple of minutes about numerology and this idea of numerology. Numerology is this kind of this mystical study of the hidden meaning of numbers in the Bible and I just wanna point out that that's not what this sermon series is. When God, if I'm trying to get anything across in this sermon series, it's that when God uses numbers in the Bible, God is trying to point us at something, he's trying to point things out to us. And we're gonna see that in this story in Genesis chapter 40 with the Butler and the Baker with Joseph in prison with these two men. So we're not studying, there's this weird kind of philosophy or people out there that are looking for hidden codes in the Bible and looking at numbers and God's got these hidden meanings and they're doing all these things adding up verses and dividing by this and whatever and all those things. But the thing is that the Bible, God wants us to understand the Bible. That's what we need to understand. First Corinthians 13 talks about some things that are to come, we see through a glass darkly but largely God has the Bible, the word of God there for us, it's complete, it's perfect just as we looked at, it's purified seven times as we looked at last week. But all manners of salvation of our life and our practice of this Christian life, God wants us to understand in the Bible. He's not, it doesn't have some hidden meanings behind all these things. He's given us his word so we can read it, we can understand it and we can apply it in our lives. So this numerology is something that Bible-believing Christians should not go into and not discovery. Most people that you will look into that are really into numerology, they're not even saved anyway. So they don't even understand what they're doing with the Bible. It's like a child playing with a loaded gun. I mean, they're an unsafe person trying to figure out codes in the Bible, all these types of things. That's not what this sermon series is about. So we're gonna look at a different number tonight, all that to say that this is not numerology. We're just gonna look at these numbers and see why God put these numbers in the Bible. And I'm pointing out specific stories. This is another one tonight in Genesis chapter 40 where you know that God didn't put anything in the Bible by accident. Just like Jacob asked me that question about the child in 2 Kings chapter four and the child, he resurrected from the dead and the child sneezed seven times. You know, that should pop out to you as a Bible-believing Christian, as a Bible-reading Christian, somebody that's read their Bible like, ah, God put that there for some sort of reason, some sort of meaning. All right, and of course, that pointed us to our perfect salvation through Jesus Christ. It was a picture of Christ. All right, so tonight, we're gonna look at the number three. We're gonna look at the number three in the Bible. Look down. Before we go to Genesis chapter 40, I'm just gonna give you kind of a random thought on the number three. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 23. You're gonna keep your place in Genesis chapter 40. That'll be our main verse. But the group of, the number three is used in the Bible many times to point out certain special groups of people, all right? The number three is used in a few places in the Bible and I'll show you those and then kind of give you some thoughts on that. The groups of people that we're gonna look at in 2 Samuel chapter 23 are David's mighty men. In 2 Samuel chapter 23, we get a whole list of David's mighty men. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 23 in verse number eight. The Bible says this. It says, these be the names of the mighty men whom David had. The tachymite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains. The same was Adino, the Esnei. So we see the first name there. He lift up his spear against 800 who he slew at one time. So David's mighty men, I'm just, let me just tell you the kind of the structure. It gets kind of confusing when we go through the verbs, the verbiage of it. But David's mighty men, he had the three top mightiest captains. So he had the three top mightiest captains that we're gonna look at here at the beginning. Then he had the three top, the next three top so to speak, but they weren't as they didn't attain to the top three. So there was basically a first tier top three and then a second tier three of the mighty men. And then there was the whatever was 31, I think, below that, just the other mighty men. But it's basically listing off these mighty men. This first one who's one of the top mightiest three, it tells you he slew 800 men in one battle at a time. So he went into a battle and by himself, he slew 800. Kind of like going out and getting eight people saved, right? So, well, I mean, that wasn't one person. But the point is that, you know, he went out and he did that he was a mighty warrior, all right, this person. And after him was Eliezer, the son of Dodo, the Ahoite, one of the three mighty men with David. When they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle and the men of Israel were gone away. He rose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clave unto the sword. And the Lord wrought a great victory that day and the people returned after to spoil. So this talks about he basically went to war and he fought all day until he, this will happen to you by the way. I remember after wrestling matches, this would happen to me. After a wrestling match at times, not to compare a six minute wrestling match with an all day battle, but after a wrestling match many times I couldn't open my hands. Just because like you're working your hands so much that your hands just kind of like lock up. Your forearms kind of lock up. I would have to go on a wall and like stretch my hands like this after a really hard wrestling match. But this is what happened to this man after a great victory in battle. And then the third one after him was Shama, the son of Agie, the hero right. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop which was a piece of ground full of lentils and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it and slew the Philistines and the Lord wrought a great victory. So another amazing story. So this is the top three but this story is a man that basically he stands in a field of, I don't know, just like a, it basically what it's trying to say is that it was an open farm field of like peace or something to where it was nothing but an open field and all of his troops fled and he stood there by himself and fought the Philistines. So I mean these were some amazing warriors here. All right, look at verse 13. Now we go into the second three and three of the 30 chief went down and came to David in the harvest time under the cave of Adulam and the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley Refiam and David was then in a hold and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. So the Philistines have come into Bethlehem into their territory and David longed and said, oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate. He's lamenting, David, now we're talking about the second tier three and this is gonna tell you a story about what those three mighty men did and he's talking about, he's lamenting that the Philistines are in Bethlehem. They're in a city, in his country and he said, oh that I could drink of the well of Bethlehem and three of these men hear this of his mighty men and they break through the host of the Philistines and drew water out, not the Philistines, all right, and out of the well of Bethlehem when that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David, nevertheless he would not drink thereof but poured it out onto the Lord. So these guys hear David lamenting about, you know, the Philistines being in Bethlehem and he just makes this comment like, oh that I could drink of the well. What he's saying is, oh that the enemy wasn't in our country and these men to make their leader feel better they literally break through the lines to get a cup of water and bring it back to the king. And then he said, far be it from me that I should do this, it is not the blood of men that went in jeopardy of their lives, therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men. Then it names these mighty men, Abishai, Benaniah, and who's the third one here? Let's see, inverse number and Asahil is the third one. So the point is this, the number three is used to talk about these three mightiest captains that David had and then also the three next mightiest men. They're broken into groups of three, all right. Now let's compare that to something in the New Testament turned to Matthew chapter 17. We're just looking at groups of people in the Bible, groups of people that are, you know, lumped into threes, all right. Go to Matthew chapter 17. Go to Matthew chapter 17. Go to Matthew chapter 17, look at verse number one in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 17 and look at verse number one. Jesus himself had, you know, he had 12 disciples but Jesus had an inner circle of disciples and that inner circle of disciples was three men. And if you look at Matthew chapter 17 in verse number one, you see the first example of this. It says, in after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James and John, his brother and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart and was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light. Turn to Matthew chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26. So Jesus had this inner circle where he brought to the most important events. One was the transfiguration. The second one is in Matthew chapter 26 that we just looked at over Easter when Jesus went to the garden to pray right before he was arrested. Look at verse number 36 of Matthew chapter 26. The Bible says, then come of Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane and sayeth unto the disciples, sit ye here, why go and pray yonder? And he took with him who? Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. So Peter and James and John, those are the two sons of Zebedee, that was Jesus' inner circle. David had three chiefest, mighty captains and then he had three lower rank captains. All that to say this. I mean, what does that mean, Pastor? What does that mean? I don't know. It just seems like if you have a good number of people you need to keep close to you in your life, three seems like a good number. That's all I can really take from that. It's also interesting. Now this is just things that I think about. It's also interesting that many organizations are kind of busted out into have like three main people as the, you think about a corporation, a wicked corporation, right? I don't like corporations. But think of a corporation. Who runs a corporation? The CEO, the CFO and the COO. Those are the three main officers of a corporation. You look at our government, there's three branches of our government. Does that mean anything? I don't know, all right? But just to point out that there are three groups of people that are named as very close to certain people, including Jesus in the Bible, all right? And I'll kind of wrap that up towards the end. But all that to say this, go back to Genesis chapter 40. Go back to Genesis chapter 40 and I'm gonna read for you, I'm gonna read for you Matthew. I'm gonna read for you Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 40. You're gonna go back to Genesis chapter 40 and then we're gonna look at that verse. I'm gonna read for you Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 40. There's another place that the number three is used in the Bible. And I believe that this is probably one of the most important places that the number three is used. In Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 40, the Bible says, for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Saying how long Jesus will be in the tomb and how long Jesus' soul, by the way, would be in hell, the Bible says, all right? In Acts chapter two, all right? Now, go to Genesis chapter 40 and verse number one. Knowing that, that Jesus was in the tomb for three days and three nights, let's look at this story in Genesis chapter 40 and see what we can come up with. So Joseph is in prison. Joseph was framed by a wicked woman who said that he did something to her and he got thrown in prison when he didn't do that. But he's in prison in Egypt. And look what the Bible says in verse number one. It says, it came to pass after these things that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their Lord, the king of Egypt. So we got a butler and a baker, all right? That's what this story is about. Pharaoh was Roth against two of his officers against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers. And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them and he served them and they continued a season in ward. And they, meaning the butler and the baker, dreamed to dream both of them, each man his dream in one night. Each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. So this butler and baker are in, it's interesting to note that Joseph, everywhere Joseph goes, Joseph is very similar to Daniel, he's also a picture of Christ, that's a sermon in another time. But I'm gonna show you how this story is a picture of Christ as well. So if we look at the butler and the baker, they're in prison, Joseph is, he's put in charge of basically these men by the chief guard. So Joseph is somebody who's very, he just rises to the top wherever he goes, including in prison, okay. God promotes him in everywhere he goes. Look what, so they both have a dream and they don't have an interpretation to this dream. Look at verse number six. And Joseph came in under them in the morning and looked upon them and behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his Lord's house saying, wherefore look ye so sadly today? And they said unto him, we've dreamed a dream and there's no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God, tell me them, I pray you. And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream, behold a vine was before me. So Joseph says, God can interpret dreams. You know, Joseph has a relationship with God. He believes in God and he said, tell me the dream. The chief butler tells Joseph his dream. He says there was a vine and a vine was before me and in the vine were what? Three branches and it was thought, it was though it budded and her blossoms shot forth and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. So right away, this is exactly like the second king's chapter four story. You're like, all right, the vine has three branches. All right, what is that all about? That must mean something, right? Look at verse number 11. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him, now he's gonna give the interpretation. This is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three days. Interesting. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head. Now, and the funny thing about this story, there's a big difference between lift up thine head and lift up thine head off of thee. That's the main difference between these stories. If you read this story real fast, it seems like the interpretation is the same for both of them. He's like, no, but one of them gets his head lifted up off of him. You want your head lifted up. You don't want your head lifted up off of you. All right, that's just a note going forward. All right, someone's like, I'm gonna lift your head up. You're like, yes, I'm gonna lift your head up off of you. No, you don't want that, all right? Look at verse number 14. Says, but think on me when it should be well with thee and show kindness, I pray thee unto me and make mention of me unto Pharaoh and bring me out of this house. So basically he says, he's like, Pharaoh's gonna lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place. He tells the butler that Pharaoh in three days is gonna take him out of the prison and put him back where he was in his place as the chief butler. Good news. And then Joseph says, hey, don't forget about me. Don't forget about me. I'm still here down in the prison. When things are good for you and you're back living the good life up there, don't forget about me, all right? For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews and here also I've done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. Now, verse 16, the chief baker. So we've got the butler and we've got the baker. And the baker saw that the interpretation was good. He said unto Joseph, the baker should have just been quiet and not said anything. I also was in my dream and behold, I had three white baskets on my head. And in the uppermost basket, there was all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh and the birds that eat them out of the basket upon my head. Baked meats meaning, what is he? He's a baker. He's making bread. He's got all kinds. He's got a basket of bread on his head. And Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation of the three baskets are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head from off thee and shall hang thee on a tree and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. I imagine he gives that interpretation and then he's like, you know, it's not really delivering good news here. And it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday that he made a feast unto all his servants and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants and he restored the chief butler to his butlership and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand and he hanged the chief baker just as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph but forgot him. He say, what is the point of this story? All right, what's the point of this story? Well, here's the point of this story and here's the significance of the number three in this story. You have a butler, you have a butler and you have a baker. In three days, after three days, one is made free and one is made dead. This is a picture of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ in Genesis chapter 40. It's such a great picture and as a matter of fact, I've always remembered, because it gets confusing, the butler, the baker, which one died, which one lived. I always remember which one lived and which one died by this way. The butler's a servant. Jesus is a servant, Jesus resurrected. So the butler was a servant, as a job, a butler is a servant. Jesus was a servant leader and Jesus resurrected from the dead. The butler was resurrected out of the prison. That's kind of how I remember that. I'm not saying that this is how I see the story. This is kind of my interpretation of this. The baker, what does he bake? He bakes bread. Bread is a picture of leaven. You use leaven, sin, and what does sin get us? We deserve death because of our sin. So that's how I remember who lives and who dies in this story. But if you look at just the number of three days, it's a picture of three days, making alive and three days, making dead. We deserve to be dead, but Jesus rose from the grave and through that resurrection, we are made free. So it's a great story. It's a great picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Turn to Matthew chapter 12. See, numerology is superstition. Numerology is superstition and mysticism and all this weird stuff. But actually, I'm sorry, I turned to First Chronicles chapter 12. I led you astray there. But the point I'm trying to get you with these numbers is these numbers in the Old Testament, just like seven, just like three, they're simply pointing us to Christ is what they are doing. You say, why three days and three nights? Why three days and three nights? Well, I mean, I don't have an exact answer for you on this one, but I can give you some thoughts on why I think it was three days and three nights that Jesus would be in the tomb, that Jesus' soul would be in hell as Acts chapter two, verse number 31 says, I think it's verse 31, but I got this fly that's driving me nuts right now. Anyway, why three days and three nights is the question. So the Bible doesn't explicitly say why God chose three days and three nights, but I can give you a thought in First Chronicles chapter 21. If you turn to First Chronicles chapter 21, look down at verse number 12. I'm gonna turn there myself. First Chronicles chapter 21, look at verse number 12. This is a story of David, David sinned by taking a census of Israel. He went out and he counted the people which showed a lack of faith in God. He knew he shouldn't have done it and he did it anyway. He willingly sinned just for his own glory and his own pride. But if you look at verse number 12, the Bible says, so God, God is basically telling David that he is going to be punished. The Lord spoke, look at verse number, actually go back to verse number 10. The Bible says, go and tell David saying, thus saith the Lord, I offer these three things, choose thee one of them, then I may do it unto thee. So God is, he's punished, he's gonna punish David for taking this census, all right? And he gives David three choices on what his punishment would be. And look what he says in verse number 12. He says, either three years famine or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtake thee, or else three days, the sword of the Lord even pestilence in the land and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself, what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. So David is given this choice of the punishment that he is to take. He's like three years. He's like the first choice is three years of famine. All right, three years of famine. The second choice is three months of being taken into the, you're being basically taken over by some enemy, right? Or he says three days of pestilence, meaning disease and sickness and all these things, all right? Now look at, here's what's interesting. Look at verse number 13. Look what David says to the prophet here. He says, and David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait, let me fall now in the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man. So I wanna point out here that there was three choices and David did not pick a choice. David just said, I don't want choice too. He just said, I do not want the choice of falling into the hand of my enemies. Cause look, he's been there, done that. He doesn't wanna go through that again. So he basically tells, you know, God, he tells God, I just don't want the second one. And it's interesting that God chooses the three days. All right, and here's what's even more interesting. If you look at verse number 14, the Bible says that basically God chose one of the other two. It says, the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel and there fell of Israel 70,000 men. Now, at the end of the pestilence, the angel goes and he, well, let's just look at it in verse number 14. God sent an angel into Jerusalem to destroy it. He was destroying the Lord, beheld and it repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed. Look what he says in verse number 15. After three days of destroying, God says, it is enough. So he basically tells the angel to stop, okay? So God chose three days in this case because, I mean, it was enough. You know, it was enough punishment. It was enough, you know, for David. So why three days and three nights in the tomb? Well, obviously God chose that time. God chose that time and he must have thought that it was enough. He must have thought that three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, you know what, that's enough. That's enough. That's enough to what? To cover my wrath that would be on the sins of the world. So it's enough. And how do I know it's enough? Because you're saved. And I'm saved, that's how I know it's enough. So that's a neat little picture of how, you know, not only did God choose the three days, but the three days was enough. Turn to 1 John chapter five. It's also interesting in Psalm 1610, also backed up in Acts chapter two, that three days, you know, the Bible says that Jesus' flesh would not see corruption. You know, in three days, pretty much guarantees that. You know, after three days, you know, things go bad, right? You know, if an animal dies and flesh is dead for three days, you know, it starts to corrupt. So number one, it's enough. Number two, Jesus was not to see physical corruption as his body lay in the tomb, all right? Because his body did not go to hell. His soul went to hell. Okay, his body, his soul came back to his body and resurrected, you know, from there. Look at verse number seven of 1 John chapter five. And verse number seven, you know, a second super important part of, you know, or application of the rule of three in the Bible is the trinity. You know, that there's literally three, I don't even wanna say parts, because that's not even really a correct way of saying it, but God is three in one. I mean, just use the Bible words when it comes to the trinity and you'll be okay. Look at verse number seven. It says, for there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. Why does God have three parts? Well, you know, I don't really know. Here's the thing, you know, we can ask some things to God when we get in heaven. You know, I always think about things when I think about the trinity. Why, you know, because I've thought about these things before, why the trinity? Why not, you know, why not six or nine or 12 or something like that? You know, why is there three that bear record? Look, there's one God, but there's three that bear record in heaven. Why these three parts? I know one thing though, I know Satan's gonna mimic him. Look at Revelation chapter 13. I know Revelation chapter 13. You know, I think about things like Ecclesiastes chapter four, where the Bible says, you know, two are better than one, but then it makes this statement where it says, you know, a three-fold chord is not quickly broken. You know, meaning like, you know, the Bible's probably pointing out something to us there that, you know what, the three-fold chord, what is the point of that three-fold chord? I get the overall picture for us is that we are stronger together. We are stronger in numbers, and that's the main application for us, but a three-fold chord is strong. Is, you know, it's the strength that verse is pointing out, a three-fold chord. You know, the strongest shape is the triangle. I mean, just some thoughts, right? That's not in the Bible anywhere, but just some thoughts. The strongest shape is a triangle. You see any building, any structure, we're at the youth conference, and they had to build these little spaghetti things, and Pastor Anderson's daughters were up there, and they're building these little spaghetti bridges, or whatever they were doing, and all I was just shouting was triangles! Triangles! Any strength of any bridge or anything, you will see triangles everywhere, because the triangle is the strongest shape. Because the more pressure you put on the triangle, the other two sides take that compression and take that strength perfectly, all right? So, not in the Bible, but three, strength, right? That is in the Bible, all right? So, that's just a thought. Maybe I'll give that thought to God and be like, is that why you did the Trinity? Because like, three is really strong, and he'll say you have no idea what you're talking about. So, look at Revelation chapter 13. Look at verse number four. I know this though, I know Satan is gonna copy God. Because Satan, in Isaiah chapter 14 and verse number 14, he says, you know, I will be like the most high. So, what does Satan do? Satan, all Satan does, folks, and that's why we need to have this Sunday morning sermon series, because Satan, he kind of passes things off to look like they come from God. Satan doesn't come out to you and say, hey, I'm the devil, eh! You know, here's what I want you to do. Join me to the evil side. No, Satan doesn't do that. Satan comes to you looking like an angel of light, the Bible says. Satan comes to you looking like a church. Satan comes to you looking like somebody who's using the name of Jesus. Satan comes to you saying, I am good, follow me. That's why you need to know doctrine in the Bible. Because people will come at you and they will say these things that sound good. They will say things that tickle your ears, that will make you think, oh, I like hearing this. You know what you don't like hearing? You know, you're sitting here and you're saved, and you've trusted on the Lord Jesus Christ, and here's what people don't like hearing, that hey, you're saved. You know, there's nothing you can do if you've trusted and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to not be saved. But you know what? You need to listen to the Bible and you need to get the sin out of your life. You need to stop going the way of the world. You need to separate from some people in your life. You need to quit drinking. You need to quit going to these places. You need to get all these, you know, perverted influences out of your life. Look, people don't like to hear that. But you have Satan coming to them and saying, oh, look, hey, everything's fine, everything's okay. Because Satan, he copies God. So what he does is he tries to make a church with a cross on it that says, hey, come on in. Everybody, everything is welcome here. Nothing is wrong, nothing's wrong with you. Fornication, all these different things, that's okay. We don't judge anyone here. But he comes in as an angel of light. He copies God. Satan doesn't have his own ideas. He copies God in anything. He's gonna copy God in the Trinity. Look at verse number four. There's an unholy Trinity that is coming in end times. And they worship the dragon which gave power unto the beast. Here we see two of the unholy Trinity right here. The dragon is Satan himself and the beast is the antichrist. I'm talking the antichrist. There's many antichrists. Anybody that is against Christ, you're gonna meet an antichrist, you go out soul winning. People that are just against Jesus. They're against the Bible. That's an antichrist, but this is the end times antichrist, the beast. And they worship the beast saying, who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? There was given to him a mouth, speaking great things in blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue 40 and two months. And he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and him that dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make war with the saints to overcome them and power was given over him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. This is that one world government right here. And all the dwell on the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's Jesus. If any man have an ear, let him hear. And he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the saints. And behold, look at this. Another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon. So there's three parts here. We see Satan, we see the antichrist and this last verse is talking about the false prophet. That is, he's the mouthpiece of the antichrist himself. And this false prophet is gonna say wonderful things. He's gonna say things that get people to follow him. He's gonna do miraculous things, the Bible says. And people are gonna follow him. Look, this is the unholy trinity right here. Why? You say, why would Satan do this? Because Satan's unoriginal. He's just copying what God is. Like here's what I know about God. It's perfect. Why the trinity? Why three parts? Because it's perfect. That's why. Because God, everything God does is right. And even Satan knows that it's perfect because he's trying to copy it. He's trying to copy it to put forth his evil plan to destroy the earth or to destroy God's people. All right? So look. Three. It's enough. That's what we know about three. You know, from the time in the tomb, to inner circles, to the mighty men, to the makeup of God himself, three seems like a good number, but the main takeaway is this. And especially, and I wanted to point that story to you in Genesis chapter 40, is three in the Old Testament again. What does it do? It points us to Jesus Christ. That's what all these numbers are doing. That's why we're not gonna have a sermon series called God's Numbers where we go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. You know, I'll just have a sermon series on Sunday night called God's Numbers and I'll just make up a bunch of garbage for the rest of my career as a pastor. But no, all these things, I hope you recognize a pattern here, that the Old Testament is just pointing us to what? It's pointing us to Jesus. The Old Testament, that's why, you know, there's none of this, this is exactly why, and it's just more detailed evidence of what Jesus was talking about when he was talking to the Jewish leaders saying, and look, I had this wrong in my life for many, many years when I was, you know, Lutheran and I wasn't even saved, where I thought, oh, you know, the Jews, they just believe the Old Testament, they don't believe the New Testament. But Jesus said, no, if you had to believe Moses, you'd believe me. Because Moses spoke of me. So all the prophets, all the Old Testament, what's the whole point of all these stories in the Bible? It's to point to Jesus. It's to picture the Messiah. That way, when the Messiah comes, there's literally no doubt who he is. That's why Jesus is like, you don't believe the Bible. You don't believe the Bible, because if you believe the Bible, all of these things would just be popping out at you. And you would recognize that it's the same voice that speaks to you now that spoke to you in the Bible. And this is just one more example of this. It all points to Christ. That's the takeaway, all right? Not some mystical hidden message in the Bible. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter four and we'll end here. Look, the message of Christ is not hidden. The message of Christ is not hidden. As a matter of fact, as we look at these numbers in the Bible, you see that not only is the message of Christ hidden, but literally God. God is literally putting details in these stories that point to Christ that most people probably will not pick up. Most people that read the Bible the first time, read that story of the butler and the baker are probably not gonna pick up the connections that I just gave you tonight. But that's why you just keep reading the Bible and reading the Bible and reading the Bible and reading the Bible and every time you read it, you can be like, oh, whoa! You know, it's just more, more pointing to Christ. More pointing to Christ. It's just the depth of it. The depth of it is unbelievable. It's amazing. I mean, the Bible itself, Old Testament to New Testament and how they fit together is a miracle. I mean, we know it's true because it exists. No man could have done this. No man could have done this. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter four. But what, the point is this. The message of Christ is not hidden. As a matter of fact, you know, our goal in this church is to make sure that the message of Christ is not hidden. Look at verse number three of 2 Corinthians chapter four. But if our gospel be what? If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. You could hide it and you're still going to heaven. If you're saved tonight, you've trusted on Jesus and you're sealed by the Holy Spirit, you could hide the gospel. You could never speak to another person in your life about the gospel and never give the gospel to one person and you're still going to heaven. But guess what, it's hid to them that are lost. Is what the Bible is saying. So no, God doesn't have the secret message for us in the Bible. You know, God doesn't have this. I mean, people that over-complicate the Bible, you look at some of these doctrines that we're going to blow apart on Sunday mornings and you're going to look at some of these doctrines and like these, a lot of these doctrines are going to be very complicated. But people that over-complicate the Bible that say, oh yeah, we just can't understand that. Oh yeah, the gospel is a paradox. The gospel's works and grace. It's a paradox like we just can't understand it. Look, those people are glory seeking false prophets because God does not want the gospel hid. And the gospel is one of the simplest things in the Bible. There's just people seeking glory is what this is. And people that come up with all these, you know, oh, I found this mathematical thing in the Bible and all this. They're seeking glory for themselves is what they're doing. And most of them are not even saved. You know, you'll see doing crazy things like that. That's why I keep telling you, like men's preaching nights just keep it simple. Just pick a nice solid doctrine out of the Bible and just preach a 10 minute sermon on it. That's all you have to do. And you know what? You will edify your brothers by doing that. People will learn something by your 10 minute sermon. There's nothing that God wants hidden from us. But look, on the contrary, God uses numbers to point us to Christ. That's what I want to get you to understand. And look, that makes the gospel more clear for us because that's what God wants. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.