Swaddling Bands of Holiness

[0:00] Uh, having been a pastor for a number of years and uh, having celebrated a number of Christmases, you might think, well what you gonna preach on this Christmas?

[0:18] Because I always like to try to find something new and different, amen? If you got your Bible, won't you turn with me this morning to Luke, the second chapter.

[0:30] And I want to say this, that things are not always as they seem to be. Repeat that with me. Things are not always as they seem to be.

[0:45] Let me tell you a story. Two angels were traveling. I'm telling you a story.

[0:58] No. Two angels were traveling and they decided to stop and to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room.

[1:11] Instead, the angels were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and he repaired the hole that was in the wall.

[1:24] When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, things are not always what they seem. Amen? The next night, the pair of angels came to rest at the house of a very poor but very hospitable farmer and his wife.

[1:39] After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their own beds so they could have a good night's rest. When the sun came up the next morning, the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears.

[1:53] Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole source of income, lay dead in the field. The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel, how could you have let this happen?

[2:05] And the first man had everything, yet you helped him. And the second family had little but was willing to share everything with us and you let the cow die. And the older angel replied, things are not what they seem.

[2:21] When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed that there was gold stored in the hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the hole so he couldn't find it.

[2:35] Then last night, as we slept in the farmer's bed, the angel of death came for the farmer's wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things are not always what they seem.

[2:49] Sometimes that is exactly what happens when things don't turn out the way they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every outcome is always to your advantage. You may just not know it until sometime later.

[3:02] Can you say amen? That's one for Sister Flo. Things are not always what they seem. Sister Treva preached a fantastic message last night. Amen. On being clothed.

[3:14] Amen. Hallelujah. And being clothed with robes of righteousness and everything and salvation. And then walks out the door of the church and slips and falls and breaks her ankle.

[3:27] And she's in surgery now. Going to be in there a couple of hours and put pins and everything on her leg. And you think, well, how could God let that happen? What you don't know is she might could have got in her car and drove up here to Cane Run Road.

[3:41] And some drunk ran the stoplight, ran her right in the side and killed her. Amen. So, in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

[3:53] Our God was a giver. Can you say amen? Amen. Hallelujah. See, the Bible said it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. You know, we're not a whole lot like God.

[4:04] We're trying to be like God. But if it's my birthday and you bring in presents and you give them to somebody else and it's not their birthday, I may tend to get just a wee bit upset because you're giving somebody else presents on my birthday.

[4:17] Yet, have you noticed that that's exactly what God intended to happen on his birthday? He said it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

[4:28] And the Bible said, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and some teachers. Amen. And then John 3, 16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

[4:46] Can you say amen? So Christmas is the celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ. And I'd just like to say to Jesus today, because we'll probably be so caught up next week we might forget it.

[4:57] But happy birthday, Jesus, in advance. Amen. Happy birthday, Jesus. If he hadn't have been born, where would you and I be today?

[5:09] I don't even like to think about it. Luke, the second chapter, beginning in the first verse. And it came to pass in those days that there would have a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

[5:24] And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all Israel went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth unto Judah or Judea unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.

[5:45] But let me just stop and point a few things out to you, because I thought I might preach on this next week. But then it's a good possibility that I won't. And I just want to draw you a little picture here.

[6:00] When you know where people come from, I don't need a big stand. I just want to put it right up here on the side. Stand it right there. There you go. And what I've said so far, and I want to show you something so that you'll understand.

[6:21] God blessed me. I got to go to Israel. And I got to go to Nazareth. Nazareth is what they call in Upper Galilee.

[6:36] Not very far above this, you have the land, the country of Jordan. And then Jerusalem is way down here.

[6:50] And then six miles below Jerusalem is Bethlehem. Amen. And from Nazareth to Bethlehem, there was another town here in the middle called Jericho.

[7:14] And you can read all about this in the book of Matthew. But here they are. They're way up here, and they're in Upper Galilee. From Upper Galilee to Bethlehem in a straight line as a crow flies is 70 miles.

[7:30] Now, reading here in Luke, beginning in the first verse again, it says, And it came to pass in those days that there went a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.

[7:41] And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.

[7:58] And David was of the house and lineage of going on down through there to Jesus Christ. Amen. And so it's all, now, the way up here in Nazareth, now Jesus wasn't born in Nazareth.

[8:10] Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Mary, being great with child, let me just read a little bit on down through here. Verse 5.

[8:24] He went to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, who being great with child. And it was so that while they were there, that the days were accomplished, that she should be delivered while they were at Bethlehem. But from here to there is 70 miles in a straight line.

[8:38] And if you've been over there, there's not any straight roads. 70 miles. Do you realize how long it took them to get from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

[8:50] And they didn't travel at nighttime. Why did they not travel at nighttime? Because of the thieves and the robbers. Do you remember the story about the Good Samaritan? The Bible said there was a certain man, and he went down from Jerusalem.

[9:04] You've got to understand that Jerusalem is on a mountain. And so, you know, Mount Zion is where Jerusalem is. And everything is down from there. And so going down from Jerusalem, actually, if you look at it on the map, this is the top and this is the bottom.

[9:19] But going down from Jerusalem, he went down to Jericho. And the road to Jericho was also called the way of blood. Because of the thieves and the robbers and the murderers that waited along the Jericho road.

[9:33] That's why you didn't travel at nighttime. So they only travel at daytime. How long do you think it would have took them to have gotten from Nazareth to Bethlehem? Not only that, but Micah 5 and 2 says for Bethlehem, Eprata, the going forth of the Messiah had been from old.

[9:52] For out of thee shall come forth, you know, a Savior. That he had to get there. The birth had to be so perfectly timed that through riding this donkey over this 70 plus miles to arrive in Bethlehem just at the particular right time was a miracle in itself.

[10:11] To get there without being robbed and murdered. You know, they had to travel by daytime. And I've never been pregnant with a child. I don't know how it was, but I've had a wife that has been.

[10:23] And when you get in that nine-month period, and no doubt it probably took them at least maybe a month to travel that far. Because she couldn't travel very far. Had to stop and had to rest. Had to go to the bathroom.

[10:34] And all those things came into, you know, that pressure's on your bladder and you got to go, you got to go. So it took them a long time to ever get down there. Listen to what it says now. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

[10:48] And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes. And laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Can somebody say amen? Amen.

[10:59] And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them. And the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And they were sore afraid.

[11:10] And the angel of the Lord said unto them, Fear not. For behold, I bring you great good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

[11:22] And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Let's all bow our heads and go, Lord, in prayer. Lord Jesus, we thank you, Lord, for your love and your mercy.

[11:34] Thank you, Lord, that you have allowed us to be alive, Lord, to celebrate your birthday. Lord God, in this year of 2002. Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord, that should your return, Lord, come.

[11:45] Lord, at whatever hour, Lord, if it comes at the midnight hour, Lord God, that you would find us watching and waiting and praying. And, Lord, seeking, Lord God, looking, Lord, for that blessed hope.

[11:55] Lord God, you're appearing. I ask, Lord Jesus, to bless, Lord, me this morning as I try to minister your word. Lord, I know my mind to speak what you would say if you were standing here. In Jesus' name. And everybody say amen. Hallelujah.

[12:05] Now, and this shall be a sign unto you, a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Now, there's a mystery here that is not overt.

[12:20] It's not plain. You just can't see it. Because if you understand about the children of Israel, every child that was born was wrapped in swaddling clothes.

[12:31] Not all of them were laying in a manger, but there was something. It says, and this shall be a sign unto you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. So, there was something that was going to be a particular sign that was not evident.

[12:50] Let me tell you how this, when a baby was born, first it was washed with water. After it was washed with water, then it was rubbed with salt.

[13:02] After it was rubbed with salt, it was then again washed with water. And then it was rubbed with oil. Call it anointing oil. And, of course, the word anoint means to rub.

[13:13] And they anointed this baby with this oil. And then they began to wrap it up. Now, the reason that they wrapped it up, and they wrapped it up, if you've ever seen old war stories or old, you know, cavalry stories or battle stories, the women would take their petticoat and they'd tear long strips.

[13:29] And that is what a swaddling band was. It was a piece of material about an inch and a half, two inches wide. And then they would wrap this baby in it. And why they were doing that, it was for two reasons.

[13:41] One reason was to make sure that the limbs and arms grow straight. The other was protected from being broken or anything. And the other was, of course, to keep it warm. Can you say amen? So, but there was something.

[13:57] Jesus, he was wrapped in natural swaddling clothes. But there was a double reason for it. Because Jesus was not just a man.

[14:08] But Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Emmanuel. God with us. When the angel spoke of, and this shall be a sign unto you, there had to be something, you know, was it the star over the manger?

[14:24] Wait a minute. The angel didn't say anything to the shepherds about finding a star over the manger. They said, you shall go into Bethlehem, and you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

[14:37] This is your sign. That wasn't the sign to the wise men. That was the sign to the shepherds. Everybody follow me so far because I want to kind of differentiate between the shepherds and the wise men. All right. Matthew 4, 16 said, and the people which sat in darkness saw a great light.

[14:53] John 5, John 1, 1 through 5 said, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life.

[15:04] And the light was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness. And the darkness comprehended it not. In Luke, the first chapter, and the 75th verse, it says, In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.

[15:20] And thou, child, shall be called the prophet of the highest. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way. Speaking of John the Baptist. To give knowledge of salvation to the people by the remission of their sins.

[15:34] Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us. Now, who had visited us? The day spring from on high.

[15:47] What in the world are they talking about a day spring? Does anybody have any idea what a day spring is? The day spring is the sun. Every morning, the day springs up.

[15:59] And this day spring is the morning sun rising. But he says, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high has visited us.

[16:10] And what did he visit us for? To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. And to guide our feet unto the way of peace. Can you say amen?

[16:21] Three things that he gave the light for. The light was to give light to those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Amen. You know, death doesn't have much sting to it.

[16:32] If you know that to be absent from the body is present with the Lord. Amen. Then, oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory? Amen. If you know that you're going to heaven to be with Jesus. And to guide our feet into the way of peace.

[16:47] The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is to guide our feet in the way of peace. It's a light that shines out. In John 3, 19, it says, And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world.

[16:59] Amen. Amen. John 8 and 12 says, And Jesus said unto them, I am the light of the world. In case you haven't gotten it by now. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. John 12, 35, Jesus said, Just a little while, the light is with you.

[17:12] John 12, 46, I am come a light into the world. Now, you've got to understand that the spiritual, the natural types the spiritual.

[17:23] If you ever learn anything about the word of God, you'll find out that the natural, whatever you read here in the natural, there is a spiritual side of it. The natural types the spiritual. The natural, you need to get that down in your mind.

[17:34] The natural types the spiritual. If Jesus Christ came, and Luke described it here as a day spring, and then he goes on through the book of John to describe him as the bright and morning star, and Jesus himself describing himself, I am the light of the world, then you've got to understand that there's something that was swaddled up in this manger, amen, in these swaddling clothes, and it was, the word swaddled means to protect, and to hide, and to deceive, amen.

[18:09] You say deceive, see there's good deceit, and there's bad deceit. I don't want to go into that this morning, but there's good things, and there's bad things that comes out of the same, that can come out of the same instance.

[18:24] Can you say amen? And a lot of things is all in how it's stated, and how you take it. Can you say amen? Now, the spirit types are natural, so the swaddling bands that you see in the natural, that he really was wrapped up in swaddling bands, but so was every child wrapped up in swaddling bands.

[18:41] But this swaddling bands had a twofold meaning, a twofold purpose. Not only was it to swaddle the child, to keep it warm, to protect it, and make sure that his limbs go straight, but it was also to cover, and to hide, and to protect.

[18:59] Let me read some scriptures here. In the book of John, the first chapter, in the fourth verse, it says, and in him was light, and the life, and the light was the light of man.

[19:09] Can you say amen? Now, in Exodus 34, hold your place there in, in, in, where we were just at, in Luke. And let me read you something in Exodus 34.

[19:21] Who was Jesus Christ? He was the Son of God. I told you last week, I preached at how that, when did Jesus Christ come, first come on the scene?

[19:32] Did he come on the scene as a, as a, as a babe in the angel, in the manger in Bethlehem? Or did he come on the scene in Genesis 1, 1, where it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

[19:43] Because, uh, Genesis 1, 1 goes along with John 1, 1. And, and, and, and, and, and, and in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And, and I'd have to preach the same message, preached it last week, to bring you up to what I'm trying to talk about this morning.

[19:56] But how that, how that Jesus Christ just didn't appear here, but he was, he was from eternity past. Amen. And, and he's gone, he said, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen. I'm the beginning and the end. And I go on out, and, and there is no end to my ways.

[20:08] Amen. Listen, listen to what here, when, when Moses got to visit with God, and, and what happened when he was visiting with God? It's in, uh, 34, beginning of verse 29.

[20:21] And it says, and it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tables of testimony in Moses's hand, when he came down from the Mount, that Moses wist not, he did not know, that the skin of his face shone, while he talked with them.

[20:40] And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him.

[20:50] And Moses called unto them, and to Aaron, and to the rulers of the congregation. Now, now listen, and Moses called unto him, and Aaron, all the rulers of the congregation, and returned unto him.

[21:03] And Moses talked with them, with the rulers. Amen. And afterwards, all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them commandment, all that the Lord had spoken with him at Mount Sinai.

[21:15] Until Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. Now, why did Moses put a veil on his face? In other words, Moses swaddled his face.

[21:29] Why did he do this? Because, and let's read verse 34. But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with them, he took off the veil until he came out, and he came out, and he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel, after that which he was commanded.

[21:44] And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with them. Now, can you imagine that somebody's face shone?

[21:57] When you begin to look up in the Hebrew, what these words mean. The Hebrew word for shone comes from the Hebrew of 7160, and it means, listen, that's gonna blow your mind.

[22:08] It means to gore, or to push. To gore, or to push. It also means to shoot out horns as a ray of light.

[22:22] The word horn, the word shone, also means power. In 7161, which is a reference to 7160, the next one to it, it means, the word shone means a projecting horn, resembling an elephant's tusk, or tooth, or the corner of the altar.

[22:41] You remember the brazen altar had four horns on it? Now, as I was reading in my Jameson Foster Brown commentary this morning on some of this, it said that the old, early painters, when they drew a picture, you may have seen a picture of Moses, and Moses had horns on his head.

[23:05] And the reason why is because they were reading from a different translation, and so they didn't read that his face shone, they read that there was horns coming out of his head.

[23:16] And so the same word that means, the same word that we translate as shone, which means to shine, which means to bright, also means to have, to have a horn protruding out like a ray of light, or a ray of light protruding out like a horn.

[23:33] Now what, what, you know, if you come down to modern day, R2-D2, Star Wars, what are they fighting with?

[23:45] Do I, lightsabers, laser beams, I just heard on the news, Paul Harvey talking about this, they have now developed a laser, so powerful, and so smart, that it can not only destroy satellites in space, if the enemy shoots a projectile, a bullet, a huge bullet, this computer can immediately analyze what kind of bullet it is, and if it's harmful or not, where it's going to land at, and shoot it and destroy it.

[24:19] To the people operating, it said it's almost boring, because this thing never, never misses. Never. What is it that shoots down, that projectile, that missile, that scud, or whatever it is that's coming in?

[24:31] It is a ray of light. A ray, something that you can't even see. If I had one here, I'd take my little light, you know, my little, what do they call it? Huh?

[24:42] Laser pointer. You couldn't see it, but I'd shine it back there on the wall, and you'd see the light back there on that wall. Magnify that, times a million times, and it's got power to blow a hole in that wall, to completely evaporate the wall until it's not there.

[24:56] All right. When you consider the one who made the sun, the sun is so powerful that nothing can even get close to it because it just evaporates.

[25:08] It's consumed. Then consider the one who made the sun, and you're beginning to get an inkling of the brightness of his power and of his glory.

[25:20] That's why one time he said, no man has seen the face of God at any time, and that did not mean the face because he came down in the form of a man and had the body of a man, and as a man, he talked with Moses, and Moses ate with him, and all these different kind of things, but that's not what it's talking about.

[25:36] When it's talking about face, it means the full, unfiltered glory of God. It's just so bright that it would consume the people. When Moses was on the mountain with God getting the Ten Commandments, he was up there fasting 40 days and 40 nights, and when he came down on the mountain, he wished not.

[25:53] He knew not that his face was shining, that he had horns of glory coming out of his head as rays of light, and so he had to veil his face.

[26:04] He had to swaddle his face. If that happened to Moses coming out, coming from the mountain with 40 days with God, how much more did Jesus Christ, the light of the world, the day spring, the day star, shine when he came out of the lawns of the Father?

[26:21] He said, for the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, and that thing which shall be conceived in thee shall be called the Son of God. Amen? Because he, and having all the attributes of God, he was shining like a bright light.

[26:33] So what were they swaddling? What were they wrapping? They were wrapping up the glory of God. This shall be a sign unto you. They wrapped him up so much that you couldn't see anything but his little bitty eyeballs sticking out.

[26:45] Can you imagine when they stood there and they looked in the eyes of God, and they didn't see just peoples like me, like you and I have, but they could see, you know, just oceans and seas and things, and they're, you know, just going, because this wasn't a man.

[26:56] You got to understand, he was a man, but he wasn't a man. This was the great, mighty God. This was Emmanuel, Christ with us, and down inside of his being was everything. The Bible said, and it pleased the Father that the fullness of God dwelleth in him.

[27:10] The fullness. In other words, God was dwelling inside of Jesus Christ when you looked in through his eyes. You could see it on down deep and you could see eternity past and eternity future.

[27:21] You could see, you could see the Alpha and the Omega, and it was all wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger. Can you say amen? Now, it's going down through here a little bit further because I know that is really far out, but if you look it up in the Hebrew, the word shown, S-H-O-N-E.

[27:35] It's not like we would spell S-H-O-W-N, but it's S-H-O-N-E in the book, and it tells you that. 71, 60, 71, 61. Hallelujah. If you remember again, and it's in Matthew 17, 1 and 2, and it talks about Jesus Christ, he took his disciples up on a mountain.

[27:52] We call it the Mount of Transfiguration. And when he got up there, they saw him transfigured. In other words, he became a shine. Here, let's read it because it's in Matthew 17.

[28:06] Wasn't planning on going there, but it's kind of too good to miss. 17, 1 and 2. And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter and James and John his brother and bringeth them up to a high mountain apart and was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was as white as light.

[28:27] How bright was he? You know what God allowed Peter and James and John to do? They was allowing them to see Jesus Christ in the brightness of his glory. You know what they had to do?

[28:38] Man, they had to shield their eyes from the light or else they would go blind. Think about it. He was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was as white as light.

[28:49] And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. And you know the rest of the story. All right. Now, in Habakkuk 3 and 4, that's a strange book to look at, but let's just look at it real quick.

[29:04] Habakkuk. You see Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk. Huh? It's on page 909.

[29:23] H-A-B-A-K-K-U-K. Habakkuk. And let's see what it says here, but I wouldn't aim to go there either, but we will. Habakkuk 3 and 4. It says, Well, let me read the verse 3 also.

[29:42] And God came from Timon, the Holy One from Mount Paran, Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise, and his brightness was as the light, and he had horns coming out of his hands.

[29:56] And there, and the horns coming out of his hands, was the hiding of his power. Do you remember how God is going to destroy the Antichrist when he comes back?

[30:09] The Bible said he's going to destroy him with the brightness of his coming. 2 Thessalonians 2, 8 says, See, Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

[30:26] And he not only had natural light, but he also had spiritual light. He not only had natural swaddling bands, but he also had spiritual swaddling bands. And this was spiritual swaddling bands was to present the power of the El Shaddai.

[30:38] El means God. Shaddai means Almighty. Of the God Almighty from consuming and devouring and everything that was there. So they wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.

[30:49] Can you imagine that? I mean, it just blows my mind that this child was like this. Now, Luke 2 and 12 said, This shall be a sign unto you, a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

[31:01] This means that the shepherds would need to have a spiritual eyes if they were going to see something outside, a regular baby. All right, there's another baby. They swallowed them all. All babies were swaddled.

[31:11] But they had to have spiritual eyes. How, you know, how did God select which shepherds were going to receive the message? He had to receive messages. They had to be ones that were continually thinking about, you know, what the prophets were saying.

[31:27] They were talking about, you know, Isaiah said there's going to be a prophet born. Micah said he's going to come out of Bethlehem. And all these different things were no doubt going through their minds. And they're sitting there contemplating all these things.

[31:37] Just some lowly shepherds out on the hill. But don't forget, it was also a lowly shepherd out on the hill that said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie. And then he wrote, you know, the book of Psalms and so many other great things that were portions of the book of Psalms.

[31:51] So many other great things that he did. Amen. Because, and he was just a shepherd. Amen. But this means that the shepherds could see something beyond the natural swaddling clothes because they had to have spiritual eyes to come to see something beyond, beyond the natural and to look in the supernatural.

[32:06] supernatural. Swaddling bands also means to hide. It means to cover. It means to deceive. Would God deceive you? There's times I want God to deceive me because I don't want to know how bad and corrupt I really am.

[32:21] So don't tell me all the truth. Just show me my flesh a little bit at a time and let me deal with that a little bit. If you show me all the measure, the stature, my flesh all at one time, I may backslide and say that mountain's too great and I can't do it.

[32:34] So God is faithful to not show it all to us at one time. The same principle was in Exodus 26 and you got to turn there because in the Old Testament tabernacle, why did God instruct Moses to make an Old Testament tabernacle?

[32:53] And the answer was so that God could come down and dwell among his people. Amen. And where did God dwell at in the tabernacle? In the Holy of Holies.

[33:05] Amen. On top of the Ark of the Covenant and on the mercy seat. He abode between the two cherubims. Amen. And he was there. Now what was there?

[33:16] Did they see a man when they went in there? Or did they see a great glory, Shekinah, you know, radiant glory of God? Let me just read it to you here.

[33:27] And I don't have time to go into all this. So just let me read this to you. In verse 20, chapter 26 of Exodus, verse 1.

[33:37] It said, Moreover, thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains. You know the tabernacle is going to have ten curtains? They've got a text on page 91. And what are you going to make the tabernacle of?

[33:49] A fine, the ten curtains are going to be a fine twined linen and they're going to be blue and purple and scarlet. With cherubims and cunning work shalt thou make them.

[34:01] And then it goes and tells you the length of the curtains. And they're going to be humongous. The length of one curtain shall be 80, shall be 8 and 20 cubits and the breadth of one curtain four cubits and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.

[34:16] And going on down to verse 7. Then they're going to have 11 goat hair curtains and thou shalt make curtains of goat's hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle.

[34:27] 11 curtains shalt thou make it and the length of one curtain shall be 30 cubits and the length of the breadth of one curtain shall be 4 cubits and 11 curtains shalt thou be. Alright, now come on down here. Well, let's see.

[34:39] Let me read verse 9. And thou shalt couple the five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves and thou shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle. Going on down to the 12th verse.

[34:49] And the remnant shall the remaineth are the curtains of the tent. The half curtain that remaineth shall hang over the back side of the tabernacle and a cubit on one side and a cubit on the other side and the cubit's a foot and a half.

[35:05] Now, on down to verse 14. Now we're going to read about two coverings of ram and badger skin. And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red and a covering above of badger skin.

[35:21] Now there's all kind of things that you can just read this but why would God want to put four coverings on the Old Testament tabernacle? The innermost covering was one of linen. Fine linen.

[35:33] And then it gives you the royal colors. You know, what colors did it call it here? Purple and scarlet. Purple and scarlet. Now fine linen speaks to purity and holiness.

[35:46] Amen? Now, now, and scarlet is also red which speaks of the blood. Now, what's the next curtain? It said, and thou shalt make a curtain of goat's hair dyed red.

[36:01] Wait a minute, that's badger skin. I mean, that's a ram skin dyed red. Goat's hair. Let me read it here. Thou shalt make a curtain of goat's hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle. Eleven curtains shalt thou make it.

[36:12] The length thereof, let's see. Doesn't say anything about the color on it. Huh? Well, I thought they were but I couldn't find it here so I didn't want to tell them that it was white if I didn't see it.

[36:23] How do you know it's white? Huh? Okay. Okay. And then what was the next one?

[36:34] Rams, wool, dyed red. And what did the red represent? The blood. And then what was the last one? Four coverings. Four coverings. How thick were these coverings?

[36:47] Each one? 18 inches thick or something like that? I mean, it tells you here. I just, but just figure it out. How many feet? Why in the world was this, was this thing covered like this?

[37:00] Why badger skin on the outside? Why badger skin? Badger skin was used for different things. It's used to make shoes out of. But you know what? Isaiah kind of put it like this. He said, Who hath believed our report?

[37:11] And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we should see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

[37:23] Amen? There is no beauty. In other words, a badger skin doesn't have any beauty to it that you would desire. But what was behind all those thick coverings? What, maybe six foot of coverings?

[37:36] 18? Why was that covering so thick? And the answer is because God dwelleth in the light and God is light and to cover this light, this glory from escaping and annihilating all the people that was on the outside, they had all these thick coverings that piled up this high because this was where the God who created the universe and all of the suns and all of the planets and all of the galaxies and all the molecular ways.

[38:07] He said, I want to come down and I want to bode with you but the only way that I can do it is first you got to prepare a place for me. Amen? Now, I'm going to bring it kind of down home here because I'm about out of time.

[38:19] Swaddling bands. The same is still with us today. The swaddling bands are to hide something. We have swaddling bands on us here at Riverside and the swaddling bands that we have today, God calls it holiness.

[38:36] When you look on the outside of Riverside, what do you see? You see the little run-down church, a little run-down section of town, a little run-down street, a little run-down neighborhood. Somebody told me the other day maybe one of the roughest neighborhoods in Louisville, Kentucky.

[38:49] We got people dying in our parks up here and just since I've been here, you know, people waking up in the middle of the night, somebody coming through your window of your house and you know, but in the midst of all this, God has got a little church and in the middle of this little church, he's got a light burning and a fire burning, but it's all covered over and it's cloaked over with the humility covering a badger skin because there is no beauty that we should desire.

[39:17] Let me read it here the way we got it. We have no swaddling. We have on, on the outside, swaddling bands of holiness. To the world, we look dark, we look drab. Just take any, just take any, and you can't really tell it on the men, but you can tell it on the women.

[39:32] When you look at, when you look at holy women, first thing you see is no makeup. They have long hair. They're not wearing, they're not all flaunted out with their jewelry. They got long dresses that go way down.

[39:43] They don't have their belly buttons showing and they ain't got, they ain't got earrings in their ears, their nose, and their toes and all this kind of stuff. And the world, what the world sees on the outside, and they think, well man, that's just, oh, that's just, oh pitiful.

[39:57] That's just, you know. But what they don't know is that it's swaddled inside that swaddling bands of holiness is the brightness and the glory of God. Can you say amen? The Shekinah glory of God and our bodies, and the Bible tells you this, that our bodies are temples.

[40:13] And another word for temple is simply a tabernacle for God. And our badger skin that covers up this tabernacle that the world can't recognize is plain old holiness.

[40:24] You know what holiness means? It means living right. Same thing as righteousness means doing right. Holiness means living right. And what does Hebrews 12 and 14 say? And holiness without which no man shall see God.

[40:36] Amen? So when God sees our badger skins of holiness that we're clothed with, it's a sign that Jesus Christ and his stature is living on the inside of us. Do we have any stature?

[40:50] One time, the Lord asked the question, can any man taking thought add one cubit to his stature? He didn't say you could, he didn't say you couldn't. But if you take it in the natural, you know, Billy's about five, what?

[41:04] Five, eight? Could you take thought and add the eight, 16 inches, or six, 18 inches to your stature? You know, you'd be five, eight, you'd be, you'd be, you know, seven foot tall.

[41:16] But listen, can any man taking thought add to his spiritual stature? Can we take the word of God and let it get down inside of us till it actually begins to, see, see, we're empty and, and, and we're getting filled up.

[41:34] And, and if you could see inside of us, you would see that, that some of us have, have, you know, we're filled up to the knees, some of us filled up to the loins, some of us filled up to the chest, and, and, and hopefully some are going on up into the head and getting filled up with the fullness of the measure of the stature of Jesus Christ.

[41:50] Amen. But all this is wrapped up in swaddling clothes of holiness and inside of it is the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

[42:02] Somebody says, you know, and you can hear all kind of different things and they, they call us on the, you know, the biggest name, they always call us as holy rollers. You know, why were they making fun of us? Because inside of that holy roller person, there is a light, there's a fire burning that they can't comprehend.

[42:19] The Bible said, the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. Amen. Hallelujah. There's something burning down inside of every Christian, especially those that are filled with the power and the glory of God that they, that the world just cannot understand.

[42:31] That's why Paul said in Romans 1 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. In other words, one time he had, he, he was right up there, he was on his way to no doubt, you know, going into the, to be maybe one of the high priests, the chief priests in all the land.

[42:46] But you know what? He, he, he forsook all that. He said, I count it all but done that I might win Christ. Amen. In other words, he took off all of his outer glory and he clothed himself with a badger skin of humility and of holiness.

[43:00] Can somebody say amen? And then, then when they looked at him, they disregarded him. They said, well, you know, he's just a little old short man. You know, he ain't got anything. But inside that humility, when he stood before the king, Felix, King, Felix said, almost Paul, thou persuadest me to be Christian because all he did was preaching to him the glorious gospel and that light shone out of Paul into Felix's heart, reveal the darkness of his heart and even made that old heathen king want to be a Christian.

[43:26] Can you say amen? Hallelujah. In Job 38, uh, I don't want to go there because I'm out of time and I just want to talk about it for just a minute. Uh, the Bible said that God was swaddling in thick darkness some, some things there.

[43:44] Uh, in 1 Corinthians 15, 41, let me just relate that to you real quick. The Bible said there's one glory of the sun, one glory of the moon, and one glory of the stars. As one star differs from another star in glory, so also is a resurrection of the dead.

[43:57] Amen? Now, here in this lifetime, we're, we're going to put on, some are going to put on star glory, some are going to put on moon glory, and some are going to put on sun glory. But if you look at it, you're not going to be able to tell the difference because we're all swaddled.

[44:11] And the more glory that you put on, the more swaddling bands that you have to have on. Amen? And the swaddling bands comes right on down. You know, we're not going to wrap everybody up in little inch pieces of, of, of linen anymore.

[44:24] We're wrapped up in the swaddling bands of holiness. Uh, now how can you identify somebody that's a, manifested son of God?

[44:36] Because here in the book of Job in the 38th chapter, I'm not reading it down through there, but he, but he asked, so where was you when the sons of God, uh, sang together? And when they shouted, when they shouted, when they danced, when they shouted for joy, one, one way that you can know somebody that is putting on the badger skin, but, but, but, but they let this little light shine out.

[44:55] It's when we come to the house of God, as a manifested son of God, we begin to shout, we begin to dance, we begin to sing, and we begin to praise God. Now, you know, the first thing you're going to say, well, Sister Ami, she, she ain't doing none of that.

[45:08] How old are you, mama? She's 85 years old. Do you know what? Uh, even Sister Ami, you ain't, you can't, you can't, you can't see her, because she ain't out here turning flips, and, and, you know, and shaking and quaking all over, but there's something called a middles, a widow's might offering of praise, that when you can't do anything else, when, when, when, when, when, when, when I got paralyzed, and, and was on my, on my bed, if you could just see my little finger wiggling, I want you to know that is me praising God with everything I've got inside of me, amen?

[45:39] Do you know why? Because inside of me is swaddled up, is the power and the glory and the radiant light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen? And it's all wrapped up in holiness, and holiness without which no man shall see God.

[45:53] Now, the sons of God, the angels in heaven are no strangers to singing and dancing, I just want you to know that, and, and what are they singing and dancing about? Because they're in the presence of God, how much more should we sing and dance when we get in the presence of our almighty God, amen?

[46:07] Now, looking in, in, in Revelation 3 and 17, it talks about what's wrong with the lay out of sin in church age. They said we're rich, we're increased with goods, and have needed nothing, but the Lord said, here's what I see.

[46:20] You're, you're, you're miserable, you're wretched, and you're naked. Can you say amen? The problem with, with the lay out of sin churches is they was too proud to shout, too proud to sing unless they had all the words and it was in the right chord.

[46:38] You know, we're Pentecostal, we believe in singing by the open letter. You open your mouth and you let her fly, and it doesn't matter because we know that we're making a joyful noise unto the Lord.

[46:49] If you, if only the people with a good voice is saying, then, then Brother Darrell and Sister Kim and Sister Connie, Sandy here would probably be the only ones that got to do very much singing around here. The rest of us just have to sit here and look at all them, amen?

[47:00] But aren't you glad that God said, let us make a joyful noise unto the Lord? But, but the church of Laodicea, the church today, they're, they're too proud to sing, they're too proud to dance, you know, they might sing out of a song book, but they're saying, they read, they read this whole song book and they, they've sang this song for 50 years, they know every word but they got to look at it in the book and make sure, you know, and they, they read it off and they sang just by word, you know, because then they know it by heart but, you know, just got to go through the formality.

[47:28] In other words, they're naked, they're unswaddled, they're unbound, they have no bonds and no bands and no limits. In other words, I'll do my own thing, I'm rich, I don't need God. Can you say amen?

[47:40] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And what did he say? I counsel thee to buy me gold and how is the gold tried? Gold tried in the fire and white raiment and what's the word white raiment mean? Preached this here a couple weeks ago, the word white raiment means to be double covered, double covered, white robes, one covering, white raiment, double covered, white linen, you're triple covered, amen?

[48:01] You're swaddled. When we're born again, God swaddles us with white robes which we begin to grow up and we get going to spiritual maturity, get growing up in him, he swallows us with white raiment.

[48:15] And finally, when we grow up to be in the bride, he swallows us with white linen. Why is he swaddling us? To keep, to protect, to preserve.

[48:27] Like, would you want your wife to put on a bikini and walk down the streets of, you know, anywhere and everybody just look at your wife with everything hanging out?

[48:42] Then would God want his bride to do the same thing? No. So that, what does that do? It's protecting what we have from the eyes of people who would only mock and make fun.

[48:55] I think he'd come in here this morning and say, he's, that old holy roller preacher and he's preaching on holiness again and I'm so sick of hearing about it. Well, honey, don't go to heaven because when you get to heaven, the angels of the Lord are going to be crying, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty which was and is and is to come and to him is to grant that he should receive power and glory and honor and holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, amen?

[49:18] Hallelujah. White raiment that they might be swaddled, that they might be clothed. Every child of God is swaddled because of the stature of the glory, sun, moon, and stars that he's got inside of him.

[49:29] Amen? Just one match in a dark room gets a bright light. One match. If you turn on all the lights, you say, I can't see anything.

[49:40] Like one little match and everybody can see it. You say, well, I don't have any light. Oh, yes, if Jesus Christ is in your heart, you are a bright light. You might not shine that bright when you're with other people in church because we're all light.

[49:56] The stars are out all day long but you look up in the sky and you can't see them when the sun's out. Let the sun go in and the stars appear and the moon comes out. Amen? Same way that when you get out by yourself, you're in a dark world.

[50:07] The Bible said, the light shined in the darkness. Amen? Them that sat in darkness saw great light. And what do we have? Here we are. We're right here on the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[50:20] And we're just, you know, we think, well, I'm nothing. I'm just a little light. That's the way the Lord really wants us to feel in one way, to be humility. I'm just a little bitty match. But honey, take your candle. Go light the world.

[50:32] How about if all of us light our little match, our little candle, and we hold it up real bright, honey, we can give a whole lot of light. Do you know how they measure a light? They measure it by candle power.

[50:44] How much is one candle? One candle is not very strong. One little person by yourself might not have very much light. But when it's combined with a thousand other candles, then that one little light combined with that light becomes a great beam of light.

[50:59] Can you say amen? Do you know what they had that in these lighthouses that stand on the shores of the oceans and shine that light out?

[51:09] They got a fire. And the people out in the ocean don't see the fire, but the fire reflects up and it goes out through a reflected lens and this lens shines this light out.

[51:22] What they're seeing, they're not seeing the fire, they're seeing the reflected glory. When people see you and I, they don't see Jesus Christ necessarily, but they know that there's something about us different and the difference is is we're reflecting the glory of God.

[51:35] Can you say amen? One match in the dark room, Matthew 7 and 6, give not that which is holy unto the dogs and cast not your pearl before the swine. There's a time to let your light shine and there's a time to hold your peace.

[51:50] I remember one time I'd just gotten saved. It hadn't been saved very long and I was excited and I told this man at work about something and man, he cut me down until I felt so small.

[52:02] And I didn't want to witness to anybody else after that. Then God said, my word says, cast not your pearl before the swine.

[52:13] What's that mean? That means that everybody's not going to hear your message. Everybody's not going to want to see your light. Amen? But God has put something down inside of us.

[52:24] Hallelujah. That'll let our light shine when we ain't even trying to let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Oh, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

[52:37] This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. Can you say amen? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

[52:49] So this Christmas, anybody know what the term Hanukkah means? Hanukkah means the festival of lights. Festival of lights.

[53:01] Maybe all homes don't have the lights on the outside, but if you go inside, just about every home is going to have some kind of lights up because they're celebrating Christmas and Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

[53:14] So when we get our little lights shining, amen, you might not can compare with a neighbor down the street that's got his whole yard full of lights and everything, but amen, just let your little light shine.

[53:25] God take care of the rest. Amen? Amen? Praise God. Swaddled, swaddling bands of holiness. Praise the Lord. You ought to go in the back, Brother Jesse, and tell them we're ready.

[53:40] We're ready. They ready? We're ready. Thank you.

[54:11] Amen.

[54:31] I went to the States and I actually just paid a disability.

[54:52] And I grew up in a course and I did things like that. I don't even remember a time that I ever should have here every day or not.