Participants: Pr. David Asscherick
Series Code: DP
Program Code: DP000017
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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. |
Revised 2014-12-17