Our question today is, should a Christian Get a tattoo. I believe that's two T's, two O's at the end. You can fill in that blank on your outline. The Bible and tattoos. And should a Christian get a tattoo? I did not do any checks on the way into Sunday school this morning to see who I might be offending with my answer from the Bible today. Now it is very popular. In our modern culture, it is a lot more normal than it used to be. And this might or might not be something that you personally want to do. I'm not sure. This might or might not be a question that you would personally ask. Is this right? Is this wrong? But it may be a question that will be asked to you some point and 1st Peter 3 15 says I'll be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh us and so I thought this question this topic would be worth taking a look at this morning and it definitely connects to the series of lessons that will actually finish today that we've been studying for several months and developing biblical standards and and convictions? How do we take the Bible and apply it to every aspect and area of our lives? How do we apply the Word of God? How do we engraft the Word of God? How do we take in the Word of God? How can we be hearers and doers of what the Bible says? Now, when it comes to this question, like many other questions that we've covered, You can't pull out a concordance. Nobody really does that anymore anyway. You can't type in a concordance search and look up the word tattoo and come up with any Bible verses. The word is never mentioned in the Bible. I cannot take the Bible and show you a verse that says, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not be tattooed. thou shalt not take a tattoo upon thy skin." There is no such Bible verse, but does the Bible have anything to say? Does the Bible have any direction to give us? Just because a word or a particular issue is not directly addressed in the Word of God, that doesn't mean that there aren't principles found in the Bible that we can apply to any question that we face in life. Listen, God gave us 66 books, 1189 chapters, 31002 verses, and he said this is everything we need to make all of our choices and decisions. So there's something there to guide us and to help us if our approach and if our desire is to be wise, to make good choices, right decisions, to glorify and to please the Lord. And so this is probably the most obvious place to start with this question. Leviticus chapter 19 and verse number 28. Look at what the Bible says. Leviticus 19 and verse 28. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead. Now, that's a separate issue altogether. That's another thing that shows up in our culture is self-harm and people cutting themselves. That was something that the maniac of Gadara who was possessed with a legion of devils That's not something that's normal or natural. No man hated his own flesh, the Bible says, and God told his people in the law, don't do that. Don't harm yourself. Don't mutilate yourself. The same verse, he said, nor print any marks upon you. I am the Lord. Okay, so the word tattoo is not there. But I would say that's pretty much what a tattoo is. It is a mark that is printed upon your skin. And God said in the law to his people, I don't want you to cut your skin and I don't want you to print any marks upon your skin. And one of the reasons God had forbidden this in the law he gave to his people in the Old Testament is that it did have some association with paganism, with false religion, with idolatry, with the worship of those peoples that inhabited the land God gave to Abraham and his descendants. And God said, I want you separated. I want you to be different. I don't want you to do the things that They do. Don't cut your flesh. Don't print marks upon your flesh. That's very obvious from Leviticus chapter 19. But the question is also very obvious. Is this not the Jewish law? Is this not the commandments that God gave to the nation of Israel? Are we not dispensationalists? Don't we make a clear distinction between Israel and the church? Is the Mosaic Law binding upon New Testament Christians? I mean, back up one verse in the passage. Look at verse 27. Ye shall not round the corners of your heads. neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard." I would not bring that verse to Sunday school and use it to tell you how you should cut your hair or trim your beard or present yourself in any way. That verse has nothing to do with Christians in the New Testament. These laws and commandments were for The nation of Israel in the land of promise, it was for a specific people, at a specific time, in a specific place, and not us. So, can I take Leviticus 19.28, don't print any marks upon your flesh, and take that verse to a New Testament Christian and say, the Bible forbids you to get a tattoo. In all honesty, I cannot. That would be inconsistent in my biblical interpretation. That would be inconsistent in my desire to rightly divide the word of God. What I can take, what I believe I can take from Leviticus chapter 19 though, is a principle. is God's viewpoint on a particular issue. I cannot say that this is binding on a New Testament Christian. I cannot say, based on Leviticus 19.28, it is a sin for you to go to a tattoo parlor and get your mom's name on your bicep, okay? I cannot say that based on this verse. But what am I doing? I'm bringing a question to the Word of God to see is there anything the Bible says about it, positive or negative, pro or con, for or against. Can I just make, like we'll do at the end of the lesson, can I just make two columns and compare them to try to make the best decision, the best choice, what would be pleasing to the Lord, what would glorify God. And the only verse I have that even mentions something like a tattoo is when God told His people in the Old Testament not to do it. And so that's where we start. Now we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And we've looked at these verses many times as we've considered these questions, but we'll look one more time. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse number 16 Christian, I'm glad you walked in I had you in mind as I was preparing this lesson 1st Corinthians chapter 3 And verse number 16, I knew you needed to hear this today 1 Corinthians 3, I'll go back and give you the first part of the lesson after class. 1 Corinthians 3, verse number 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Same principle in 1 Corinthians 6, 19. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, you're not your own. So if you are saved, if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, if you're born again, then the Bible says the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, that your body has become a temple, a house, a residence, a dwelling place and it is the dwelling place for the third member of the Trinity. The Holy Ghost lives inside of your body and this body is what God has given. It is a disposable container. It is vile the Bible says. That is it doesn't last. It is temporary. It's a tabernacle not a not a temple, 2 Corinthians 5, you only get one of them, okay? But it's what God has given you in which to serve Him. And we are to take care of the body God has given us. We are to be good stewards of the body God has given us. We should not do things that are harmful to the body God has given us. We don't want to unnecessarily decrease the amount of time that we have to live on this earth and serve God and enjoy our families and all those types of things. So your body is a temple. So that leads me to a number of different considerations. One, it would be very disrespectful for me to bring a can of spray paint with me to church this morning and start writing messages on the walls of the church house. Like if I did that, somebody might call the cops and say, there's a vandal out here. He is desecrating the house of God. That happened one time. We had this, um, sign from a float is just this big, uh, thing that had Jesus saves on it. And some teenager thought it would be cool to come and spray paint those years and years and years ago, spray paint all over. It got spray paint on the vans. And I don't think we had security cameras at the time, but the guy got feeling really, really bad about it. He got convicted. He came back. It was a long time later. He came back and confessed. Ended up getting witnessed to and getting saved. But he took spray paint and he, a holy place, a church house, and did a little bit of graffiti. Now, he wasn't very talented. It wasn't impressive like some that you see, right? What if I was talented? What if I was a very talented artist and I came with my spray paints last night and worked a little mural out on the side of the church building there and it had a cross and a crucifixion scene and an empty tomb and Jesus saves? What if I did that? Even if I was good at it, That would not be very respectful, would it? Okay, so your body is the temple. It's where God the Holy Ghost lives. Why would you spray graffiti on it? Why would you paint it up and mark it up? I don't think that's the kind of house the Holy Ghost wants to live in. He wants to live in a nice house, in a clean house, in a presentable house. That's the way I would think about that. Another issue to consider in relation to what we call the temple principle, your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost. I pulled up this article online. According to various sources, including the FDA, the CDC, medical professionals, there are many health risks associated, associated, not associate, associated with getting a tattoo, including infections. Now I don't know a whole lot about it. I've never really looked into it. I've not been tempted. I don't like pain, but they're like going into your skin with like needles and paint and stuff, right? And there is a risk of bacterial, viral, and fungal infections that can occur. That's just gross. Allergic reactions. I don't even know what this word means. Granulomas. Small knots or bumps that can form around the tattoo ink particles that the body perceives as foreign, leading to chronic inflammation and scarring. Carcinogenic compounds might lead to cancer. Everything does. Microbacterial skin infections. Bloodborne illnesses. You have a risk of hepatitis B and HIV. Scarring. Lymph node inflammation. MRI related burns. Certain tattoo inks containing iron oxide can cause burns during MRI scans. So when you get old and you have to go to the doctor all the time and you've got tattoos, it might make the MRI even more unpleasant than it already is if you're just a little claustrophobic. Delayed reactions. Some of you are thinking twice about this now. I'm glad we did this. Delayed reactions. These reactions can occur months or even years after the initial tattoo process. The article states this. This is not a Christian source. This is FDA, CDC, pulling information from those sources. The article concludes with this statement. Remember, getting a tattoo is a permanent decision. And it is crucial to weigh the potential risks and benefits before making a choice. I want to go ahead and kind of skip ahead to that thought that I want you to consider. Is it right? Is it wrong? Well, let's just say, is it wise? Is it foolish? You need to think about the fact that this is a permanent decision. It might look real cool when you're 16, when you're 18, when your skin is taut but what happens to everyone as you age as you ripen then what once was nice and smooth it can change a lot in appearance Right? I mean everybody, no matter how beautiful you are or how amazing your skin routine is, you're going to get old, you're going to get wrinkled, you're going to get saggy. Okay? And that tattoo that looked really cool in your teens and in your twenties is going to look gross. and your 50s and 60s and 70s. You just need to think about this is not just right now, this is permanent. This is forever. So I read an article this week. I saw this article, there was this girl, and I believe it was United Kingdom, And she was a huge fan of J.K. Rowling. How do you even say that? Harry Potter author. Rowling? Okay. She was a huge, huge Harry Potter fan. And over time, she had her entire arm tattooed in these amazing Harry Potter scenes or characters. It was just some, her entire arm was this Harry Potter deal. A lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of pain, a lot of effort, but she was really into Harry Potter. Well, J.K. Rowling is a feminist. She's not a Bible believer. But in order to be a feminist, you have to acknowledge that there is male and female. And so J.K. Rowling, the non-believer feminist, is up against the transgender movement, because she's very outspoken and vocal about the fact that we don't need guys in girls' locker rooms. She doesn't believe the Bible, but she has that much sense. We don't need men and women boxing each other in the Olympics. She's got that much sense and she speaks out about these things. And so this girl who had the Harry Potter tattoo all over her arm, well, she is very woke. and very offended by her favorite author taking these positions and these statements. And so, but she has her entire arm. And so another long and extensive and expensive and painful process. She had her entire arm done as one black arm sleeve. Okay. And she was posting about this on Twitter. And so one guy just replied and made a comment. You mean that you don't think children should make lifelong decisions that are irreversible. Okay, think about this. The reason she wanted to black out the tattoo is because she is in favor of transgenderism. She is in favor of surgery on kids. She is in favor of puberty blockers. She is in favor of all of these woke things. And yet she made a decision in her youth she came to regret and it was a permanent lifelong decision and she needed another procedure to correct it and she didn't get the irony. She didn't see the contradiction. Do you see what I'm talking about? lifelong decisions. And the point I'm making in relation to this lesson is that before you rush out and get your arm tatted up with whatever you think is cool right now, you might not always think that's cool. And what are you going to do then? We need to be long-term in our thinking. If we would jump down to the 1 Corinthians 7, 31 verses and following, that's what I'm getting at there. Let's go ahead and go there. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 31 should be right across the page from where we are. 1 Corinthians 7, 31. And they that use this world is not abusing it. Here's a great phrase in the Bible. For the fashion of this world passeth away. The fashion of this world passed away. You are not very old, but you were old enough to understand this. What is cool now is different than what was cool five years ago. You have lived long enough to see fads come and go and fashion trends rise and Fall and listen you make fun of your parents because they they think what was cool when they were teenagers is still cool And you know that it's not Now, hang on to it. Hang on to it. Let them keep it because one day it'll be cool again. But that's just the way that works. The fashion in this world passed away. So why am I gonna make a lifelong decision? I really need to think hard about that. Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse number eight. I want to go there because I'm not sure. Don't go there. I'll read it to you. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. Can you say that about getting a mark on your flesh? That it's gonna be better in the end than in the beginning? I don't think you can. And I think that oughta make somebody pause and think really long and hard. Maybe I can't force Leviticus 19.28 on a New Testament Christian, but I can take this collection of verses from the Bible and think, what should I do? What would please God? What would be the best idea? What will I wish I would have done later on in life? See, we can't make decisions based on how we feel at the moment. We have got to learn to be long-term in our thinking and forward in our thinking. We can't decide based on right here, right now. We need to learn to make our choices and decisions based on the future and what will be best in the long run. Just a good way to live your life, a biblical way to live your life. 2 Corinthians 4.18 says, we look not at things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. The things which are seen are temporal. The things which are not seen are eternal. Ecclesiastes 7.8 says, the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Proverbs 14. 29 says he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Don't make rash choices and decisions. Slow down, take your time. The other verses have to do with just being set apart from the world and we've discussed these many times. Being different, being separate, being peculiar, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. 1 Thessalonians 5.22, avoid all appearance of evil. And I'm just saying that the culture that goes with... what is really popular about getting tattoos, it's not really something that aligns with godliness and holiness and sanctification and living for the Lord. A tattoo parlor is really not a good environment for a Christian. I think that's pretty obvious, but it's something that, I mean, that is a biblical principle we're supposed to be applying to our lives. So make your column. Reasons for and reasons against okay. I was gonna write on the board, but some kid already did that Couldn't find anything to erase it before class. So here are some reasons against Getting a tattoo. It was forbidden in The law now that's not binding on a new trustant Christian. I understand that but I think it does show us something about how God feels and And there was an association that was the reason behind. I mean, I don't think it's necessarily a sign of paganism to trim your beard, Leviticus 19.27, but it was something associated with idolatry and paganism to print marks on your flesh or cut your flesh. All right, so it's forbidden law. Reasons against our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And it would not be appropriate. It would not be respectful. spray graffiti on God's house. We need to think long term. We need to think long term. And God wants his children to be separate. God wants his children to be separate, to be different, however it is you want to say that. Now those four statements, and you can come up with others, those just from the verses that we looked at this morning. So let's go to the other side, reasons four. Why would somebody want to get a tattoo? And listen, Maybe Christian Matute really did need this lesson this morning. Maybe this is just something that's down in his heart. What could be some reasons for that? I mean, it looks cool. I mean, honestly, how much better would my bicep look with some barbed wire around it? I understand that. Okay. But seriously, when somebody gets a tattoo, why do they do it? Why would, if you want to, and I'm not judging you necessarily this morning, but if you want to, why do you want to? Well, it's, I mean, like you would do it because you think it's neat or you want to impress somebody that you think thinks that it's cool. I don't know what terms to use, right? But, I have heard this, okay, so let's think about this for a second. I have heard, well, I'm gonna get a Hebrew word, or I'm gonna get, you know that life-death tract that we have? The blue one, the way to sin is death, and then you turn it over, but the gift of God is eternal life, and the same thing, just depending on how you look at it, looks like death, looks like life. We've had church members get that tattooed. Well, you know, I can like witness to people, It is kind of hard to turn all the way around like that. Okay, so I'm not saying it is a bad thing to want to witness to somebody, but I am asking us to consider how should we do that? In what way? What does the Bible say about how to witness. So I can appreciate somebody at least claiming that that's their motivation. And it's better than, you know, putting your girlfriend's name and then an X and then the next girlfriend's name and then an X. And then, I mean, that'd be rough, but does happen. So if I'm saying I want to display my Christianity, there are other more biblical ways to do that. I don't want to violate the Word of God to do the work of God. I think we made that statement last time. So I think those are some pretty sound arguments to lead you if you ever need to think through that decision or try to articulate that position to somebody that's asking you. So, I'd be happy to take your questions after class if we need to discuss it further, but we'll close, we'll pray, we'll go over the Youth Night program.