Food Will Not Commend Us

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Colossians chapter 2.
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Hold your place at verse 16.
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The title of today's message is Food Will Not Commend Us to God.
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My wife recently read a book.
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The title of that book was Broken Bread by Tilly Dillehay.
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And last week I had preached on this same text.
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As I said, I was going to spend a couple of weeks going from verse 16 to 23.
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And after I was done preaching, she noted to me, she said, there's a really great chapter in this book regarding what you're talking about.
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So she passed the chapter on to me and I had the opportunity to read it.
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And it tells a very interesting story about the food laws of the Seventh-day Adventist movement.
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If you're unfamiliar with the Seventh-day Adventist movement, they hold to the keeping of all of the Old Testament dietary restrictions.
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Obviously the Sabbath day being on Saturday, that's where they get the name Seventh-day Adventist, and they hold a very strict and rigid view of those Old Testament standards maintained in the new.
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So I want to share with you as we open today's sermon, something from the book.
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And this is what it says.
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In May of 1866, Ellen G.
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White, who was the prophetess of the SDA movement, told the relatively new Seventh-day Adventist that God had given her a word about food.
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She had studied Genesis 1.29, which says God gave them every seed bearing plant for food.
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And she came to the conclusion that God wanted them to only eat vegetables.
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So they were given a vegetarian restriction.
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She told them it was necessary to avoid meat as well as tobacco, coffee, tea, and alcohol.
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She also warned against spicy, salty, pickled, and fried foods.
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She went on to say that these sensual indulgences led to sexual sins and, in her words, excessive intercourse.
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Not long after this, a young man named John Henry Kellogg was hired to help produce The Health Reformer, which was an advice magazine put out by the Seventh-day Adventists as an evangelistic tool.
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He eventually went on to medical school, became a doctor, and in 1876, he formed the Battle Creek Sanatorium, which was a grand hotel, spa, and medical center.
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Well, Dr.
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Kellogg recognized that a lot of Americans suffered from indigestion, and he and his brother decided to create a healthy food that was easy on the digestion and simple to make.
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They ended up inventing a breakfast cereal.
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They called it Kellogg's Corn Flakes.
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Dr.
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Kellogg not only cared about digestion, he also believed that food itself was a spiritual issue.
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Like his teacher, Ellen White, he believed there was a biblical mandate for what we eat and what we drink.
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And I want to read a paragraph that he taught.
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This is from his teaching on Matthew chapter 11, and this is his words, quote, Said the great teacher, if your son asks for bread, will you give him a stone? The body calls for bread, for life-giving food, but how often we supply instead such indigestible, unwholesome rubbish as pickles, green olives, fried food, and various abominable mixtures which bring into the body death rather than life.
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How often, too, the voice which calls for pure life-giving water is insanely answered by such diseased drinks as beer, whiskey, wine, tea, or coffee, and the like, end quote.
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So it is apparent that he was willing to take the words of Christ, which really had nothing to do with dietary restrictions at all, when it says that a man who loves his son won't give him a rock but will give him bread, was willing to take that passage and expand it to include his understanding of the spiritual nature of what we eat and drink.
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Now let me be clear, the Seventh-day Adventists are certainly not the first, nor are they the only group to make food a mark of faithfulness.
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This is an issue which goes all the way back to the age of the apostles.
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And it's actually amazing, and we're going to see some of this today.
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As you read through the New Testament, it's amazing when you find how many passages actually deal with food, but often in a correcting sense, correcting those who would demand certain dietary restrictions be kept.
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So today we're going to dive deep into our text, which we began last week.
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We're going to look specifically at verse 16, though we're going to read the entire section for the context, and we're going to examine what Paul says about those who would impose Jewish dietary restrictions upon the church.
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And I want to, again, just caution to remind you that in this church, sometimes our messages sound a lot like lessons, but that's what this is.
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This is time to be taught from the Word of God.
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So let's stand, and let's be taught.
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Beginning in verse 16, the apostle writes, Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
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These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
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Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by a sensual mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.
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If with Christ you have died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings.
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These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I pray even now, echoing what my brother said earlier, that you would keep me from error.
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For Lord, I am a fallible man, I am capable of preaching error.
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I pray that you would keep me from that.
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I pray that you would open the hearts of your people to understand your word and apply its truth.
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And Lord, if there are those here, which there certainly may and must be, those who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ, that today they would see the love of Christ and the liberty of Christ as beautiful, and that they would recognize that being bound in sin has but one remedy, and that is to be free in Him.
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And we pray that in Jesus' name, amen.
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Last week, as I mentioned earlier, we started looking at verses 16 to 23, and I noted that it was going to take me a few weeks to be able to dive into some of the more deeper particulars, because this section deals with things like food laws and the Sabbath, and these are all subjects that have divided Christians for ages, and therefore I believe deserve more attention than what we were able to give in one single message.
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However, I would encourage you, if you were not here last week, that much of what I'm going to say is predicated today on what I did say last week in giving the foundation for this message.
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If you did not hear last week's message, it is available, and I would encourage you to listen to it, because I give a more fuller treatment of the understanding of these verses, going verse by verse.
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But the thing that we need to understand is that Paul is addressing the issue of those who would put undue burdens upon the church in various different forms, and some believe that they were Judaizers trying to enforce Jewish standards, some believe they were Gnostics trying to enforce Gnostic beliefs, some believe they were Greek pagans trying to bring in paganism, and I am convinced, as I have said since we began Colossians so many months ago, I'm convinced that all of those things are basically true, and that what we have in the Colossian church is the problem of syncretism, where all of the different views have been brought together in sort of a tour de force of all the different ideas and being encouraged to participate in all of these things, and when you don't, you're considered to be less than.
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So we see the call for Jewish ceremonies in verse 16, it says, it talks about not eating meat and not drinking and not keeping the new moons and not keeping the feasts and not keeping the Sabbaths, all of those refer to Old Testament regulations, particularly from the book of Leviticus.
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But we also have the call to avoid angel worship, asceticism, and those things, and those things are not found in the Old Testament, those things are found in mystical religions and Gnosticism and things like that.
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So we have a hodgepodge of various things that the Apostle is addressing here, and I think it's, I disagree with some commentaries because some commentaries say it's only this or it's only that, I don't think it's only anything, I think it's a little bit of everything.
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But what I think really is important for us to understand is particularly verse 16, because I don't know anyone who's trying to encourage angel worship among God's people with any form of legitimacy, I know they're out there, but I don't know any that are doing it with any form of legitimacy.
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I don't know too many people who are trying to force asceticism with much legitimacy, even though I know they're out there, legalists do exist.
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But this idea of food laws and the Sabbath, those two things are enforced in many churches and demanded in many churches.
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And so those are the two things that I'm going to focus.
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This week will be on the food laws, next week will be on the Sabbath, and then on Easter Sunday morning I'm going to preach on why we worship on Sunday.
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That's going to be the subject, because the reason why we worship on Sunday is because the Lord raised on Sunday.
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So we're going to talk about His resurrection and why we worship on Sunday.
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So that's the next three weeks, you've got a preview right there.
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Today is food laws, next week is Sabbath laws, and third week is why we worship on Sunday.
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And by the way, it ain't got nothing to do with Constantine or worshiping the sun.
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That's nonsense.
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And don't let the internet tell you they're different.
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Read a book.
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That was ugly, let me say it a nicer way.
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Don't let the internet be your only diet for theological training.
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Read a book.
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Okay, there.
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That was nicer.
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Because we need to read books, not just digest what people put on the internet.
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I know.
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So, three things to consider as we consider this.
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Paul is given three warnings.
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Beginning back at verse 8, he says to beware of vain philosophies, deceitful philosophies.
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That's the first warning and it comes to us in the form of the imperative.
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Do not be consumed with vain philosophy.
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Don't be trapped by it.
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Don't be brought into its snare.
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Then he says, in verse 16, let no one judge you in meat or drink or in regard to a new moon or a festival or a Sabbath day.
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And then later he says that we are to be careful of those who would insist asceticism upon us.
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So, there's three warnings.
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Three that are given in the form of the imperative, the command.
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Watch out for these three things.
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And we come to the middle one, as I said, is the one that most people focus upon because it says food laws, new moons, festivals, and Sabbaths.
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All those are Old Testament things that are taught.
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The food laws are contained in Leviticus chapter 11.
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The new moon is mentioned in Numbers chapter 28, where we are told that upon the new moon there was to be a sacrifice made.
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And then later we see, as Brother Mike and I were talking, by the time of Samuel they would have a feast to go along with that sacrifice.
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So, there were things that were happening in regard to the new moon.
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And then we see the feasts.
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There were seven feasts every year that all pointed to, which we know all pointed to Christ, but they were all referencing something that had happened in the past, but it also pointed to something that was coming in the future.
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And of course there were different types of Sabbaths.
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There was the weekly Sabbath.
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There was the Sabbaths that went along with the feasts, and there were the annual Sabbaths, and then there were the Sabbath of years, the seven years, and then the 490th year, which is the year of Jubilee, the ultimate Sabbath, where everybody got back all their stuff.
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I mean, that's a simplified understanding, but you know what I mean.
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There's all these different things.
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And all of these are in the Old Covenant.
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And what we noted last week was something that a lot of people don't realize, is that all of those are part of a system which has been made obsolete.
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And that is not my words, but that is the words of the writer of the book of Hebrews, which in chapter 8 says that when the New Covenant came, it made the Old Covenant obsolete.
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Now people get upset by that.
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People get offended by that.
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Are you telling me the Old Testament is worthless? No.
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I didn't say it was worthless.
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I said it was obsolete.
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Obsolete means that something better has replaced it.
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It doesn't mean that it didn't have a purpose for a time, and it doesn't mean that it still doesn't have things that it can teach us today, but what it does show is that there's something better that has come.
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And what we have, the better that we have, is the New Covenant.
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And if you don't think the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant, then please, please come see me, and let's have a conversation about how much better the New Covenant is.
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The writers of the New Testament are so clear that the New Covenant is so much better.
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It's a new and better covenant, better priest, better promises.
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Sounds like a commercial.
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But it's better in every way.
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Based upon the principles of the Old Covenant, we get a new covenant with a new priest and a better promise.
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And therefore, those things which bound the participants, the members of the Old Covenant, many of those things no longer bind us as a demand.
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That doesn't mean that we can't participate if we desire.
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And I want to clarify something that I said last week, because last week I said that many cult groups legalistically enforce these things and demand them upon people.
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But let me just say this.
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If you have a desire to keep the dietary laws, that's fine.
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If you have a desire to keep a feast, we used to do a Seder here every year, which was a Jewish Passover meal, and we may one day do it again.
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There's nothing wrong with reminding ourselves of God bringing the people out of Egypt and how that points to Christ, because that's what we did.
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We talked about how the Passover had a way of looking back, but also a way of looking forward, and we looked forward to Christ, and then we'd come in and do communion, and we made it a Christian event, because we pointed to Christ and celebrated communion.
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There's nothing wrong with that.
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So by me saying these things that I'm saying today, I'm not saying that if anybody wants to do these things, that they are somehow sinning by doing them.
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But what I am saying is if you enforce these things upon others, if you lay a burden upon someone else that the Scripture does not lay upon them, then you are in fact in sin.
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And that's the issue.
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Not what binds your conscience, but your ability to bind others.
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And robbing other people of their liberties in Christ.
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Because some would say this, some would say, well, these requirements aren't necessary for salvation, but, and that's a very pregnant but.
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Because I remember this conversation I had with a young man who was demanding that we keep the feasts and the festivals and the dietary laws, and he says, well, these things don't save you, but if you're saved, you'll want to do them because they please God.
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So again, when Paul says, let no one judge you in these things, that sounds quite the opposite, doesn't it? Because what are you doing if you're not pleasing God? You're displeasing God.
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And that's the issue, right? Does what we eat in regard to the content of our plate have the power to displease God? That's the question.
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And that's what we're going to talk about today.
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And I have three questions that we're going to answer.
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Number one, why did God restrict the diet in the Old Covenant? Why was the Old Covenant diet restricted? That's number one.
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We're going to look at that.
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Number two, we're going to ask the question, does the New Testament lift those restrictions? And we're going to answer that.
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And thirdly, we're going to answer this, is there a New Testament food ethic? Do we have a New Testament food command? And I may surprise you when I say we actually do.
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When we get there, you'll see.
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But let's look first at the question of why did God restrict the diet in the Old Testament? If you have your Bibles, feel free to turn with me to Leviticus chapter 11 and find your place at verse 43.
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So in Leviticus chapter 11, we have the food laws and it talks about all the different things that you can and cannot eat.
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It talks about animals with cloven hooves and those without cloven hooves.
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It talks about those who chew the cud and those who don't chew the cud.
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It gives all these different examples of these different animals.
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In fact, one of the things that atheists often use to attack the Bible is it says that hares or rabbits chew the cud and they actually don't chew the cud.
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And so they say, well, here's where the Bible makes a scientific inaccuracy by saying that rabbits chew the cud when they actually don't.
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But the Bible uses what is known as phenomenological language.
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Phenomenological language is the language of appearance.
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When the Bible says the sun rises, it doesn't literally mean the sun is rising.
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We know how the earth works.
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The sun, the earth turns and the sun is where it is and the earth is turning in relation to it.
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But the Bible says the sun rises because the same way the weatherman says the sun rises, the Bible uses phenomenological language, the language of appearance.
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Well, the same thing with a rabbit, you see a rabbit move its mouth, it looks like it's chewing the cud.
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So that same look was given all the animals that chew the cud and it names the rabbit as one of those because that's what it appears to be doing.
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So that's an important, just a little side apologetic thing there for you.
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A little free thing.
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But in chapter 11, verse 43, God tells them why he's giving them these commands.
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What to eat, what not to eat.
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He says, you shall not make yourselves detestable with any swarming thing that swarms and you shall not defile yourselves with them and become unclean through them for I am Yahweh your Lord, in the English it says I am the Lord your God, consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy for I am holy.
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You shall not defy yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground for I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God.
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You shall therefore be holy for I am holy.
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Notice something that was repeated.
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What's repeated throughout that statement? The word holy.
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And what does the word holy mean? The word holy means to be set apart, to be distinct, to be separated and to be unique.
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We talk about God is the ultimate holy because God is the ultimate unique one.
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He is the ultimate other.
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There's none like unto him.
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I am God and there is no other.
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I am God and there is none like me.
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Right? So when God speaks of himself, he speaks in what we call the trihagion or the trifold holy.
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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty.
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Holy means to be different, set apart and distinct.
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Well the people of Israel were called to be separate from other nations and God separated them in several ways.
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He separated them in the way that they wore their dress and their hair.
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He separated them in the way that they planted their crops and their fields and he separated them by way of what they ate.
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And he said you will be different from the other nations by virtue of your diet.
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Now are there some things that are positive about what he told them in regard to their health? Well we could make that argument because one of the things that God does do in this list is he defines those things that they are not to eat by things that eat off of death.
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For instance, things like shrimp and crabs that eat off the ocean floor and pigs that eat from the slop and these different things.
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These animals were considered to be unclean and therefore these animals were not to be eaten.
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And if you go through the list, there's a couple that I'd probably agree with like the bat.
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I mean ever since you know a few years ago, the big thing about whether or not eating bats had anything to do with the crisis with the pandemic, right? That was a big question, right? And there's about eating owls, I have no interest in eating an owl.
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So there are some of those we go, yeah, I get it.
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And if you go through the list, it's kind of interesting.
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Vultures, who wants to eat a vulture? That's not really interested in that.
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But the one that tends to be the one that kind of comes up is the swine.
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Swine, because one, they are delicious, but also they're plentiful.
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You realize there's not a pig season, right? I don't think there's deer season, but pigs are just like you kill them anytime.
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I might be wrong about that.
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Don't go killing without, yeah, check your local laws, but pigs are just everywhere.
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So they're plentiful and they're tasty when done right.
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But they're on the list.
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They're on that forbidden list.
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And so we say, why did God do this to God's people? Why would he forbid them the joy of a pork chop? Their diet would be noticeably different than all of the pagan nations around them.
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And as such, they would have a daily reminder at every meal that they were a peculiar people.
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That they were set apart from the nations around them.
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And they were meant to be different from the nations around them.
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Now that sounds good, right? So far, it sounds like I'm sort of defending the idea that we should keep doing this.
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Because aren't we called to be a peculiar people? We are.
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In fact, the same words here, be holy for I am holy, is used by Peter in his epistle when he calls us to holiness.
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But he doesn't do so in conjunction with food laws, and we'll address that later.
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But that's important.
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We are called to be holy though.
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We are called to be different from the world.
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So the way that God did this externally in the old covenant was to give them external ways of dress and planting and eating, all of which were designed to say this is my people.
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And they are distinct.
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And the food laws were accounted as one of the many ways in which they were to recognize their peculiarity.
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So the next question becomes, well, we are new covenant believers.
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We are called to be peculiar people.
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We are called to be holy.
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Therefore, should we not also maintain these laws? And so this leads me to my second question.
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Does the New Testament lift these restrictions? Well, if you want to turn with me, we're going to look at several verses, but if you want to turn with me, go to Mark chapter 7 and go to verse 18.
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This is the first reference in the New Testament.
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If you go through the books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, this is the first time in the New Testament that we come across a change that is mentioned regarding the dietary laws.
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And this is what it says, beginning at verse 18.
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And he being Jesus said to them, then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatsoever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him, since it enters not into his heart, but his stomach and is expelled? Thus he declared all foods clean.
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And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him.
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For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft and murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
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All these evil things come from within and they defile a person.
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So Jesus is here expressing an understanding of defilement, which had long been lost among the people of Israel.
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And we know that it had been lost because of the way Jesus talks to the Pharisees.
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He says to the Pharisees, you all clean the outside of the cup, but the inside of the cup is still what? Still dirty.
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What do you mean by that? Well, you guys keep all the external restrictions.
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You keep the dress code, you keep the food code, you keep all these other codes, but inside you are wicked.
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In fact, he goes on to say you're like a whitewashed sepulcher.
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A sepulcher is a tomb.
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He says a sepulcher, a tomb can be clean on the outside, beautiful on the outside, but inside you're full of what? Stinky old dead folk.
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Anyway, he said that's the key standard version, but that's what he's saying.
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Inside, you smell.
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On the outside, you're pretty.
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So Jesus makes this very clear.
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He says what goes into a man is not what defiles a man.
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Now understand this.
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In one sense, one could argue Jesus is contradicting Levitical law, but he's not.
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Because what he is about to do through the new covenant is expand this gospel out beyond Israel and the promises that had been bound within the people of Israel are now going to become free in Christ to every man, Jew or Gentile, so that in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, but all are one in Christ Jesus.
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And so Jesus says what goes into you will not defile you.
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And then Mark, who is writing this, gives a commentary.
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By the way, this is important for you to remember, and I don't really have time to do a complete timeline as much as timelines make me happy.
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I'm a big timeline.
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I like to draw timelines.
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Some people think I'm a dispensationalist, I draw these charts, but I'm not.
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But I do like to draw timelines, and one thing I like to remind people is Jesus is speaking somewhere around the year 30, but Mark is writing somewhere in the mid-60s.
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So this is a 30-year difference between what Jesus said and what Mark wrote.
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And so Mark, who is writing from what we believe, and I believe that we can prove this, is writing from the memories of Peter himself.
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Peter is the one, according to ancient sources, this is where Mark gets his information, is from the eyewitness Peter.
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And he says to his audience, and by the way, who is the audience of the Gospel of Mark? It was the Romans.
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He is writing to Gentile believers.
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And he says, when Jesus said these words, what goes into a man cannot defile him, but what comes out defiles him, he says, thus he made all food clean.
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You understand why Mark would say that to a Gentile audience? Because that wouldn't have made sense when Jesus said it.
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Jesus didn't say that.
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That's a commentary on what Jesus said.
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Mark is writing that 30 years later to an audience that needed to hear it because they had Judaizers who were trying to demand upon them a dietary restriction which Jesus lifted.
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See how that works? You got commentary even in your own Bible, by the authors themselves, who are writing to their audience an important message.
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When Jesus said this, he made all foods clean.
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Now you say that to somebody who holds to the food laws, they will lose their mind.
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I don't mean to get too excited, I just do.
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It's God's word.
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If you can't get excited about God's word, but you scream at a football game, how dare you? I mean, come on now.
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We ought to get excited about God.
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But the reality is this is important.
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You've got food laws that are a real issue among the Gentiles.
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We're going to see this in a moment.
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We'll look at some more scriptures.
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But the food laws are being demanded.
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And those who hold to the food laws today, they'll say, Jesus wasn't declaring all foods clean, Jesus was declaring clean foods clean.
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Sit on that a minute.
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This is one of those times where the text either means what it says or it doesn't.
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And when we try to bring in backdoor interpretations that fit our own ideas, we end up just abandoning what the text says.
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The text literally says, and he made all food clean.
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And then of course the argument comes, well pork isn't really food.
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I've heard it.
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That's the argument.
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Well that's not really food.
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According to who? But this is the first time we see this written in the text.
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It wasn't the first time it was written in the New Testament, because remember Mark isn't the first book to be written.
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What's the first book to be written in the New Testament? Not Matthew.
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First book to be written in the New Testament? No that's the Old Testament.
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Somebody said Job, that's Old Testament.
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First book to be written in the New Testament was either Galatians or James.
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I tend to argue for a very early writing for James, possibly into the mid 40s, but that puts me in sort of a minority there.
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But at least Galatians is 48, 49 at the latest.
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Paul's first letter written is Galatians.
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And you know what it was written about? People who were trying to impose Jewish restrictions on Gentile believers.
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Go back and read it.
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The whole thing is about those who are requiring circumcision and food laws and those things on Gentile believers.
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This issue was alive and well in the first century in all of Paul's writings.
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Almost every one of the 13 letters of Paul at some point deals with this issue.
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Because of this dividing wall between the Jew and the Gentiles that had been set up by these restrictions.
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Ephesians chapter 2, we always stop at verse 10.
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Keep reading past verse 10 and you'll see him talk about the dividing wall and Christ coming to do what? Tear down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.
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The next time we see this is in Acts chapter 10, so turn with me to Acts 10.
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Go to verse 9.
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Peter is the focus of this, not Paul.
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And Peter is going to have a vision from the Lord.
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Acts chapter 10 verse 9 says, the next day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray and he became hungry and wanted something to eat.
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But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and he saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth and in it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.
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And there came a voice to him, rise Peter, kill and eat.
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But Peter said, by no means Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
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And the voice came to him again a second time.
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What God has made clean, do not call common.
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This happened three times and the thing was taken up at once into heaven.
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All right, so let's get a vision of what's happening here.
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Get a visual, not a vision, get a visual.
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Peter is having a vision and in this vision a large sheet is brought down and all kinds of animals are in the sheet.
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And he mentioned specifically reptiles, that would have been on the unclean list.
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But it was all kinds of animals.
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And the voice of the Lord says, rise, kill and eat.
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And Peter argues with God, don't act like you have never, don't act like you're perfect, give Peter a little grace.
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Because I think Peter might have thought this was a test.
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Here's all of these unclean foods, rise and eat.
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And Peter says, no, I have never eaten anything unclean.
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Expecting maybe the Lord might say, well done my good and faithful servant.
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But that's not what he says.
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He says, do not call unclean what I've called clean.
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Now understand this, this whole scene is bigger than this.
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Because this isn't so much about food.
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This is about the Gentiles.
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But understand, the unclean food represents the unclean Gentiles.
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Because right after this, Peter is going to be taken to the house of a Roman centurion named Cornelius and he's going to witness that Roman centurion receive the Holy Spirit of God and all of his servants receive the Holy Spirit of God.
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And he's going to say to his followers, Peter is going to say, how could we forbid water to baptize these who have received the same Holy Spirit that we have? The point of all of this is God has eliminated that clean and unclean distinction between Jew and Gentile.
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But now all in Christ are made clean.
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Amen.
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But the picture of that is the food laws are no longer the dividing line.
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Again, the rescinding of the dietary restrictions was a way of showing the inclusive nature of the gospel.
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I'll say that again, the rescinding of the dietary restrictions was a way of showing the inclusive nature of the gospel.
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It wasn't just for Israel.
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Last one.
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Well, no, it's not.
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Next one.
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Go to Acts 15.
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In Acts chapter 15, we have what is sometimes referred to as the first church council.
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Now there's people who debate whether or not that qualifies if this really is a church council.
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But I will say this.
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This is the first time that we see all of the leaders of the church and the apostolic church coming together to solve a problem.
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And the problem in Acts 15 was the problem of those who were Gentiles being welcomed into the church.
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And there was a cohort.
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The book of Galatians says they were from James, which means they were from Jerusalem because James was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem.
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It was a cohort of people who were saying that unless you become Jewish by way of your circumcision, dietary restrictions, and these other laws, unless you do this, you can't be a Christian.
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That you must do these things in keeping with Christ.
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Christ is not sufficient.
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That's the whole thing.
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Well there is discussion, and if you read through, we don't have time to read the whole chapter, but if you read through the whole chapter, you will see that Paul and Barnabas get up and they testify that the Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit just as they have Peter makes a testimony about the same thing, and then James again, because James is a leader in the church, James gets up and speaks a proclamation of judgment, and this is where we're going to read, go to verse 19.
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He says, therefore my judgment, it's interesting that he had the ability to have that voice, to say my judgment is, he says, therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood.
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Now go down to verse 28, we'll see that again.
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They actually write a letter that goes out to the churches, and this is what it says.
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For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements, that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.
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If you keep yourself from these, you will do well, farewell.
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Notice what they didn't say.
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Before we get to what they did say, I want you to notice what they didn't say.
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They didn't say, if you want to know what to eat, go to Leviticus 11.
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That's important, because if this would have been the time, if there was a demand to keep those Levitical laws, this would have been the time.
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But they don't do that.
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They essentially establish two restrictions.
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The first restriction is easy, it's sexual immorality.
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Don't do that.
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How do you define that? Fairly broadly.
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If you ain't married, stay out of each other's bed.
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The end.
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Fairly simple.
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But then he talks about other stuff, and this is where some confusion lies.
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He talks about food sacrificed to idols, and eating things with blood in them, and things that have been strangled.
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And if we don't understand the context, the historical context of this moment, we won't understand that.
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Because he's not establishing a new dietary law.
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He's not taking Leviticus 11 and replacing it with a new dietary law.
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What he's doing is they're addressing something specific of that day, which still happens in our day, which is the use of idolatrous worship that goes along with eating.
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And one of the things that happens in idolatrous worship is what? The drinking of blood.
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Still happens today.
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I mean, if you look into the occult, occult will drain blood from one another, or blood from animals, they'll drink that blood.
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There are many things that happen in animistic religions where they will drain the blood of animals after they've killed them and drink the blood to receive the spirit of the animal.
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These are pagan things.
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And what they're saying is don't mix your Christianity with the pagan beliefs and practices of the world.
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Don't do that.
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Because those things were being practiced at this time.
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We see this in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul addresses this a lot because the Christians would go into the meat market and would buy meat that had been sacrificed to idols because it was cheap and it was plentiful and it was available.
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And some people got offended by that because they said, why are you eating meat sacrificed to idols? And Paul said, ultimately, this meat is good meat and the idols are false gods anyway.
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So it's not going to hurt you if you do it, but if it offends your brother, don't do it.
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And this leads me to my third point.
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What is the New Testament dietary law? It's very simple, beloved.
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It's not about what you eat, but how you eat.
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And I would go on to say, and with whom you eat.
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Because the Old Testament said, don't eat this.
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But the New Testament said, don't eat this if it offends your brother.
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And therefore it becomes an issue of the heart, not of the stomach.
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Just as Jesus said, it's not about what goes into the stomach, but it's about the heart.
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And my heart towards my brother must be what? Willing to love him and put him first.
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Now we're going to look at two passages in the New Testament.
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We're going to look at 1 Corinthians 8, verse 8.
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By the way, this is where the title of today's sermon came from.
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Notice what it says in verse 8.
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Food will not commend us to God.
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Food will not...
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Right away that should tell you something.
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When someone says, you've got to do this to please God.
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You've got to eat this way to please God.
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Literally, Paul says the opposite.
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Food will not commend you to God.
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Food will not make you more precious in the eyes of God.
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And he goes on to say, we are no worse off if we do not eat, and we're no better off if we do.
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But...
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Oh, and this is a pregnant but.
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Verse 9.
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But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
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For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not also be encouraged? And if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols.
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And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed.
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The brother for whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak.
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You sin against Christ.
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Therefore, if food makes your brother stumble, makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble.
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Hear that again.
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If food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble.
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Paul places the person who is weaker in this area in front of himself.
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And he says, the person who is weaker in this area actually is more important than my liberty.
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Now this is a principle we have very much lost.
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Especially as Americans, we are so desperately consumed with our liberties.
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We're so desperately consumed with what we can and can't do.
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And we...
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How dare anyone tell us we can't do something.
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But Paul says we actually are to love people enough that we care if what we do hurts them.
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So what becomes the dietary restriction of the New Testament? Love for my neighbor.
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That's my restriction.
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Is I love you more than I love food.
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I love you more than I love what I can have.
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So I have to consider you.
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Go to Romans 14, he says almost the same thing in a little different context, but almost the same thing.
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Romans 14 verse 13, he speaks to the weaker people here because he speaks about the weaker person not holding it over the other person either.
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He says, therefore let no one pass judgment on you any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
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I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.
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Is that hard to understand? He just said it.
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Mark 7, he declared all things clean.
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Paul agrees with him.
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Nothing is unclean in and of itself.
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Even the bat.
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If you want to eat a bat, just don't invite me.
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And brother Michael pointed out, but it says eat what's put in front of you.
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So don't invite me.
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But he says, I know and am persuaded in the Lord nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.
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You see, we're bound by our consciences more than scripture.
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Our conscience can actually force a binding on us that's above what the scripture says.
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And you know what the scripture says, if that's the case, then obey your conscience because at that point you don't want to get in the habit of violating that because that's bad.
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It's better to be bound further than loosed completely because there is a binding against the scripture ultimately.
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But he goes on to say, verse 15, for if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you're no longer walking in what love.
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By what you eat, do you not destroy the one for whom Christ died? So do not let what you regard as good to be spoken of as evil.
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For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy spirit.
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Whoever that serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
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So then let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding.
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Do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God, man, we need to put that over the fellowship hall door.
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Do not for the sake of food, destroy what God has made.
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Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.
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It's good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
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Just like he said in 813 of first Corinthians, if it makes my brother stumble, I'm not going to eat it.
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And I have to add a thought and then we're going to end.
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I know I'm going a few minutes over my normal time, but I want to say this.
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We are to love one another enough to consider our liberties to be worthy of being put aside for the love of someone else.
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But and I want to say this, but at the same time, we also have to consider the fact and R.C.
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Sproul coined this term, I think we have to consider the fact that there has become in the church a tyranny of the weaker brother.
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And what that means is those who don't do things who demand that others who do are sinning and they become like little tyrants themselves.
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And I'll give you a good story.
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There was a man who went and preached at a church.
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I don't remember who he is.
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If I, if I looked it up, I could find it, but I remember this story.
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I'll never forget it.
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He said he was preaching at a church and he had a beard.
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After the sermon was over, he walked down to meet the congregation.
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He was there as a guest and a woman walked up to him and she said, I wanted to appreciate your message, but I want you to know your beard caused me to stumble.
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And he looked at her and he said, madam, unless my beard was encouraging you to grow your own, then it's not possible that my beard was causing you to stumble.
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Causing someone to stumble, stumble doesn't merely mean you offend someone.
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That's what we have come to think that the mere offense is causing someone to stumble.
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No, causing someone to stumble is encouraging their participation in something that violates their conscience.
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So if you come to my home and you don't eat pork and all I have for you to eat is pork because I think I ought to be able to bind your conscience to me, then I would be wrong.
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But if I'm sitting at Casa Maria having my carnita tacos and you don't like pork, guess what? I've not violated you.
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I haven't.
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There is a difference between being offended and being forced to stumble or caused to stumble.
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And this is a line.
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The line is love.
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Do I love you? Yes.
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And will I do my best to always love you well? Yes.
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And that's the call of the Christian life.
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But it's not a call to walk on eggshells around each other.
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That's the fear is that we're always afraid.
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Am I going to offend brother Gary? Am I going to offend brother Rick? Am I going to offend brother Caleb because I've got to walk on eggshells? No, because if he loves me, then he's going to give me the same deference that I give to him.
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It's a reciprocal love.
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And if I offend you for the love of God, come to me and tell me that I've offended you so that I can fix it.
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If with nothing else than with my true contrite repentance.
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And if I have offended you, I will seek as best I can.
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And that's all we can do.
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Is love one another enough to put others first? It's a simple, Mike read it in our confession this morning.
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I can't believe it landed on that one this morning.
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Do unto others.
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That's the sermon, by the way, that the Christian ethic is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
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That's our food law.
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And in one sense, very simple.
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Love others more than we love ourselves.
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Now where's the gospel in this? The gospel is Christ has made all things clean.
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And in him we have life, we have liberty, and we have love for one another.
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In Christ, you who were sinfully wretched have been washed whiter than snow.
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You that were unclean have been made clean in the blood of the lamb.
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That's the blessing.
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And that's what we're reminded of every time we see this proclaimed.
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And if you are not a Christian, you can be by faith if you turn from your sin and trust in Christ.
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No matter how dirty, no matter how unclean you may be, Christ is a better savior than you are a sinner.
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So let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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Thank you for your truth.
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And I thank you for the picture that we have in this message of you taking that which is unclean and making it clean.
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Lord, help us to live by faith and in love for one another.
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In Christ's name, amen.