Fundamental Belief

The story appeared in the New Yorker magazine November 18, 1950, but the story that was reported on took place over eight years earlier. The story took place in April of 1942, which, as you will know, was in the midst of World War II. However, in New York City, there was a German society that called itself the Hindenburg Pleasure Society, and they were making preparations for their annual schlockfest, which is something they did where they would eat high on the hog and have a big feast and a lot of merriment and, I suppose, brewed adult beverages and etc., etc.

One particular evening, five men worked late preparing for the schlockfest, and they decided they'd have a snack before they went home. They went to the cooler, they found some ground meat patties, decided to cook them up, have a sandwich before they go home. Two of the men cooked their meat well done. Those men were fine. Two of the men cooked theirs pretty rare. They began to have physical problems a bit later. But then there was the fifth one, whose name was Herman Sower.

And Herman, within no time, had major, major problems. Major abdominal pain, major chest pain, major arm, leg pain all over. He reported to the hospital. They began running tests. They first thought, is it anthrax? And they ruled that out. They thought, is it botulism? They ruled that out. Everything, every avenue they tried, they ruled it out. And I actually ate that evening same home.

By the next morning, he was much worse. By noon, the next day, he returned to the hospital. Once again, same drill, more tests, striking out, no answers found. Until finally, one doctor noticed that the white blood cell count was greatly elevated. Along with some of the other evidence, he pieced it all together. And he called the County of the Area Health Department and reported that we have a severe case of trichinosis. What the fellows first thought was ground beef turned out to be ground pork.

And when well, when cooked well done, there are critters that can be killed. And when it's rare, there are some critters killed and some still there. And when it's like Herman Sower, when it's raw, you are what you eat. And it took his life. It took his life. And the doctor's guesstimated as many as 12 million trichina worms could be found in his body.

All right, who's ready for supper? That's a pretty rare example. But I think it speaks to the fact that human beings aren't supposed to eat everything they can catch, shoot, kill, run over the car, whatever. That there are laws. Now, as you know, from time to time, I take one of the fundamental belief statements of the United Church of God and try to elaborate upon that. Some of those are very detailed. This one is one of the shorter statements that we have.

The statement on God's food laws is only one sentence. And it says, we believe that those meats that are designated unclean by God in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 are not to be eaten. And if you go to our fundamental beliefs booklet, then there will be a number of paragraphs explaining that as far as why we say what we say.

I want to take the sermon today to look at this basic teaching. It is largely a physical issue. It can become a spiritual issue, depending on how we deal with it. Certainly, if there are lusts, to some of you, I brought the Volume 1 of Mr. Herbert Armstrong's autobiography. And way back when, in the early days, there was a big confrontation. There was a section in there called the pork controversy. And there were some of the ministers who were just adamantly teaching that eating pork is about the worst sin you can commit. And he was dealing with that, because he made the point that, well, it's a physical issue.

But he did bear out the fact that unless you lust for it. Now, it's hard for me to imagine anyone lusting after lobster. I've been told how wonderful it is, but I never had any. So there's nothing to trigger the fact that I've got to have lobster. I've never had crab legs. I should say that I know of, on all of these, because unless you have complete total full control of what you eat, you might have questions about what you actually truly get when you go and order out somewhere.

But I want to look at Leviticus 11, look at the law, then look at some of the more commonly used passages of the Bible to attempt to sweep away the food laws of God, to say that Christ cleaned everything, and then come back at the end with what I hope is a bit of balance. You know, the area of clean, unclean meats is an area where there are landmines we can step on.

Some people are going to be prone to becoming pharisaical in their approach, and some people are going to tend to become judgmental and downright condemnatory. And it ought not be driving wedges between people of the body of Jesus Christ. There are weightier matters of the law. This is not one of them. Now, I don't want pork in my life, and I don't want shrimp in my life, but, you know, it's not of the caliber of faith in Christ, and of the grace that God gives to us, the forgiveness of sins. You look at our fundamental belief statements, and there's a statement about God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and the law of God, festivals, sabbaths, tithing, I mean, pretty heavy issues, heavy weighty matters that we need to be living by.

This one's not at the top of the list, but it is on the list, and so I want to address it with you. Turn with me over to Leviticus 11. Leviticus 11, and this is one of those chapters, deals with the law of clean, unclean meats. Here we have a chapter, and we have different sections within the chapter.

And in verses 2 through 8, we have a statement made about the law regarding animals.

And then in verses 9 through 12, we have the law as far as what you find in the water. 13 through 19, we have, actually here, it's a bit different. We're not given criteria that identify clean birds to eat, but we have a listing of birds we should not eat. But I'll read something from the Old Bible Storybook that a lot of us are familiar with, where the Jews have preserved six criteria, and a clean bird has to have every last one of those.

Now, where did the Jews get that? I don't have a clue. I do know that in Romans 3 verse 2, it says that there were certain things called the oracles of God committed to the Jews. And we've looked at the Jews for the calendar. And I hope I can live long enough to never hear another calendar question in my life. But anyhow, the calendar tends to have a life of its own that comes back every so often. A lot of resurrections. And the Jews kept the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures. And if there's anybody who's ever walked the earth who's outstanding at keeping records, that's the Jewish people. And so I think it's very possible that there were things revealed way back when, but I don't have a piece of evidence to prove it, where I think that God gave that to them. But now our favorite section of this chapter has to be verses 20 through 23, where we talk about the bugs. But, you know, I want you just you have to wait for that. So let's let's go back up to verse two. Speak to the children of Israel saying, these are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Verse three, it says, whatever divides the hoof having cloven hooves and chewing the cud that you may eat. So we're given two criteria.

And they have to have both. It goes on, explains one doesn't count because the camel chews the cud, but the camel has this this big old club of a foot and it's not cloven, so you can't eat the camel. So barbecue camel hump is out. Sorry. It goes on and it lists certain animals. Verse four, the camel. Verse five, the rock hierarchs, the New King's name says the marginal note says the rock badger. It chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves. It is unclean. Verse six speaks of the hare. It chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves. And verse seven, the swine, though it divides the hoof having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, it or is unclean to you. Your flesh you shall not eat. And I think that's good to notice. Your, their flesh you shall not eat. And their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you. So if you have roadkill, probably best use a shovel is what I get from that. Scoop the thing off and get it out of the way. Get out of your driveway and over on the neighbor's property, or over the dispose of it properly. So good, you are awake today. That's great. But it says, their flesh you don't eat. Now that's something the church has gotten that question through the years. We know that gelatin comes from the cartilage of different animals. Now there are, like Knox company has the kosher gelatin products, and there are some if you get capsules, nutrients that are in capsules, they might be vegetable type. But then there's all the rest of them. And gelatin is an ingredient. And you don't know where it comes from. It might come from a pig, and it might come from a calf, and it might come from a goat or a sheep, and you can't tell. Well, you have a decision to make for you. But anyhow, we'll get on with that a little later. But it says, the carcass is you shall not touch. Now there are some who would say, who would say, well, these unclean animals, you can't touch them. Well, if you say that, then anybody who owns a dog, you have to get rid of the dog. Anyone who owns a cat, cat's got to go. Your pet pig has to go. However, the problem I have with that is, seems like in the New Testament, we read of someone coming into Jerusalem at one point, the poem fronds, the glory to God, Hosanna to God, the highest. And that was Jesus Christ. And what was he writing? A donkey. Now, last I checked, the last donkey I saw didn't have a cloven. And if he wrote on it, I suspect he was touching it. So, you know, we can go to an extreme of trying to make a religion out of some of these picky points. There are way to your matters. This is not one of them. But if you don't want to touch an unclean animal, then don't touch an unclean animal. But watch out when you drive by a house or somebody owns a Labrador, because they don't always ask your permission to come up and get up close and personal with you. All right. Verse 9. You may eat all that are in the water. Whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or rivers, that you may eat. But all in the seas or the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you. They shall be an abomination to you. You shall not eat their flesh. The church has always gotten the question, well, okay, I've got a calcium supplement and I can't tell where my calcium comes from. And it might come from ground-up shells from shellfish.

The scripture says, don't eat the flesh. Does that mean the ground-up shell?

Well, I can't speak for your faith. The church has always left it to the individual. You have a decision to make for you and don't look across the room and try to make that, you know, call that as an issue of faith for somebody else. And by all means, don't judge somebody else for what they decide. But I just want to emphasize, it says you don't eat their flesh. You shall regard their carcasses as an abomination. Whatever in the scale or water does not have fins and scales, that shall be an abomination to you. So, bringing that down to real life here in northern Alabama and surrounding areas, what does that mean? It means you can't... well, if you go to the catfish cabin, you're eating salad. Okay, catfish. Some of these scriptures hit my family hard when I was about 10 and we had dropped out of the local Sunday church and my parents had a set of this and we began having Sabbath morning Bible studies. And dad or mom would read a chapter and when we got to a scripture, the four of us kids took turns reading from the scripture what was being said here, so that we knew that what we were learning was coming from the Word of God. And we realized at one point, you know, there are a hundred head of hogs on this farm that have suddenly just lost their welcome mat to stay here. And so they had to go. And my early years of life, too many times, we set trot lines up down on the Cimarron River and we ate whatever we caught. And most of that was catfish. And so we had to give up those and it probably affected you as well. Fins and scales. All right, verse 13, birds. And here, as I said, it's different. There's a listing.

Birds you shall not eat. Excuse me, at the end of verse 13, the eagle, vulture, buzzard, kite, falcon, raven, ostrich. Different types of owls are mentioned. The gulls are mentioned. Hawks. Verse 18, the white owl, the jackdaw, whatever that is, the carrion vulture, stork, heron, and whatever a hoopo is, and the bat. Now, back when we had television service, one of my favorite shows was Bizarre Foods by Andrew Zimmern. And that Jewish boy from Brooklyn would go around the world and I saw him once in Thailand where they were frying up bats and he was just chowing down. So this is a bit different. It says, here's what you don't eat. And a lot of these are birds of prey. And a lot of these are birds that clean up after things that die.

Now, in the Bible Story Book, Volume 2, and we have it in other places. I think it's in our booklet on what does the Bible teach about clean, unclean meats. But there are the six criteria that has been preserved by the Jews, and a clean bird has to have six out of six. If it has all but one, it doesn't pass the test. So just quickly, a clean bird has, first of all, a craw or crop.

If you've ever butchered a chicken, it eats. And here at the base of the breast, now at the base of the throat, you've got this sack where the grain and everything they eat goes there. And in the butchering process, you're getting rid of that. You're getting that out. If you ever shot a quail or a dove and cleaned it, you know what a crop is. Second, a gizzard with a double lining. So once again, if you've ever butchered one of those, you have the gizzard, and you can slice it a little and kind of peel it back.

And here's this inner portion that says the gizzard with double lining, which can easily be separated. And if you're careful, you can lay that back, pull that little yellowish, sometimes it's kind of greenish yellow pouch out and inside. From the crop, that's where it goes. And, of course, they'll go out and they'll swallow a few pieces of gravel because they've got something in there in that little muscle to grind up everything. And then we won't talk about what happens to it after that point. So, the gizzard.

Number three, the clean bird does not prey upon other birds. Now, I sat out back early this morning reading about daylight and saw the most horrible fight I've seen a long time. Number three, hummingbirds. But it was territorial, and it was who was going to have possession of not one, but two feeders. And it was an amazing fight to watch. But they were not trying to prey on each other.

There are some birds. You can see eagles, hawks, peregrines, peregrine falcons. And they will kill a duck, grab a duck in the air. They will go after other birds. Okay, so number four, the clean bird does not devour food while flying. Does not devour food while flying. For instance, a pelican might scoop down, have some fish.

You see it flying along with a fish hanging out of his mouth. It throws its head and it's gone. Clean bird doesn't do that. Number five, has to do with the foot. The hind toe, and there's one to the back, and then the middle front toe. There are three to the forward. The hind toe and the front center toe are longer. And then number six is when they're on a perch. Or go out to the chicken house, you got poles or whatever you have for them to roost on.

And every single time, whichever way they're faced, they're going to have that one toe to the back, and three to the forward, and they hang on to that thing. But if you look at a parrot in a cage, and they're on a perch, and sometimes you got two forward and two back, and parrot is not on the list to clean birds.

But a chicken, a pigeon, a pheasant, duck, dove, quail, they fit all of these criteria. All right, now I've kept you in suspense too long, but we've got to go on to the bugs. Okay. Verse 20, all flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you. And you can say, thank you, Father, for that. Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours, those which have jointed legs above their feet, with which to leap on the earth.

These you may eat the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.

All other flying insects which have four feet shall be an abomination to you. So I don't think I need to take time to come any further on that. If you want to go pry up some grasshoppers, then just have an onking good time and enjoy. But so far, I mean, obviously by looking at me, I've never been quite that hungry yet.

We have a number of places in the Scriptures where lots of people try to turn to say, aha! Clean, unclean laws are gone. I want to look at one in the Old Testament. Let's go back to Genesis. First of all, Genesis 7. But then this statement is in chapter 9. Now, the question may come up, when did God first reveal this law of clean, unclean? When did God reveal the food laws? And you know, we really don't have an answer.

We can just turn here to Genesis 7, and we realize this first time that the Bible talks about this issue, this distinction of some are clean and some are unclean. And God gave Noah instructions, and Noah didn't say, what? He didn't say, would you say that one more time? He didn't ask him, can you tell me which ones are clean? Does that mean the ones that just want to obey or what? No, he knew what God meant. And it follows right on through. And there were the seven pairs. It appears it reads seven pairs of clean. One pair, some look at it and interpret it as two pairs of unclean. But there was a distinction in chapter 7, verse 2. You shall take with you seven of every clean animal, a male and his female, two each of animals that are unclean. Male is female, also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of the earth. Let's just go on over chapter 9. I think we are familiar enough with that.

But when we get, again, some want to make an issue that, well, there's not a law of clean, unclean in the earliest part of Genesis. We just, I mean, here we are 1600 years later. And suddenly we find Noah's toll, takes seven pairs of this and one or two pairs of that. Does that necessarily mean that there was not a law? For instance, I don't read anywhere in the earliest chapters of Genesis that it says you shall not kill. But when Cain was moving and his thinking the way he was moving, God went to him and says, essentially, you better watch your attitude if you do not do well. Sin lies at the door. And of course, then he killed his brother and he was penalized. So there was an issue of sin. And Romans tells us if there's no law, there's no sin. So there had to be something. There had to be some type of revelation or Noah wouldn't have understood a difference. So here we are after the flood. Verse 2, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, all that move on the earth and on all the fish of the sea, they are given into your hand. So here we have God starting over with the human family, eight people, and the animals are released. And we understand the animals are going to reproduce a lot faster. But there's just this innate dread that God placed within animals. Human beings are of a far higher level. Plateau, Genesis 1, you're to rule over all of the creation.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. Now, if you want a proof text and take that, then, you know, slug soup is in tonight. Getting hungrier all the time, aren't you?

But we can't proof text. One of the great rules of Bible study is we have to take it within the context. And that's not only just this part right here, but the context of the entire revelation, because God's Word is not going to contradict itself from one place to the next. There is a consistent revelation of God on a given subject. So, we haven't finished the Scripture, but let's start again. Verse 3, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things even as the green herb. Now, there are things out there I've rubbed up against. And, you know, I've had stinging nettles in Oklahoma that just, you know, you get stuck all over an arm and it swells up and puffs up and the thing hurts for two or three days. I've caught moving cattle and caught mesquite thorns in the leg or the shin and, you know, the thing hurts for days. And there are things you can, you know, little three-leaved variety things you can get too close to and you've got a rash that breaks out all over. And so, the thought of eating those, you know, humans learn by experience. And we learn everything out there that grows we're sure not going to eat. You know, somebody's survival of shows, though, if in doubt, you know, get a leaf off something, find an area of skin and rub it on, look at it in 10 or 15 minutes and see if it's red, if it's a rash, and you can begin figuring out, you know, this thing's going to hurt me if I get, if I eat it. Or maybe it's going to be okay and nutritious. So, even as the green herb. Now, in our belief statement, there's a section here where it talks about this, and it says, now, this does not mean that every single animal was fit for human consumption. Many creatures by their very nature are dangerous, poisonous, and place our health at risk. The point being made here was that even though these few, there were few men alive and large and dangerous animals had been preserved, Noah and family had no need to fear these animals. Animals, the verse makes clear, were to be for man's benefit. As a whole, they were given in the man's control in the same way the green plants were given. Now, notice the parallel. It says, some green plants are suitable for food and others are suitable for building materials. All over South Asia, you've got lots of construction with bamboo, I mean four or five inches in diameter. A marvelous building material. Some for beautification and enjoyment. Some are poisonous and others can sicken and bring death when ingested. In the same way, some animals are useful for providing food, while others provide fibers for clothing. You know, if we couldn't touch an unclean animal, no one could own a camel hair jacket. Oh, the softest thing you ever felt. Fibers for clothing, strength for working the land. You know, how many through the years used teams of mules, horses, oxen in tilling the land. And for protection from dangers. And like poisonous plants, some animals are simply not intended to be eaten. Well, let's go on to the New Testament now, and let's go on over to Mark chapter 7. What we find here is that the issue of clean and unclean goes all the way back and is an issue of design and creation. God designed certain animals to be good as food for human beings. And God designed other animals for other purposes, but not for food. It is physiology. How they are put together, how they are created.

In Mark chapter 7, again, when we look at a passage, a lot of people would like to skip on down. Let me see the end of verse 19 that, you know, essentially made this. He did this, thus purifying all foods. And some would say, there we have it. Pork chops tonight. Well, it's not exactly what it says. In fact, it's not even the topic here. We have to go back again, taken in the context. The context is that of ceremonial washing and cleanliness as the Jews had bound themselves with all these extra regulations. And Christ's disciples were condemned because they'd go to eat, and they didn't wash their hands in the way the Jews said they had to first. Well, let's go back to the first. chapter 7, verse 2, talking about Pharisees and scribes. And when they saw some of His disciples eat bread without, or with defile, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. So again, notice it's part of the tradition of the elders. It's not part of the law of God. God's law, you can check it from Genesis 1 forward. It doesn't talk about how a certain ceremonial manner in which you have to wash up your elbows scrubbed down like a surgeon would before going into the operating room. It doesn't say that. The rest of the chapter goes on, and Christ makes the point that the human body, as the psalmist wrote, it's fearfully and wonderfully made. It is an absolute marvel. I mean, look at what we shoved down on our throats for a lifetime, and we somehow continue to live.

Our oldest son sent an email last week and lives up in Kingsport Bristol, Tennessee area, and he said, you know, we went over to the local Walmart and here came a car pulling a cargo trailer behind it. And we were puzzled until we got inside and we realized, oh, Twinkies are back on the shelves. So people came in and loaded in a truck. I mean, that was what he was trying to imply. Truckload of Twinkies to take back home. But, you know, cleaning unclean meats, we're not touching a lot of other things. I mean, we're a nation of... you watch us as a people walk in and out of stores. We're a bunch of sugar addicts. We have a lot of health problems. They're finding more and more. In fact, with certain dimensions, they're calling that now diabetes type 3. We go to extremes. We were careless. With this verse, again, let me go to our statement. There was a comment made here. Yeah, verse 17. He said, this is us purifying all foods.

Be careful. The NIV even has it written, translated in such a way where it really looks like that, you know, now you can go out and eat everything you want. In the write-up here, a paragraph says, Jesus' statement in an oft misquoted passage in Mark 17 verse 19 would have outraged the religious leaders had they interpreted it the way many people do today.

His reference to purifying all foods here is often thought to refer to him declaring all meat clean. But his statement actually refers to all foods being purged out of the body through bodily elimination. This has nothing to do with it. Our meats are considered clean or unclean. So essentially, Christ's disciples didn't wash their hands. They went and ate. I mean, how many of us have had lunch on a construction site or on the farm?

And you didn't have the option. Or if you had a pond over there, you'd go rinse your hands and how clean is the water in the pond? And then you go and you eat. His point is, all right, you eat, you get a little dirt into your system, the body will process that and it is not a problem. There is a problem, as the Pharisees were judging, critiquing, and condemning. Enough on Mark 7. Let's go to Acts 10. Acts 10. And here we have the story of the vision that Peter had. The story we'll break in there toward the middle of Acts 10. We'll start in verse 9. But this is a situation where there was in Caesarea this centurion named Cornelius.

He was a devout man who feared God. He is praying. Meanwhile, here's Simon Peter, who's in Joppa. And let's pick it up here, chapter Acts 10 verse 9. The next day, as they went their journey and drew near to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray.

Again, different world, arid regions, a lot of flat roofs, and they'd go up there. Sometimes they'd set up their temporary dwellings in Jerusalem at feast time there. But he was up there praying about six hours, so as the time was reckoned somewhere around noontime. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat. But while they made ready, he fell into a trance.

So Peter has a vision. We know what happens in this vision. He saw heaven opened, an object like a great sheep bound at the four corners, descending to him, let down to the earth. And it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth. Wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, rise, Peter, rise, and eat.

Now this happened three times. As we know, every time he said, not so Lord, I've never eaten anything common or unclean. Now we'll talk a little later about this distinction, common and unclean. Three times it happened, three times he refused, he never ate the unclean. And you know what? We find out it's not even talking about clean and unclean meats. God is teaching the church, which to this point is largely a Jewish church, and the Jews didn't want to have any contact with anybody who was not of the... well, not an Israelite. Remember how you have a couple chapters earlier, it wasn't the apostles that go to Samaria, it's Philip, a deacon. He goes down there, baptizes, performs miracles.

The apostles hear what happened, they send Peter and John. Before Christ ascended, he said, you start here, you go to Samaria, Galilee, you go to the end of the earth, and here we are eight, nine years down the line, we find them still clump there around Jerusalem, right there around the Holy Land area.

And this happened, and as you make the connections and connect to the dots, the vision came down three times, and then Peter comes out and he's told, there are three men, the three and the three, connect those, three men looking for you, but also God told him, go with them, and so he goes with them in a way a Jew would not have done to the house where this Roman centurion is. And as they're speaking, if Peter had any complaint, what can he say when suddenly the Spirit of God, however he discerned that, God gave his Spirit to Cornelius, and Peter says, you know, I guess we have to baptize these people now.

That's what the chapter is about. It's not saying, it's not a statement on clean and unclean, and what used to be unclean is now clean because Peter had a dream. Actually, before we leave that, verse 28, we should read. Verse 28, and then he said to them, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with one or to go to one of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Remember, he told God, not so Lord, I've never eaten anything common or unclean, but now he realizes we're not talking about what we eat. We're talking about where God is sending the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's going to all peoples. And in the church, we cannot say no because of your gender or where you came from or the color of your skin.

We cannot say, I can't have anything to do with you. Everyone is in the image and likeness of God. All right, now let's look briefly at 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4, and as we look at this, let's remind ourselves that at that time in this society where Paul and Timothy and others were working, you did have some who religiously taught you have to be vegetarian, that religiously you can't eat meat.

Now, we have people in our society today who tend to be on that line of thinking that it's wrong to eat any kind of meat. We have those, though, more so in the church who choose not to, and it's for health reasons. And I applaud them if that's the choice they make.

We'll see a little later in Scripture. Paul said, you have faith, have it yourself before God. Let each person make their own choice in some of these areas within God's law.

And let's not be looking across the congregation and judging and critiquing and condemning somebody else. So, with that backdrop, chapter 4, 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, the Spirit expressly says that in the latter time some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

Verse 3, forbidding the Mary. So, this is the first example of what he just called a doctrine of demons. Now, marriage is not for everyone. Some choose not to marry. He's talking about those who forbid to marry. Now, there are religious orders who forbid to marry. Well, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving. So, they are teaching as a command that here are some things God created to be eaten if you receive with thanksgiving and you do not eat those. Now, when we look at some of these areas, I know a long time ago, I heard Dean Blackwell, some of you will remember that name from a lifetime ago, but Mr. Blackwell said when you come into some of these questionable areas in the New Testament and it's on the topic of meats, it's going to fall into one of three categories. First of all, it could be talking about clean and unclean meats, but in the New Testament it almost never does. Secondly, it might be talking about meats that had been offered to a pagan idol, and we'll get to that one next. And thirdly, it might be talking about those who religiously teach vegetarianism, and that's the topic of this one. Those who teach to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. Jesus said that night, pass over night, sanctify them through your word. Your word is truth.

And the word of God includes places like Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

And so they have to be sanctified by the word of God. There are foods that are not sanctified by the word of God. And so we can be as thankful as we want, but we ought not receive them. Verse 4, for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused. Now you can proof text and just take that statement and just have your green light to go eat whatever you can run over as your cart. But we need to read the whole statement. Nothing to just be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. We hopefully in our families have a habit of giving thanks to God. I think generally families, you know, you sit down and have a sit-down family meal together, and you'll have a prayer and thank God for what He's provided. There are times when you may be in an area you're about to eat, and it's just as awkward as can be to stop and have a prayer. But hopefully we have thanked God because He does teach us to pray and give us this day our daily bread. And again, everybody in the church is different. There are some who when they go to a restaurant, you sit down, the food's brought, they have a soft prayer there together as a group. And that's their choice to make. The next family may not do that. But we hopefully do receive it with thanksgiving, but it's also to be sanctified by the word of God. And with the word of God, we have to go back to where God says certain ones are created to be eaten and certain ones are not.

Paul, again, our fundamental belief statement, Paul in a passage cited earlier wrote of creatures which God created to be received with thanksgiving. And then the rest of that verse, the word used to describe these creatures, sanctified, means set apart and carries the dual connotation of being set apart from something as well as for something. The only animals set apart by the word of God in the Bible are those listed in it as being clean. They have been set apart from all other animals, and they've been set apart for man's nourishment. The flesh of those creatures designated as suitable for food is to be received, thankfully, by those who believe and know the truth.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 10, then we'll back up to chapter 8.

1 Corinthians 10, because it was in Corinth where it seemed we had more of a question about meat that had been offered to idols. Now, who's the author? The author is Paul. Paul described himself as being a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

Paul is not going to be one going out there. What we just read where he wrote to Timothy, he told Timothy, from a child you've known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise unto salvation. Timothy would have known what the word of God said. Paul was one of the great teachers of the law. In chapter 10, we find again in this letter he's writing back, he has received a number of questions, and one of those was that there is meat in the meat market, and some of it has been offered to the local pagan idol, and some of it hasn't. And the church member essentially says, if I can kind of read into what what they're thinking must have been, the church member is saying, if I go down to buy a steak or a chicken, I can't tell which one was offered that morning to the pagan idol, and which one wasn't. And so does it matter? Well, in chapter 8 he says that we know the idol is nothing in the world. If it is a side of beef, if it is a rack of lamb, and it's hanging there in the meat market, and you go down to buy something to take home to feed your family, and maybe others for a feast that, you know, that evening after the Sabbath, you know, prepare it Friday to have a group over, you go down there and it's not stamped USB-A prime or offered to Diana of the Ephesians or not offered to anybody. It's not marked that way. And so the member has to have choice, and they're asking Paul, what do we do? And Paul is saying, I think again, knowing the author and knowing he's writing the church, we have to understand, give them that much that he's not going to be telling them you can go down there and grab, you know, pork chops for dinner. But the question here is, was it offered to a pagan idol? And if so, can I eat it? And if I eat it, what if it bothers somebody else in the church? Now, when we cross into causing a fence, we are crossing into a spiritual matter. When it's just simply what we eat, it's physical. And again, in the autobiography, that was Mr. Armstrong's argument. If somebody lusts for that unclean meat, then it becomes spiritually sin. If someone is causing a fence to a brother, we're crossing a line. We're throwing a stumbling block in front of somebody else. And Paul ends this one chapter saying, you know, if eating meat is going to cause somebody to offend, I won't eat it until Christ returns. So in chapter 10, verse 19, what am I saying? That an idol is anything? Or what is offered to idols is anything? Verse 20, rather, the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. Let's skip on down to verse 24. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no question for conscience's sake. So first of all, he says, if you go down there and you want to buy a leg of lamb, go and buy a leg of lamb, and don't try to figure out was it offered at the pagan temple this morning or not. It doesn't matter. It doesn't change the mutton you're going to take home. The earth is the Lord and the Lord's in the fullness. If any of those who do not believe, aha! Okay, another problem. Somebody who's not in the church invites you over to come eat.

I'm sure that I was telling Mr. Bingham this morning, you know, the first time back in July of 67 when the pastor and the associate came out to our farm, I'm sure they were relieved when my mother said, I've fried up some chicken. Would you stay and have dinner with us? Because we ate breakfast, dinner, and supper. I'm sure they were relieved when she said chicken, because on a new visit, you don't know. It's like the visit I had in New Mexico, Roswell, once upon a time. And, you know, wonderful visit. God obviously working with a man, and he says, all right, David, let's go to Leviticus 11. You tell me what this means. So we went through Leviticus 11, and he just nodded and said, yep, okay, you're right. Had a huge pot belly, and he potted that pot belly and said, how am I ever going to maintain you? And then he said, I've got a freezer full of rabbit and catfish, but I'm going to give them away.

And then it had nothing to do with whatever point I was trying to make, but I hope it was a good story. Oh, going, going. So, so if I'd walked in there and he'd said, well, well, you know, minister of the worldwide church of God, I've got dinner ready for us. I would have immediately thought, uh-oh, what is it? And number two, if it is, I'm going to get out of this. So, but he says, if anyone, verse 27, those who do not believe, invite you to dinner. You desire to go eat whatever's set before you, asking no question for conscience's sake. Now, I remember a time when Mr. Armstrong said, well, I was in China and I don't know what it was, but what they said in front of me, I ate and I knew some church members that that just about blew them away. But you see, he was thinking his reasoning was, as some of these statements here make, don't, for the work of God, I mean, for food and drink, don't destroy the work of God. Maybe it was clean meat, but what if it wasn't? Again, my point is, it's a physical issue until there's one of those lines out there we cross, like lust, like offense, like there are things we can elevate it above beyond what it is. If anyone says to you, this was offered to idols. So, see, this tells us what the topic is, meat's offered to idols. So, if you're sitting there with a group and he says, oh, by the way, I got this, and you know, it came straight from the temple this morning.

Do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you and for conscience sake for the earth is the Lord and his fullness. Conscience, I say to you, not your own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of, for the food over which I give thanks? Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the Church of God. Let's go to chapter 8. Chapter 8, verse 4 right there in the middle is where he says, an idol is nothing in the world. There's no other God but one. And then he goes to that topic of offense. And you have different ones have different consciences. Now, let's just put it in modern terms. If you go to a Mexican restaurant, there generally is refried beans on a lot of plates. And in a lot of those restaurants, they're going to be made with lard.

But then you have restaurants where it'll say on the menu, we only use vegetable oil. Well, you have a choice to make. Again, everybody's different. I know some members will go in there and not even ask and they'll order that plate and the beans come and they eat the beans. I'm not going to cast stones at them. But you have situations where you don't know, you can't know. You can't go back in the kitchen and run a test to check the pork content of the kitchen. And I've always thought that not one of us is going to exit this life completely un-porkified if I can call it a term. It's going this society is going to slip it in on us somehow. Now, I don't want it in my life. And I order plates that don't have the beans on them. But if you're sitting here and somebody else and it bothers you and you don't want to eat it, you make a decision for you, not your brother. Now, if the other person realizes you have a problem with that, then the right thing to do would be don't eat it. Don't order it.

Verse 8, food does not commend us to God for neither if we eat are we better nor if we do not eat are we better. But beware, lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak. Again, we're talking about meats offered idols. So if you go and you're in a setting, you're having a meal and that lamb that you're enjoying was offered to the local idol that morning, doesn't bother you, you're chowing down, past cement, jelly, all that, but you've got a brother or sister sitting there. And it does bother them. Paul's point is don't do it. It's not worth it. And let's just skip on down to verse 13. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat lest I make my brother stumble, because that is the weightier matter. That is the heavier issue. Let's go to Romans 14. And this is where I want to wrap it up here in Romans 14. We read earlier where the the sheep came down that first time Peter says, not so Lord, I've never eaten anything common or unclean. And we need to know the difference.

The word unclean comes from the Greek. And I'll slaughter this too, but I don't know anyone here who speaks Greek. So a catheros, and it refers to meat that is unclean by nature, creation, whatever you want to call it. But the word common, Greek word koinos, refers to something that is clean originally, but is then defiled and becomes unfit as food.

Now, what are examples of that? Duck on the road out here as we drove in, maybe. A truck got it. It's road pizza now. Clean animal, but I don't want to go pick it up and take it home.

It was originally, it would have been clean food for human consumption, but it became common, by the way it was, well, came to its end. We have instructions. You may remember, let me just refer to the decision the church made in Acts 15 on the question of circumcision.

The decision was rendered. They decided we're going to send a letter with Paul Barnabas Silas, somebody else seems like, and they were going to go and pass the word to the churches.

And it says, essentially, you don't have to worry about physical circumcision, but we want to remind you of these things. One of them was to abstain from things strangled. If it is asphyxiated, if it is strangled, what is the problem? The blood is still in the body. Keep your place in Romans, I said last scripture, but let's look at Leviticus 17.

God reserved the blood for him. And he said, when you slaughter something, let the blood run out. Leviticus 17 verse 13, Whatever man of the children of Israel or of the strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. It goes on about how the life is in the blood. And there are other places, God says, the blood is mine, the fat is mine. That's why with animal fat, we carve off, shave off everything we can. There's some of it that's marbled in, but it's the part that can be removed. We get rid of.

Now, that's one example. It needs to be properly bled. If it's strangled, then it's common. It was a clean lamb, but now it's common. You don't eat it. That's not the only example. We read down here to verse 15. Just read the first bit.

And every person who eats what died naturally. So, you know, the camp of Israel wakes up one morning, and you know, he goes out to find his flock, and one of them went feed up in the night.

Can you go and grab a hold of it and drag it back to the tent? And that's what you're going to have for supper. No, it died of itself. Why did it die? Well, for some reason, it might be disease, but you certainly don't want to eat it. And by the way, it also was not bled in the process, either.

But it says, or what was torn by beasts. So, if you ever heard of cattle and a pack of coyotes get out there and they bring down one of your calves and they eat a third of it, you come along, they see you coming, they run off. Can you grab what's left, throw it in the back, pick up, take it to the house, and start, you know, hang it up somewhere and start preparing it for the freezer? I don't want any of that. No, you don't want any of that. It's coming since. If you go to Costco or Sam's, then you find a nice-looking rump roast and you buy it, you take your groceries back home, you open the garage, and you grab a load, you take them in the house, you come back out. The neighbor's Labrador, who has a very sensitive nose, realizes times are good, and it comes over investigating. And it sticks that snout down into your other bag and finds a rump roast and chomps down on it, and it's lying out under the tree chewing away on your rump roast. Do you then chew off the dog and get the rump roast and not tell your husband and start fixing it for dinner? Of course you don't! That which is torn by beasts, it would have been perfectly fine, but now it is common. That's why Peter said, I don't, I haven't eaten anything common or unclean. Romans 14. There are major items, there are minor items. Humanly, we like to get off in the the fringe areas, and God gave us the calling to take the gospel of Jesus Christ and go to all the world. Now, I love the fact that He gave us food laws. There are lots of things like the very ripe skunk that Mr. Beeman and I drove by a few minutes ago. I'm very happy that we aren't allowed to go and eat those. Rattlesnakes never had any in my life, even though they say it tastes like chicken. I don't want any. There are more important issues of preaching the gospel, of teaching the law, of teaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and repentance of sin, and walking by the Spirit. And those are the majors. But humanly, we like to we like to get stuck in some of these things that in the greater scheme of things don't really matter nearly as much. So here in Romans 14, receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Now, so our topic here in this chapter is primarily vegetarianism. And again, it's not condemnatory of anybody who decides to live life without meat. But he's talking about what was reality in that day and age in that society. See, we've got to look back. What did this mean to people at that time? And there were those who religiously taught against, I mean, they probably put Peter to shame, religiously taught, you don't eat meat. But then God starts calling some of those folks, and they come to the Church of God. We've had people our day and age who have been teetotalers for a lifetime, and they call the Church. And they go over to somebody's house, and you know, here, have some wine, have a beer, and have a jolly old time. And it's a challenge. It's difficult for them.

He's talking here about some who had lived a life, thinking it was wrong to eat meat. And now, again, he's talking here about, you know, whether the faith is strong or whether it's weak. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat. You know, somebody doesn't want to have pot roast. Just let them eat everything else and appreciate their company and enjoy the time you have together. Let not him who does not eat judge him who does.

So if you sit down at a restaurant, and somebody orders a salmon steak or whatever, let them eat. Let them eat it without judging. For God has received him. Who are you to judge another another's servant to his own master? He stands or falls. Indeed, he will be able. He will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand.

Well, let's skip on down here in the chapter. Let's go to verse 13. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. That is one of the majors of the way God wants us to live, to be. Verse 15, if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love.

Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Do not let your good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

And those latter three are the beasts. Those are the majors. Far greater importance. Like when Jesus talked to the Pharisees about their tithing and then judgment, mercy, and faith, those are the weightier matters. But he said, don't leave the other undone.

So the food laws are important, but let's realize and let's keep it in perspective. Verse 20, do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.

Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. Verse 23, but he who doubts is condemned that he eats because he does not eat from faith, for whatever is not from faith is sin.

So there are landmines we can step on. The law of God, the food laws of God, I hope we cherish, we value, we strive as much as possible, as much as is reasonable to eat properly. But there are landmines we can step on. One of those is to have a Pharisaical approach. But to the Pharisee, I always say, you be as Pharisaical in your own home as you want to be. Just knock yourself out with your Pharisee as I mean your own home.

But don't go around trying to preach it to others. Another landmine is a feeling of superiority. There are those who can go and they can go check the pork and the squid content of every restaurant down the road and begin to feel quite proud of themselves for what they've learned and what restaurants to avoid.

And don't ever go over there. We'll go over here and research this. And it can breed. Human beings just tend to go that way, to feel superior and to begin looking down on others who aren't quite as zealous. You know, Gary Beam, we were talking about this this morning. He used the phrase, we can be zealous without being zealots. And we should be zealous for all areas of the Word of God. We should be zealous without being zealots.

There's a balance there. And then thirdly, the judgment, making improper judgments. These are spiritual areas. And, you know, some have judged people about eating jello. I can think of a lot of reasons we ought not eat jello. But the condemnation comes because there's gelatin, and you don't know where that gelatin comes usually.

Some have condemned others for marshmallows. And I can again think of a whole lot of reasons we ought not eat marshmallows. But once in a while, we buy them and have them in our house. You know why? Because our grandson and his grandmother go out back, and they're chunking marshmallows back and forth at each other. And that's pretty good use for them. Can't get hurt if you get beaten with a marshmallow. The laws of clean and unclean are viable for the church today. And we ought to obey these laws. We ought to avoid the unclean as much as is reasonably possible.

And yet, most importantly, let us stay out of the ditches of becoming pharisaical, judgmental, or condemnatory, or living in a way that would cause offense to our brother.