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How To Postpone Your Funeral

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. David Asscherick

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Series Code: DP

Program Code: DP000017


00:16 "How to postpone your funeral", great to see everyone here,
00:21 we're looking forward to our presentation: [text on screen]
00:26 Interesting title, isn't it?
00:29 I'm looking forward to this presentation, I trust that it's
00:31 going to be a great blessing to you, we're going to discover
00:34 today that God is bigger than many people think.
00:39 Many people have this idea of God, this conception of God
00:42 that He's concern only with so called "spiritual realities",
00:46 what we're going to discover today is that God has made
00:49 man as a multifaceted being, and He's not just concerned
00:54 with our spiritual welfare, He's also concerned with our physical
00:58 welfare, and our emotional welfare, and our social welfare
01:03 as well. So we're going to discover today
01:05 that man is multifaceted, that he is very, very broad
01:10 in his makeup, that is to say, his physical makeup, his mental
01:14 makeup, his emotional makeup. We're going to see that God
01:16 is big, and God is awesome. So "how to postpone"
01:19 "your funeral", but before we get into the presentation what
01:22 are we going to do first? Let's pray together as we
01:25 commence.
01:27 Father in heaven today we come to You knowing that death
01:32 is the enemy, You've told us that; death is the enemy,
01:36 and that at long last death will be swallowed up in victory.
01:41 Father, even while we live in the here and now
01:45 we have to face this great reality, and this great
01:48 eventuality that comes to everyone, that is the question
01:51 of death. Father, yet many people are
01:54 dying prematurely, many people are dying before their time,
01:58 as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes. Father, today we want to know
02:03 how to postpone our funeral, that is, how to live happy,
02:07 healthy lives in the here and now.
02:10 Please Father, bless us now as we open Your Word,
02:13 may You open our hearts, we ask it in Jesus' name,
02:16 let every say amen, and amen.
02:22 Let's begin by looking at the book of Revelation,
02:25 let's go to Revelation 14, this is a passage that we've
02:29 looked at before, Revelation 14.
02:32 But what I'd like to do is take a look at this from
02:34 a slightly different perspective than many of us may be
02:37 accustomed to, we're in Revelation 14.
02:40 In Revelation 14 we find 3 angels with urgent, critical
02:47 end time messages; 3 angels with critical messages,
02:52 and this is sometimes referred to as "The 3 Angels' Messages",
02:56 and you know these messages are important, you know
02:59 these messages are significant and urgent because the very
03:01 next thing that happens after the occurrence of the 3 angels'
03:04 messages, the very next thing that happens after the 3 angels
03:07 give their messages is the second coming of Jesus.
03:10 In fact, one way to look at it is this: these 3 messages
03:14 result in the second coming of Jesus.
03:17 These 3 messages bring about the second coming of Jesus,
03:20 that's how important they are, that's how critical they are,
03:23 that's how significant and central they are.
03:26 So we're in Revelation 14:6, the first of these
03:30 3 angels' messages. Revelation 14:6, John, on
03:33 the island of Patmos, 24 miles out into the Aegean sea,
03:36 it was a penal colony, he'd been put there by the Roman
03:40 authorities because of the Word of God and the testimony
03:43 of Jesus, Jesus, the resurrected Christ appears to him
03:46 and gives him these many glorious, wonderful, almost
03:49 cinematic visions, so we pick it up with John in
03:52 Revelation 14:6, John says: "Then I saw another angel",
03:58 the word "angel" simply means "messenger".
04:00 Sometimes we get this idea that an angel is this being clothed
04:04 in white, with wings, etc, etc, and while there may be
04:07 some Biblical truth to that, the reality is that an angel
04:10 is simply a messenger.
04:14 Think of this, have you ever heard of the term
04:16 "evangelist"? Sure you have.
04:19 Now, if you take the "ev" off the front, and the "ist"
04:22 off the back, what word do you have in the middle?
04:26 You have the word "angel", in other words, an evangelist
04:28 is a carrier, or a bearer of a message.
04:32 So John says in Revelation 14:6: "Then I saw another angel",
04:37 that is, another "messenger", "flying in the midst of"
04:39 "heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those"
04:42 "who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, "
04:45 "tongue and people. " So the first thing we learned
04:48 about this angel is he has the everlasting gospel, everything
04:51 has to begin with the gospel.
04:56 But notice it says here that this message that he has,
04:58 that's communicated in the context of the gospel, is for
05:01 the whole world. It's not just for an isolated
05:04 people group here, it's not just for an isolated people group
05:06 here, God doesn't play favorites, God is no respecter
05:10 of persons, he shows no partiality, it says that every
05:13 nation, every tribe and every tongue and people need
05:17 to hear this urgent, significant, end time message.
05:21 Verse 7: "Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give"
05:25 "glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come, "
05:28 "and worship Him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea"
05:30 "and the springs of waters. " This is the first of the three
05:33 angels' messages. I want you to notice that
05:36 the very first part of what the angel actually says is
05:38 "Fear God". Now, many people have a radical
05:41 misunderstanding of what that means, a total misunderstanding
05:44 of what it means to fear God. When we say "fear God"
05:47 it doesn't mean to be afraid of God in the way you might
05:50 be afraid of something terrible happening, fearing God means
05:54 to reverence God, to stand in awe of God, to put it very, very
05:57 simply, to fear God is to understand who God is
06:01 and who you are in relationship to God.
06:03 God is the infinite, omnipotent, omnibenevolent eternal God
06:07 of the universe, the eternal being of the universe,
06:09 and you're dust. So when we fear God,
06:14 it's understand who God is, who we are and our relationship
06:18 to God, we have a reverential awe for God, not a "I'm so"
06:23 "afraid of God", no a, reverential awe and respect
06:26 and reverence for God. So, "fear God", and notice
06:30 this next part, "and give glory to Him".
06:37 What does that mean, that's religious language, what does
06:39 it mean to give glory to God? This is what it means:
06:41 it means to live your life for God.
06:48 Not just in the so called "big areas", but in the small areas,
06:52 what it means is to live your life with God in mind;
06:55 to live your life with excellence, not for your own
06:59 glory, not for your own up building, not for your own
07:02 personal satisfaction and accomplishments, but to live
07:07 your life to the glory of God. "Fear God", says the angel,
07:12 "and give glory to Him. " Well, that would raise
07:16 an interesting question: Does God want us to glorify
07:19 Him in all aspects of our life? What do you think the answer
07:22 to that question is? I think the answer is exactly
07:25 "yes". In fact, go with me from the book of Revelation,
07:28 we've seen the end time, urgent significance of these messages,
07:31 go with me to the book of 1 Corinthians, and we'll
07:34 discover one way that we can glorify God, and you're probably
07:39 going to be a little surprised. We're going to 1 Corinthians 10.
07:46 1 Corinthians 10:31, it says: "Therefore, whether you eat"
07:55 "or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. "
08:03 Isn't this fascinating, Paul here says "therefore, "
08:05 "whether you eat, or whether you drink, do all to the glory"
08:09 "of God. " We just saw one of those
08:12 urgent, end time 3 angels' messages there, fear God
08:14 and give glory to Him, and here Paul says "even in your"
08:18 "eating, even in your drinking, give glory to God. "
08:23 Now that raises an interesting question, doesn't it?
08:26 According to this verse can you eat in a way that glorifies God?
08:30 The answer would be "Yes", wouldn't it?
08:33 According to this verse can you drink in a way that brings
08:35 glory to God? Well, the answer to that
08:38 would be "yes" as well, but wait a minute, if we can eat
08:40 in a way that is to the glory of God, and if we can drink
08:43 in a way that is the glory of God, it must mean then,
08:45 that by the process of deduction, we must also be able
08:48 to eat in way that does not glorify God; and it must be
08:51 possible to drink in a way that does not glorify God,
08:54 does that make sense, everyone? If it's possible to eat to His
08:56 glory, and to drink to His glory, then it must also be
08:59 possible to eat in a way, or drink in a way that is not
09:02 to His glory.
09:05 So we're in 1 Corinthians 6:19: "Or do you not know that your"
09:13 "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, "
09:19 "Whom you have from God, and you are not your own, for you"
09:23 "were bought with a price, therefore, glorify God in your"
09:27 "body, and in your spirit, which are God's. "
09:30 Sometimes we think of God as being only interested in
09:33 spiritual things; sometimes we think of God as only interested
09:36 in Bible study, and prayer, and the so called spiritual aspects,
09:39 religious aspects of life. Not at all!
09:41 It says here "glorify God in your body", and I'm going
09:48 to 1 Corinthians 3:16, He says: "Do you not know that you"
09:53 "are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in"
09:57 "you, if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy"
10:02 "him, for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. "
10:06 Here, in 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 6 and 3,
10:10 we find the apostle Paul communicating to us, obviously
10:13 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that God is
10:16 concerned about what happens to our body, we should be taking
10:19 care of this body, eating, and drinking, and living in a way
10:23 in our body that brings glory to God.
10:28 I want to say it again, because it's so critical, many times
10:31 we don't think about God as being interested in these
10:33 day to day things. We go to the restaurant and we
10:35 order whatever it is there on the menu, or we go to
10:38 the grocery store and we buy whatever's there, and are we
10:40 really thinking "I want to buy something that will help me"
10:43 "to glorify God", I mean, really, be honest, is that
10:45 the kind of thing that we're thinking?
10:47 More often than not, no. But what Paul is saying
10:50 when you eat, think about God's glory; when you drink, think
10:54 about God's glory, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
10:57 He says "glorify God in your body. "
11:01 As we've already said in our prayer, man is multidimensional.
11:10 In fact, look at this in the little book of 3 John, right
11:12 there towards the end of the New Testament, 3 John 1,
11:15 there's only 1 chapter in that book, it says, verse 2:
11:18 [text on screen]
11:27 Now, when he speaks of health here, you must know that he's
11:30 talking about more than just spiritual health because
11:33 he says he wants us to be in health just as our soul
11:35 prospers. John is assuming that the soul
11:38 is healthy, John is assuming that your spiritual life is
11:41 healthy, and then he says "I want you also to be physically"
11:43 "healthy", that's clearly implied by the context,
11:46 "to be physically healthy in your body. "
11:49 Wow, that agrees perfectly with what we saw in Paul's
11:52 writings, that the body is a place we need to glorify
11:55 God, and John here says you need to be healthy, not just
11:58 mentally, not just spiritually, not just religiously, you need
12:01 to be healthy physically as well. Now, open your Bibles
12:06 with me to Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke,
12:09 3rd book of the New Testament, Luke 2,
12:14 notice the last verse of that chapter, Luke 2:52.
12:22 It says, a very interesting verse, it says: "And Jesus"
12:28 "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God"
12:34 "and men. " Now, it's very interesting,
12:36 this is describing Jesus' growth.
12:41 Notice it says He increased in 4 essential areas, I'll read
12:45 it again, "Jesus increased in wisdom", that would be
12:49 intellectual growth. Jesus increased also in
12:52 stature, that would be psychical growth; He increased in favor
12:55 with God, that would be spiritual growth, and in favor
12:59 with men, that would be social growth.
13:02 So here we have this multidimensionality of man,
13:06 He is not just a physical being, as the materialist would say,
13:09 as the naturalist would say, as the evolutionist would say,
13:13 man is more than material, but man is also more than spiritual.
13:16 Sometimes as religionists we can go too far the opposite
13:19 direction, we say "Well, God's concerned about my prayer"
13:22 "life, and God's concerned about my Bible study time, and God's"
13:24 "concerned about my witnessing", but God's not concerned about
13:27 what you eat? God's not concerned about what
13:29 you buy at the grocery store? God's not concerned about what
13:32 you put into this body that was purchased by the blood
13:34 of Jesus? No! Notice it here.
13:37 Man is intellectual, man is physical, man is social,
13:39 man is spiritual, here we see the 4 dimensional nature of man.
13:44 I want to ask you a very simple question: is God
13:46 concerned about our intellectual growth?
13:49 Of course He would be. Is God concerned about
13:51 our physical growth? Of course He would be;
13:54 as we've already seen, "eat and drink to the glory of God".
13:56 Is God concerned about our social growth?
13:59 Of course He would be, and spiritual goes without saying.
14:02 What we're going to see today is that we can actually
14:05 postpone our funeral by living according to God's plan
14:08 for optimum intellectual, physical, social and spiritual
14:13 health. I want to say that again:
14:16 we can actually postpone our funeral by living according
14:21 to God's plan for maximum intellectual, physical, social
14:25 and spiritual growth. Very interesting.
14:28 Someone's going to say: "Well, what do you mean postpone"
14:31 "your funeral? We all have our time, and my time might be"
14:34 "this day, and your time might be that day. "
14:36 Beloved, the wisest man that ever lived, a man by the name
14:39 of Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, I believe it's
14:42 chapter 7, might be verse 17, somewhere around there,
14:44 Solomon says that you can die before your time.
14:51 In other words, that this idea "Well, we're all going to die"
14:54 "some time, so I'll just smoke", no.
14:58 Beloved, you can die before the time that God wants you to die,
15:02 before the time that He has alloted you to die.
15:04 Really, if you're going to take that to its logical conclusion
15:07 you say "Well, we all have our time, we're all going to go"
15:10 "some time", why don't you get your car up 90 miles an hour,
15:13 set the cruise control and jump out?
15:15 This idea that we all have a set time that God has appointed us
15:18 to die, the reality is that God wants us to live happy,
15:22 healthy, satisfying, wholesome lives, intellectual lives,
15:26 physical lives, social lives, and spiritual lives;
15:29 and while it is true that we're not going to live forever,
15:32 at least not in this body, at least not here on planet earth,
15:34 how foolish is it of us to unnecessarily shorten, or cut
15:40 short the amount of time that God intends for us to live
15:44 to His glory. So we conclude so far what
15:48 we've learned, Revelation 14, there's an urgent message
15:51 to glorify God, if that makes sense, say amen.
15:55 1 Corinthians 10, we've seen that God wants to be glorified
16:00 in our bodies, and that we can eat to His glory, and we can
16:03 drink to His glory, and as we've already said, it stands
16:06 to reason. If there's a way that we can
16:09 eat that is to God's glory, if there's a way that we can
16:11 drink that is to God's glory, it must also be true, then,
16:14 that there's a way that we could eat, or drink, that would
16:16 not be to God's glory. Then we go to Luke 2:52,
16:20 we find that Jesus increased in wisdom, and stature, and in
16:22 favor with God and men. So we see the 4 fold
16:25 dimensionality of man: he's a physical being, he's
16:28 an intellectual being, he's a spiritual being,
16:31 and a social being.
16:37 Now let's continue on. God communicates wtih us through
16:41 the brain, you might prefer me to say that God communicates
16:46 wtih us through the mind, that's fine.
16:49 The mind, the seat of the mind is the brain; think of it this
16:52 way: if you're involved in a terrible accident, say
16:57 a terrible industrial accident, or perhaps a car accident,
17:00 and your right hand had to be amputated, your whole right
17:03 arm had to be amputated, let me ask you this questions:
17:06 could you still have a meaningful relationship with
17:08 God without a right arm? Absolutely you could.
17:12 And then let's imagine that you are involved in another terrible
17:15 accident and your left arm had to be amputated, so all you
17:17 had was legs, and a trunk, and a neck, and a head, could you
17:20 have a meaningful relationship with God like this:
17:22 with no arms? Yes or no?
17:24 Sure, of course you could, because you still have desires,
17:27 and you still have ambitions, and you still have goals,
17:29 and you still have love, of course, you can have
17:31 a meaningful relationship with God.
17:34 But what if, then you lost your legs?
17:36 I can't do that, I'm not able to do that physically, but if
17:39 your legs were gone as well so that all you were was
17:41 a trunk, and a neck, and a head, could you still have
17:44 a relationship with God if your mind was intact?
17:46 Of course you could, the answer is "yes", and heres why:
17:49 because God does not communicate with you through your fingers,
17:51 through your elbows, through your knees, or through your
17:53 legs, God communicates with you through your mind.
17:58 The seat of the mind is the brain, think of your brain
18:02 as a spiritual antenna, and if your brain is sharp, if your
18:06 brain is crisp, if your brain is healthy, then you can have
18:10 a healthier spiritual experience, the Devil
18:12 knows this, which is precisely why he would
18:15 love to have God's people addicted to all kinds
18:18 of substances; addicted to alcohol, compromises
18:20 the integrity of the brain; addicted to cigarettes
18:24 compromises the integrity of the brain; addicted to drugs
18:26 compromises the integrity of the brain; addicted to
18:28 pornography compromises the integrity of the brain;
18:30 addicted to food compromises the integrity of the brain.
18:33 God wants us to be healthy in our brains so we can be healthy
18:37 in our mind, God communicates with us through our mind,
18:40 and thus we can be healthy in our spirit.
18:42 In fact, notice here on the slide, a healthy body will
18:45 result in a healthy mind. I want to say that again
18:49 a healthy body will result in a healthy mind, and as we've
18:52 already seen, God is deeply concerned about our body
18:54 because as we've already said, our body is not our body,
18:57 Jesus purchased our body on the cross of Calvary,
19:01 that body doesn't belong to you, that body belongs to God.
19:03 You might think "Well, it's my body, I could do whatever"
19:05 "I want", no! Paul refutes that line of reasoning, Paul refutes
19:09 that line of logic as we've already seen in
19:11 1 Corinthians 10, he says "You were bought with a price, "
19:14 "you are not your own, that body is not your body. "
19:17 Imagine that I lent you my car and I said "hey, you can borrow"
19:19 "my car, but there are certain stipulations, because it's my"
19:22 "car and you're borrowing it, I want you to put this kind"
19:24 "of gas in it, and I want you to change the oil every so often, "
19:27 "and I don't want you to go above this speed limit, "
19:29 "and I want you to etc, etc... " I could go right down the whole
19:32 maintenance list, and you could say "Well, it's my car, "
19:34 "I'll drive it however I want, and I'll trash it however"
19:36 "I want", and I'll say "No! That's not your car! "
19:39 "That's my car, and because I'm the owner of the car, I have"
19:43 "a right to encourage, yea, to command you, to take care"
19:49 "of my car in a way that coincides with my will, "
19:53 "and my desire, because the car belongs to me. "
19:58 Your body belongs to God, you need to disabuse your mind
20:01 of this idea that "Well, it's my body, and I can live however"
20:05 "I want", it's not your body, it's God's body.
20:09 He purchased it, as we've already seen in 1 Corinthians 6,
20:14 God wants us to have a healthy body so that we can have
20:17 a healthy mind, and in having a healthy mind, it will
20:19 significantly increase our chances of having a healthy
20:23 spiritual relationship with God, healthy body, healthy mind;
20:28 it's also true that a healthy mind can also result in
20:31 a healthy body. There's a reciprocal, mutual,
20:36 interface between a healthy body and a healthy mind.
20:39 There are what are called psychosomatic illnesses,
20:42 a psychosomatic illness is an illness that is inflicted upon
20:44 the body because the mind is unhealthy.
20:47 In other words, someone thinks they're sick, so the body
20:50 responds in a sick way. In fact, I have this clever
20:53 little thing that I do, whenever I'm around people that are
20:56 saying "I'm not feeling good", and I say "Oh really? "
20:59 "I'm feeling great, I feel fantastic, in fact, I've never"
21:02 "felt better", I just talk about how healthy I feel, how good
21:04 I feel, etc, etc, and I believe that when I say those
21:07 kinds of things, it actually does take place, that there
21:09 are hormones and other things that take place in the mind
21:12 that actually can bolster the immune system, this is
21:14 actually what the book of Proverbs says: "A merry heart"
21:18 "doeth good like a medicine. " Many people are sick for no
21:21 greater reason than they think themselves to be so.
21:25 Did you hear that? Many people are sick for no
21:27 greater reason than they think themselves to be so.
21:30 So a healthy body helps to create a healthy mind,
21:32 and a healthy mind, in turn, helps to create a healthy body.
21:35 So it's a very positive interrelationship here,
21:38 a mutual relationship, but it also can be switched around
21:41 and be negative, unhealthy body: unhealthy mind, unhealthy mind:
21:45 unhealthy body.
21:48 So God is concerned not just with our so called spiritual
21:51 lives, but very much, He is concerned with our health,
21:54 and our physical lives as well. We're talking today, about how
21:57 to postpone your funeral. What does it mean to glorify
22:01 God, as we've already said: it means to live your life
22:05 for God in every area of that 4 fold dimensionality,
22:09 every area, whether physically, emotionally, spiritually,
22:13 or socially, that's what it means to glorify God.
22:16 Look at this, Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul, I'm actually
22:20 reading from the New King James version, that's the version of
22:22 the Bible that I prefer, but I really like the way that
22:24 the New International Version translates this particular
22:27 verse, so I've put it here on the screen for you, Romans 12:1
22:31 [text on screen]
22:50 Do you see what he's saying there?
22:53 He says that the way you take care of your body is a spiritual
22:55 act of worship. Have you ever thought of that
22:59 before? Notice that he says
23:01 "Present your bodies as living sacrifices", that's a very
23:05 interesting juxtaposition there, with living and sacrifice
23:08 together because traditionally the way we understand the word
23:12 "sacrifice" is in the terms of death, not in terms of life.
23:15 Think of it this way: in the Old Testament when something was
23:18 sacrificed, that means that it died.
23:21 In the Old Testament when a sacrifice was laid on the altar,
23:23 that means that it had died. Even in our own modern language,
23:26 if you're out, say in the woods, sometime with your friend,
23:28 and you come across a train track, and you see the train
23:31 is approaching, and your friend is on the tracks, but for some
23:33 reason he doesn't see the train approaching, if you push your
23:36 friend off of those tracks, and you also make it off of
23:39 the tracks, you live and he lives, then the newspaper
23:42 headline would not read "Man Sacrifices life to save friend",
23:47 because the idea of sacrifice has to do with death.
23:49 But imagine that very same scenario, the train is
23:52 approaching, and there's only enough time for you to save
23:54 either yourself, that is to just let your friend get hit,
23:57 or you can push him off, but in the process of saving him,
24:00 you are hit by the train; the newspaper headline could read
24:04 "Man Sacrifices Life to Save Friend".
24:07 Sacrifice entails death.
24:12 That's why what Paul does here in Romans 12 is so fascinating,
24:16 he introduces, not sacrifice and death, but sacrifice
24:19 and life. Look at it again:
24:21 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's"
24:25 "mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, "
24:30 "holy and pleasing to God -which is your spiritual"
24:32 "act of worship. " I tell you, I've heard so many
24:34 people say "If it comes down to the end time, and the mark"
24:37 "of the beast crisis, I'll be willing to die for God. "
24:40 "If it comes right down to it, and they say thus and so, "
24:43 "thus and so, and it comes between God, serving Him, "
24:45 "and death, I'll die for God. " Beloved, surely God is happy
24:49 that you are willing to die for Him, but what God is looking
24:51 for more in this day and age is not people who are willing
24:56 to die for Him, but people who are willing to live for Him.
25:00 Living sacrifices, a spiritual act of worship, you present
25:06 your body to God. We think of prayer, oh prayer,
25:11 that's a very spiritual time, and God is interested in that,
25:14 that's a spiritual act of worship, nobody would deny that
25:16 prayer is a spiritual act of worship, nobody would deny
25:20 that Bible study is a spiritual act of worship, but wait
25:23 a minute, how you take care of your bodies is a spiritual
25:26 act of worship? That's what the text says.
25:28 This is agreeing perfectly with what we've seen in Romans,
25:31 and what we've seen in 1 Corinthians, is that the way
25:33 that we take care of our bodies is not some little isolated
25:36 thing, God's only concerned about the spirit, God's only
25:38 concerned about the religious life, God is deeply
25:40 and intimately concerned about how we take care of our
25:43 bodies for a variety of reasons.
25:45 Number 1: it shows good stewardship, and number 2:
25:48 because a healthy body produces a healthy mind, a healthy mind
25:50 is the seat of the intellect and the spiritual, moral and
25:53 emotional decisions, and God communicates with us through
25:56 our mind. So we don't have this little
25:59 God who's sort of compartmentalized here,
26:01 and we go to church on Sunday morning, or Saturday
26:04 morning, or whatever day you happen to go to church, and say
26:07 "Oh, here I am, I'm a spiritual being now, and this is"
26:09 "what God cares about, I sit in the pew for an hour, "
26:12 "or 2 hours, and oh, now I'm back out to my regular"
26:14 "old self. " Beloved, God does not want
26:17 to be put into a little compartment, into a little box,
26:20 don't pigeonhole the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
26:23 don't pigeonhole the God of the Bible.
26:26 God is concerned about you spiritually, yes;
26:29 God is concerned about you physically as well.
26:31 Think of it this way: I have 2 children, do you think
26:34 I'm only concerned about the salvation of my children?
26:37 Of course, I'm very concerned about that, but am I not also
26:40 concerned about their physical health as well?
26:43 Of course. It stands to reason.
26:48 So if you can eat to God's glory, and you can drink
26:50 to God's glory, and you can, we've already seen that,
26:52 it must also be true that you can eat and drink in a way
26:57 that is not to God's glory. What I'd like to do from this
27:04 point out is show you several practical instances as to how
27:11 we can eat to the glory of God and cannot eat
27:14 to the glory of God, and how we can drink to the glory of God,
27:17 and how we cannot drink to the glory of God.
27:20 You might be sitting there thinking: "Oh no, "
27:22 "Pastor Asscherick, are you going to make a trip to my"
27:26 "refrigerator? " That's exactly what I'm saying.
27:30 Notice here on the slide it says, William Shakespeare,
27:33 a marvelous quotation from the play "Othello", Act II, Scene 3,
27:38 he said: [text on screen]
27:47 "That men would put an enemy in their mouth that steals away"
27:51 "their brains", what do you think he's talking about?
27:54 He's talking about alcohol. I saw a T-shirt one time,
27:57 somebody was wearing a T-shirt that said:
28:00 "Instant Idiot, Just Add Alcohol".
28:03 When people are on alcohol, when people have consumed
28:08 too much alcohol they begin to lose control of their bodily
28:11 functions because they've lost control of their cognitive
28:14 functions, that's what Shakespeare's saying:
28:16 "Oh God! That men would put an enemy in the mouth", that's
28:20 palatable to the taste buds, but it destroys the mind.
28:24 I've had many people say to me: "Oh, well the Bible teaches"
28:26 "you can drink wine", yeah, the Bible does teach you can drink
28:28 wine, unfermented wine. In fact, there are 2 kinds
28:32 of wine in the Bible, there's: [text on screen]
28:36 Unfermented, and fermented, or the way I like to put it is:
28:39 rotten and fresh. There's rotten wine,
28:42 and there's fresh wine in the Bible.
28:45 Now, someone's going to say "Wait a minute, wine is wine, "
28:46 "all wine is fermented, let me ask you a question, "
28:49 "I'm reading today from the New King James version of"
28:51 "the Bible, and as I read the New King James Version of"
28:54 "the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, I don't find one"
28:56 "place where it uses the word 'grape juice'. "
28:59 The word "wine" is used, well why?
29:02 Because in the New, and Old Testaments there was 1 word,
29:05 in the Old Testament "yayin", there were several in the Old
29:08 Testament, but primarily "yayin", and in the New
29:11 Testament "oinos", and that word can be rendered either
29:14 as fermented or unfermented juice, depending on the context.
29:21 You remember how critical it is that we study the Bible
29:24 in context, because if you don't you could find yourself
29:26 saying " 'Judas hung himself', well that's not what I was"
29:29 "looking for", " 'Go thou and do likewise', that's not what"
29:31 "I was looking for. " " 'What thou doest,' "
29:34 " 'do quickly', that's certainly not what I was looking for. "
29:36 Beloved, we have to study the Bible in context.
29:40 So, if the Bible says that they drank wine and became
29:43 drunk, clearly that's "oinos", fermented.
29:46 If the Bible says that they drank the new wine, fresh
29:50 from the vine, clearly that's non-fermented, "oinos".
29:54 And someone says "Really? Are you saying that the Bible"
29:58 "teaches that we shouldn't drink wine? "
30:00 That's exactly what I'm teaching if we're talking about
30:03 fermented wine, it doesn't just have to be wine either,
30:05 it could be beer, could be whiskey, could be alcohol,
30:08 God tells us to stay away from those very things.
30:10 In fact, notice this statistic here on the board:
30:13 [text on screen]
30:19 Can you drink alcohol to the glory of God?
30:22 I think the answer based on this simple statistic must be "no".
30:26 Imagine this: what if your dog bit 2 out of every 5 guests?
30:30 What if your dog big 2 out of every 5 people that came
30:32 to your house? Would you keep the dog?
30:36 You're probably thinking to yourself, "That depends, "
30:38 "do I get to pick the guests? " That's not the point we're
30:42 making here, the point we're making is this: if your dog
30:45 bit 2 out of every 5 people that came to your house,
30:48 you would call that dog dangerous, you would say
30:50 that dog is not socially acceptable, let's take it a step
30:54 further though: what if your dog killed 2 out of every 5
30:57 people that came to your house? Because beloved, many people
31:01 that develop serious problems with alcohol end up dying
31:04 of those very complications. Whether it's through some
31:07 terrible disease that's brought about, liver disease, or
31:10 a child is born with fetal alcohol syndrome, whatever
31:13 it might be, is God going to endorse something that brings
31:17 about these kinds of horrific, and terrible tragedies,
31:21 with such frequency? Good common sense and good
31:24 logic tells us that that's absolutely impossible.
31:27 In fact, I had 2 of my best friends in the world were killed
31:30 by a drunk driver. Did you hear what I said?
31:34 2 of my best friends in the world were killed by a drunk
31:37 driver, hit them going 125 miles an hour down the wrong
31:40 side of the road. Bob and Bobby would still
31:43 be alive today. Beloved, I want you to think
31:45 about this, surely the Bible has a great deal to say
31:49 about the topic of alcohol, the issue of alcohol, but just
31:53 good common sense will tell you that if 40% of people
31:57 develop serious problems, that if things like spousal
32:01 abuse, which many time is directly tied to alcohol
32:04 and other things, and drunk drivers, and fetal alcohol
32:07 syndrome, all of these things, the Christian is going to look
32:10 at that and say "Oh, no problem, piece of cake, the Christian"
32:13 "can do it", beloved, listen! The Bible makes it clear
32:19 that we should avoid these very things, in fact, open your
32:22 Bibles to the book of Proverbs, the wisest man that every
32:25 lived, a man by the name of Solomon.
32:27 I'm going to Proverbs 20, this becomes clear, the context
32:31 makes it clear when you look at the difference between
32:35 fermented and unfermented wine, that's the critical distinction:
32:39 fermented and unfermented. I'm in Proverbs 20:1.
32:46 The wisest man who ever lived says: "Wine is a mocker, "
32:50 "and strong drink is raging, whoever is led astray by it"
32:54 "is not wise. " Notice what he says:
32:57 "Wine will make fun of you, wine will mock you, wine will"
33:01 "trash you, and trash you", he says it even more explicitly
33:05 in Proverbs 23:29.
33:12 Solomon begins with a series of rhetorical questions, he says:
33:15 "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? "
33:18 "Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? "
33:21 "Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at"
33:24 "the wine, who go in search of mixed wine. "
33:27 "Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in"
33:30 "the cup, when it swirls around smoothly, at the last it bites"
33:34 "like a serpent, it stings like a viper. "
33:36 "Your eyes will see strange things, your heart will utter"
33:39 "perverse things, yes, you, will be like one who lies down"
33:41 "in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the"
33:44 "top of the mast, saying: They have struck me, but I was"
33:47 "not hurt; they have beaten me, but I did not feel it. "
33:50 "When shall I awake that I may seek another drink? "
33:53 Solomon, here, is describing the classic drunkard;
33:56 Solomon, here, is describing the classic person who has wounds
33:59 without cause, and has soreness of eyes, etc, etc, and he says
34:03 he gets knocked out, he's like a person on top of the mast,
34:05 and when he finally wakes up the first thing out of his mouth:
34:08 "Ohhh, I need another one..." Beloved, let's be clear about
34:12 something, God loves alcoholics, but God hates alcoholism,
34:16 and that's the point. 40% of people develop serious
34:20 problems, Solomon says here: "don't even look at it",
34:24 and that doesn't mean drink it with your eyes closed,
34:26 what it means is don't even look at it, it's a temptation.
34:31 Somebody says "Well, Jesus made wine in John 2 at"
34:34 "the feast Cana". Jesus did make wine, He made
34:37 "oinos", but please don't try and convince me that Jesus
34:42 Christ made gallons, and gallons, of fermented wine
34:47 when Jesus Himself came to save humanity.
34:50 Isn't that what it says? Jesus came to save humanity,
34:52 I'm looking in Luke 19:10, Jesus says: "The Son of man has"
34:57 "come to seek and save that which is lost. "
35:00 So we can summarize Jesus' mission as basically this:
35:03 He came to save people, but yet the Bible says in
35:06 1 Corinthians 6 that drunkards will not inherit the kingdom
35:10 of heaven. Now, I want you to think about
35:12 that for a moment, drunkards will not inherit the kingdom
35:15 of heaven, that is unrepentant drunkards who don't get
35:17 the victory, will not inherit the kingdom of heaven,
35:20 but wait a minute, 40% of people who drink alcohol develop
35:22 a serious problem, 40% of people who drink alcohol become
35:25 drunkards, so you're going to tell me that Jesus, the one who
35:28 came to save; Jesus, the one who came to redeem; Jesus, the one
35:31 who came to rescue us from sin is actually contributing at
35:34 a party with hundreds, perhaps, gallons, and gallons,
35:37 and gallons of alcohol, for the purpose of keeping everybody
35:41 happy, knowing that many of the people
35:43 that would have drank that very wine that Jesus made
35:46 would have gone on to have serious problems and would
35:48 have become drunkards? Knowing that that would
35:52 contribute to their non-salvation, to their loss
35:55 of salvation, to their eternal damnation?
35:58 Beloved, this is not the Jesus of the Bible.
36:02 In fact, when Jesus held up that wine, you want to find there
36:05 with me in Mark 14, see if you can go there with me,
36:07 second book of the New Testament, Mark 14.
36:10 When Jesus blesses the wine, let's see if we can find it,
36:18 Mark 14.
36:28 Here we are, Mark 14. Jesus is celebrating
36:33 the Passover, the last supper with His disciples, and He says
36:36 something very interesting in verse 22, Mark 14:22:
36:39 "And as they were eating, Jesus took the bread and He"
36:42 "blessed it and broke it, and He gave it to His disciples"
36:45 "and He said, Take and eat, this is My body. " Verse 23:
36:48 "He took the cup, and when He'd given thanks, He gave it"
36:50 "to them, and they all drank from it", now look at verse 24:
36:53 "This is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for"
36:55 "many", so that wine represented the blood of Jesus.
36:58 Verse 25: "Assuredly I say to you, I will not longer drink"
37:01 "of the fruit of the vine until the day that I drink it new"
37:05 "with you in the kingdom of God. "
37:08 3 things in this passage indicate very clearly that
37:13 the wine that Jesus offered up as the wine of the covenant
37:16 was not fermented wine. Number 1: It represented His
37:20 blood. Fermentation to the Jews, like leaven to the Jews,
37:24 was a sign of sin. So can you imagine Jesus
37:28 holding up this thing and saying: "This is My blood, "
37:31 "the sin stained, sin defiled blood, is the blood of the new"
37:34 "covenant", it would have made no sense.
37:36 Number 2, He says "I won't drink of the fruit of the vine. "
37:40 You see, think of it this way, there are 2 kinds of wine:
37:44 there's the fresh juice that comes fresh from the cluster,
37:47 and then there's the fermented, that is the fresh,
37:49 and the rotten. Jesus uses the terminology
37:52 "fruit of the vine", you know He's talking about the juice
37:54 that came fresh from the fruit, fresh from the cluster, fresh
37:57 from the vine, that's not fermented.
38:00 It takes time for things to ferment, that's why they say:
38:02 "Oh, this is a very good year, 1974, perfect".
38:07 Beloved, this would have been fresh, not aging, and aging,
38:12 and aging, and fermenting. Then He says, number 3:
38:14 "until the day I drink it new with you in the kingdom"
38:17 "of heaven. " This was new wine, not the old
38:20 wine, Jesus was crucified around the Passover,
38:23 Passover is in spring, this would have been the time
38:26 of harvest.
38:28 Beloved, Jesus would not have offered fermented, alcoholic,
38:32 wine to people at the wedding of Cana for several reasons,
38:36 first of all, the Old Testament prohibits it, as we've
38:39 already seen in Proverbs, and other texts could be cited;
38:42 and number 2: because Jesus came to save men,
38:45 not to contribute to their eternal damnation.
38:47 But the second point here is Jesus would not have offered,
38:51 no way would He have offered up fermented wine as a sign
38:55 of His blood of the New covenant, it makes no sense.
38:59 Beloved, I'm going to so far as to say that even if the Bible
39:02 said nothing about wine, even if the Bible was totally silent
39:05 on it, any Christian who has his or her head screwed on
39:08 straight can look at the effects of alcohol, and say:
39:14 "It cannot be consumed and imbibed to the glory of God. "
39:18 "Impossible! It's like oil and water. "
39:21 And someone says "Well, I'm a social drinker, I drink just"
39:23 "a little bit". Beloved, nobody, NOBODY, starts
39:27 drinking thinking to themselves "I think I'll become"
39:29 "a drunkard, I think I'll become totally sloshed, and ruin"
39:32 "my family, and ruin my marriage, I think I'll... "
39:34 No one starts drinking that way, everyone starts as a social
39:38 drinker.
39:42 So I would say, as plain as the noon-day sun, you cannot
39:47 drink alcohol to the glory of God, impossible, that's
39:50 a Biblical conviction, and frankly, it's just a plain,
39:53 logical conviction. Before I became a Christian
39:55 I took care of people that had developmental disabilities,
39:58 people with Down Syndrome, people with Autism, and I took
40:00 care of a young man by the name of Joshua Martinez, he had
40:03 fetal alcohol syndrome. Oh, he was so dear to me,
40:06 he was approximately my age, and I loved him so much,
40:09 but his mind was so impaired he couldn't speak, he couldn't
40:12 talk, in fact, all he could do is say "aaaaaa...aaaa",
40:15 and he would say his hand, his little palsy hand, and he would
40:18 hold it up to his chin and say "Aaaaa...mama...", he would
40:20 push his mandible up into his mouth to make him say
40:24 "mamama". Joshua, of course, could never
40:28 understand it, but he missed his mom, and he loved his mom,
40:30 and he was living in this home, and the whole time I remember
40:33 looking at this situation with total frustration, total
40:36 consternation, because here, he longed for his mom, he loved
40:40 his mom, he missed his mom, and yet, it was his mom who
40:44 put him in that situation! Don't tell me Jesus
40:48 is like that! Don't tell me that Jesus is
40:51 going to contribute to people's condemnation, contribute
40:54 to people's damnation, contribute to people's loss
40:56 of salvation by making gallons, and gallons of fermented wine
41:00 knowing that someone is going to get: [acts like a drunk]
41:03 "Oh, hey, how you doing...? ", start hitting on other people's
41:06 wives, and committing adultery, or hitting on someone's husband.
41:08 NO!
41:11 There are 2 kinds of wines in the Bible: fermented
41:13 and unfermented. Sure, you want to have a nice
41:15 fresh glass of Welch's grape juice, amen! I'm the same
41:18 way, in fact, I can hardly even eat a meal without having
41:21 a little grape juice at the end of it, but I tell you what:
41:24 I don't want the rotten stuff, I want the fresh stuff.
41:29 Now, it's not just alcohol, there are other lifestyle
41:33 practices that contribute to the shortening, and other
41:38 lifestyle practices that harm our bodies.
41:40 Dr. Linus Pauling said: [text on screen]
41:46 Someone says: "Wait a minute, are you going to say that"
41:49 "the Bible condemns smoking? Show me a verse that says"
41:52 "you can't smoke. " Beloved, I can't show you
41:54 a verse that says "Thou shalt not smoke", but I can't show
41:57 you a verse that says "Thou shalt not smoke crack cocaine"
41:59 either; I can't show you a verse that says "You shouldn't"
42:02 "shoot heroin", it's common sense.
42:04 God has given you a mind, now use it!
42:06 If these things are taking 14.5 minutes off of your life,
42:10 every single cigarette, how could you possibly do that
42:13 to the glory of God, who is Himself the life giver.
42:16 God gives life, Satan takes life, and anything that
42:19 prematurely, unnecessarily, as an addiction, takes your
42:22 life away, is not from God. I want to underscore here
42:26 something very important, by the way, God loves cigarette
42:30 smokers, but God hates cigarettes,
42:34 and that's the point. See, we love the sin,
42:37 and hate the sinner, but God loves the sinner and hates
42:40 the sin. Look at this: nicotine ends
42:42 in "ine": [text on screen]
42:49 All of these drugs are of the same sub-narcotic class,
42:52 and you look at the last one and think "Wait a minute! "
42:55 "Is he actually saying caffeine? "
42:57 I am saying caffeine. Caffeine is a very strong
43:00 stimulant, you can't consume caffeine without being
43:04 unaffected by its stimulant properties.
43:07 I look at this whole Starbuck's craze, and this whole coffee
43:11 craze, and I think to myself: No, caffeine is a drug.
43:16 "Now, are you saying, David, that everyone who drinks"
43:18 "coffee is not a Christian? " No, I didn't say that,
43:21 what I am saying is I don't think we're going to be
43:23 going to the heavenly coffee shops in the New Jerusalem,
43:25 that's what I'm saying. Listen, if you can't shoot
43:28 heroin to the glory of God, and if you can't take cocaine
43:30 to the glory of God, and if you can't take strychnine to
43:33 the glory of God, then why, pray tell, should you be able
43:35 to take caffeine to the glory of God? Just answer me,
43:38 that's a very logical question. Beloved, God has given us bodies
43:43 and He wants us to take care of those bodies.
43:46 Several years ago I read this book entitled "Caffeine Blues",
43:49 by Stephen Cherniske, he says: "Wake up to the hidden dangers"
43:52 "of America's number 1 drugs". One of the most powerful
43:54 things in there is he interviewed a representative
43:57 from the FDA, and he asked him straight out, he said:
43:59 "Listen, if caffeine came up today to be passed for general"
44:03 "consumption, so my little 5 year old boy can go into"
44:05 "the supermarket and buy a Red Bull, my friend's little"
44:07 "7 year old boy can go into the supermarket and buy"
44:09 "one of these caffeine laden drinks", he asked them
44:12 a question, "Would it pass approval by the FDA for general"
44:15 "consumption? " And the FDA representative
44:17 said "No way! Too many health risks, too many problems"
44:21 "for general consumption. No way. "
44:23 And he even suggested that it might not have been approved
44:26 for consumption at all. In fact, I highly recommend
44:29 that book, don't just think: "Well, everybody's doing it, "
44:31 "everybody likes to drink a little coffee. "
44:34 Listen beloved, maybe you do need the coffee, but think
44:37 about it: you need it. Let that sink into your mind:
44:40 you need it. If you're sitting there today
44:42 thinking "Well, I need that morning cup of coffee",
44:43 think about what you're saying, if you need it, you're addicted
44:46 to it. Now, I don't want to be
44:49 so strong here, and I don't want you to think that I'm
44:52 unreasonable, or irrational, I just want us to be thinking
44:55 about how we can be living to the glory of God,
45:00 and that's the point. I used to be totally addicted
45:03 to caffeine, I used to drink so much caffeine that I've
45:06 probably done irreparable damage to my gastrointestinal system,
45:11 but beloved, when I stopped drinking caffeine I got
45:13 headaches, I got the shakes, I got the shivers, I was cold,
45:17 it lasted for almost a week. Why?
45:19 Because it's a drug.
45:22 God has given you water, drink water.
45:25 Does God have anything to say about the things we eat?
45:28 It's not just smoking, it's not just alcohol, the answer
45:30 is "yes". God did give us things
45:33 to eat, and there are many things that He wants us
45:35 to ea: fresh fruits, and vegetables, and those things
45:38 that He's created to be eaten, but there are some things
45:41 that many people eat today that are not created
45:44 to be eaten. There are certain things
45:46 that people are eating in this fast food, convenience driven
45:49 society, and obesity is off the charts, and lifestyle
45:52 related diseases are off the charts, it's absolutely
45:54 incredible that the majority of diseases that people die of
45:57 today are diseases that they are inflicting on themselves.
45:59 Before I became a Christian I was studying medicine at
46:01 the University of Wyoming, and my senior professor told me:
46:04 "David, listen to me, if people stopped drinking", that is
46:07 alcohol, "if people stopped smoking cigarettes, and if"
46:10 "people started eating right and getting a little exercise, "
46:13 "and drinking enough water", he said this to me, he wasn't
46:15 even a Christian person at all, he said "90% of doctors"
46:18 "would be out of business in the first 10 years. "
46:20 Think about that. What that tells me is that
46:23 it's our lifestyle related practices that are contributing
46:26 to our ill health, that are contributing to the national
46:28 health care epidemic, problems that we're in in this culture,
46:33 and in other cultures. What we put into our minds
46:37 is destroying our body, God instructed Noah to bring
46:40 both, clean and unclean animals onto the Ark, you can read
46:43 all about in Genesis 7. He said "bring 7 of the clean, "
46:46 "but only 2 of the unclean. " Well, why 7 of the clean?
46:49 Because after the flood meat could be eaten,
46:57 and not before. When God created Adam and Eve,
46:59 He put them in the garden, and they were fruitarians,
47:01 you might have never heard that term before, "fruitarians"?
47:04 Yeah, that's right, they ate fruit.
47:07 But then, after the flood they began to eat meat.
47:11 If you look at this slide here, you actually see this is
47:14 a chart, this doesn't represent their heights,
47:16 this represents their relative ages, so you have Noah holding
47:19 the boat, and people before him, think of it, Adam lived 930
47:23 years, and Methuselah lived 969, and Jared lived 962,
47:27 and then you go after the flood when people started eating
47:30 meat, of course, there were a variety of factors,
47:32 but this one would have been one of the most significant,
47:35 the ages of the Patriarchs: Sham, Ham, Japheth,
47:37 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and today we're happy if we make it
47:39 to 70, 80 if you're lucky. Beloved, God has given us
47:44 permission to eat meat, there's no question about that,
47:48 but God knows that the eating of meat will eventually harm
47:52 the fine tuned internal systems of the body,
47:57 especially if you an inordinate amount of meat.
48:00 But even then, the meat that we eat has to be clean.
48:03 I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, you can look
48:07 this up in Leviticus 11 for yourself.
48:10 In Leviticus 11 it says if you're going to eat an animal
48:13 it has to have 2 things, it has to have a cloven hoof,
48:17 and it has to chew the cud. 2 things, it has to chew
48:20 the cud, like a cow chews the cud, and it has to have
48:23 a split hoof, and he gives a list of all the things that you
48:28 could eat, it would say things like cow, of course:
48:31 split hoof, and chews the cud, no problem.
48:35 A deer, no problem, an elk, no problem, but what about
48:38 a horse, could you eat a horse? No, because even if they chew
48:41 the cud, they don't split the hoof.
48:44 What about a pig? Could you eat a pig?
48:46 The answer is no, because even though they split the hoof,
48:48 they don't chew the cud. So God says if you want
48:51 to eat, that's up to you, that's your business.
48:53 I happen to be a vegetarian, I'm not saying that you have
48:55 to become a vegetarian, I'm not suggesting that at all, but what
48:58 I am saying is this: the vegetarian lifestyle
49:00 is consistently, medically demonstrated to be
49:03 the healthiest lifestyle for people who eat a well balanced
49:06 diet of fruits, and vegetables, and nuts, and grains, etc.
49:10 I happen to be a vegetarian because there's just too
49:13 much junk going into the meat nowadays, too many hormones,
49:16 too much nastiness, unclean slaughter houses, and every
49:19 other kind of thing, I'm just not going to risk it.
49:22 I'm personally not going to risk it, but if you want to risk
49:24 it, hey, that's up to you, but the point here is this:
49:27 while eating meat is not a sin, be sure that you're eating
49:29 clean meats.
49:32 Someone says: "Oh, well that's only for the Jews. "
49:34 That's not only for the Jews. Was Noah a Jew?
49:37 Noah wasn't a Jew, Noah came before the first Jew,
49:40 Abraham, by several hundred years, perhaps even as much
49:43 as 1000 years. So think about that,
49:45 if God instructed Noah, there's a distinction between clean
49:48 and unclean, it must mean that those distinctions existed
49:52 before the time of the Jews.
49:57 Pork is an unclean meat, it has the highest fat content
49:59 of all meats, and it is not to be eaten if you're going
50:02 to follow what the Bible has to say.
50:05 You can talk about trichina, we're not going to go into
50:07 that, let's go to sea food. Very simple.
50:10 If you want to eat something that comes out of the water
50:13 it just have to have 2 things, just like the animal has
50:15 to have a cloven foot, and chew the cud, if something's going
50:19 to come out of the water, it has to have fins and scales.
50:24 So, lobster: no fins, no scales, it's out.
50:28 Shrimp: it's out. Oysters: it's out.
50:31 Salmon, would that be in our out? That would be in
50:33 because it has fins and scales. By the way, you wouldn't want
50:36 to eat those things anyway when you really discovered what
50:39 they were all about. Dr. Bruce Halsted did some
50:42 research for the Navy, and he basically said
50:44 "Listen sailors, when you get shot down and you're on"
50:47 "an island, or you're trying to make do with eating some"
50:50 "fish out of the sea", he produced this huge manual,
50:52 and finally they said "Hey listen, we can't expect our"
50:55 "sailors to read this whole manual, how can they know"
50:57 "in a more simplistic way? " And he said "Simple, if it has"
51:00 "fins and scales, it's safe to eat, if it doesn't, "
51:02 "don't eat it. " Very simple, he confirmed the Bible's
51:05 findings. "Shellfish are dirty"
51:08 "and dangerous", said Prevention Magazine.
51:12 These things are filter feeders, the reason they call them
51:14 filter feeders is they filter all the impurities that
51:17 the other animals in the sea are getting rid of, God created
51:20 certain things to be eaten, and other things not to be
51:23 eaten. If God has created something
51:26 to be eaten, you can eat it. God has given permission
51:28 to eat clean foods, but think even of the children of Israel
51:31 in the wilderness, God had given them manna.
51:33 The Bible says that manna was like the coriander seed,
51:37 with a little honey, it was a vegetarian thing.
51:39 But they said "Ahh, we miss all the good stuff back"
51:43 "in Egypt, the leaks, and the onions, and the meat", and God
51:47 said "Okay, listen, you really want meat? "
51:49 and He sent them quail. But notice what happens,
51:53 they began to eat that quail, and many of them died
51:56 when the quail was still in their mouth.
51:58 God had given them permission, so there are things that you
52:02 can do, that may or may not be in your best interest
52:05 as far as your physical body goes.
52:08 I want to be clear about what I'm saying here, and what I'm
52:10 not saying. If you want to eat meat,
52:13 that's fine, if you want to eat meat, that's up to you,
52:15 that's a choice you're making, I believe that if you're
52:18 going to eat meat, you also need to be eating
52:20 a well balanced diet, any nutritionist would tell
52:23 you that; you need lots of fiber, you need lots of fruits,
52:26 you need lots of vegetables and grains, but as far as
52:29 the unclean meats go, whether you're talking about pig,
52:31 or anything that does not split the hoof or chew the cud,
52:34 no! Because God says it's an abomination to Him,
52:38 you can read about it in Leviticus 11.
52:41 Someone says "What about the birds? "
52:43 In Leviticus 11 it basically just gives a list of the birds
52:46 you can eat, and it's pretty simple.
52:48 You don't eat things like vultures, and hawks, and kites,
52:51 kestrel, and falcons, and owls. The birds that are chicken
52:53 like birds, what are sometimes referred to as
52:56 gallinaceous birds, those birds you can eat, that would be
52:58 like the grouse, or the turkey, or the chicken, etc.
53:04 Let's make a little haste here, let's get right down
53:07 to the end.
53:14 Philippians 3:19, the apostle Paul says, speaking of those
53:17 people who put their own satisfaction, their own desires,
53:21 and their own taste buds above God's will, he said:
53:24 [text on screen]
53:35 Some of this might come as a little bit of a surprise to some
53:37 of you, you're thinking "Wait a minute, are you"
53:40 "kidding me? Does the Bible really say that there are"
53:42 "certain things that we can't eat, and certain things"
53:45 "that we can eat? " That's exactly what the Bible
53:48 say. It's not because God doesn't
53:50 love you, in fact, God does love you, as we've already seen,
53:53 God loves us tremendously. He gave His Son to save us,
53:55 He gave His Son, who died for us, and purchased us
53:58 on the cross of Calvary; as Paul says, "you are not"
54:00 "your own, you are bought with a price", so God wants us
54:03 to take care of the body that He has entrusted to us,
54:05 healthy body results in a healthy mind, a healthy mind
54:08 makes a healthy spiritual experience more likely.
54:10 So beloved, as we wrap this up, we've seen that God
54:13 is interested in our physical health, as well as our spiritual
54:15 health, as well as our social health, as well as our
54:18 intellectual health, and all of these things are related
54:21 to one another in a symbiotic kind of relationship.
54:27 Surely, God is a good parent who's going to have concerns
54:30 about certain things that you would eat, or wouldn't eat.
54:33 I mean, I wouldn't let my son eat 4 pieces of chocolate cake.
54:36 Why? Because I hate him? No, because I love him.
54:39 One day when I was a boy I'd gotten under the kitchen
54:41 sink, and I was about ready to some Ajax, and my mom
54:43 came up and slapped the Ajax out of my hand.
54:45 Why did she slap it out of my hand?
54:47 Because she hated me or because she loved me?
54:50 Because she loved me! When God tells us to avoid
54:53 certain things, when God tells us not to eat certain things,
54:55 it's not because He hates us, it's because He loves us.
54:58 I want to quickly address this last objection, someone says:
55:01 "Well that's just for the Jews. "
55:04 We've already looked at that, when it comes to the clean
55:06 and unclean, because Noah had the distinction between
55:09 the clean and the unclean, but let me ask you this
55:11 question: did Jesus die on the cross to cleanse pigs,
55:14 or to cleanse men?
55:15 Jesus didn't die on the cross to cleanse a pig, to make
55:19 a pig clean, Jesus died on the cross to make men clean.
55:24 Absolutely! So we close with this
55:27 quotation that we opened with: [text on screen]
55:35 National Geographic ran an article, fascinating article,
55:39 in which they looked at the 3 healthiest population groups
55:42 in the world, in terms of longevity: the Okinawans,
55:45 which is an isolated geographical group;
55:48 the Sardinians, which is an isolated geographical group;
55:50 and this strange group of people called the Seventh Day
55:53 Adventists. These are the 3 healthiest
55:56 groups of people in the world.
55:58 Beloved, I want you to think about that.
56:00 That group there, the Seventh Day Adventists, there have
56:03 been government sanctioned studies that have, in fact,
56:06 there's one going on right now, that has looked into why
56:09 these people are healthier than the surrounding population,
56:12 you want to know what the answer is, it's so simple:
56:14 because they follow the Bible's guidelines for optimum physical,
56:18 mental, moral and spiritual health.
56:21 The average Seventh Day Adventist lives 7-10 years
56:24 longer than another person in the population.
56:28 Why? Because God loves them more?
56:31 Not at all, because they're living by the Bible's
56:33 prescription for optimum physical health.
56:36 Now, I'm not saying to you right now: "Oh, you have to become"
56:38 "a Seventh Day Adventist so you can live longer", what I'm
56:41 saying is: follow the Bible whatever church you go to,
56:43 whatever denomination you're in, follow the Bible,
56:46 and the Bible only, God will lead you, God will guide
56:49 you, He wants you to be physically healthy, He wants
56:52 you to be spiritually healthy, He wants you to be emotionally
56:54 healthy, He wants you to be mentally healthy.
56:58 Someone says "David, are you a Seventh Day Adventist? "
57:01 Yes, I am a Seventh Day Adventist. Why?
57:04 Because they follow the Bible most closely, and because
57:06 everything they teach comes form a plain "Thus sayeth the Lord",
57:09 that's why I'm a Seventh Day Adventist.
57:11 Do I also follow the Bible prescription for health?
57:15 Yes I do, and I would invite every one
57:18 of you to seriously consider doing the very same thing.
57:20 How many of you say "If it's in the Bible, I want to believe"
57:23 "it, I want to live by what's in the Bible. "
57:25 Let us pray. Father in heaven, we do want
57:27 to live by what's in this Word, we do want to live
57:29 by what's between these pages. Even if sometimes it cuts across
57:32 us, even if sometimes it's new to us, Father, we want to live
57:35 by these great truths, whether it has to do with our
57:38 physical health, or our spiritual health, whatever it
57:41 might be Father, if it's in Your Word, we believe it.
57:44 We want to live by it, we want to love it.
57:46 Help us, oh God, in areas where we're weak, make us strong,
57:49 where we're broken, heal us. For we ask it in Jesus' name,
57:53 let everyone say amen.


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Revised 2014-12-17