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Series Code: PU
Program Code: PU000012S
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00:02 What do the mysterious images of Daniel and Revelation mean?
00:06 When will the Anti-Christ appear and make his final move? How can 00:12 I be ready for the final events of earth's history? You'll be 00:16 amazed and encouraged by what the Bible reveals. Join us as 00:21 Pastor Brian McMahon leads out in Prophecy Unsealed. 00:30 Welcome again to our Prophecy Unsealed seminar. Our subject 00:36 tonight is entitled Bible Secrets to Good Health and the 00:40 subject that we're dealing is one that's very practical in 00:43 it's nature. There's a philosophy that's going around 00:47 in churches today that says God is interested in your spirit and 00:51 wants to save your spirit and the things that do with the 00:54 physical health really isn't important to God. And isn't a 00:57 shepherd concerned about the condition of his sheep? The 01:00 shepherd wants to make sure that the sheep eat good green grass 01:03 and no poisonous thing, and the sheep drink good, clean water and 01:07 just as an earthly shepherd's concerned about the condition 01:10 of the sheep, so God is concerned about us. The truth is 01:14 friends that there's a lot in the Bible about our health. 01:17 Christ was interested in how people felt, and in fact, the 01:20 scholars that examined the gospels believed that Jesus 01:23 spent as much or maybe even more time in the physical healing of 01:27 people than he did in preaching to people. Now we talked in the 01:30 seminar about God's law and about breaking God's law, but you 01:34 know when it comes to the laws of health, if we break the laws 01:38 of health, you really end up breaking yourself. And if you 01:40 go too long without food, you start to break down. If you go 01:44 too long without sleep, you start to break down. If you go too 01:47 long without water, you dehydrate. There are certain 01:50 physical laws of cause and effect that God has put into 01:53 place, and he desires that we live by those laws. Now here in 01:57 Matthew chapter 4 and verse 43, it says: And Jesus went about 02:00 all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the 02:04 gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness 02:07 and all manner of disease among the people. So certainly Jesus 02:11 wanted people to be well. Jesus said: I am come that they may 02:14 have life, and that they may have it more how friends? 02:16 Abundantly. Sure. God wants us to have abundant life and it's 02:20 hard to have abundant when you're sick. Beloved I wish 02:23 above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, 02:26 even as thy soul prospers. I think more and more as we get 02:30 knowledge of what health is people are wanting to be in 02:33 their best health and they're being more careful than ever 02:37 before but the thing to notice is that health is not just a 02:40 matter of chance. Today people think well you know the finger 02:44 of fate points at me and I happen to get sick, well that's 02:47 just too bad, you know. But you know if you drink alcohol and 02:50 you get drunk and drive your car into a tree and get paralyzed 02:53 it's not that the finger of fate pointed at you and did you in. 02:57 Alcohol did you in, Amen? If you eat a really high-fat diet, you 03:02 know and don't watch your health you end up getting heart disease 03:05 you know it's not that the finger of fate pointed at you 03:08 if you all of a sudden got sick. No. Your diet did you in. People 03:12 want to go to the doctor today and they say you know, give me a 03:15 pill or give me an injection. Give me some kind of quick fix 03:18 and they're going to go right back to the way they live. It's 03:21 not a quick fix we need. What we need is a new lifestyle. We 03:25 can't just disobey God's laws and live however we want to suit 03:29 us. We've got to say, No Lord, what is your will for our bodies 03:34 So the laws of health are laws of cause and effect. Let's to 03:38 Exodus 15 verse 26 together. Here it says:...If thou will 03:43 diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do 03:45 that which is right in his sight and will give ear to his 03:48 commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of 03:51 these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the 03:54 Egyptians: for I am the Lord that heals thee. God promised 03:58 that if they would obey, he would keep them from having that kind 04:02 of suffering. You know they've been able to look at these 04:05 mummified corpses of the ancients, and they found out that 04:07 in those cultures, they suffered from a lot of the same 04:11 sicknesses that are suffered from today. They've been able to 04:14 look at the tissues of them and they've been able to examine 04:17 them in ways that they couldn't before, and they realized that 04:19 they had a lot of diseases back then. They had atherosclerosis 04:23 and heart disease, obesity, cancer, tooth decay, and stress. 04:26 They had those diseases back then. Again, God keeps his 04:29 promises. Look at Psalm 105 verse 37. Here is says: He 04:33 brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was 04:37 not one feeble person among their tribes. Now conservative 04:42 estimates say that when Israel came out of Egypt, you know, they 04:45 tended to count the men only. Then you have to extrapolate 04:48 that for how many ladies there were and children, but there 04:51 could have been as many as two to three million Israelites 04:55 out there in the wilderness wandering. Now that's a good 04:58 number of people and not one single sick person in all of 05:02 that population. And yet that's what God had. Don't you think it 05:05 would be wise to talk about how to keep from getting sick? What 05:08 is a good Bible rule for healthful living? Here it is in 05:11 1 Corinthians 6 and in verse 19. It says: What? know ye not that 05:15 your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, 05:18 which you have of God, and you are not your own. For you are 05:21 bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your where? In 05:25 your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. So who do we 05:28 really belong to? We are bought with the precious price of 05:31 Calvary weren't we. We are told that we are the temple of the 05:35 Holy Spirit, and we're to glorify God in this body temple. Now 05:38 what does it really mean to glorify God? Well, there's a lot 05:40 of ways we can give God glory. But one of the ways is found in 05:45 1 Corinthians 10 and in verse 31 Whether, therefore, you eat, or 05:48 drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now 05:54 think about it with me. If it's possible to eat and drink to the 05:58 glory of God wouldn't it also be possible that there'd be certain 06:00 things that we could eat and drink that would not be to the 06:02 glory of God. Absolutely friends The Bible speaks about it in 06:06 Romans chapter 12 and verse 1. We are to:...present our bodies 06:09 a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 06:12 your reasonable service, which means your expected service as 06:15 Christians. You know they say the problem with living 06:17 sacrifices. They keep crawling off the altar. You know, people 06:21 give themselves to God and take it back again, right? We give 06:23 ourselves to God, we take it back again. Well, God wants us 06:26 to give ourself to him and let it stay that way, right? So 06:29 again, people think that because of the sacrifice of Jesus that 06:33 we can eat or drink anything we want. Folks, that's not why he 06:35 came at all. Well, go just for a little bit here to the book of 06:39 Daniel. The book of Daniel's a fascinating book, and often we 06:43 read stories to children from the book of Daniel; Daniel in 06:46 the Lion's Den, or the three Hebrew men that went into the 06:48 fiery furnace. These are interesting stories that teach 06:51 moral lessons, but the book of Daniel is more than that. The 06:54 book of Daniel shows us that there are certain things that 06:57 the church is going to pass through before Jesus comes. 07:00 They're object lessons for us as the church, and when the book 07:04 opens us and in the very first chapter, there is clear 07:06 information that diet is important to God. Here it is: 07:11 Daniel 1 and verse 8. It says: But Daniel purposed in his heart 07:14 that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's 07:17 meat...Now, meat means the king's food...nor with the wine which 07:21 he drank; therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs 07:23 that he might not defile himself So Daniel made it very clear 07:28 that he understood that there were certain that would not be 07:32 glorifying to God if he put it in his body. Of course, the other 07:35 men with him said the same thing You know, he could have said as 07:37 that old saying goes, When in Rome do as the Romans. So when 07:40 in Babylon, do as the Babylonians but he knew that he had to take 07:45 a stand for God physically and it was important in his overall 07:49 life. And later on in the book of Daniel did Daniel have to 07:52 take a stand for God spiritually Absolutely. He had a lot on the 07:55 line, and yet he was able to stand there and hold firm on his 08:00 principles, even though they threw him into a lion's den. 08:03 He came out victorious, but early in his life, he was just a 08:07 very young man at this time, he said no. Physical defilement is 08:13 important to God, and I will not give in to this. What does the 08:16 Bible say about alcohol? Here we see in Proverbs 20 verse 1 08:20 this text: Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and 08:24 whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Now several times in 08:28 scripture we're told this. It says: I would not have you to 08:31 be ignorant brethren, right? God doesn't want ignorant sons and 08:34 daughters. He wants wise children. We're to build our 08:37 lives upon the word of God, we're told to be wise unto salvation. 08:40 So here we're told that alcohol is a problem for us in that way. 08:45 Why would God be against this poison? Alcohol attacks the 08:49 nervous system. It robs the brain of oxygen. Immediately it 08:52 has a debilitating effect upon the mind. This amazing control 08:57 center, this living computer. Alcohol attacks it, so we can't 09:02 fight back, and that's why with every drink of alcohol we have 09:04 less and less ability to control our thinking and people find 09:08 themselves doing things under the influence of alcohol that 09:10 they know they shouldn't be doing. God doesn't communicate 09:13 to us through our elbows and our knees, right? God doesn't 09:16 communicate to us through our fingers and our toes. He 09:19 communicates to us how? Through this amazing, 3-pound 09:23 electrochemical organ called the brain that produces that 09:27 mind. So the first thing the alcohol does it attack that 09:30 living computer and all of the millions upon millions of 09:34 intricate connections that are going on there and all of a 09:38 sudden, that relationship that we once had is severed. So anything 09:42 that impairs our judgment is attacking our relationship with 09:45 God. And of course, alcohol truly does that. I think folks to be 09:50 really candid with you, I think the devil brewed up this idea of 09:54 alcohol in the laboratories of evil because he knew it would be 09:58 one of the greatest downfalls of man that he could ever come 10:00 up with. Here's another verse from scripture, Proverbs 23:31 10:03 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his 10:07 color in the cup, when it moves itself aright. At last it bites 10:11 like a serpent and stings like an Adder. So God is comparing 10:14 the influence of alcohol to the sting of poisonous snakes, and 10:18 that can't be very good. You know the word of God doesn't 10:21 have very good things to say about alcohol, but someone will 10:23 always say, But wait a minute Pastor. Didn't Jesus change the 10:27 water into wine at the wedding supper of Cana. And doesn't that 10:30 mean that Jesus approves of alcohol. Now, if Jesus had turned 10:34 that water to alcohol, an alcoholic type of wine, that 10:38 would have been plenty enough substance to get everybody at 10:41 that wedding good and drunk. right? Can you lay that at the 10:44 feet of Jesus. You know woe unto him that gives his neighbor 10:48 drink. In other words, anyone that had gotten drunk from that 10:52 wine and done something sinful then of course Jesus would have 10:55 been responsible because he would have been the root cause 10:58 of that. He would have created that substance. So no fiends 11:01 there's absolutely no excuse to say that Jesus turned that water 11:06 into alcoholic beverage. When the governor of the feast tasted 11:10 that Jesus had turned it from water into the very freshest 11:14 juice of the grape. The same kind of juice that we'd get 11:17 right from the harvest, right? And the governor tasted it and 11:19 he said, My, this is a lot better than what they're used to 11:22 serving. He knew it was good grape juice, but it wasn't 11:25 alcohol friends. Absolutely not. Would he have made a mind 11:30 numbing substance at the wedding and then refuse to take one when 11:34 he was on the cross in all that physical agony. Of course not 11:36 friends. Now, where is the confusion on this, though? 11:39 The Bible uses the word wine to refer to two distinctly 11:43 different types of beverages, one unfermented and the other 11:46 fermented. It's kind of like our English word cider. You can have 11:49 an alcoholic cider, or you could have a nonalcoholic cider, 11:52 depending on how you use it or how you speak about it. The 11:56 context would determine what you're talking about. But wine 11:58 is the same way in the Bible. You can have an unfermented wine 12:02 and you can have a fermented wine and the proof is just in 12:06 this text right here. You can't assume automatically that it's 12:10 fermented. Here it is in Isaiah 65 and verse 8: Thus saith the 12:14 Lord, As the new wine is found in the where? The cluster, and 12:18 one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it: So will I do 12:22 for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all. 12:25 So here it's saying wine is found in the cluster. Now if I 12:28 had a cluster of grapes up here in my hand, and I gave it a great 12:32 big squeeze, right? What's going to run out of it? Grape juice, 12:34 right? But the Bible calls it wine, so wine is used in 12:39 different senses in the Bible. So you have to look at the 12:41 context and see how it's used. Sometimes the Bible praises wine 12:45 sometimes it condemns wine. Well, when it praises it, it's 12:48 talking about the fresh juice of the grape. When it condemns it, 12:51 it's talking about the fermented kind. Now here is another 12:54 instance that always comes to my mind when people talk about 12:57 this. They bring it up to me. It says but didn't Jesus have 13:01 wine at the last supper with his disciples. Let's go take a look 13:04 at what he said here. Matthew 26 verse 29. But I say unto you, 13:08 I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine,...that's 13:13 what Jesus called that substance in the cup...until that day when 13:15 I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. So is the 13:21 fruit of the vine alcohol? Is that what he's talking about. 13:23 No. The fruit of the vine is grape juice. Alcohol is the 13:28 unnatural. It's the fruit of fermentation and decay is what 13:31 it is. Now would Jesus ask us to pray, Do not lead us into 13:35 temptation and then put alcohol before his disciples. Of course 13:39 not. Would he want their minds numbed by alcohol before they 13:44 go out and witness his passion there in Gethsemane. Of course 13:48 not. You see friends that was the time of the Passover. At the 13:51 time of the Passover, they were to put all leaven out of the 13:54 house. They had no symbols of sin in the home and the alcohol 13:57 or fermentation was one of them. So there would be no chance that 14:01 that wine that he spoke of would be alcohol. Not at all. Would 14:06 Jesus held up a cup that had within it, what the Bible says is 14:09 a symbol of adders and snakes. Right? And then say that what is 14:13 in that cup represents him the Sinless One. Or course not. Now 14:16 another thing to think about is that he said I would not drink 14:19 it again till I drink it new with you in my kingdom. Now in 14:23 heaven, we're not going to have any drunkenness there. 14:25 Drunkenness is a sin, right? So we're not going to have any kind 14:28 of alcoholic parties up there in heaven. So obviously, he wasn't 14:31 talking about alcohol here. Not at all. When Jesus condemns it 14:37 and the Bible condemns it, he's talking about fermentation. When 14:40 the Bible praises wine, it's talking about the unfermented 14:42 kind. Now here is something very interesting. The CNN article 14:46 says, from London, England, there was a study that says: Alcohol 14:49 ranks the most harmful among a list of 20 drugs, beating out 14:54 crack and heroin, according to study results released by a 14:58 British medical journal. A panel of experts weighed the physical, 15:02 psychological and social problems caused by the drugs 15:05 and determined that alcohol was the most harmful overall, 15:09 according to an article on the study released by the Lancet 15:12 Sunday. Can you imagine that friends. Taking everything into 15:16 account, they say the alcohol does the most damage of anything 15:19 I have been in places preaching, talking to the men there and 15:23 I've said to them how many of you here are here because of 15:27 something you did under the influence of alcohol? You should 15:30 see all the hands go up. Amazing friends. And as a pastor 15:34 most of the sad family histories I have to counsel and deal with 15:40 have to do because alcohol is involved in some way, shape, or 15:44 form. From December 2015, it says Americans are drinking 15:49 themselves to death at record rates. Alcohol is killing 15:52 Americans at a rate not seen in the last 35 years, according to 15:56 new federal data. Last year, more than 30,700 Americans 16:01 died from alcohol-induced causes, including alcohol 16:04 poisoning and cirrhosis, which is primarily caused by alcohol 16:07 use. In 2014, there were 9.6 deaths from these alcohol- 16:11 induced causes per 100,000 people, an increase of 37 16:14 percent since 2002. This tally of alcohol-induced fatalities 16:19 excludes deaths from drunk driving, other accidents, and 16:22 homicides committed under the influence of alcohol. If those 16:24 numbers were included the annual toll of deaths directly or 16:27 indirectly caused by alcohol would be closer to 90,000 16:32 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 16:35 In recent years, public health experts have focused extensively 16:39 on overdose deaths from heroin and prescription painkillers, 16:42 which have risen rapidly since the early 2000s. But in 2014, 16:45 more people died from alcohol- induced causes (30,722) than 16:52 from overdoses of prescription painkillers and heroin combined. 16:55 Wow! Leviticus chapter 10, we're going to get off the alcohol 16:58 right now, but I'm going to give you one more thing to think 17:00 about. Leviticus 10 verses 8-10 says: And the Lord spake unto 17:05 saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons 17:08 with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, 17:11 lest ye die; it shall be a statute forever throughout your 17:15 generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and 17:18 unholy, and between unclean and clean. So here were priests and 17:22 he says when you go on duty, you cannot be under the influence of 17:26 alcohol. All right? All right. Now that was what God desires 17:30 for his priests. But what about us today? What about the modern 17:34 day priest, the Christian. Let's go take a look here. 1 Peter 2 17:36 verse 9. He says of the Christian: But you are a chosen 17:39 generation, a royal what? Priesthood, a holy nation. So, 17:44 folks, as long as we're on duty for God, as long as we want our 17:48 minds sharp, right? As long as we want to witness for him, he 17:51 says don't be under the influence of alcohol. Now let's 17:54 apply what we've learned to another big, big killer in our 17:56 society today. Nicotine or smoking, any form of nicotine at 18:00 all. Some years ago, those of you...some of you here are old 18:04 enough to remember this, you saw ads like this in magazines. More 18:10 doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette. Do you remember 18:12 these? I mean, it's amazing. And they were all out there. I 18:15 remember seeing them myself. See, there were time when they 18:17 didn't know. At least they didn't pretend to know. They 18:20 pretended not to know the effects of smoking. But now it's 18:23 pretty clear, isn't it? Even second hand smoke is a big, big 18:27 factor and a big risk as well. Now it says causes lung cancer, 18:31 heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy. Well that 18:36 was not too bad, but now they just come right out Smoking 18:38 Kills. They just get right to the point now. Tobacco is called 18:42 the second most costly drug addiction in North America. Now 18:45 alcohol is number one, but tobacco has risen so much 18:48 that they're almost neck and neck. Tobacco use remains the 18:51 single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the 18:54 United States. Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 18:58 Americans each year with more than 41,000 of these deaths from 19:03 exposure to secondhand smoke. In addition, smoking-related 19:07 illness in the United States costs more than $300 billion a 19:09 year, including nearly $170 billion in direct medical care 19:13 for adults and $156 billion in lost productivity. You've heard 19:19 that term dying for a smoke, not too far from the truth. Isn't 19:20 that right. Have you ever seen a healthy lung versus a smoker's 19:30 lung. It's not a pretty sight. I mean they don't see it, right? 19:32 It's hidden from view. There will always be somebody who will 19:35 say to me: Pastor, you can't show me a text in the Bible that says 19:39 Thou shalt not smoke. Right? I say no, I can't. But I can show 19:44 you a text that says Thou shalt not kill. And you are killing 19:49 yourself. We call it suicide on the installment plan. You're 19:52 going to get there eventually, you're just taking your time. 19:54 Why do we know that? Because it has been estimated that for 19:57 every smoke, every cigarette a person has they're taking 20:01 approximately 14.5 minutes off their life. So to shorten your 20:05 live intentionally is a kind of suicide again. Think of all the 20:09 cancer-producing chemicals. They say there's about 29 cancer- 20:11 producing chemicals in every single cigarette. Would Jesus 20:15 use tobacco? Would Jesus smoke any kind of that? Can you 20:18 imagine someone walking the streets of gold up in heaven 20:21 with a big wad of chewing tobacco in their cheek, you know 20:23 and they're walking along and (mimics spitting) You know. Can 20:30 you imagine these beautiful glittering streets and there's 20:31 a cigarette butt over here, a crumpled up beer can over there 20:35 right? Some tobacco juice spit out over here. I mean, is there 20:41 going to be anything in heaven that defiles? Not at all. Heaven 20:44 is a clean place. Amen? Right? There's not going to be all that 20:47 stuff up there. I mean, can you imagine someone taking a big 20:50 drag if puff off a cigarette, blowing it up in the air and the 20:53 angels having to waft their wings. That's not going to 21:00 happen friends. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say they will 21:02 be done on earth as it is in heaven. Sure. So, we want to be 21:08 sure that we are already getting ready for that wonderful clean 21:11 place that we call heaven. Someone may say well, Pastor, 21:14 I'd love to stop smoking, but I can't. Now, dear friend of mine, 21:18 is the power of tobacco greater than the power of the Lord? Of 21:21 course not. The Lord has given millions of people, the victory 21:26 over cigarettes and any kind of nicotine, and if God has given it 21:28 to them, he certainly will be willing to give it to you. If 21:32 you need to quit smoking, and I'm going to extend this 21:35 invitation to all of you watching at home too. If you 21:38 need to quit smoking or have some kind of nicotine addiction 21:40 please let us know. We'll be happy to take you through a very 21:44 simple and biblical plan, and God can give you a victory just as 21:48 he has given it to countless others already. He'll do it for 21:52 you. Philippians 4 verse 13: I can do...how many things...all 21:57 things through Christ, which what? Strengthens me. And I made 22:01 a decision a long time ago. I didn't want to have 2 ounces of 22:05 tongue controlling 200 pounds of body. I wanted the mind in 22:09 control of the body, and not the body in control of the mind. 22:12 Because when the body is in control of the mind, now you got 22:15 the situation of a drug addict right? Or some kind of addict. 22:21 So if we're going to be addicted to anything, shouldn't it be the 22:22 word of God. Right? So let's go take a look back at 22:28 1 Corinthians 10:31. Whether therefore, you eat, or drink, or 22:31 whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now we talked a 22:33 little bit about the drinking of alcohol and the smoking, but 22:36 what about the eating, right? Does God have a plan for the 22:40 refrigerator. I guess that a way of putting the question. 22:42 Be brave enough to open up the refrigerator door, take a look 22:47 inside and see if there's something in there that might 22:49 just not be according to God's plan for our wonderful body that 22:53 he's given us here. So let's go back in the Bible to the book of 22:56 Leviticus. And someone might say well, why are you going back to 22:58 that Old Testament? Now hang on. If you ever thought that this 23:02 isn't valuable information just hold on and see that this really 23:05 is for you and for me today. Leviticus chapter 11, and let's 23:09 start here, as we would want to in verse 1. And the Bible says: 23:13 And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, 23:16 speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the 23:19 beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the 23:21 earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and 23:25 cheweth the cud, among the beasts that shall you eat. So 23:28 God is saying, if you're going to eat of the land animals, it's 23:30 got to at least have two things. It's got to have a split hoof 23:33 and chew the cud, that extra stomach for digestion. Verse 4: 23:37 Nevertheless, these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, 23:40 or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he 23:43 chews the cud, but divides not the hoof; he is unclean unto you 23:46 So God is making it very clear that when it comes to the animal 23:51 kingdom, it can't just have one aspect, either split hoof or 23:55 chew the cud. It's got to have both and the camel has one, but 23:58 not the other. Now is that bad news for you? You have to give 24:02 up eating camel tonight. Ladies that are here, you have to go 24:06 home and throw out all those camel sandwiches that you 24:09 prepared for your husband. No. Probably not a big deal. In some 24:12 parts of the world, it might be a big deal, but probably not here. 24:16 And so we'll just kind of go on by the camel for a moment. Now 24:19 the next verse says, And the Coney. Now, another word for 24:23 Coney, sometimes he's called a rock hyrax or a rock badger. He 24:27 is not seen in these parts, but in some parts of the world. It 24:30 says: And the Coney, because he chews the cud, but divides not 24:32 the hoof; he is unclean unto you. He kind of looks like a big 24:35 rat really. You know, he's really, not that attractive guy 24:38 but again, it's probably not something that you're used to 24:41 eating, and so I don't think we'd have a big problem with it here 24:44 in our western world. But now the next one here, verse 6: 24:48 And the hare...or we could say the whole rabbit family... 24:52 because he chews the cud, but divides not the hoof, he is 24:54 unclean unto you. Now I didn't grow up eating rabbit in my 24:56 family and I did know some friends that did and would 24:59 wonder why does the Bible say to not eat of that. But then I 25:02 learned that there are certain infectious diseases that can be 25:05 transmitted right from the animal to the human family if we 25:09 eat if those things. You've heard of maybe rabbit fever and 25:11 some things like that. So God knew that, and he said no, don't 25:15 eat this creature because it's bad for you. Now the next one is 25:19 really big here, and it says: And the what? Swine, right? That's 25:24 Miss Piggy, if you didn't know. Though he divide the hoof, and 25:29 be cloven-footed, yet he chews not the cud; he is unclean unto 25:31 you. Once again, he has one aspect but not the other. God 25:34 said he had to have two things. He's got the cloven foot, but he 25:38 doesn't chew the cud. Now you know they had some commercials 25:41 on not to long ago that talked about pork, the other white meat 25:44 and pork is good food for you. They thought they knew better 25:46 than God did, right? It goes on in verse 8: Of their flesh shall 25:50 you not eat, and their carcass shall you not touch; they are 25:53 unclean to you. Now is God just arbitrary with us. He just said 25:58 ah, you know I'm just giving these things to you because I 26:00 can. God doesn't withhold things from us just because he wants 26:05 to. Psalm 84:11...no good thing will he withhold from them that 26:08 walk uprightly. So God isn't trying to withhold from us just 26:11 because he can. He's saying no there's a reason for all of this 26:14 and we're going to get into it. There are certain animals that 26:18 are called clean. There are certain animals that are called 26:20 unclean and the swine, or the pig falls in the unclean 26:25 category. Cows are called clean. They have the split hoof and 26:27 chew the cud. The deer family. Sheep and goats, buffalo, elk. I 26:32 mean there's lots of animals that do have both aspects and 26:35 are considered clean or appropriate to eat. Let us go on 26:39 now to the waters. We'll leave the land for a moment here on to 26:42 the waters in verse 9: These shall you eat of all that are in 26:45 the water: whatsoever has fins and scales...Again, two things... 26:48 in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat 26:51 Aren't you glad God doesn't make it complicated? He doesn't say 26:55 it has to have these 14 things. Right? Because that would really 26:59 make it difficult. No he says two. Two things for the land 27:02 creatures, two things for the water creatures. God makes it 27:04 very simple for us. He says it's got to have fins and scales. 27:07 Verse 10: And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and 27:11 in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living 27:16 thing which is in the waters... that's important...they shall be 27:19 and abomination unto you. So God is making it very clear that 27:22 just to make sure there's no question about it, if it doesn't 27:28 have fins and scales of any living creature, pretty all 27:31 encompassing, then don't eat it. It's got to have fins and scales 27:34 Let's keep going. It says abomination by those things. Now 27:38 verse 11: They shall be even an abomination unto you;...that's 27:41 the second time he says it... You shall not eat of their flesh 27:44 but you shall have their carcasses in abomination. 27:47 There's the third time. Now just let me mention something to you 27:51 about this word abomination. In the English, if we say I don't 27:56 like that, it's pretty mild, right? I don't like it. If we 27:59 say I hate it, that's a lot stronger term, but if we say I 28:05 detest it, that's probably the strongest way you could show 28:08 dislike. I detest it! The word abomination literally means a 28:14 detestable thing. So when God is saying you shall consider it a 28:19 detestable thing, it's about as strong a language as God can 28:23 use. Incest was considered abomination. Homosexuality is 28:26 called abomination. There is nothing in the Bible, this is 28:29 important, that's called abomination that is ever made 28:35 unabominable, is that a word? I don't know if that's a word. 28:37 but I'm going to use it anyway. There's nothing in the Bible 28:40 that's called an abomination that can ever be made 28:41 unabominable through some kind of ceremonial cleansing or some 28:46 purification act. If it's abomination from God, it stays 28:49 abomination. And these things are called abomination. And then 28:52 it goes on to verse 12: Whatsoever has no fins nor 28:55 scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination to you. 28:57 There's the fourth time he uses it. Have you noticed that 28:59 everything that God says man should not eat, right, Satan has 29:06 made a delicacy? I mean, you know he takes snails and calls them 29:11 escargot, right? And we could say a lot of that. Satan has 29:15 made the greatest delicacies out of things, at least in man's mind 29:19 are things that God forbids. I mean he takes pork and you got 29:23 pork chips and pickled pigs' feet, and I mean everything on 29:28 the pig is eaten, right? And God says no, no, that's not the way. 29:32 Some animals are made for beauty some perhaps for labor, some for 29:37 food, but not all were made for food. Some were made for 29:40 scavengers. When it comes to the hog, the greatest scavenger in 29:44 the world is the hog. I mean there's nothing like it. I mean 29:48 what a dog would not eat, a pig will gobble down. Isn't that 29:52 true? Absolutely. And you say well, why did God put the pig 29:57 here? The same reason he put the vulture here, to clean up, right 30:00 I mean, these were God's garbage disposal system before we had 30:05 the modern waste management. Right? I don't know what you call 30:08 it here in this city, but some company comes curbside, and they 30:13 pick it up and they carry it away but God had to have a 30:15 system long before this so he put some vultures up in the sky 30:17 and they take care of it from up there and he put some in the 30:20 seas and they take care of it down there. And he put some here 30:23 on the land and he gave them a shovel for a nose, right, and he 30:27 says they clean up down here. They are God's garbage 30:31 collectors. They are unfit for human consumption friends. And 30:35 in the sea, I mean the lobster, he doesn't swim. He crawls along 30:39 right and all filth that goes in the waters that filters down 30:42 to the bottom. What happens? These things that crawl around 30:44 on the bottom of the oceans and the rivers they clean out the 30:47 mud, they clean out all the filth that goes down there. God 30:49 had a way of dealing with the environment right? God is 30:55 environment friendly so he says no, I got creatures to take care 30:57 of that too. But let's go down to verse 45 of Leviticus 11: 31:03 For I am the Lord that bringeth you out of the land of Egypt, 31:07 to be your God. This is coming at the end of the chapter, so 31:10 he's going through all of these things and then he says: You 31:13 shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. So friends, when we 31:18 study this as Bible students, those of us who love God and 31:23 want to please God, it's not just a health issue. It's a 31:26 holiness issue. God is telling us that when we apply this to 31:30 our lives, he is well pleased because he is a holy God, and he 31:35 wants to dwell with his Holy Spirit in holy vessels, right? 31:38 And so he's saying don't put those garbage creatures inside 31:41 of you. Verse 46: This is the law of the beasts, and of the 31:45 fowl, and of every living creature that moves in the 31:47 waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth. 31:49 Now, when it comes to the fowls, the birds God doesn't say what's 31:54 clean. He tells us what's not clean. He talks about the 31:57 scavenger creatures here. So generally, the birds' forage are 32:03 considered to be clean, chickens turkeys, quail, pheasant. Those 32:05 are considered to be clean fowl and acceptable to be eaten. 32:10 Verse 47: To make a difference between the unclean and the 32:13 clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast 32:16 that may not be eaten. So God is saying this is important to 32:20 understand what you can consume and what you can't. Now there be 32:23 those but all of this ended when Jesus died, right? Now the Bible 32:27 says the sow that is washed goes back to wallowing in her mire. 32:31 Did the nature of the pig change after the time of 32:35 Calvary? Absolutely not friends. Go back to Genesis with me for a 32:38 moment. Genesis chapter 7. It says: And the Lord said unto 32:42 Noah...the Lord said unto whom?.. Noah. Come thou and all thy 32:47 house into the ark: for thee have I seen righteous before me 32:49 in this generation. Speaking to Noah now. Not to Moses. There 32:54 were no Jews in Noah's day. There were no Jews for hundreds 32:59 and hundreds and hundreds of years after Noah. So he's 33:03 talking to Noah, and then he says in verse 2: Of every clean beast 33:08 shalt thou take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: 33:10 and the beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his 33:13 female. So he's talking to Noah and notice he doesn't have to 33:17 explain clean and unclean to Noah. Noah knows all about it. 33:20 He just says Noah, take some of the clean by sevens and the ones 33:24 that are not clean take by twos and Noah understood this 33:27 perfectly. So on they went. Now I want you to think about this 33:32 with me. They obviously were not going to eat of the unclean 33:36 because if they ate of the unclean, there only was two, the 33:39 male and the female, and after that they wouldn't have any left 33:41 for reproduction, so they weren't going to eat of the unclean. And 33:44 after the flood was over, they weren't going to sacrifice the 33:47 unclean because again the same issue. There were only was two of 33:50 them. They have to have time to reproduce. So have you noticed 33:53 that when it comes to the ark a lot of cartoonish stuff has come 33:57 out on that. And they paint the ark, I mean obviously in 34:03 children's books, they make it very fairy tale like and they 34:06 always have everything going in two by two, right? Yes, some 34:12 things went in two by two. But did everything go in two by two? 34:14 No. Some things went in two by two, and some things went in by 34:18 seven. But when they have the ark, they always picture it some 34:20 cartoonish way. You know sometimes it gets a little 34:24 extreme. But there's never seven of something there. It's always 34:26 only by two. You know the clean went in by sevens, the unclean 34:31 by twos. Children being naturally curious might have 34:33 turned to their parents and said mom or dad, why did some things 34:37 go in by twos and some things go in by sevens. And then the 34:39 parents would have to think about that, right? Well there 34:42 must be a reason for that. And they would understand the clean 34:45 and the unclean. Of clean beasts and of beasts that are not clean 34:49 and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth. 34:52 So God instructed Noah to take the clean and the unclean in and 34:55 the unclean animals were not a type that was later to be 35:00 cancelled by some kind of antitype, right. Like the 35:03 sacrificial system was. Was Noah's stomach any different 35:06 than our stomach? No. Now how many of you here are somehow a 35:10 descendant of Noah? You better put of your hand or I'm going to 35:12 worry about you. Okay. Now we're all a descendant of Noah, right? 35:16 Noah's children and then of course his posterity. We finally 35:20 came down to us. So if Noah's stomach was the same as our 35:24 stomach, which it was, then we have to say okay, are we again to 35:30 have that same diet that he had? That same understanding. So 35:33 there were clean and unclean animals, and it goes before Moses 35:35 This is in the pre-Jewish days. That means it survives the 35:40 Mosaic system of sacrifice and all the other meat and drink 35:44 things that went with it. Now you might say, well, why did God 35:47 say not to eat the swine, right? Why would he say that? Well when 35:53 you eat that good old piece of bacon or ham or you know 35:57 Canadian back bacon, whatever it is there is a possible problem 36:01 in that substance, and that is that animals that are scavengers 36:06 that eat garbage and filth right They can be susceptible to a 36:11 kind of parasitical worm called the Trichina Larvae. And that 36:14 gets into the flesh and it encysts itself there. If you eat 36:21 of that flesh, and it happens to contain that parasite that 36:23 parasite can get dissolved and it goes through the blood stream 36:24 of the one that ate it, and it re-encysts itself in the muscle 36:27 tissue of the one that consumed it. And that why, of course, you 36:30 can get what's called the disease of trichinosis. It means 36:35 that that parasitical worm has encysted itself in the flesh of 36:38 that person. Now these are just the things we know about. What 36:41 about the things we don't even know about, right? So the fact 36:45 is that when God says something is not good, we should leave it 36:50 alone friend. Because sometimes people say well, I'll just cook 36:54 it well, you know. Well, I don't like the idea of eating dead 36:57 worms, even if they are cooked and well done. Do you? No, not 37:01 for me. So again God had his system to help people understand 37:08 what was safe and what was not safe. Trichinosis is a disease 37:10 that can result from eating that parasite. It can be transmitted 37:13 directly to us if we eat that creature. God knows what's best 37:16 for us, doesn't he? Absolutely. Now, a pig, a swine, was never to 37:22 be considered proper food and our western culture, it's become 37:25 a very big part of western diet. But a pig will eat infection, it 37:30 will eat filth and garbage. This is kind of gross, but it will eat 37:33 its own dead baby. It will eat a person that happens to fall 37:36 into the pen and gets unconscious, a pig will eat that 37:38 person. It doesn't care, it's a scavenger, right? Now the 37:44 problem is that the pig forms flesh very, very quickly. In 37:48 four hours, it can eat food and form flesh from it. Now the 37:51 reason that's bad is that that pig might eat something that's 37:56 really terrible, some kind of infection and filth, and then 37:58 it gets slaughtered, and it goes off, and it can be on someone's 38:01 table to be eaten very quickly. And whatever that filth that it 38:07 had consumed it hasn't been cleansed from the animal and 38:10 that person is eating of that, right? Now, a cow's digestive 38:15 system is 24 hours, right? Now think about it. Four hours 38:18 versus 24 hours. And it eats good clean vegetation, and it has 38:23 a system designed to again produce flesh that can be 38:27 consumed. Now, when Moses wrote all these things down for us I 38:29 don't think he had a microscope. I don't think he examined the 38:33 flesh of the pig and said okay, he's got worms, he's out, and the 38:37 cow, he doesn't, so he's in. Moses had to take God by faith, didn't 38:40 he? That God knew what he was talking about, and if God said 38:43 it's this way, then God must know what he's doing. Again it 38:49 has a very poor digestive system and that's bad when it comes to 38:51 eating it's flesh. Cows are clean. So remember, we are holy, we are 38:55 to be God's temple. What do you think God feels like when he 38:59 looks down from heaven to us as his children and he sees us 39:03 rummaging around in the garbage creatures of this world and 39:06 consuming them. He's saying my son or my daughter, I didn't put 39:10 those things there for you to eat. Health is important to God. 39:13 Diet is important to God. Now 34 year ago I changed my diet 39:16 for the sake of wanting to follow what the Bible says. 39:19 And I wanted to honor God. I wanted to follow his divine 39:22 counsel and God has blessed me friends. I know he's blessed 39:25 many of you here as well that are listening to this. I feel 39:28 if I will take care of what I know to do right God will help me 39:32 with what I don't know. Amen? Ay? Amen. See if I will do what 39:37 I know is right, God will help me with what I don't know. Now the 39:43 Bible says not to eat water creatures that don't have fins 39:45 and scales. You probably don't consume that guy. But there are 39:50 some other things that are really consumed in our society: 39:53 shrimp, crabs, lobsters, oysters These are shellfish creatures. 39:58 They live at the bottom of the water system, right, and they... 40:02 the shell fish they act like filters on your furnace, right? 40:07 You are changing the filter on your furnace every year aren't 40:09 you gentlemen? Right. Don't forget that now. So you pull out 40:12 that filter and it's just filled with contaminants, right? That's 40:16 the filter's job. It sucks in the dirty air. Contaminants get 40:19 trapped in it, and it spits out clean air. And these creatures 40:22 do the same thing. They suck in the filthy water. The 40:28 contaminants get trapped in their body, and they spit out the 40:29 clean water. That's their job. They're put there by God to do 40:31 a work. Now the Bible says not to eat of those things there. 40:35 Leviticus 11 verse 12. It says if it doesn't have fins and 40:37 scales it is to be an abomination unto us. 40:39 Prevention Magazine: Shellfish are dirty and dangerous. The 40:43 polluted aspect of their habitat is one danger. The fact that 40:46 they are filter feeders compounds the danger... 40:49 Oysters, for instance, because of their way of obtaining and 40:52 absorbing food, have been found to concentrate polio virus up to 40:55 20 to 60 times the level of the surrounding seawater. Wow 20 to 41:00 60 times. That's something I wouldn't want to...Now take a 41:04 look at this article from CNN. It says: The Chesapeake Bay, 41:07 which is the United States largest estuary, covering more 41:10 than 64,000 square miles spanning across several states, 41:14 has seen its fish, crab, and oyster stocks dwindle in part, 41:19 because of pollution over the past several decades...I've 41:23 been a waterman for over 20 years, this man says. Leggett 41:26 sells oysters he harvests to local restaurants. Let me pause 41:30 right there. He sells the oysters he harvests to what? 41:36 Say it out loud. Local restaurants. You got that. Okay 41:41 let's go back to the article. ...growing about 100,000 a year 41:45 as a part-time business. Oysters filter the water, and they 41:48 provide habitat for other species. If we don't restore 41:53 oysters, we're not going to restore the Bay, Leggett says. 41:55 He wants to make sure people understand what just one single 41:58 oyster can do...One oyster out here in one of our bags can 42:01 filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day. By filtering the 42:06 water, this important shellfish can take away deadly pollutants. 42:10 Stop. The oysters filter the water, and they take in deadly 42:18 what? Pollutants. He sells the oysters to local what? 42:22 Restaurants. It's like that two and two equals four thing right? 42:27 We just got to put it together now. And people are going to 42:30 these local restaurants and they're eating this stuff and 42:31 they're saying why am I getting sick? Right. Let's go back. 42:36 They take away deadly pollutants that eventually could deplete 42:40 the crab and fish stocks, which in turn can leave fishermen 42:43 without work. These scavengers sit at the bottom of the ocean. 42:46 When filth gets in there what do they do? They go right to the 42:50 bottom, right? And again they take in all this dirty 42:52 contaminated stuff. And when you look at these creatures, now be 42:55 honest with me tonight. When you look at these creatures, do they 43:00 look like something God intended for us to eat? I mean, I honestly 43:06 think that God might have made them extra ugly so we could 43:10 leave them alone, right? You look at them, and they almost 43:14 scream at you, Don't eat me, I'm not fit for food, right? I mean 43:19 they've got these beady little eyes and these great big claws 43:22 and these long tentacles and spindly legs, I mean, they're just 43:27 the most ugly looking things, right? Now, dear friends and 43:32 Bible students, I got to tell you something. If you're 43:33 learning this for the first time and I had to learn it for the 43:35 first time too, because I ate these things, but we ought to 43:39 thank God for this knowledge. We ought to praise God that we 43:43 can give up these things, right? Jesus asks us to give it up 43:46 because it's not good for us and he tells us in Matthew, we 43:51 looked at this just in a previous program that we are to 43:55 go out and teach all nations right. Giving them the wonderful 43:59 will and gospel of the heavenly father and so we go out and we 44:02 teach these things. We should be thanking God. Lord, thank you for 44:05 teaching me, thank you for giving this information because 44:09 the Lord is warning us, yea, he commands us not to eat of those 44:14 polluted things. And that's a heavenly Father, right? In his 44:19 love, he tells us these things. So I hope you won't feel 44:21 embarrassed by it. I hope you won't feel uncomfortable by it. 44:23 Because that's not our desire here to embarrass anybody, but 44:27 we just want to teach people the wonderful will of our heavenly 44:30 Father. Amen. Now when you buy a car, I don't care if it's Ford 44:34 or General Motors or Toyota, whatever it is you go into that 44:38 car and you're going to find an owner's manual. When you go into 44:41 that owner's manual it's going to teach you things about that 44:44 car isn't it? It's going to say put this kind of gas in. It's 44:47 going to say this kind of oil goes in it. Do maintenance at 44:50 this level, this kind. They say we made that car, and we know how 44:54 it should run, and if you follow our instructions it should treat 44:58 you right over the life of that vehicle. Now people take that 45:03 vehicle, and they wash and they wax it and you polish it and 45:06 vacuum it out, and those kinds of things, and what is this car? 45:09 It's made of steel and rubber and maybe some wood and some 45:12 chrome and so on. It doesn't have a brain. I don't care what 45:15 kind of computer in it, it can't match the human brain. It 45:19 doesn't have a conscience. It can't communicate with God and 45:21 God can't communicate with it his will. And yet people come to 45:26 the human body, and they think, oh well, you know it doesn't matter 45:28 what you put in it. I'll just put in whatever I want to eat 45:30 or whatever I want to drink and I can just smoke whatever I want 45:33 and all of a sudden they get's sick and they're in the 45:38 hospital and they're suffering from some kind of malady and 45:41 maybe they've got emphysema because they smoked for 50 years 45:44 and they lift up their fist and they say God, why did you do this 45:47 to me, right? And our heavenly Father looks down and says my 45:51 son, my daughter, I didn't do that to you. You did that to you 45:55 You did not read the owners manual, amen? The owner's manual 46:01 is there for us. It's for us to follow. It's for us to learn by 46:05 and if we would just read it, God will tell us the information 46:09 that we want to know. Now some people ignore it, but at a high 46:14 cost. Again, we're to go out and teach all nations the wonderful 46:18 will of our heavenly Father. Sometimes, when God wants to get 46:21 his point across to us, he gives us some strong medicine. What 46:26 I mean by that is he gives a strong verse of scripture. So, 46:30 let's go to that verse right here. It's found in Isaiah 66 46:33 and verse 15. It says: For behold, the Lord will come with 46:39 fire...now he didn't come with fire the first time, this is in 46:42 context of the second coming... and with his chariots like a 46:43 whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with 46:45 flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead 46:50 with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many. So 46:54 there's going to be a lot of slaughter here. What's going on? 46:57 Next verse: They that sanctify themselves,...we'll come back to 47:02 that...and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in 47:05 the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the 47:08 mouse, shall be consumed together saith the Lord. 47:11 Whew. Now let me tell you what. If what the doctors say about 47:16 pork wouldn't make me give it up that verse would right there. 47:19 How can we go on doing something that is so displeasing to God 47:23 that he's saying that when he comes of all the sins that God 47:26 could name, he says, they're eating swine's flesh and the 47:31 abomination? There it is again. And the mouse. You know some 47:33 people still eat mice today. Yeah, they do. I mean, it's not 47:37 appealing to my appetite, but in some parts of the world, they'll 47:41 take little baby mice while their bones are still soft and 47:44 you know they're just infant mice, and they'll take them by 47:49 the tail, and they'll dip them in warm honey like you would a 47:50 French fries in Ketchup and then they'll just go whuup (shudders) 47:56 But you know it's an abomination And God tells us how can we go on 48:03 eating something willingly, presumptuously. God says: They 48:07 that do this are sanctifying themselves. Now, can we really 48:11 sanctify ourselves? No. The Bible says all our righteousness 48:15 is as what? Filthy rags. So we can't sanctify ourselves. But 48:18 when they say I want to determine what I want to eat, 48:21 and I want to determine what I want to drink, and I will smoke 48:24 if I want to. He says, well if you insist, you know, you go 48:28 ahead. You know you sanctify yourself is that's what you want 48:31 but it won't do any good. Right, it won't do you any good. So, 48:38 having said all of this, there will always be those who will 48:41 say, well, wait a minute, Pastor. Didn't Peter have a vision over 48:45 there in Acts chapter 10? And doesn't that mean that we can 48:47 now eat everything because God cleansed it all. Now it's 48:50 amazing, people pass on things that they really haven't studied 48:54 And when we go to Acts chapter 10, we don't have time to read 48:57 the entire chapter. Did God tell Peter not to call any food 49:00 unclean? And Christians will pick up on this and they'll say 49:03 because of what happened here they can eat whatever they want. 49:05 But let's go take a look at it shall we? Here is Cornelius, a 49:09 sincere man, a Gentile. God knows that, and he gives 49:13 Cornelius the vision to go and send servants to get Peter so 49:17 Peter can come back to his house and teach them the Gospel. So we 49:21 pick it up here in verse 9. It says: On the morrow, as they... 49:24 that's Cornelius's servants when on their journey and drew nigh 49:27 unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about 49:30 the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and he would have 49:33 eaten, but while they made ready he fell into a trance and saw 49:36 heaven open and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had 49:39 been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to 49:42 earth: Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the 49:45 earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of 49:46 the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and 49:49 eat. But Peter says, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten 49:53 anything that is common or unclean. Would Peter have 49:57 protested to God, I have never eaten anything that's common or 49:59 unclean if it had already been the practice of the Christian 50:01 Church to eat unclean things? Right? Huh? No, of course not. 50:04 Peter looked at that, and he said I know I'm not supposed to eat 50:07 that. So Peter knew nothing about this teaching that the pig 50:10 was now clean for food. Verse 15 And the voice spake unto him 50:13 again the second time, What God hath cleansed that call not thou 50:17 common. This was done thrice... which means three times...and 50:20 the vessel was received up into heaven. And then it says: Now 50:25 while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had 50:28 seen should mean, behold the men which were sent from Cornelius 50:31 had made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate 50:34 The moment that Peter was wondering I know that I'm not to 50:38 eat of that, so what is the meaning that God wants me to 50:41 have. At the moment, he's wondering, knocking at the door. 50:45 there's the Gentiles, and they're saying come preach to us the 50:48 gospel. Peter was pretty close to the situation, you'd have to 50:52 agree. A lot closer than we are now. And Peter interprets this 50:58 vision now, once, not twice, but three times in the Bible, he 51:02 gives us the meaning of the vision. And yet with three times 51:06 interpreted to us and three times are the same with no 51:09 exception, people still go off from that and say well that 51:10 means you can eat anything. Let's go take a look here, verse 51:14 28 is one of those times. And it says: And he said unto them, You 51:17 know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to 51:20 keep company, or come unto one of another nation, but hath 51:22 showed me that I should not call any pig common or unclean. Is 51:26 that what it says? No. That's what people read into it, right, 51:29 because they want to read that into it. It says I should not 51:31 can any man common or unclean? It doesn't say anything about 51:35 not calling any animal common or unclean. People are imposing 51:38 that upon the text. Peter says no. Peter looked at that. He 51:42 says Peter knew he had to change his opinion toward people, not 51:47 toward food or animals, not in his diet. And then he says again 51:50 in verse 34, Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, of a truth 51:53 I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. He doesn't 51:56 say God is no respecter of animals. But in every nation, he 52:00 that feareth him, and worketh righteousness is accepted with 52:02 him. Peter was prejudiced against the Gentiles, and God had 52:07 to break through that prejudice and he used that vision to do 52:09 that. And he says, no, I understand now. I can go to them 52:12 I can preach the gospel to them. But the rest of the Bible still 52:17 talks about unclean things. Why would Paul tell them to touch 52:20 not the unclean thing if there weren't any unclean things. What 52:24 goes into your body is going to be passed through, and it's gone 52:26 but that which is heart, that remains, and it's defiling you 52:28 it's rotting you from the inside out. Right. So Jesus is talking 52:32 about moral defilement versus the supposed ceremonial 52:36 defilement, the Pharisees were caught up in. So that was the 52:39 discussion. This whole thing has nothing to do with clean or 52:42 unclean or even food per se. People try to make it that, but 52:45 it's simply not the case. So we'll keep moving here. There 52:50 was an article that came out from National Geographic called 52:54 The Secrets of Living Longer. Maybe you saw this, friends. And 52:57 they said researchers studied a group of Seventh-day Adventists 53:00 who rank among America's longevity all-stars. It says: 53:05 They have a high rate of centenarians,...people who live 53:08 to be 100 years of age...They suffer a fraction of the 53:11 diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the 53:13 developed world, and enjoy more healthy years of life. Now they 53:18 must be doing something right in order to have the kind of 53:22 wonderful benefit. Time Magazine February 26, 2018, This is the 53:29 current magazine right here. This is very recent. How to Live 53:32 Longer Better. You want to see something up to date. Here it is 53:37 Secrets of the world's longest living people. Global life 53:42 expectancy averages out to 71.4 years. That means, of course, 53:46 that some parts of the world see much shorter life spans, while 53:49 others enjoy far greater longevity Five places in 53:54 particular falls into the latter category. They're known as Blue 53:57 Zones, and they're home to some of the oldest and healthiest 54:00 people in the world. The United States only Blue Zone is a haven 54:04 for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Protestant 54:06 denomination. A shared set of principles, emphasis on 54:10 community and adherence the Sabbath, a day of rest, 54:13 reflection and recharging-help Loma Linda Adventists love 10 54:16 years longer than their fellow Americans. Many avoid meat and 54:19 eat plenty of plants, whole grains and nuts. You know what 54:22 they say in the south, friends. The proof is in the pudding. 54:25 right. Here's a group of people that have been studied over and 54:28 over because they consistently outlive by a long shot the 54:34 normal American population. What was the Eden diet? According to 54:36 Archives of Internal Medicine: Studies of 34,000 people reveal 54:41 that men who follow an Eden diet have a life expectancy of 83.3 54:44 years and women 85.7 years. Let's go back just for a minute 54:49 here and see what the Eden diet was. Genesis 1:29: And God said, 54:55 Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon 54:57 the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the 54:59 fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat,... 55:05 which of course means for food. So when God gave Adam and Eve 55:07 their original diet it was a vegetarian diet. Now shortly 55:11 after sin of course he added something to it, Genesis 3:18: 55:14 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou 55:18 shalt eat the herb of the field. Again, remaining vegetarian here 55:21 So the Eden diet was a vegetarian diet. Do you know 55:26 that's why a lot of Christians have decided to kind of get a 55:30 head start on heaven. Did you know that? Because, again in 55:33 heaven, we're not going to have Burger King, amen, huh. We're 55:37 not going to have McDonald's, we're not going to have big Macs 55:38 I don't know if that disappoints you or not. But Adam and Eve 55:41 were not jumping on some cow for their evening meal, right? No. 55:45 And there's no death in Eden before sin. There's going to be 55:48 no death in heaven, not a single animal will give its 55:50 life for food. 55:51 No butcher shops there. So some people get a little bit of a 55:55 head start. They want to kind of get their diet more in line with 55:57 Eden. So the Bible way is the best way. But have you noticed 56:01 something here that's very interesting when you look at 56:03 what God gave us to eat. Isn't it attractive? Isn't it colorful? 56:09 Isn't it varied? You look at all these wonderful things. God says 56:12 we can eat that, but just don't eat that. Is there a difference 56:18 in just how it looks to us, right? He says you can eat that, 56:23 boy, that looks good, doesn't it? But don't eat that. I mean God 56:27 is just presenting it to us a different way. I mean, you can 56:32 eat the grains and the nuts, all these beautiful things, but he 56:34 says that! Nope. Put that aside. Don't eat things like that. Eat 56:41 that, but don't eat that. You can tell I'm enjoying this, can't you? 56:46 Right? Okay. Eat, Eat, Don't Eat All right. Is there a difference 56:56 Of course. Eat that, yes. Wonderful food. Eat that. Oh yes 57:02 wonderful food. No. Don't eat that guy. Let him alone. He's 57:08 screaming at you, not fit for food. You know, in the beginning 57:12 friends, three diets in the Bible. There was what we call 57:15 the ideal diet. There's what we call the acceptable diet and 57:19 then there is the Unacceptable diet. Isn't that right? God 57:22 wants the ideal, but there is the acceptable. It's not a sin to 57:25 eat the clean meats that God gave us, but there's something 57:28 that he's forbidden. There's another way of saying this. 57:31 There's the perfect diet. There's the permissible diet. 57:34 This is called the three Ps. And there is the what? Prohibited 57:37 diet. But it always God's intention to get us eventually 57:41 back to the what? The perfect diet. Whether, therefore, you eat 57:45 or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the what friends? 57:49 Glory of God. Every time we have this subject it's inevitable 57:52 that somebody just consumed something of this nature, right 57:55 before they came here. And we understand that. But we serve a 58:00 merciful God that longs to cleanse us and give us a brand 58:05 new start. 58:07 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2025-10-07