Holy Dogs

Okay, so my sermon today is on a different topic. I wanted to break it up from what I would be here next week. And the title of my sermon today is, Holy Dogs! Holy Dogs! Mary and I in our time together, 37 years. 25 of those years we had dogs. As a matter of fact, we had three dogs. One named Moses. These are symbolic of our dogs since we didn't have the exact pictures of the dogs. But we had Moses, which was a Newphriline that we loved dearly. All of our dogs were pound dogs or had to find homes for. Moses was a rather large dog. He had all large dogs, basically. It was a Newphriline. He came and he already had a name of Moses. We had a cat that came up that couldn't stand him. A stray cat, so we named the cat Pharaoh. And that's what they acted like. Neither one of them liked the other one. And they didn't tolerate each other very well. Then we had another dog named Shiva. Shiva was a Rottw And they were about to put her down. And my office got broken into. And so I needed a dog for a sign to keep people from stealing my stuff out of my office. So I got her and she worked great. As a matter of fact, my business is located right next to Wendy's. So when the people came out at night to get rid of the extra burgers, they decided to throw them to Shiva. And in no time, Shiva was about 125 pounds. And I had no break-ins because she was very protective. But she was a loving and caring dog. I wasn't keen on Rottwiler, but I needed something big there in my office. So then we decided after a while to take her out to the house, take her out to the farm. And she was such a guard dog. She ran around. We didn't have her tied up or all. She'd stay right in the yard. Even when a policeman or a sheriff's department came by, they wouldn't get out because she didn't want them out. And yet, our little niece, who was having a baby in a couple months now, way back then, she would just pick up the food out of Shiva's thing and reach down and she would just let her go. You could pull on her ears. You could do any of this if you were a kid. If you pose no harm, she gave you no harm. She was just a wonderful, wonderful dog.

And of course, our last one was Polly, who was a dog. Let me put it that way. She was more trouble. She never stayed home. And we finally left her with the neighbor because she was down at the neighbor's morn. She was with us when we moved here. Now, I bring that up not to tell you about my wonderful dogs, but I tell you because Shiva was the best dog anyone could ever have.

But Shiva was a long way from holy. Shiva wasn't a holy dog. She couldn't be holy because God never made her holy. There are some things that God made holy according to his book, his instruction book. He made his Sabbath day holy. That's why we're here. He didn't make Sunday holy. He didn't make any other day of the week holy. He made the seventh day, which in the Bible doesn't say seventh. It says Sabbath. It is a holy day. None of the other days of the week are called holy. Matter of fact, none of them have a name except 123456. Because God did make that day holy. No argument about it. Theologians on both sides of the thing said, hey, Genesis 2, wherever you want to go, Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, wherever you want to go, it's holy. And God made it that way. The Ark of the Covenant. Remember the story. He made that Ark holy. And it happened to be not only in the tent, but it was then put into the temple. And his place, God's place to be with them, was between the two angelic wings. There's a small space there that they didn't quite touch. And he had them make this according to his instructions, and that Ark was considered holy. And no one was to go in before it, except a priest at certain times, designated times.

And the Ark was to be carried in a specific way. You want to just pick it up, carry it. Looks kind of large there to do that. But he had a special way that you were to carry this on a cart, because it was holy. And he said, don't touch it.

And we know from the story of Uzzah, he was just trying to keep it from falling off, and this cruel old God struck him dead. But he was not ignorant. He was a Levite. And where much is given, much is required. And they were required to carry out every detail according to God's instructions when it came to holy. And so he should have known. It's like God wasn't powerful enough to keep it from falling. So we have a holy Sabbath. We have an Ark of the Covenant, and then we have the place in which it was stored. In the temple called the Holy of Holies, it was a room, according to 1 Kings 6. It was a room designated for the Ark of the Covenant, and it was, as it says, 20 cubits by 20 cubits by 20 cubits. And a cubit was from the end of the elbow to the top of the finger, which it kind of could vary. So I'll give you a size, but it depended on what man was laying that out. My length is, from here to here, is different than Bill's. Different from probably very, quite a few people in here. So we vary. What they say is somewhere around 30 foot wide, 30 foot deep, 30 foot tall. And it was a special room which was holy. So I've given you three examples. There are other things in the Bible that were considered holy. I won't go into that because that's not my point today. Yet, Jesus referred to holy dogs in a sermon, and not just a sermon, the sermon on the Mount, one of the greatest sermons ever given. So I want to look at that today because I feel like that should carry some weight with us. Also how you explain things.

So if you will, go with me to Matthew 7. I'll be reading from the New King James Version. Matthew 7 and verse 6. One verse. That's about all we're going to do today.

Verse 6 says, Why not? Think about that. I'm not going into the rest of the verse right now. Do not give what is holy to the dogs. Because if I did, would it make the dog holy?

You say no. Yet we can look back at Scripture and it says, If you eat anything unclean, then you're unclean. If you touch anything unclean, then you become unclean. Is it possible that I could feed Shiva something holy? And Shiva, my dog, would become holy? Is this what's being talked about here? Well, if you take it literally, you might say, That sounds silly.

But we can look at Psalm, if you will. Go with me to Psalm 22. Psalm 22.

This is not one of those that I will be bringing out next week. Psalm 22, verse 16. We know this is the Psalm about the suffering Messiah, as David is composing and also singing about what's going to happen to the Messiah in a thousand years or so. But he talks about there that in 22 and verse 16, For dogs have surrounded me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. My dog, Shiva, was good, but she couldn't pierce my hands or my feet.

What's it talking about? A dog isn't able to pierce hands and feet.

But that's what it's saying, isn't it?

I like to go... I don't have the slide up there, but we read this from New King James, but we know the dog is a metaphor for people. Now, it was possible at the time when Christ was hanging off that piece of wood, that dogs were around and they would lick up the blood, and we know those things have happened, and we even took it talking about a count of that. But is this talking about a literal dog?

I think most of us will say, well, probably not. The New Living Translation here, the same verse, says, My enemies have surrounded me like a pack of dogs. It's picturing those enemies of Christ who had put him there, and they were surrounding him. You remember they mocked him?

What's the matter? You can save all these people, but you can't save yourself. Those who came by and spit on him.

They even had the piece of wood crossed, whatever it was, low enough so you could come by and you could even slap the person in the face. It's only that far off the ground, unlike these stories you see.

So we know this isn't talking about a dog, a canine.

It's symbolic language. It's a metaphor, whatever you want to say about it. We do know that there's dogs that were real dogs. You remember the story of Jezebel and how Jehu came up there and she was all decked out. Looking at him, made some smart remark as he came by, and he had the eunuchs throw her out of the top window. And he took his horse and ran over her.

Blood splattered. And as the Scriptures tell us then, he went out afterwards and said, well, she was royalty. I guess we need to bury her, but they couldn't because the dogs had eaten her. And all she had was her skull and some bones.

So these were real dogs who ate her up.

So what was Christ talking about? When he said, do not give what is holy to the dogs. Was he referring to this as David did all those years before, symbolic?

Let's look at another verse. Matthew 15. You'll go with me to Matthew 15. Matthew 15, a woman came, asked in chapter 15, asked that her daughter be healed, and Christ didn't pay much attention to her.

But then she begged him in verse 25. She came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me.

And he said in verse 26, he answered and said, It's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. Hmm. Sounds condescending, doesn't it?

But then he says in 27, she said, True Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs from which fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered and said to her, A woman great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire, and your daughter was healed that very hour. So even she realized his symbolic words. We should.

Humans referred to as dogs. Something was done, even, I think it was what, Pilate or Herod, one Christ even called him a fox. Tell that old fox, do whatever. Well, he wasn't a fox, he was a man. These dogs were representing people.

But it made you think. Because Jesus was giving spiritual meat.

This was heavy T-bone meat he was about to teach. This is serious. This wasn't for the spiritual vegetarians. It's for the spiritual carnivores.

This is why this is done. And you may say, well, there's a sermon on the mouth, maybe we just need to read context, and maybe it'll tell it. No?

No, it's a standalone scripture. Christ made that comment. He took this saying, this one verse that we're going to cover here today, and he wanted us to understand. There's something very important here. He broke the thought that was previous, and the thought after, didn't have anything to do with it, but he gave us this incredible nugget, and he gave it to us.

So no biblical gymnastics needed here. We could have heard people, well, you can't understand a verse, and I go over here, and I jump over here, and I jump over here, and I jump over here, and, well, that may explain part of it. No, it's not needed here. It should be clear to us. That's why I wanted to bring this scripture. It's a warning from God. Do not give what is holy to dogs.

Have you ever done that? I have. I have. I've given what is holy to dogs. This was for me. This scripture is for me. This scripture is for you.

Does anybody here have a dog? You got a dog? You got a dog? Okay. I'll ask you, Jeannie, you ever give your dog your cell phone? No. No? Why not? It'd be useless, right? It'd be totally useless, pointless, to give a dog a cell phone, because they don't know what to do with it other than chew on it, right? They don't know how to use it. Can you see what Christ is saying here? I hope you can't.

Will we try to point out to someone who is godless what they're doing wrong?

Well, yeah, aren't we here to help people? Are we? Yeah, we need to tell. I didn't see anybody out on the street out here when I pulled in saying, Repent or Die. Caroline, why weren't you out there? Because of this.

Remember, Christ had the same, and He said it often, and it's something that we should remember, because we've been called to preach the gospel to the world. That's what it says. That's why we publish booklets. That's why we have services. That's why we do this, right? But Christ also said this in words many times. He who has an ear to hear, let him what? It's not hard. It's just a lot of people don't have an ear to hear. They don't want to hear. Your dog, Jeff, can't use your cell phone. It's a waste of time to give it to them. We have to realize that some people, many people, it's a waste of time. I had to learn that lesson, because I find some exciting truth and go, oh, man, everybody's going to understand that. I took it to a couple of guys that I worked with. I was young. Oh, yeah, you're going to be excited. They're like, I don't care.

A Bible? Yeah, that's something my grandmother has. I don't even read that. Argue over the Sabbath day. You want to do that? Is it worth your time to argue over the Sabbath day? It is if somebody's interested, but if they're interested, there's not going to be an argument.

You're going to say, this is where I get it. I didn't make it up. If I made it up, I'd go, okay, let's have Tuesday. Take it out of my weekend so I can enjoy my weekend. I didn't do that. So, are you going to just sit and waste your time and their time trying to show them every place in the Bible where God says the Sabbath day? Reference is the Sabbath. You're going to be there a while, and chances are the people are going to go, get out of my face.

I don't care. If you got an invitation, go talk to the Pope. You think you're going to convince him? Oh, wait a minute. I need to tell you to tell a billion people that they've been keeping the wrong day. See, Maria, you could have that in Italy. You let him know. Yes. See how that... Call me and let me know how that works out.

Or maybe I'll just see it on the news. Can you see what Christ is telling His disciples? The greatest sermon ever given? Sermon on the Mount? And how big this is? Or... That isn't clean to eat. Well, yes it is. I just washed it in a sink. You can talk about these things, but see... God says what's clean and unclean. He says what's holy and not holy. If you just follow this book and stay with the Holy, you're good. But so many times, like I have in the past, thought because somebody was nice to me... Well, they want to hear. They want to hear this great knowledge I have.

Wow! I'm going to blow them away. I get an occasional phone call even today where somebody is very nice on the phone call. Oh, you're Pastor Smith? You're Pastor? Yes. Oh, where are you from? We have a nice conversation and so forth. And then I ask them what can I do for them? Well, I'd like to discuss some Scriptures with you. Okay, sure. Which ones you like to go to? And then they just want to argue. Ten years ago, when I got here, over ten years ago, I would spend an hour or two and realize they didn't care.

They just wanted to use up my time and see if they could convince me that what the Bible said was not really what the Bible meant. So I had to learn that, and I'm still in to learn it to make sure. Think about it today. Now, why do I bring this out? Because we have just scratched the surface of where this is taking us, brother. You as disciples of Christ. Abortion is not human life. It's tissue. You want to try to convince somebody of that? It's here. That is common sense.

Working on the farm as I did this time, it's just, it's, I thought how many cows and horses had to help in the birthing process. Pool, calves, even turn feet around, and one or two had to get the vet to come out and cut up the calf because it had died or it was going to die.

It's life! We know that. I don't think anybody here basically would argue. But yet, what is it today? It's a major issue. And they, a lot of people, believe that way, they can't agree to disagree. Oh, no! It's their way or the highway. Well, God says what is, so why waste your time? Right? Why? You're not going to change them. It is a sad state of affairs going on here.

And it's not going to get any better. Known four women in my life who got abortions. All when they were younger and didn't have anything to do with rape, didn't have anything to do with, it had to do with choice. They were young and they didn't want to have to contend with it. No awful women years later and they all regretted it. Deep regret. So, where do we stand on this? Exactly where Christ stood. Where the Bible stands. We know what is holy and others don't.

Or even if they thought they did, it doesn't matter to them. Brethren, we can't cast. We can't. We can't give what is holy to the dogs, to people who do not care. You're wasting your time and you're sending it. Now, there are people, and I get those phone calls, too, and I'm excited about those phone calls. People really want to know. God is opening up their mind and it isn't about discussion. It isn't about arguing. And you have some of those people in your life, too. Take what is holy and continue to keep it holy and don't waste it. Don't throw it to the dogs. Let's go back to Matthew 7. As I wrap this sermon up, what time is it?

There we go. Matthew 7. Verse 6, Ah! The second part of this animal metaphor. He's bringing in swine. Have you ever seen a pig with pearls? Yes! See, now you have! Somebody casts their pearls to swine. And that's a nice set of pearls. I had my wife got her pearls. Not anything like that. I think they look better on my wife than they do on a pig. Thank you, Don. That's going to set well in my house tonight. Pearls!

Pearls are pretty... I was looking up... I don't remember what I bought these for many years ago. $400 probably for a pearl necklace. You can get as low as $100, $200. But I looked today and I could get the blue pearls necklace for Mary. And I can get it online. And they'll send it to me. It's $28,000. Yeah, but you know the bargain? Free shipping. So I don't think you'll see Mary coming in next week with a big set of blue pearls. Because now they're $7,500. I mean, it's just like... they're valuable as they were at this time.

So Christ is using this metaphor. Don't cash your pearls to swine. Because it's like giving the dog the cell phone. You think that pig is going to like, oh, well this looks really good on me. I've got to make sure it's on my neck. No! If you've been around pigs, and I have. They're disgusting animals. Filthy, mud-wallering pigs. I was at the barn one day when Mary was in town, and I was working in the old barn that we had. We had two barns, one torn down, the other's there.

And it has concrete floor. It's just like this room here, and you had pins over here, because we kept about 500 hogs at a time in each of the pins. And down the middle is a cut-out place that drops about 4 inches, and it's about 16 inches wide, and it's all concrete, and it's all sloped to the back. And so the front was all laid, so this trough-like thing would go right in the middle.

And so we would clean our pins out every other day. Didn't do it every day. We cleaned them out every day. And all the manure, all the waste that came from these pigs, we would scoop down from each side, and then we'd have a water hose running here, and then we'd run it all to the end, and out there was also concrete, and it went about 20 foot past the building, and there was a manure pond.

And all it was was just huge manure pond, as you can imagine, there were many pigs. And it smelled. But you know what I remember so much was that when I would scoop those down, and just take the trowel and squeegee and bring it all down, and then wash it down there, all on the sides, all everywhere, all there was around that pond was the smelly was maggots. Maggots everywhere. And then if it wasn't maggots, there were flies.

And it was just everywhere. And that smell. And if you got near it, it permeated your clothes. So you didn't have to get in it, it just permeated your clothes. And it was just nasty. And our pigs, whenever they were, we had them in pens, and so here if a pig got out, you know what they did? They ran for the pond! They had all of it. They wanted to just, but yeah, they would run out and run out of the place. But they would go in that pond where the maggots and everything else in their waste and just water in it. And then get out and go running out into the field.

You want to put pearls on that? That's a visual that I could not get out of my head. So it was kind of like deja vu in my barn this past week.

And as they say, they're as comfortable as pigs in slop. Have I heard that, or is that just in one term? Everybody's comfortable. They are! Now you know, Christ said, do not cast your pearls to swine. Don't give what is holy to something that does not care, because it's a waste. And it's more than a waste. It's an abomination, just like abortion. It's an abomination. It's just not a sin. It's an abomination. It's a killing of a helpless child.

Brethren, we have the opportunity. We have a responsibility somewhere down the road. It's coming your way, because this nation is more divided than I've ever seen it, and no one's wanting to meet in the middle hardly. It's just my way or the highway. Brethren, we have to represent Christ, and we can do it without getting angry, because the other side can't do it. When they have certain things, it's just like, oh no, it's our right to life! It's choice! Tissue! It's not what God says. The Holy See made in His image. Telling people that swine or pork is unclean, unfit to eat. People don't care. And you know, hey, I used to eat bacon. Bacon was good! I eat beef bacon now, I like it. So you're going to tell somebody, oh no, that's no good. No, it isn't. It tastes good. That's why we make beef bacon, turkey bacon. We make bacon out of bacon. You know what I mean? So you can tell them all you want. If they like it, they like it. You can't convince them. But this book says that pork is unfit for human consumption. And all you had to do was grow up with me and hang out in one of those ponds and you would say, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, nope. Because they were created as moving garbage trucks. Garbage disposals that will walk around on their four little legs. Pigs will eat humans. They don't discriminate. You fall down and slop falls on you, they will eat you. It's cases like that every year.

Holy dogs! Think about it.

Mm-mm. No such thing.

Yes, Chuck! Yes, Pastor Smith! Yes, you don't understand! As long as two people love each other! Really? As long as two people love each other. Where's the line drawn? Who draws the line? What is the line?

The book? But if this man loves this other man, it's about love, isn't it? Who are you to say? I'm not to say. I used to tell you the book that was made for mankind. Our instruction manual. Yeah, but what about Brother Mary and Sister? What? They love each other, right? They just arrested a woman this past week, a week before, because she put on a video of her having relations with her dog. And I'm saying, how can you arrest her?

When... Who said that's against the law? Well, men did. But where do you draw the line? That's not okay, because it's not. Abestiality is not okay in this book, but yet homosexuality is.

Brother, we have the standard. There's a pure line of demarcation between right and wrong, and it's in this book. That is who we are. That has to be who we are. Can we be affected? Yes.

See, the problems of this world cannot be solved by humans. We've crossed that line.

Human, no human government, no human man, no human team is going to solve the problems. We've passed the point of no return, whether you believe that or not.

Baseball player, professional, played for 12 years, according to the story. He retired at 36. He was a great outfielder. He went to coach a little league team. He was standing there coaching, and he was hitting some balls out to this young Tommy out in the outfield. He'd hit the ball, and ball would go here. Hit the ball, ball would go here. He couldn't catch anything. He said, can't you do anything? Tommy said, no, I can't catch anything. He said, well, send Jimmy out. Ball, hit over here. Ball, hit over here. Finally, he goes, I've got to show you. He called the other coach. He said, hit me some fly balls. He hits him a fly ball. The ball falls right here. Ball falls here. He's a professional ball player. Ball falls here. He comes back in and he says, Tommy, you've got an outfield so messed up, nobody can catch. Well, you know, guess what? We've gotten this world so messed up that no one is going to fix it except Jesus Christ. Only God can fix this. The best sermons in the world are not going to change this world. But it will change some people who are looking to God for the answers. They're looking in the same book that you're looking at.

This world is a manure pond, and it's getting thicker and deeper and deeper. On the farm, it got so deep, so thick, we just had to have somebody that we had to get a machine, a manure spreader. And we would siphon it in, and then we'd have to take it and spread it out all over the fields because it just filled up. This is what's happening to not only America but to the world. And if you're too much around it, it's just like that manure pond with my clothes. I'd come in, and you'd smell them. You couldn't help but sound because it just... it just... the air. Imagine going to school and having this before I went to school thinking about it. And you would go... no kids wanted to... what was it? What was it? Charlie Brown Co. The little kid? Pigpen. What was it? Pigpen. Yes. Yes. This is... this is what the world's becoming. We have to make sure we stay away and don't get infected or affected by it. We all know James 1, 27 said, what? Be unspotted from the world. Pure and undefiled religion before God had managed it. Keep yourself unspotted from the world. Brethren, we need to do that. We need to keep ourselves unspotted from the sin and corruption of this world. Because it's just like tar. If you've ever worked with tar. And I just helped a guy in Miami two weeks ago. Older guy had a leak on his roof. He gave me tar. I've put so much tar. I've tarred five buildings a size in my 30 years. And so I said this time I had to go visit people. I'm going to make sure I don't get any of that on me. I wore gloves. I kept distance. I brought this thing. And I spread it over and got the roof seal. And everything else. I'm coming down off the ladder and the thing slips and it gets tar on my...

If we are too close, we're going to have problems.

You've been blessed, brethren. You've been blessed with holy. Keep it holy. Keep yourself holy. Because the moral of the story, the moral of the sermon is... Dogs were never meant to be holy. You were.