It's amazing, isn't it?
Amazing love.
Would you sing that fourth verse?
Set up no condemnation.
Sing it.
- Sudfast Baptist Church, thank you for coming this evening.
We're gonna go ahead and get started.
You could find your seat and open your hymn books
to page 15, the Calvary.
Page number 15, We Need a Calvary.
Let's all sing it out on the first.
So much for seeking to worship you.
What's in my heart?
Bless those who are out in the missions field right now.
Jesus name I pray.
Second song will be page 156.
Jesus is the sweetest name I know, page 156.
If you would like one, just lift up your hand,
we'll just come by and get you guys a bulletin.
On the front, we have our Bible memory passage.
Going through Romans chapter 10,
if you can quote verse six,
any one that's 18 and under,
you can get a special ice cream treat.
On the inside, we have our service and soul winning times.
And then down below is our church stats.
Also on the right is a list of expecting ladies.
We have a college soul winning
that we're trying to organize this year.
And so you can always check that out throughout the year.
We have a marriage workshop.
If you haven't RSVP'd, I mean, you gotta do it right now.
Probably it might even be too late, I don't know.
But just do it anyways, all right?
Your marriage could still happen, all right?
It's till death, all right?
Just kidding.
But honestly, we're looking really forward to it.
Actually, anybody that signed up for the childcare
or anything that's here this evening,
we might just meet real quick in the fellowship room
and just go over a few details on that as well.
And then upcoming events,
we have the do-it-yourself missions trip.
Just pray for those that are gonna be headed out there
to the Philippines.
Definitely a great opportunity.
On the back, we have a list for our prayers.
If you'd continue to pray for the Carlson's parents
and also brother Jared for his work.
If you'd pray for brother Elijah's parents,
brother Horace and miss Grace.
Also, if you'd pray for the Garcia's,
brother Tony's health.
We're continuing to pray for the Foley's
for their dad's kidney disease.
And we're also praying for brother Paul.
We've been praying for brother Goodwin's
sister-in-law's family.
Also, we continue to pray for miss Lola and Phoebe.
Please also continue to pray for the Burns for brother Joe.
I think a praise report he had been able to go back home.
So that's good.
Continue to pray for the Warner family.
And then we're praying for brother Jameson's father
for his health.
Continue to pray for the Apsals for their mother's health.
Please pray for brother Billy's mother
who has to have spinal issues.
Please pray for brother Jonathan for his work.
Also we pray for the Canaries.
Also we pray for the Urbanics.
Their grandmother was recently diagnosed with dementia
and they're having a hard time.
So if you just please be in prayer for them
and their health as well.
And so we'll just say a quick word of prayer
as a church family.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church.
Thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting
and our church, what a blessing.
I pray that you please just help them with their pregnancies
and be with them and give them a timely birth.
I pray that you would just please be with those
that have recently given birth.
You continue to bless them.
Please help those that have been sick
to be able to recover and get back into church.
I pray that you'd also bless our list
of several chronic issues,
whether that's our family and friends
and also our church members.
I pray that you please be with them.
Please help them if possible.
If you could just give them recovery.
If not, you just give them the most peace
and patience as they can have during this difficult time.
Please comfort them.
I pray that those that need to hear the gospel,
that we could have an opportunity to give that to them.
I pray that you would also bless those that need work
or need favor with their job
or need some kind of a blessing.
I pray that you'd be with them.
I pray that you'd bless our upcoming events
and our marriage workshop.
You'd bless all the marriages in this church.
I pray that you would also bless our missions trip
to the Philippines, that you keep them safe.
I pray that you'd bless our missionary in the Philippines,
the Vangus Urbanic and the work that he's doing out there.
And I just thank you so much for this church
and all that we're doing in Jesus name we pray, amen.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing our third song of the evening,
Where the Spirit Blows in our binders.
Where the spirit blows.
One note on this song is we're gonna sing
or we're gonna yell go on the last verse only, right?
So no yell and go on any other verses
except for the last verse, all right?
So on the first.
♪ He talks for me ♪
♪ Talks for me ♪
- Deuteronomy chapter number 14.
- Deuteronomy chapter number 14, the Bible reads,
ye are the children of the Lord your God,
ye shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness
between your eyes for the dead,
for thou art in holy people unto the Lord thy God,
and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people
unto himself above all the nations
that are upon the earth.
That shall not eat any abominable thing.
These are the beasts which ye shall eat,
the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
the heart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer,
and the wild goat, and the pig-erg,
and the wild ox, and the chamois,
and every beast that parteth the hoof,
and that cleaveth the cleft into two claws,
and cheweth the cud among the beasts that ye shall eat.
Nevertheless, these shall ye not eat of them
that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof,
as the camel, and the hare, and the coney,
for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof,
therefore they are unclean unto you.
And the swine, because it divided the hoof,
yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you.
Ye shall not eat of their flesh,
nor touch their dead carcass.
These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters.
All that have fins and scales shall ye eat,
and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat,
it is unclean unto you.
Of all clean birds ye shall eat,
but these are they of which ye shall not eat,
the eagle, and the ossephrage, and the osprey,
and the gleed, and the kite, and the vulture,
after his kind, and every raven after his kind,
and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo,
and the hawk after his kind, the little owl,
and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican,
and the gear eagle, and the cormorant,
and the stork, and the heron, after her kind,
and the lapwing, and the bat, and every creeping thing
that flyeth is unclean unto you, they shall not be eaten.
But of all the clean fowls ye may eat,
ye shall not eat of anything that dith of itself.
Thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates,
that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto an alien,
for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt not seed the kid and his mother's milk.
Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed
that the field bringeth forth year by year,
and thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God
in the place which he shall choose
to place his name there.
The tithe of thy corn, of thy wine,
and of thine oil, and of thy firstlings,
and of thy herds, and of thy flocks,
thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.
And if the way be too long for thee,
so that thou art not able to carry it,
or if the place be too far from thee,
which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there
when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee,
then thou shalt turn it into money
and bind up the money in thine hand,
and shalt go unto the place
which the Lord thy God shall choose.
And thou shalt bestow that money
for whatsoever thy soul blesseth after,
for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine,
or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth.
And thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God,
and thou shalt rejoice thou in thine household.
And the Levite that is within thy gates,
thou shalt not forsake him,
for he hath no partner or inheritance with thee.
At the end of three years,
thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase
the same year and shalt lay it up within thy gates.
And the Levite, because he hath no partner
or inheritance with thee,
and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow
which are within thy gates shall come
and shall eat and be satisfied
that the Lord thy God may bless thee
in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.
Let us go and pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the chapter of the Bible.
Thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church.
Thank you for the souls that are being won.
I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley,
fill him with the Holy Spirit to preach a word unto us
and help us make changes in our lives as applicable
to become better Christians.
Pray us in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Deuteronomy 14 verse one says,
"Ye are the children of the Lord your God."
I think that's an important verse here
to kind of set the stage for this particular chapter
as it's important to understand who you are.
You are a child of God.
Therefore, he wants you to follow specific rules
as being his children.
Often people will use their last name in this sense.
They'll say, "Hey, you're a Shelley.
You need to act like a Shelley."
And they have certain rules
about being a part of the Shelley family.
They're kind of setting a standard.
And God has this particular standard for his family.
And when you really look at this chapter,
there's a theme of separation and cleanliness
as standards that God has for his children.
He's reminding them,
"Hey, you're the children of the Lord, you're God.
Therefore, ye shall not cut yourselves
nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead."
Verse number two reminds us of this fact,
"For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God,
and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people
unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth."
So these particular statutes that are mentioned in verse one,
they're kind of sandwiched with this idea here
of you're the children of the Lord, you're God.
Then in verse number two, "For thou art an holy people."
And the word holy again, if we compare it with other verses,
we understand that being holy is being set apart.
So if you think about these different concepts
the Bible brings up, being sanctified, set apart, holy,
these are all related and connected
in the sense that to sanctify and to set apart
are the same concept, the exact same idea.
And holiness is where you're arriving at.
You're sanctifying yourself to become holy
or to become separated.
And so something that is holy is separated.
Why is God holy?
Because he's separated from every single person
in the sense that he's the only one that's truly righteous,
truly good, he's omnipotent,
he's better than everything that he's ever created.
He's just at the top, so therefore he is holy,
he's separated, he is at the top,
he's better than everyone else.
And of course, that's one of the reasons
why he is described as being holy,
and therefore he wants his children to also be holy
in the sense that they are what?
Set apart, they sanctify themselves,
they're not like everyone else.
And he's giving some very carnal ordinances here
in Deuteronomy chapter number 14.
In this particular verse number one,
he's saying you shouldn't cut yourself
or make any baldness which in your eyes for the dead.
Now these would just be, I believe,
very explicit in their application,
but you have a similarity in Leviticus 11.
Let's go to Leviticus chapter number 11 for a moment
and I wanna look there.
I'm sorry, I mean in Leviticus 19.
I wanna go to Leviticus 11 for another part.
Leviticus chapter number 19.
And I wanna bring this up and I kinda,
the way I wanna go through this chapter,
hopefully, God willing, is that we're gonna kinda
just look at the chapter from a carnal perspective first
and then after we get through it,
we'll try to go back and look at some
of the spiritual layering and some of the applications
we can take in New Testament.
But in Leviticus chapter number 19,
the Bible also brings up something pretty similar.
Look at verse 28, you shall not make any cuttings
in your flesh for the dead.
Sounds pretty familiar, right?
But then it also mentions this.
It says, "Nor print any marks upon you, I am the Lord."
So in this particular verse,
it pretty much has a one for one at the first part of it.
'Cause if we go back to Deuteronomy 14
and we looked at verse number one,
it says that you shouldn't make cuttings in your flesh
and then specifically not make any baldness
in between your eyes for the dead.
So it has that kind of qualifier there.
Here, it's like cuttings of the flesh of the dead.
Here, it's a little bit different statute
in the sense that it says, "Nor print any marks upon you."
Now, some people will interpret verse 28
as meaning here that printing marks upon you
would only be wrong if it was for the dead, okay?
Now, obviously you could try to make that application.
There's a couple reasons why I don't like that
as being a limited interpretation of this passage.
Number one is, let's just think about
the other statute for just a second,
and let's try to strip away that particular context.
Let's just say, hey, cutting yourself is a great idea
unless you're doing it for the dead, right?
Isn't it just kind of like a general principle
or like the spirit of the law here,
like just cutting yourself and self-harm
is just kind of a bad idea too.
And then we're not talking about
like a medicinal perspective.
Obviously there could always, you know,
people, you know, wanna try and try to twist the Bible
into something that's not saying
or bring up an exception to miss the mark
or miss the whole point of what the passage is saying.
We're not talking about something superfluous
to the body, dermatology.
We're not talking about a medical context.
We're not talking about someone
cutting off a limb for gangrene.
We're talking about in just general principle,
people obviously just doing self-harm,
cutting themselves, harming themselves,
doing damage to their body for no real reason,
no real benefit, no medical exception whatsoever.
This is obviously just a foolish idea.
Whether it was for the dead or not,
it just doesn't really make any sense.
And honestly, tattoos, while a tattoo means
to mark your body, that's what it means to get a tattoo,
it's done by cutting the flesh.
It is a process in which you cut the flesh
in order to essentially mark it with ink
that is virtually permanent in a sense.
Obviously, it is technically possible to reverse,
but it's a very difficult process.
It's almost impossible.
It's virtually permanent.
And so, you know, a lot of people would say,
hey, tattoos are cool in the New Testament,
but as long as it's not for the dead.
And you're just thinking like,
who's really doing that though?
Or actually, if you really go to the non-denom churches,
you go to these other churches that believe in tattoos,
they won't even say it's for the dead.
They'll be like,
as long as it's not within a pagan ritual practice.
And then you're just kind of thinking like,
wow, that's a really obscure application.
Like, who's ever getting quote,
tattoos for a pagan ritual practice?
You'd be like, I guess maybe the sodomites that, you know,
protest this or something.
But why in the world is God giving certain statutes
that are limited to reprobates only?
Like, it doesn't really make a lot of sense
that they need some extra over the top rules
just for their tattoos.
Can you imagine talking to them and saying like,
you know, my tattoos are good,
but your tattoos are wrong
'cause of the pagan ritual practice
that was associated with your particular tattoo.
Like, this is kind of a weird nuance
and it kind of starts to make the Bible seem silly.
You know, two typically believes
and tattoos are cool in the New Testament, it's Calvinist.
Now I was thinking about this
and I'm trying to like understand this concept.
And then it made perfect sense
because frankly speaking, when we go to the New Testament
and we read, for God to love the world,
you know what we believe that means?
Everyone.
When the Bible says that he is a savior of all men,
you know what we think all men means?
All men.
And when the Bible says that he tastes death for every man,
you know what we think every man means?
Every man.
And when the Bible says, hey,
he's not only the propitiation for our sins,
but also for the whole world.
We think that whole world really means all of the world.
You would think world by itself would be enough,
not for the Calvinists.
Then you add whole and then you think that'd be enough.
Still not enough.
I mean, just think what God would have had to say
to the Calvinist.
He's like every single man of the whole world
that you could possibly think of.
Still not talking about everybody.
That's the Calvinist, right?
So they read all and it's not all, it's limited.
So then it's like, hey, don't print marks on your body.
We're just like, hey, let's just not put print marks
on our body.
And they're like, no, no, no, no, that's not it.
That's not just tattoos.
That's only some tattoos.
So just like it's all people, it's only really some people.
It's just like no tattoos.
It's like, no, no, no, certain tattoos.
So then you start realizing it's the same spirit, isn't it?
Isn't it interesting?
Independent fundamental Baptists that are King James only
are not known for being a bunch of tattoo junkies.
Why?
Because when they read the Bible,
they take a literal interpretation of the text.
And of course, if you're a person
that takes a literal interpretation of the text,
you're gonna be consistent
in your literal interpretation of the text throughout.
So then what do you do when you read
nor print marks on your body?
You're like, oh, okay,
well, I'm just not gonna print marks on my body.
That makes sense.
Whereas when you're a Calvinist,
you read words like every man, whole world and world,
and they're up for grabs.
Well, now it's also gonna definitely be up for grabs
nor printing marks on your body, okay?
And of course, any time you listen to these people speak,
they're not even really quoting the text as is anyways.
That's why it's also important to be King James only
and to say like, hey,
we should do what the text actually says.
Because I listen to them speak and they'll say,
oh, it says don't print marks in your body for the dead.
And I'm like, wait a minute,
let's go read that verse again.
Verse 28, "Nor print any marks upon you."
Didn't really say for the dead.
You actually added that to make it sound
a little bit closer to what you really wanted it to do
in this verse, didn't you?
And you could say, well, that's the context.
Or you could say that's also mentioned in the verse, sure.
But is every single verse in this chapter like that
where it's always definitely within context?
Or could there be multiple commandments
in the exact same verse?
Let's just apply this to this particular passage.
Look at verse three for a second.
You shall fear every man his mother and his father
and keep my Sabbaths.
Would you say those are one commandment
with the same context or three separate commandments?
That seems kind of like three separate commandments,
isn't it?
Now again, some of these seem to have
a pretty clear context.
I'm not gonna say that they don't.
Look at verse 11.
You shall not steal, neither deal falsely,
neither lie one to another.
What if we applied the same principle in verse 28
as we would to verse 11?
And we said, you know what?
It's not okay to lie to people
when you're stealing from them,
but it's okay to lie to them.
But just not in the context of stealing from them,
because that's what verse 11 is talking about,
is talking about the stealing for them.
Isn't that almost the same logic
as you'd be applying here in verse number 28,
where it says, "Nor print marks upon you."
Oh, well, in the context of for the dead,
even though it didn't actually really say that.
So then who are you gonna be?
Are you gonna be a biblical literist,
or are you just gonna make whole world
mean anything you want,
every man mean anything you want,
nor print marks on your body mean anything you want?
Now again, I'm not trying to escape from the context
of what the text is really saying here.
Sure, cutting in your flesh
is usually related to the pagan rituals.
Let's just be honest.
If people weren't pagans,
and if people weren't practicing false religion
and doing this weird demonic stuff,
how likely are they gonna be to start cutting themselves?
'Cause isn't that just kind of contrary
to just your natural opinion?
Doesn't the Bible say,
"For no man never yet hated his own flesh,
"but nourisheth and cherisheth it?"
So it almost seems just like the Bible would indicate
that no one would cut themselves willingly,
but then false religion brings in an element
where it deceives people and tricks them
and manipulates them into harming themselves
and hurting themselves.
You see people that are demon possessed harming themselves,
throwing themselves into the fire.
You see people that are being led astray
by demonic forces, demonic spirits, false religion,
going into these practices.
And therefore I believe there is a connection.
That's why you see demonic forces, demonic spirits,
false religions, evil things,
constantly being led into paths
where they do things like cutting themselves.
They do things like getting all these weird tattoos
and other practices because there is a relation.
But then why would I, as God's child,
why would I, as a child of God,
trying to be holy and separate,
go down the same path and act like those people?
No, we should come out from among them
and be separate, as saith the Lord.
And of course, we're talking about the carnal,
literal application of just cutting yourself
and doing these things.
Now again, I'm not saying that we should take all of this
to such an extreme that if someone ever plucked
their eyebrows a little bit,
that they're sinning against God.
But I think what we could do is we go back
to Deuteronomy chapter number 14,
look at verse number one again,
"Nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead."
Look, I obviously think that the Bible
teaches grooming is okay.
The Bible talks about different aspects of grooming
when it comes to your beard and your face and your hair.
The Bible talks about people having long hair
as far as women are concerned.
The Bible talks about short hair for men.
The Bible talks about obviously shaving and not shaving.
There's all these little nuances.
The Bible talks about not marring your beard.
What does that mean?
Obviously there's gonna be discretion here, okay?
But obviously someone doing something weird to their face
for the purposes of these satanic principles
and just doing something awkward to their body
is, I believe, prohibited.
Even in a carnal application it would still apply
in the New Testament that we shouldn't do weird stuff
to our face, to our body, to our hair.
We shouldn't be printing marks.
Whether it's for the dead or not.
Obviously, if it's for the dead, it's even worse.
But at the end of the day, you know,
we shouldn't be doing weird stuff to our bodies.
We're supposed to be generally how God made us.
You know, God made us the way he wants us to be.
I think I looked it up.
11% of the population has a unibrow.
And you know what, if someone did,
I don't think they have to divide it
to necessarily be cool or something like that.
You can just wear it as you are, who cares, right?
But again, why were some people doing this?
It wasn't doing it for a aesthetic perspective.
It was doing it for a practice, a ritual,
or some kind of a ceremonial thing.
And so at the end of the day,
obviously if we wanna take these verses and apply them,
we would make them some kind of application
for ourselves today too.
Because this is what I don't like.
I don't like reading these verses and then just saying,
well, as long as you're not doing it for the dead,
you're good to go.
Because then it's just like saying
like what the Catholics do about,
call no man father upon this earth.
They're like, well, but you know,
even the Protestants call their dad father.
And you're like,
so you're just making that verse of none effect.
Why would the Bible just be filled
with verses that are of none effect?
And you notice that consistently, you know,
liberal Christians, progressive Christians,
and sodomites love to make every single verse of the law
and every single verse of the Old Testament of none effect.
So, you know who also did this?
The Pharisees.
The Pharisees also made the word of God
of virtually none effect consistently.
We are not honoring father and mother.
Oh, you know, Leviticus 20, 13,
that's talking about temple shrine prostitutes.
And you're just sitting there like,
who is ever running into that problem in 2026 America
or anywhere in the world throughout history.
I mean, this is like such a like nuanced idea.
And again, that's what people wanna do
is they wanna just hyper-focus on some aspect
of the wording here to try and have no application
for today.
What would be the application for today?
Well, do no self harm period.
You shouldn't be cutting yourself
and harming yourself for any reason.
And you shouldn't be doing weird stuff to your face.
You know, that's just doesn't make any sense.
And especially if it has anything to do
with any kind of like false religion,
satanic spirit, demonic spirit.
And I strongly agree,
you should not be getting any tattoo period.
And if you wanna get a tattoo and drink beer
and smoke cigars and never go soul winning,
join the Calvinist church.
And you can go tell everybody how special you are
and how unique and how chosen you are.
And God made you get those tattoos or whatever.
But I don't want anything to do with that.
I wanna actually take the Bible literally.
And I think we should be clean and separate.
And it's funny, like I'll look at Calvinists
and I'm thinking like you're drinking hard liquor
and you have sleeve tattoos on your arms.
I'm like, most of the unsaved don't even act like you
or look like you.
Like, how are you separate?
You know what I get?
And look, I know that we're talking
about carnal stuff right now,
but I believe that God also wants us
to be carnally separated, not just spiritually separated.
And it usually goes one for one anyways.
You know, you have to understand these things.
Because the Bible clearly teaches
that when you cleanse that which is first with inside,
it's gonna cleanse the outside too.
You're not gonna just have zero cleanliness on the outside.
Now, is that the only thing that matters?
No, the inside matters the most,
but when you start getting this right,
it'll help you get the other stuff right as well.
Let's keep going for the sake of this sermon.
It says in verse number three,
"Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing."
It says in verse four,
"These are the beasts which ye shall eat,
the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
the heart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer,
and the wild goat, and the pie garg,
and the wild ox, and the chamois."
Or as the British would say, chamois.
Okay, does it really matter?
No, but American pronunciation,
'cause we're in American church, it's chamois.
And it does not look like that at all.
So I don't, anybody that doesn't know how to say that,
I get it, but it's a weird, weird pronunciation.
Again, these are similar, just like deer type animals
in verse number five, and then you have, you know,
other beasts of burden, oxen, sheep, goats,
these things that you're consistently offered in sacrifice,
you know, picturing the Lord Jesus Christ
in different aspects of him.
But again, this is a carnal commandment
that we can at least say, you know,
in the New Testament would not apply, okay?
Now, why would I make this distinction?
Why would I in verse number one say,
"Hey, these I think still apply,"
and then in verse number four say, "These don't apply."
'Cause this is what people say.
You guys just cherry pick the Old Testament law,
which ones you're gonna do
and which ones you're not gonna do.
Yeah, that's actually true, I do cherry pick.
You know how I cherry pick?
I cherry pick based on what the New Testament told me,
where it says there was meats, drinks, divers,
washings and cardinal ordinances imposed on them
until the time of Reformation.
Now, I'll show you a clear delineation though,
because number one, the oxen and the sheep and the goat
picture the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.
Of course, the sheep pictures Jesus Christ
being the lamb of God and his innocence,
and the goat picturing the fact
that he took upon himself our sin
and bear our sins for us on the tree.
And so both can picture.
We have examples of the scapegoat
and we have all these different pictures.
You know, it didn't picture the Lord Jesus Christ
cutting yourself for the dead.
There wasn't like this unique way
that cutting yourself for the dead
was gonna symbolize the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
that was fulfilled and his sacrifice on the cross
that's now done away with.
No, these specific carnal commandments did picture that.
Of course, we also have in the New Testament,
the Bible often refers to animals and people
as kind of some kind of a connection.
You have this consistently throughout the entire Bible.
The Bible uses animals to describe people
in all kinds of different ways.
In the New Testament,
you have the Bible describing people as dogs.
You have it being described as swine.
These are of unclean beasts,
according to the New Testament text.
And you have Peter having a vision
of a bunch of unclean animals
and unclean beasts being shown to him.
And this was a picture of the heathen
and the ungodly as the unclean beasts.
And the clean beast being the children of Israel
and how there's this separation in the Old Testament.
But in the New Testament, there is no longer a separation.
And so that's why in the New Testament,
we get to eat any kind of animal
because of the fact that that's been done away with.
Which really, if you think about it though,
honestly, this is only a change for Old Testament Israel
because the Gentiles always ate everything they wanted.
So the Gentiles ate bacon in the Old Testament.
It's only the Jews that were eating bacon
in the New Testament, or I'm sorry, in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, the Gentiles stayed the same.
It was the Jews that were now given the opportunity
to eat things that they were no longer allowed to eat.
Now think about it this way.
You live in a household, you grow up with your parents.
They're gonna have certain rules for you.
Things like don't lie, chew with your mouth closed,
certain ways to dress yourself,
put on a belt, tighten your belt, right?
There could be rules like you're not allowed
to stay out past 10 p.m.
They could have rules like you're not allowed
to drive a car until you're 16.
You're not allowed to take a brother or sister
in the car until you turn 18.
Now here's the thing, once you're 21
and you're no longer living with your parents,
some of those rules you should probably keep.
Like chewing with your mouth closed.
That was a pretty good one, right?
How about you have to stay, you can't go out past 10 p.m.?
Well, now that's to your discretion.
You can do as you please.
How about driving?
Well, now that you're past 16,
you can drive wherever you want to go.
So yeah, just like living with your parents,
some of the rules stayed the same.
Some of the rules changed.
That's exactly how it is with the children of God
and the nation of Israel.
Some of the rules stayed the same.
Some of the rules evolved.
Some of the rules changed.
So it's not crazy for us to believe that
when that's what the text literally says
in the book of Hebrews, that the law changed.
Why would it say that it changed if it didn't?
For the law being changed, right?
For the priesthood being changed,
there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
Well, if the law was unchanged,
that sentence makes no sense.
And if the law was completely done away with,
that makes no sense.
What actually makes sense is that if it was changed,
we figure out what changed, why it changed,
and then we change it.
And what do we do?
That's what we do.
We figure out what changed.
The meats, drinks, divers, washings,
and cardinal ordinances that were imposed on them.
And then we identify, hey,
what are the things that didn't change?
Oh yeah, we're not supposed to kill.
We're still supposed to honor our father and our mother.
We're still supposed to love our neighbors, ourselves.
And at the end of the day,
is me eating a certain meat really harming my neighbor?
That's not really gonna harm my neighbor.
But lying to him is gonna harm my neighbor.
Stealing from him is gonna harm my neighbor.
Committing adultery is gonna harm my neighbor.
And even some sins that seem personal,
like drinking alcohol, well, that could seem personal.
That affects other people around you.
That could affect your family, your children.
You got drinking and driving.
That can be really hazardous and damaging
to the rest of the population.
So again, why do we have certain commandments
that are changed?
Well, because they pictured and foreshadowed things
in the New Testament.
They foreshadow what Jesus Christ is gonna do.
Other commandments did not.
And yes, they can be in the same chapter.
And people say, "Oh, you guys cherry pick."
Yes, I do.
But you know, I'm not cherry picking
based on my personal preferences.
I'm not cherry picking based on what
I just want the text to say.
Because that's what the Calvinists do.
I'm simply saying, "Hey, if someone's gonna change,
"I want a clear verse that told me it changed.
"Otherwise, I'm just gonna leave it alone
"and I'm gonna say, 'Hey, I think that's still intact.'"
Now again, obviously there could be, and I get it,
things like the cardinal ordinances
that some people have a little bit of gray,
and some people think there's liberty, and whatever.
I'm not gonna sit here and necessarily
fight everybody on every little nuance.
The Bible brings up doubtful disputations.
The Bible takes up some examples of,
you know, exactly which kind of diets
and exactly which observance of holidays,
and sometimes people get a little nitpicky
over those details, and we shouldn't really
be fighting each other over the nitpicky, nuanced stuff.
But at the end of the day,
a lot of things are still pretty clear,
and a lot of things are just like straightforward,
and we should try our best to just be honest with the text,
and not allow our emotions, not allow our past decisions,
not allow our culture to define what's right or wrong,
but whatever the Bible says.
If all of us were unibrow,
we don't wanna like change verse one to be something.
If none of us are,
we don't wanna change it to be something.
It's just like, hey, let's just make it what it is, okay?
And at the end of the day,
we're fearfully and wonderfully made.
I think that we should try to lean into
what God has made us.
If we wanna take this to an even further extreme,
it's like, why is it that every girl with curly hair
wants to straighten it,
and every girl with straight hair wants to make it curly?
Like, have you ever noticed this phenomenon?
I mean, it's just like, you know, because think about it,
if everybody was satisfied,
we would sell zero straighteners and zero curlers,
because you would just have what you have
and you wouldn't care.
But for some reason, it's just like,
everybody wants to swap.
Or if having straight hair was superior,
we would have straighteners, that's all we'd have.
Or if curly hair was the thing that was superior,
we'd only have curlers.
But, you know, it's almost like there's a Jewish scheme
to make money and to convince you to be unsatisfied
with who you are and an effort to make profits and money
and just distract you from what's real,
you just buy products you don't need
to try and change who you are for no reason.
Oh, almost like a demonic or satanic thing,
trying to change who you are
instead of being who God made you to be.
And again, why can't we just lean into
who God made us to be and embrace who God made us to be?
You know, I mean, it goes weird ways.
There's men out there
who are doing weird stuff to get taller.
Like they do something like break certain bones
in their legs and like stretch them out
just to grow a few inches or something like this.
And then they walk like a baby giraffe.
And look, if there's ever been a person
that could wish they'd be taller, I'm in that boat.
You know, when I was younger, especially,
I really wanted to be super tall.
Yeah, I would love to be 6'5".
But you know what?
I'll go meet a 6'5" person and they wish they were 6'8".
And then a 6'8" person wants to be 6'9".
I don't know beyond that if people really care anymore.
They're probably like, they don't care.
But I'm just saying, it typically stands to reason.
Everybody could wish they could be a little taller
or a little different.
But you know what?
Why don't you just embrace who you are?
Does it really matter?
Does it really matter exactly what your height, weight?
Why can't you just embrace who you are, be healthy,
be the best version of yourself?
There's a demonic spirit out there
that wants you to change who you are,
change how God made you to be.
I don't know, bleach your skin white, like Michael Jackson.
That's a demonic spirit.
Why can't Michael Jackson just be black?
Why does he have to try and be white?
He looks like a freak whenever he was white.
He looks like a normal person whenever he was black.
And then it just looks like a just complete psychopath
and a freak, like some kind of a serial killer.
And you're thinking like, why is this an improvement?
You know, and again, it's not even like a normal white person.
It's like an albino white person.
And it's like, why would you want to go, you know,
to becoming like a disease looking white person
as opposed to just being a normal, healthy,
attractive black person?
It's not like Michael Jackson was struggling
with looks or something.
It's not like he was a very unattractive human
or something like this.
And he's a megastar, super popular, has tons of money.
I mean, staying black would have caused him no problems,
but then he just gets a weird spirit, weird ideas,
and wants to just transform his appearance.
It's wrong.
And God is just saying, "Hey, just be who you are."
That's the principle that we're getting
in the first part of this.
And again, as we lean into the second part,
yeah, obviously, I don't think that we're limited
to clean beasts in the New Testament,
but you have to admit,
and again, this is just my personal opinion.
You can believe whatever you want,
but isn't it interesting that one of the meats
that was on here was oxen, which is beef,
and it just happens to be one of the best.
And it's like, hey, at least God was still giving them
some of the best meats in the New Testament,
or I'm sorry, in the Old Testament, and we have beef.
And look, the priests were eating oxen,
they were eating sheep, they were eating prime meats,
prime food every single day as a regular basis.
So it's not like God just wants to withhold
everything that's good from us,
especially even when we think in an Old Testament context.
But the Bible does say explicitly
that the New Testament is better.
And so, you know, in the Old Testament,
you could have a cheeseburger,
but in the New Testament, you can have a bacon cheeseburger.
Okay, so it's like, hey, it was good, but better, all right?
And look, frankly speaking, it's hard to imagine,
like basically the bacon cheeseburger
and then fries and ketchup
is like just one of the ultimate meals ever.
Okay, if you think about it for so many different reasons,
it just like screams superiority
for so many different reasons,
because if you think about it like,
you have to have certain elements
to have this particular meal, right?
You have to have beef.
You have to have cattle
because you have to have the actual patty
and you have to have cheese,
which is again coming from milk.
We don't want to this fake cheese substitute stuff, okay?
I'm talking about real cheese that comes from dairy,
not lactose cheese.
That's not real cheese, okay?
It's a lie.
And we also have bacon.
So that implies that you have to embrace
New Testament teachings
in order to essentially apply this particular principle.
You can't be Muslim.
Okay, so it separates you from the Muslim.
The bacon separates you from.
Okay, mixing cheese and beef,
no problem for Christians,
problem for Jews because they have weird ideas
about what the Bible actually says in this chapter.
It says in verse number 21,
"Thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk."
They twist this into something bizarre
and they try to like say,
"Hey, you can't have like dairy touching like meat."
And oftentimes in Jewish homes,
they want like separate kitchens, separate kitchen areas.
They don't allow like the dairy area
to be next to the other area.
They do all kinds of weird, bizarre stuff.
So the Jews and the Muslims,
they can't have the bacon cheeseburger.
Not only that, you have to have wheat
because in order to have a bun, you gotta have wheat.
Wheat is pretty much just a blessing from God.
The Bible constantly talks about corn
or it talks about the corn of wheat.
And again, this is a huge blessing
that's coming from God to have the wheat.
To have cattle is a huge blessing.
You gotta have rain to have all the grass
in order to have that.
And for most people to have that kind of a meal,
it's talking about a blessing for the entire nation.
To be able to have cheese,
you have to have an abundance of cattle
because not only are you using cattle for beef production,
you're using for dairy production.
So, you know, cattle isn't very interesting business.
I was actually reading a lot about it today.
And I knew a little bit from working
in the banking industry,
so we supplied a lot of financing to cattle ranchers.
But, you know, in America,
and I was just looking up some statistics,
it's like we consume like 20 billion pounds of beef
every year.
It's like crazy, the amount of beef.
And just the amount of cows that we're slaughtering
is just like, just crazy.
Just like 20 or 30 million cows
are we slaughtering like every year.
And I was thinking about the life cycle,
like how long is a life cycle of a cow's life?
And it was saying it's about 18 to 22 months.
So from birth to, you know, burger,
you know, we're talking about an 18 to 22 minute life cycle.
But in order to accommodate this,
you know, you have bulls, which are in America,
we have about 80 something million cattle
alive at a particular time,
so that we can satisfy that 30 million
or 20 million demand that we're killing
and slaughtering every single year.
But typically you have cows that are just breeding.
You know, they're just the females that are just breeding
and then you have a male, a bull that's breeding.
Neither of them are gonna be used
in the actual meat production or the dairy production.
So then whenever a cow is born, if it's a male,
typically they castrated immediately
because the testosterone makes it too strong and too chewy,
so you want it to be castrated.
Or if it's a female, it may go to the dairy side,
or it may go to the calving side,
or it may go to the meat side,
and that's just kind of determined in that early stage,
which it's gonna go for.
But it's like a huge process,
and they have to go through all these events.
So in order to basically accommodate all this,
you just have to have a huge infrastructure
with tons of cattle, tons of prosperity, tons of blessing,
because you're getting the cherry pick,
you're gonna say, hey, we want all these ones just for meat,
these ones are going for the dairy,
these ones are going for the breeding process.
Because a lot of other cultures
may not be able to make all those decisions,
they may not be able to have the milk and the meat,
just because they don't have enough cattle,
they don't have enough prosperity,
in order to satisfy the demands of such a large population.
Saw another interesting statistic.
It said 12% of Americans are eating
50% of the beef in America.
And it said it's typically men ages like 40, 50, and 60.
And I was thinking like, amen, okay.
So there is a benefit to getting older,
more beef, all right.
I guess they wised up, they became conservative
or something like that, right.
Instead of liberal.
But, you know, why am I saying this?
It's important, it's important, okay.
I'm not losing my train of thought.
We're talking about the American bacon cheeseburger
and french fries and ketchup.
Now, in order to accommodate this,
you needed the wheat, you needed the beef,
you needed the milk.
You also need potatoes because you gotta get the fries.
And then you need tomatoes for the ketchup.
Plus, of course, salt for all of this.
Salt is good.
That's a Bible verse.
Now, if you look at Europe,
Europe, they have these interesting maps
throughout antiquity.
The southern half of Europe pretty much rested on tomatoes.
That's why you think about, you know,
Mexican dishes, a lot of salsa.
You look at Italian dishes, a lot of marinara sauce,
that kind of stuff.
You go up Northern, it was potatoes.
You got potato soup and you got stews.
And so it's like, you kinda got the potato side.
You kinda got the tomato side.
Well, think about it, with America,
we're just like, with an American exceptionalism,
we're saying, hey, we're getting your potatoes
and we're taking your tomatoes
and we're taking the beef and we're taking the cheese
and we're taking the bacon
and we have the prosperity ethos.
And look, that is the American meal
is basically the bacon cheeseburger with fries and ketchup.
And it's just a middle finger to Islam and Judaism.
And I'm just telling you, it's like the best meal ever.
And you know, I was just thinking about the doctrine
in this meal is what makes it so amazing, okay.
And this is why I've consistently said,
hey, better doctrine, better food.
Because think about it, you go into other places,
they won't even allow the bacon cheese burgers.
It's not even an item that they would allow
with their religious beliefs.
Then secondly, because of the religious beliefs,
they're not gonna have the prosperity to have a nation
that can even accommodate such a meal.
And look, you can go to McDonald's
and all kinds of places in this world,
and they don't have the same burger.
They don't have the same menu options.
They don't have the same, you know, delicacies.
Why?
Because America's doctrine is bringing in this meal
and allowing it to prosper and to be blessed.
Now again, this is not a promotion brought to by McDonald's,
but I am saying this, the bacon cheeseburger
and french fries and ketchup is an awesome meal.
Courtesy, a lot of good doctrine from the Bible.
And frankly speaking, because of the doctrine
in this country, having been Christian doctrine,
that gave us the prosperity to have a nation
where we can consume that as a regular meal.
And look, we get really far away from this.
Communists are not enjoying bacon cheeseburgers
with fries and ketchup.
And you look at communist countries,
they're getting a spoonful of rice to basically die on.
And why rice?
'Cause one of the cheapest staples,
one of the least staples,
they're not getting that nice bun.
They're not getting the bacon.
They're not getting the burger.
They're certainly not getting the cheese.
They're not getting all of these combinations
and all of these events.
I mean, we are living a life of kings, folks,
when it comes to cuisine.
And we're also living a life of New Testament doctrine.
It's really important.
Don't take it away from me, all right?
We should fight for food.
I'm hungry, you can tell.
But these are good.
Now it says in verse number six,
"And every beast that parteth the hoof
"and cleaveth the cleft into two claws
"and cheweth the cud among the beast,
"that ye shall eat."
So it gives a reasoning.
It's saying they part the hoof and they chew the cud.
Verse seven, "Nevertheless, these ye shall not eat
"of them that chew the cud,
"or of them that divide the cloven hoof,
"as the camel and the hare and the coney,
"for they chew the cud but divide not the hoof,
"therefore they are unclean to you."
So the reasoning for the clean beast
is they both part the hoof and chew the cud.
Then he makes a separation saying,
"These type of animals here,
"they do chew the cud, but they don't divide the hoof."
Coney here, similar word to hare.
It's a different kind of rabbit
or different kind of animal.
Sometimes the Bible describes conies as living in rocks
and another place in the text,
but it's not necessarily a word that we use as often.
It says in verse eight, "In the swine,
because it divided the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud,
it is unclean unto you, ye shall not eat of their flesh
nor touch their dead carcass."
So it gives both scenarios.
And if you're chewing the cud,
but you're not dividing the hoof, you're unclean.
Or if you divide the hoof, but you don't chew the cud,
also unclean, two different situations, both are unclean.
Verse nine, "These ye shall eat of all
that are in the waters.
All that have fins and scales shall ye eat.
And what's around not fins and scales ye may not eat,
it is unclean unto you."
So when it comes to everything in the ocean
or anything in a lake, anything in water,
fins and scales was on the table.
Something that does not have fins and scales
would be off limits.
Again, typically people will bring up things like shellfish
or a lobster or shrimp or these type of animals
that would have not been eaten in the Old Testament.
And yet, hey, is it available in the New Testament?
Yes, technically there's nothing when it comes to food,
as long as it's received with Thanksgiving,
that's off the table.
Obviously swine here.
And a lot of people eat rabbit.
I don't know if anybody eats camel.
We'd have to ask Ben when he comes back
from his cruise mission trip, I don't know.
But it says also in verse number 11,
"Of all clean birds ye shall eat,
"but these are they of which ye shall not eat,
"the eagle and the ossefrage and the osprey
"and the gleed and the kite and the vulture after his kind,
"and every raven after his kind,
"and the owl and the night hawk and the cuckow
"and the hawk after his kind,
"and the little owl and the great owl,
"and the swan and the pelican and the grue eagle
"and the cumberant and the stork and the heron
"after her kind and the lapwing and the bat."
You know, when it comes to the birds,
it seems like kind of the obvious differentiation here
is just like most of these other birds
are kind of birds of prey and birds
that are more carnivorous.
They're taking and eating other flesh.
Whereas a lot of the other birds that are not mentioned
do not have that same kind of a diet.
So that's probably why there's kind of this separation.
It says in verse number 19,
"And every creeping thing that flyeth is unclean unto you.
They shall not be eaten, but of all clean fowls ye may eat."
Now in verse 19, we'd actually compare this to Leviticus 11.
I don't wanna go there for a second time,
but the creeping thing is kind of actually differentiated
as like what we think is like insects or bugs.
And it brought up a few exceptions like the locust,
beetles and grasshoppers.
And so when John the Baptist is eating locusts,
that is still on the table.
But it is saying virtually every other insect,
any other kind of bug would be completely off limits.
You wouldn't be eating it.
And again, they're supposed to be eating a clean diet.
So, you know, again, I don't think that there's
any dietary restriction period in the New Testament.
But I do think that there's always a carnal truth
mixed in to some of these elements,
that the animals that are mentioned as clean beasts
typically are cleaner beasts by just a carnal definition
than other animals.
And so you would want to necessarily think about that
in the cooking process and the cleaning process
of the animal and just from a dietary perspective
that it could cause more problems, you know,
depending on what type of animal that you're eating.
Obviously, when it comes to a pig,
you know, you probably want to make sure you cook that
better than you may have to cook other types of animals,
other type of, you know, products.
There could be some level of uncleanness
or unsanitary aspect that comes with
certain animals or certain bugs.
I mean, eating every kind of bug seems kind of crazy, okay?
So I'm just throwing it out there.
Can you technically do it?
Yeah, you can do whatever you want,
but I don't know how expedient that is.
Of course, clean fowls, we think of quail, chickens,
turkeys, all these kind of things.
They're more typical in diets,
and they're really great anyways.
But can you eat a greer eagle?
Yeah, you can technically,
but it might be kind of gamey, you know what I mean?
Now it says in verse number 21,
"You shall not eat of anything that dyeth of itself.
Thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates,
that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto an alien,
for thou art an unholy people unto the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk.
Now when it comes to something dying of itself,
again, this is still where we're kinda just understanding
the sanitary principles that are being laid out
in the Bible.
Just saying like it's not a good idea
to eat things that die of itself,
because it could've been dying because of disease,
bacteria can set in,
there could be all kinds of other problems
with this particular animal.
If the blood is not drained immediately
from a particular animal,
often it can have all kinds of other diseases
and infections and just problems with that particular meat.
So this is just a general wisdom,
that you wanna be careful,
and there are sanitary aspects and just carnal aspects
to what God is saying here that are generally true.
And I do believe that some animals are cleaner
than other animals even based on the diet and what they eat.
But everything is quote, technically on the table.
I would still say in the New Testament,
I would just completely avoid anything that dies
of itself though.
Like you just probably just never eat that.
Doesn't really make any sense.
When it says here,
"Thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk."
That's a very interesting phrase.
Obviously I would take it literal.
And then there's gonna be a spiritual application.
I wanna bring that up here in a minute.
But notice what it says in verse 22 through 29,
it's kinda talk about tithing.
"Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed
that the field bringeth forth year by year.
And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place
which he shall choose to place his name there,
to tithe thy corn, and of thy wine, and of thy oil,
and the first things of thy herds, and of thy flocks,
that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.
And if the way be too long for thee,
so that thou are not able to carry it,
or if the place be too far from thee,
which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there
when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee,
then thou shalt turn it into money
and bind up the money in thine hand.
And thou shalt go unto the place
which the Lord thy God shall choose,
and thou shalt bestow that money
for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,
for oxen or for sheep or for wine or for strong drink
or for whatsoever thy soul desireth,
and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God,
and thou shalt rejoice thou in thine household,
and a Levite that is within thy gates,
thou shalt not forsake him,
for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.
At the end of three years,
thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase
the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates,
and the leviate, because he hath no part nor inheritance
with thee, and the stranger, and the fatherless,
and the widow, which are within thy gates,
shall come, and shall eat, and be satisfied,
that the Lord thy God may bless thee
in all the work of thine hand, which thou doest.
So, he brings up the concepts of tithing here,
and bringing in their increase unto the Lord.
He kind of brings it up in a couple different scenarios.
Notice in verse 22, it says that the field bringeth forth
year by year, and in verse 22, it really emphasizes
thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed.
So again, this is the implication that you should
make sure that you're actually really doing it.
I think that some people just kind of like,
half-heartedly want to tithe as opposed to just like,
making sure it's right.
And what I mean by this is they wouldn't actually like,
look at their finances and actually figure out
what the tenth would be.
That they're just kind of throwing some money at it,
just kind of hoping it's there,
but they're not really being that diligent.
But again, it's saying you should truly tithe
all the increase of thy seed.
This would be a verse that I would point to,
and some people come and ask me this question.
They say, "Hey, do you tithe on your gross
or net, Pastor Shelley?"
And I say, "I just tithe on the gross of my paycheck."
And again, what does it say?
It says, "Truly tithe all the increase of thy seed."
And some people would argue like,
"Oh, well, you're not really getting that money.
It's going to the government."
And I get that, but if I were to play that game,
then I could just keep playing it.
Well, technically my income's not going to me.
It's also going to the Jewish bankers that own my house.
And then it's also going to the grocery store,
which is also owned by Jews.
And then it's also going to every good...
And then pretty much they're just like,
"I guess I'm not going to tithe on anything
because it's all going somewhere else."
But look, even the money that we give to the government,
we're still benefiting from that particular resource
because you get social security benefits from that.
Additionally, we get roads, hospitals,
all kinds of public works, infrastructure.
Some countries, of course, not America,
have universal healthcare and stuff,
so some of their healthcare costs are being baked into that.
So again, to me, it's just whatever you're bringing in,
you would just tithe on that.
That's what I believe, and I think the text
is clearly indicating that type of a principle.
Now, it says year by year.
In some cases, you would tithe on a yearly basis.
It also brings up an example later
where it would talk about in a three-year period,
look at verse 28, "At the end of three years,
"thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase."
I think what the Bible is just basically indicating
is whatever is the timely season
that makes sense for your type of income.
In some cases, again, when we're talking about corn
and wine and some of these products,
you're not gonna get a monthly paycheck.
You're not gonna get a weekly paycheck
on something like that.
Typically, that's gonna come in on a once-a-year basis.
It's a seasonal type of situation,
so you're just laying up year by year.
There could even be some situations
where you're not gonna get paid on a project
for two years, two and a half years.
I mean, there could be some kind of sales process
or a lengthy process where you don't get paid on goods,
so it's why don't you go through the whole cycle,
evaluate it at a three-year period, bring it in.
I don't think it's saying you have to wait three years
and store it up.
I don't think it's saying that you have to only do it a year,
and I also wouldn't say it's only on a monthly
or a weekly basis.
I think that's for you to decide.
When it comes to income,
I think that there's gonna be some businesses
in some circumstances where you wouldn't tithe
on a weekly basis or even a monthly basis.
You may tithe more on a six month basis
or even a yearly basis
based on how your business even works or operates.
Because sometimes you have months where you make money,
sometimes you have months where you don't make money,
and you should really look,
you might look at your business
as a net profit for the year
or how much money you bring in for the year,
and that would be more of like what I would quote,
pay my tithe on.
If I owned a business like that
or had some kind of cyclical nature.
If I'm obviously just getting a paycheck,
yeah, I'm just gonna tithe on my paycheck,
just not even think about it, right?
Again, that's for your discretion,
that's for your particular situation,
but I think that's what God,
God's an accommodating God in the sense
that he's not trying to make some kind of a hardship
more than what he's suggesting.
He wants you to tithe,
hey, if it's on a regular basis,
if it's on a yearly basis,
it's on a three-year basis,
but just make sure you're doing it.
And I think the three years kind of like a max,
like you wouldn't wait longer than three years.
It's gotta happen even in that same year.
You know, it doesn't make sense
to go a longer period than that,
but obviously going shorter, there's no problem either.
Now, how do all these principles kind of apply
and relate to one another?
Well, again, we talked about the importance
of being the children, the Lord your God,
being separate and clean.
Separate and clean is kind of like the main theme,
I believe, of this particular chapter.
And if we think about it, when we talk about this mark,
or we talk about this cutting of your flesh,
or making a baldness between your eyes for the dead.
Again, this is like associating yourself
with false religion and these other pagan customs.
We want to be separate from that.
We don't want to be like them and performing their rituals.
You know, Catholics do this,
where they put this ash on their forehead
for quote Ash Wednesday.
And you're always thinking like,
where is that in the Bible?
Really, that's when you should ask the Catholics
on everything they believe.
Where is that in the Bible?
And then you'll start realizing,
oh yeah, they don't really care
about what the Bible says,
'cause it never supports any of their ideas.
But again, putting ash on your forehead
just doesn't really make any sense whatsoever,
biblically speaking.
You know, Hindus, they have certain rituals
where they'll put stuff on their foreheads
for the dead specifically.
And I'm not talking about the red dot,
that's a different thing,
but they'll also put other marks on their forehead.
Sometimes they'll even put a black dot
for someone that dies or whatever on their forehead.
But again, as Christians, we don't do these things.
Why?
Because we don't sorrow like the unsaved at someone's death
because someone's death is then going to heaven for us.
And so we're comforted by their death
and we're comforted by the words of Jesus Christ.
And so we're not gonna sorrow the same way
that these particular individuals do
and go through their pagan rituals and pagan practices
and doing weird stuff
because we're gonna be separate from the Catholic.
We're gonna be separate from the Hindu.
We're gonna be separate from their particular religions.
When we talk about these animals,
of course, carnally speaking, praise God,
we don't have to apply that anymore.
We can have the bacon cheeseburger.
But what would be the spiritual symbolism?
Well, it talked about separation these animals
because of chewing the cut and dividing the hoof.
Well, if we think about the chewing the cut,
go through with the Psalm one for a second,
go to Psalm chapter number one.
I believe this would be represented
by the word of God itself
and how we need to digest the word of God.
And if you think about chewing the cut,
it's kind of a weird concept.
It's not really defined in the Bible,
but chewing the cut is when an animal,
specifically we think about like a cow
in this particular process,
they consume food and then they regurgitate it
in their mouth.
You know, kind of like vomiting it back up in their mouth.
And then they chew it again.
So the cut is food that's already been digested,
thrown back up into their mouth,
chewed on, chewed up a little bit more,
and then brought back down.
Now, what could this represent?
What could this picture?
I believe this is, you know,
the first time eating the food
is like us just reading the Bible.
We just read the Bible.
But then the spitting it back up and chewing on it again
is getting the meaning of what the text actually said.
And what would be the meaning?
That would be the doctrine.
So it's not only are we familiar with the text,
we have the right doctrine.
Because let me tell you something,
there are false religions
and there are people that are not saved
that can quote you the Bible all day long,
but they don't have the meaning of the Bible
because they didn't regurgitate it
and they didn't actually meditate on it
and think about what it's actually saying.
You know, when it says all men,
it actually means all men.
When it says call a man father,
it actually means don't call that priest
that's a faggot father.
When it says, hey, to wash your face
and anoint thy face when you fast
and to not put an ash on your forehead,
it really means that, okay.
Like just thinking about what the text actually says
and having the right doctrine.
So someone could be King James only
even technically speaking.
I don't know, like Kenneth Copeland,
Creflo Dollar, Mormons.
There's people that are King James only, quote unquote,
when it comes to which texts they pick,
but then just be totally screwed up on doctrine.
Totally wrong on what the text actually says.
And again, I know the Mormons use another book,
but I'm just saying they use the King James Bible.
Does that mean that they have the right meditation?
No.
And someone could even come into our church
and have a King James Bible and be familiar with the text,
but they don't have the right doctrine.
We don't wanna have fellowship
with that particular individual.
And the Bible constantly talks about us meditating
on the word of God.
Look at Psalm one, and what it says in verse number one,
"Blessed is the man that walketh not
in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in this law doth he meditate day and night."
That's chewing the cud.
Really thinking about what does the Bible actually mean?
And this is important.
People that actually read their Bible
and then think about what it actually said,
meditate on what it actually said,
will be people that love our church
and want to come to a church like ours.
People that don't read their Bible
will probably not want to come to our church.
But here's another group.
There's even people that may read their Bible,
but they don't actually think about
what they're actually reading.
They're just kind of going through the process,
and they may actually not last either.
But the people that are reading their Bible
and then are thinking about what the Bible actually said
will want to go to a good church.
And that's important.
It's important to want to be around people
that are chewing the cud, that are meditating on the Bible.
Go to Psalm 119.
It's all about the word of God.
And we'll notice how much the Bible mentions
meditating on the word of God.
And this is gonna separate you from other Christians
and other people in the world.
Why?
Because when you meditate on the Bible
and the law and what it's really saying,
you're gonna get good doctrine
and you're gonna have good standards.
And you're gonna want to separate yourself from the world.
Whereas when you're careful,
you're not careful to meditate on the word of God
and you're not really thinking about
what the Bible actually says.
You end up coming with goofy ideas, goofy doctrines.
You're not reconciling certain passages.
You start saying like,
"Oh no, no, the Bible says that wine's good."
And then you just ignore all the negative passages on wine.
Why? Because you're not meditating on the Bible.
You're not trying to figure out what it actually says
and what it actually means.
Psalm 119 verse 15 says this,
"I will meditate in thy precepts
and have respect unto thy ways."
Verse 23, "Princes also did sit and speak against me,
but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes."
Verse 48, the Bible says,
"My hands also I lift up under thy commandments,
which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes."
Look at verse 78, "Let the proud be ashamed
for they dealt perversely with me without a cause,
but I will meditate in thy precepts."
Look at verse 97, "Oh, how I love thy law.
It is my meditation all the day."
Look at verse 99, "I have more understanding
than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation."
Look at verse 148, "Mine eyes prevent the night watches
that I might meditate in thy word."
Go to 1 Timothy chapter four,
go to 1 Timothy chapter four.
The Bible emphasizes the need for Christians
to meditate on the word of God.
Why?
So that we have the right doctrine.
So we have the right understanding.
Do we actually understand what the Bible says?
Notice he said, "I have more understanding
than all my teachers."
Why?
Because he was meditating on the word of God.
So what does meditation lead towards?
Understanding.
Understanding, the Bible is the doctrine of the Bible.
And so the people that meditate on the Bible
are the ones that have really good doctrine.
And this is what I believe
and what I can understand from the Bible,
is that when I notice preachers constantly screwing up
what the Bible says and having weird doctrines
and changing on doctrine and doing stuff,
I'm just like, this person must not be meditating
on the word of God.
Because when you meditate on the word of God,
it just rings true.
You notice it everywhere.
It's constantly thundering forth.
When you're not meditating on the word of God,
it's very easy to get out of balance, out of sync,
lean into strange ideas, strange doctrines.
That can happen to a church, that can happen to a pastor.
You know, if you want a church to be strong,
we need the entire congregation to be meditating on the word.
Why do you think we want all the kids
memorizing scripture all the time?
And we pack all kinds of passages in there
because we want them to have understanding,
good doctrine, and to be good Christians.
The Bible says in verse 24, verse 15,
meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them,
that thy profiting may appear to all.
Take heed on thyself and unto the doctrine.
Continue in them for in doing this,
thou shalt be able to save thyself and them that hear thee.
This is instructions of the pastor, and in verse 13,
it was giving attendance to reading, exhortation,
and doctrine, and then specifically it says in verse 15,
meditate upon these things.
What is a pastor's job?
A pastor's job is to make everybody read the Bible,
and for him to read the Bible,
and for everybody to be thinking really hard
about the doctrine of the church,
and for him to think really hard
about the doctrine of the church,
and constantly meditating on the doctrine of the Bible
so that he can save himself and the church.
That's what the text is saying,
that is profiting may appear to all,
everybody can see, wow, this guy has obviously thought
about what the Bible is saying,
and as a result, we're gonna do what that doctrine is,
we're gonna all do what the Bible is saying,
and then we're gonna be saved from the sins of this world,
from the destructions of this world,
from the evil of this world, from wasting our lives,
from having bad doctrine, from corrupt teachers,
all the different things that the Bible warns about,
we're gonna be saved from the evil man,
and the froward man, and the horish woman,
and all the drugs, and all the alcohol,
and all the deceptions, and all the disease.
We're gonna be saved from all that
by having the good doctrine, by meditating upon it.
And he's saying, us as Christians,
we wanna be around other Christians that are doing this.
We don't wanna be around Christians that are...
You go to a church where people are not meditating
on the word of God, it's a bliss all over the place.
You don't know what to think.
How can you feel safe trusting yourself with these people?
I'm thinking about this.
I'm not for this, but I know people do it.
People have sleepovers, and they let people watch their kids,
and they're hanging out with other people.
How much less safe would it be
to be hanging out with the people in the non-the-non churches
where people have all kinds of weird ideas
and beliefs and practices?
I mean, or just trusting them with private information,
hanging out with them, letting them drive you around.
I mean, I'm just saying in general,
I just don't want to be around people
that are not chewing the cud or dividing the hoof.
Go if you would to, I want to go to Psalm 100 for a second.
Psalm 100.
So we want people to have the right doctrine,
but then also the Bible brings up this dividing the hoof.
This would be separation.
And these principles are taught in 1 Corinthians chapter number five.
You know, obviously, some people are supposed to be kicked out of church.
If they're, you know, guilty of fornication, being covetous,
if they're into idolatry, if they're a railer,
we shouldn't be around those kind of people.
We should be divided.
We should be separated from those people.
The Bible clearly says we should be separated from the unbelievers.
And I believe it's in, well, maybe it's in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter number six.
The Bible's talking about come up from among them and be separate, saith the Lord.
So we need to come out and be separate from unbelievers.
And then even within believers, there's certain separations that should apply.
Psalm 100 brings up other divisions that need to exist or that the author is clearly saying
he's going to impose in his life.
And I said Psalm 100, I meant Psalm 101 in my mind, sorry.
I wrote it down wrong.
Psalm 101, the Bible says I will sing of mercy and judgment of the Lord will I sing.
I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.
Oh, when will thou come unto me?
I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
I will set no wicked thing before my eyes.
I hate the work of them that turn aside.
It shall not cleave to me.
A foward heart shall depart from me.
I will not know a wicked person who so privily slandereth his neighbor.
Him will I cut off.
Him that hath a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me.
He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.
He that worketh the seat shall not dwell within my house.
He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.
I will early destroy all the wicked of the land that I may cut off all the wicked doers
from the city of the Lord.
Now think about this in context of 1 Corinthians chapter number 5.
One of the people on the list was a railer.
And the Bible says that if someone's slandering his neighbor, that you would not want to be
around that person.
The Bible's saying in verse 7, if he's telling lies, you would not want to be around this
particular person.
And of course, that's what we implement in our churches.
We don't allow ourselves to be infiltrated by slanderers, by liars, by railers.
We would want to cut them off and separate ourselves from them.
We don't want to dwell amongst them.
And so this is a type of separation where, you know, oh, I have the right doctrine, oh,
you're so good on the Bible and the Trinity and salvation and baptism, but you're lying
about people, but you're slandering people, well, I still don't want to be around you.
So we don't want to be around someone that's separated with wrong doctrine.
And we don't want to be around someone that's right doctrine, but it's not separated from
other people as being worldly and extremely sinful.
We want to have both of these and these are the spiritual principles that we can apply
to ourselves in the New Testament of still having this, the vision of these animals.
And so we have great application from these verses, even in the New Testament.
I want to, I want to just, I'm going to spend a few minutes on this last point and we'll
finish.
Go back if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 14.
We need to make those applications though in our lives.
I want to say something about this, uh, seething a kid in his mother's milk.
So again, we want to be separate and clean.
Number one, we shouldn't do these weird satanic practices of harming ourselves and doing weird
stuff to ourselves.
And then we want to make sure we're around people that are chewing the cud and dividing
the hoof.
Obviously those type of separations that are mentioned in the Bible, we can go all
day.
That could be a whole sermon.
Also, we shouldn't see the kid in his mother's milk.
Notice, uh, I believe it's a verse number 21 again, and it's kind of at the tail end
of this particular verse.
But I think the mistake would be to limit it to what it's saying there.
Now, it says in verse number 21, "You shall not eat of anything that died of itself.
Thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it, or thou
mayest sell it unto an alien, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God."
So again, in verse 21, he kind of encaps it with this, "For thou art an holy people
unto the Lord thy God."
That's similar to what he said in verse two, "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord
thy God."
We almost look at that as being more of the, the end caps than necessarily this particular
verse delineation, okay?
But he still says here in verse number 21, "Thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's
milk."
I think you don't want to limit that particular phrase to just verse 21, and I want to show
you a couple reasons why.
Keep your finger if you want, but go with, yeah, keep your finger.
Go to Exodus 23 for a moment, go to Exodus 23.
Let's compare other mentions, because this is not a singular mention of this particular
commandment of the Bible.
Exodus 23, look at verse 19.
The Bible says in verse 19, "The first of the first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring
into the house of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk."
So what is the context of verse 19?
The context of verse 19 is actually the tithe, isn't it?
Is it not?
The tithe and then seething a kid in his mother's milk.
And again, if we read this whole passage, I'm not going to do it for the sake of time.
There's not like some missing context.
That's kind of really what the context is in this particular passage.
If you go to Exodus 34 and look at verse 26, Exodus 34 and look at verse 26, we're going
to see something very similar.
Exodus 34 verse 26, "The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house
of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk."
Very similar to what we just read.
The tithe, seething a kid in his mother's milk.
Tithe, seething a kid in his mother's milk.
We go back to Deuteronomy chapter 14.
This is why I think it's still important
to really think about this.
Verse two, "For thou art an holy people in the Lord thy God."
And then in verse 21, at the end it says,
"For thou art an holy people in the Lord thy God."
That kind of seems to be sandwiching
that particular context.
So then when we read the next statement,
"Thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk."
Read verse 22, "Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase
of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year."
So what's actually probably the more apparent context
that the Bible's bringing up is actually about tithing,
not about what verse 21 had said,
eating something that dies of itself.
And so that's why we have to sometimes be careful
with verse delineations and chapter delineations
in the Bible, because these things came later
to help us organize and categorize the Bible.
But I don't believe that the chapters and the verses,
you know, are teaching something extra.
You know, sometimes we just need to read the whole thing
and try to get the idea that's being brought up.
Now, what does this mean, though?
And that'll help us even more to figure out
what we're really talking about.
Let's just think about it for a second.
A kid, a baby kid is the name of the goat.
So when we talk, and we use this in all language
for ourselves, right, our kids.
But certain animals have different names for their kids.
For the goat, it's actually a kid.
So it's a baby kid.
How does a baby kid gonna survive?
It needs its mother's milk to survive.
So what does it eat?
It eats the milk and that gives it nourishment,
that gives its life.
So by seething it, meaning you killed the lamb,
you killed, or not the lamb, but you killed the kid,
you killed the baby,
and then you're cooking it in its mother's milk
is almost like ironic in a sense,
because like what gave it life is actually killing it.
Another way to look at this,
and this is mentioned I believe in another passage,
is we're talking about the idea of perpetuity.
How are you gonna sustain
if you are killing every single baby in its mother's milk?
Well, that's not gonna last.
You could enjoy it, but can the next generation enjoy that?
No, you can't have the kid
and cook it in the mother's milk for forever,
because you're basically ruining it.
You have to raise the kid
to end up keep producing more goats or producing more milk,
but you can't have your cake and eat it too in a sense, okay?
Well, I believe this is what the principle is
also being applied here to the tithe in a sense,
that you can't have your money and have church thriving
because you can't do it from a perpetuity perspective.
Now you could in one generation,
just like you could a kid and it's mother's milk, can't you?
You could technically seed all of the kids
and their mother's milk,
but then the next generation, well, they're doomed.
And in a sense, how many churches today,
they are running on fumes in a sense,
but they're able to last because the past generation
already paid off their building or they have whatever.
But look, if the younger generation
doesn't fill those churches and bring in money,
well, it's gonna die.
Yeah, you have to keep tithing to keep the church going
so then the church can keep going.
And look, what's the point of the church keeping going?
So then you'll be reminded about God's commandments
and you're putting God first.
And when you're putting God first,
then you can separate yourself
and not have all these pagan practices.
And you'll be reminded about God's law
so that you'll separate yourself.
And if you're not doing these things,
then you're not gonna separate yourself
and you're not gonna have church.
And look, the Christian that doesn't go to church
and doesn't go to a church like ours
is not separating himself from the world,
is not chewing the cud, is not being a child of God.
You know, what's gonna make you a child of God?
Having the house of God to come and worship God.
And so if you think about all these principles,
they're applying to that separation and cleanliness
that God is wanting us to have.
And if you're seething a kid in his mother's milk,
well, you're just, know what?
You're not gonna have these things.
They're not gonna work out.
And you know what a lot of Christians are doing?
They're taking their tithe money
and they're buying season tickets
to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday morning.
And so not only are they not going to church,
not only are they not giving their money to church,
but they're literally furnishing, they're paying for,
some business to take even more Christians out of church
and into some other situation.
So it's almost like you're seething
the kid in his mother's milk.
Because Christians are taking their money
to supply some alternative to church
and they're literally destroying church.
And you know what, they're being like the pagans
and they're being like the wicked with all their practices.
And look, I'm not against football.
I'm not against buying season tickets to games.
I'm not saying that.
What I am saying is taking your tithe money
to start supplying some alternative to church
is like seething a kid in his mother's mouth.
And you know what, it doesn't last.
It's not gonna be giving good perpetuity
to the next generation.
It's not gonna survive on a cultural perspective.
It's not gonna allow us to keep being separated.
It's not gonna keep us clean from the things of this world.
If we're printing marks on our body and cutting ourselves
and doing weird stuff to our body,
that's not gonna separate ourselves.
If we're not meditating on the word of God,
we're gonna have screwed up doctrine
and we're gonna be like the non church
that is not separating themselves.
Why is it that if I run into the people
that go to these big churches, they don't dress different,
they don't act different, they don't talk different,
they're not doing anything different
because they can't agree on doctrine.
They say, well, we just agree on the essentials.
And they're like, this is how they agree.
They're like, all Bibles are the word of God.
And just Jesus, Jesus.
It's like, what do you think about the Trinity?
It exists.
And it's like, what about salvation?
Is it a penny or cents?
Yes.
Is it not a penny or cents?
Yes.
Can you have a certain-- can you have salvation without works?
Yes, but you also can't have it without works.
You know, it's like, it's just like anything.
And everything-- and then you're just wondering,
like, why is it a train wreck out there?
Because they're not chewing the cud.
And because the church isn't chewing the cud,
they don't care to even ask any questions.
Because they don't even know.
No one knows.
And so it's just a motivational speech.
Why do they use like 1% of the Bible?
Because that's the only part that's safe for them to use.
'Cause if they start meditating a little too much,
they're gonna start getting people upset.
They're gonna start realizing they're doing something wrong.
So then they can't go too far on doctrine.
They can't go too far in the Bible.
And of course, if they start dividing people,
they start, you know, think about the modern church day.
What if we just got to go to one of these big churches today
and we could know everybody's situation.
And we just said, you know what?
All the fornicators stand up, leave.
All the drunkards stand up, leave.
All the people that are divorced and they're dating,
they're also in fornication, get up and leave too.
And all you railers, stand up, leave.
All the people that are not saved
and have Daniel heresy, get up and leave.
How big would that church be all of a sudden?
That's before the sermon starts.
Then you start ripping on all kinds of things.
I mean, a lot of these churches are just, it's a joke.
It's not real.
They're not really chewing the cud.
They're not really dividing the hoof.
And unfortunately, most Christians today,
they don't, they're not supporting a good church.
And you know what?
They're seething a kid in his mother's milk.
Oh, well I get church for my generation
and I'm not gonna pay any money for it.
I'm gonna buy, you know, I'm gonna do anything
and everything else.
You know what?
How is that gonna work?
You know, sometimes you have to think about your actions,
like will this last?
Can what I'm doing be sustained?
If I'm not gonna support church,
how could my kids inherit that church, right?
And that's why it brings this whole long lengthy process.
And again, if you're not gonna support church,
what are the Levites gonna do?
I mean, the Levites are just being seeded
in that mother's milk just as much as anybody
because how are they gonna survive?
How does that make any sense?
So again, I preach those sermons on that particular subject,
but I just wanted to remind you again.
And I don't want you to get confused on verse 21,
like seeding the mother's milk.
That's why I think it's important
to really think about those distinctions and compare.
You know, we need to be like God's children
and we need to separate ourselves and we need to be clean.
And you know, we need to prioritize church
because it helps us to be separate and it helps us to be clean.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this chapter.
Thank you so much for all these pictures.
Thank you so much for the bacon cheeseburger
and french fries and ketchup.
Thank you so much for the works that we get to do.
Thank you for the New Testament.
I pray that you would continue to bless the works
that we do as we separate ourselves
and as we clean ourselves up.
We should realize that we are children of God
and that it's important and we should be children of God
and we should be holy like you are holy.
And I pray that you would help motivate us
to have zeal for church and zeal for the things of God
so that we can be a clean, a special, a peculiar,
a separated and a holy people for you.
And in your name and honor, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- So on this evening, page 304, nothing between.
Page 304, nothing between.
(clears throat)
Page 304, nothing between.
(piano music)
See that one's on the floor.
(piano music)