Returning to Leviticus chapter
11. Leviticus chapter 11. Last week we looked at Leviticus,
actually the past two weeks we looked at Leviticus chapter eight.
Before I actually read anything from 11, let me briefly summarize
chapter nine and chapter 10 to bring us up to chapter 11. This
will be on tape if you want it later. If you do, if you don't,
fine too. Chapter nine teaches us this
one central thing. Nobody is outside the fall of
Adam. Aaron had to offer up, offering first for his own sins
before he could even offer up for the sins of the people. Hebrews
takes this up and acknowledges that fact but introduces, no,
declares the fact that Christ is superior to Aaron. He did
not have to offer up for his own sins. He had to offer up
for our sins. So none is outside the fall.
That's the central theme of chapter nine. Chapter 10, we have three
main thoughts. Briefly, self-will is damning. You see that, Nadab and Abihu. They offered strange fire. They
got their live coals from the wrong place. That's all they
did. But that's all they did. And God killed them, boys, right
there. He killed them. Well, fire come out from God
and killed them. So that's in chapter 10, verses
one through three. Secondly, we must beware of emotion. We must beware of emotion. Now,
emotion there is not wrong, but we must beware of emotion. Aaron
and his remaining sons were told, don't you cry for him, boys.
Don't you mourn. Let Israel mourn. but you're
about the business of God. Now you go back and you can read
that. But it also says to promote sobriety. Now the context clearly
is physical sobriety. They were not to be under the
influence of alcohol when they were in the tabernacle performing
the service of God. But that has a New Testament
qualification as well, that we are to be sober-minded. There
are a lot of people that alcohol ain't never touched their lips,
but they are not sober-minded. That's in chapter 10, verses
four through 11. And in chapter 10, verses 12 through 20, we
see this. Men can err. Men can err without
malicious intent. They can. Aaron did. He did not eat of the meat of
the sin offering when he was supposed to. but he had valid
reason, at least in his mind and Moses' mind. But never assume
that God still owes you his favor. Never assume. Don't let that
become the norm. In other words, it's not all
about sincerity because you can be sincerely wrong. But as I began to read through
some of these things, I thought, well, I could preach in chapter
nine, 10 for three or four more months, if not years, and I thought,
no, I'm not gonna do that. I wanna go on to chapter 11.
Chapter 11 contains my subject. Let me read a summary of this
subject, and the summary is here in chapter 11 itself. Verse 43,
you shall not make yourselves abominable. with any creeping
thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean
with them that ye should be defiled thereby. Four, now we're actually
given the reason for all of these commands. And there's a bunch
of these commands, a bunch of different animals mentioned as
clean and unclean. And so forth and so on. For I
am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves,
and it's one of the only places you're going to hear that mentioned,
but remember the context. Set yourself apart under the
things that are clean. Avoid the things that are unclean.
Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be holy, for I am holy. Neither shall ye defile yourselves
with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
And then we see a second, or I should say higher, reason even
still. For I am the Lord that bringeth
you up out of the land of Egypt. There you go. Remember, in Leviticus
now, they're still camped at the base of Sinai. We will not
see them move out until we get to the next book, and they begin
to then move out, and some say they were there about a year,
maybe so. But I am the Lord that bringeth
you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. Ye shall therefore be holy. Now
this is not a command. The first statement was a command.
This is a declaration. This is a declaration. Ye shall
therefore be holy, not because you sanctify yourselves, but
because I am holy. You see, you're not gonna have
the holiness of verse 44 unless you first got that of verse 45. Although 44 is mentioned first,
45 took place first, he began bringing them up out of Egypt.
Somebody says that's your take. That's the truth. That's just
the truth. This is the law of the beasts
and of the fowl and of every living creature that moveth in
the waters and every creature that creepeth upon the earth
to make a difference between the clean and the unclean and
between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may
not be eaten. My title is this, The Gospel
Typified in Dietary Law. I will step out on a limb because I certainly not read
every writer on this subject, so I can't say that personally
about every writer. But any man who thinks he can
take each one of these distinctions between clean and unclean beast
and make some New Testament or New Covenant type and show it
is just wet behind the ears. Because they're all meant to
show this one thing. There are things that are clean. And there are things that are
unclean. And those who are redeemed by
God need to eschew, they need to avoid, they need to run away
from, if necessary, the unclean. But it's more than that. they
need to lay hold of the clean. A lot of people feel real well
about themselves because there are a lot of unclean things they
won't touch. But they won't touch the clean
things either. They won't touch the clean things
either. So again, the gospel typified in dietary law. Turn to Galatians chapter two
and then I will make a statement and we'll read a passage there.
Galatians chapter 2. Remember the context. We're talking
about unclean animals, creeping things, and beasts, and birds,
and fish, insects, all kinds of things. And I'm saying this
is the gospel typified in dietary law. Maybe you'll get the gist
of how I'm going to approach this this morning by this statement.
Are you at Galatians chapter 2? Listen to my statement, and
then I'll show you that from the scripture. Do not try and
hand me a chameleon and tell me it's a grasshopper. You hear what I just said? Think
about that for a while. Don't hand me a chameleon and
try to tell me it's a grasshopper. And I specifically use that for
a reason. A chameleon is clearly declared
to be one of the unclean, creeping things, correct? A grasshopper
was declared to be a clean thing, correct? But what is one of the
characteristics that really stand out in a chameleon? He blends
in with his circumstances. Now some say he does that to
hide from predators. That may be partly so, but the
chameleon is a predator. And he blends in for his belly's
sake to start with. His belly's sake. Now here's
Galatians. What's gonna happen if you hand me, and I don't just
mean me, or you, if you truly believe the truth, what's gonna
happen if someone hands you a chameleon and tells you it's a grasshopper?
Here's what you should do. Galatians chapter two verse four.
Paul was talking about, he goes up to Jerusalem. Why? And that,
because of false brethren, unawares, they are chameleons. You hear me? They are chameleons. And that, because of false brethren
unaware, brought in, who came in privately, or that is secretly,
to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that
they might bring us into bondage. And Paul says, I just tried to
get along with them as much as I could. Is that what he goes
on to say? Well, I decided we ought to have
a debate. No. Here's what happens, here's what
ought to happen, whenever you try to hand one of God's redeemed
ones, one of his sanctified ones, you try to hand them a chameleon
and tell them it's a grasshopper, to whom we gave place by subjection,
no, not for an hour. Why? So that we might stand out? so that our wisdom and power
might be seen in its prowess? No, that the truth of the gospel
might continue with you. But of these which seem to be
somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me. God
accepts no man's person. For they who seem to be somewhat
in conference added nothing to me, the problem is the unclean
will always affect the clean. And I'll use a phrase, I hope
you understand it, the clean never baptizes the unclean. The
clean never sanctifies the unclean to make it clean. So don't try
to hand us a chameleon and try to tell us it's a grasshopper. These dietary laws are symbols,
or more particularly, a better word, especially that is from
the translation of the KJV, is these dietary laws are types.
In other words, the clean equals this, truth. Truth. Truth. The unclean equals heresy. You know what I said? Heresy. Someone says, but Pastor, that's
a strong word. Yeah, it is a strong word. But
you remember reading Leviticus chapter 11? These are just critters.
And 10 times, God calls some of them abominable. Does he not? That's a strong
word. Just for critter meat. Now we know, I was taught when
I was young, maybe you was in a place like me years ago, maybe
you weren't. I was taught that these dietary
laws for Israel had to do with health reasons. As though somehow
beef is better than pork. You know, the other white meat.
It has nothing to do with health. And I'll tell you why. It also
talks about vessels, and clothes, and skins, and sacks, and pots,
and seeds, and water. Does it not? And if a thing,
just an unclean thing, especially if it was dead, just touched
one of these things, that thing became clean until what? Even. You know what it says? And you know all you had to do
to make it clean again? Did you read it? Just wash it
with water. Now how many of you are just
going to take something that's got an unclean animal carcass in
it, just dump out that carcass and just rinse it out with water,
just let it sit the night and then start using it again? You're
going to get out the Dawn and the Clorox and everything else
and you're going to cleanse that thing. This ain't about health. This is ceremonial law. It is carnal ordinances meant
to establish greater, better divine truth. And I can prove
that to you. So you see, do not insult the
truth of God's Son. You hear me? Here's the real danger. Here's
the real difference between the clean and the unclean. This is
the beginning. If you get the beginning wrong,
everything else will be wrong. Paul said if you preach any other
gospel than other than what's already been preached, what's
already been established, you can go to hell. That's what he
says. Let them, let them. Take your
hands off of it. Let them be accursed. Why? Because I'm some great thing? No, but because we're talking
about the honor of God the Father's precious, blessed son. His son. So do not insult. Moreover, These are said to be,
turn to Hebrews chapter seven. I'll make another statement and
then show you the scripture. Hebrews chapter seven, moreover,
these are said to be carnal ordinances and that's what they were. Now
the word carnal here don't mean something wicked or evil. It
means they were earthly, fleshly, physical things. And the book
of Hebrews says they were carnal ordinances, and I want you to
hear what their end is. Hebrews chapter seven, just a
few verses. Verse 18 and 19 first. Hebrews 7, 18 and 19. For he
testifieth thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And why is that? Because of these
verse 16 carnal commandments, they could not establish what
they typified. You see, no goat, no blood of
a goat or of a lamb or of a bullock could take away sin. But that's
my chief problem, is my sin. My sin is what separates me from
God. And moreover, Christ was not
of the tribe of Levi. And it was illegal. It was unclean
for anyone outside the tribe of Levi to officiate in the priest's
office, right? But Jesus is of a higher order
of priesthood. One who came before the law,
Melchizedek. So now we're up to speed. For
this is verily a, what's that next word? Disannulling of the
commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness
thereof. Now if you think that just because
you eat grasshoppers and not chameleons that God will accept
you into his presence, you are deceived. You could follow all
of these dietary laws, but you still had to love God with all
your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And you had to love your neighbor
as yourself. You see? Look, for the law, and
what part of the law? The law. The law. All the law. Not that the law
is bad. The law, the law's problem wasn't
the law, the law's problem was me. The law's problem was you. It's our depravity. I can abstain from eating certain
things. I can make myself do that. Do you know that? I can
make myself do that. But I cannot make myself love
my neighbor as myself. Because I don't like you as much
as I like me. Now, some folks say, well, that's
not me. Then you've not seen you yet.
God's not really shown you you yet. Because you are that. I pray God shows it to you. But
look, for the law what? Made nothing. How much? Nothing perfect. but, one of
the most blessed words in the Holy Scripture, but the bringing
in of a better hope did, and I know that's interpolated, but
it's meant to be in a part of the text, did, by the which,
that is this better hope, by the which we draw nigh unto God. One more, chapter nine, speaking
about the same thing, verse eight, the Holy Ghost, Talk about all
of these tabernacle things and all of these legal things. The
Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet
standing. And it stood for hundreds of
years. And then when it was decommissioned,
what then stood? A stone temple then stood. And then when it was broke down,
they built another one. And then when it went off the
scene, Herod came along and built another one. When Christ came
on the scene, it wasn't but about, it was a few years, in 70 AD,
that temple was destroyed and they ain't been one since. There ain't been one since. Look,
which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the
service perfect as pertaining to conscience, which stood only
in meats and drinks, you see it? And divers washings and cardinal
ordinances imposed on them until the time of the Reformation,
but Christ. You see it? But Christ. There's the better hope. Briefly, consider the Old Covenant
versus the New Covenant. Most people think I'm talking
about the Old Testament versus the New Testament. That is not
so. The Old Testament speaks both
of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The New Testament speaks
of both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. As a matter
of fact, the Old Covenant was given first. But the New Covenant
existed in the mind and purpose of God and was actually revealed
to man before the Old Covenant ever was revealed to man. As
soon as man fell, God revealed the New Covenant because he said
the seed of the woman is coming. You see, that is the New Covenant.
But consider Old Covenant versus New Covenant. Old Covenant, it
was literal and it was compulsive for Israel. As a matter of fact,
Paul puts it this way. If today, if even today, you're
trying to live under the rules of the old covenant, you are
subject to all the rules of the old covenant. Because the old
covenant says, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. So if
you seek to tithe to get God's favor, you got to eat the right
kind of food too. And if you're tired and you seek
to eat the right food, then you also have to offer the correct
sacrifices. Well, Jesus is my sacrifice.
Jesus is my everything. He's my clean food. He's the
one food I can eat and eat all I want and I don't have to worry
about being defiled by it. Is he not? There's not one thing
about him that is unclean. He ain't got one dung beetle
anywhere near him. Old Covenant, it was literal
and compulsive. According to Paul, I'm not even
gonna turn to it, according to Paul, when he wrote to Timothy,
1 Timothy 4, one through five, he says all meats, all creatures
are ordained of God for food. Isn't that what he says? Now, we'll have to see how to
explain that away. You don't have to explain it away. And he's
talking about God's people. Because if you're an unbeliever,
if you're unregenerate, even your plowing is sin. Even when you plow your garden
to plant your seeds, to get your food, to do your canning, to
feed your little babies during the winter, it's still sin! Sin! How can that be? Because God is absolute holy. We're under the fall. Everything
we do, our best needs, our filthy, our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. How? In God's sight. Now granted we, There are good
things that men ought to live decent in this world. It makes
for better living in this world. But that only gives us favor
between one another. It does not give us favor with
God. God demands absolute perfection, else the law and just attempting
would have been enough. Right? If I screw up, if I sin,
get you a goat. Right? You go. but those things could
not take away sin. Secondly, consider this Old Covenant
versus New Covenant. The Old Covenant says, you will
keep me perfectly. You will keep me perfectly. Then
God comes along on the scene and says this. I said God comes
along on the scene. He came on the scene in human
flesh. Listen to what he says. This
is what he says to the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians chapter six.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? And that's never changed. It was true under the old covenant
just as it's true under the new covenant. The unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Then I'm a goner. Right? That's what it ought, if God's
given you life, first when you read that you'll say, that's
scary. It causes the hair to stand up
on the back of my neck. But I want you to know how God
throws a cog in this thing now. You hear what I'm saying? Look
at it. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Don't you be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortionists. Well preachers, tell me what
that really means. You know exactly what those things mean. You know
what they are. And if you don't, I'm amazed
you're not locked up in prison even today under man's law. The
reason you're not, because you fear those things a little bit,
or you slipped up and somebody caught you, maybe they locked
you up for a while. But look, shall inherit the kingdom of
God. That's unclean things, yes or
no? Those are unclean things. Man is not to partake of those
unclean things, but we do. But we do. But look, and such
were some of you. Something amazing's happened.
But ye are washed. Notice how God now infiltrates
on the scene and in the person and his son just confounds the
whole thing. He says, I'm gonna take something
that's unclean Something that needs to be washed, I'm gonna
wash it. That's what that washing, that
unclean pot when you found the dead carcass of a rat in it.
You dumped that carcass out and you rinsed it out real good and
dumped out the water and let it sit until even time. That's
a testimony of the work of Jesus Christ for his people. That's what it's all about. That's
what it's all about. Such you are washed, but you're
sanctified, but you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. So we see those things. And then
all of a sudden God comes on the scene and Gentiles are considered
to be, and rightfully so by law, Gentiles are considered to be
unclean, right? And when God is pleased, when
the fullness of time had come for God to now begin to publicly,
openly manifest that he's going to receive the Gentiles and graft
them into the root stock of Israel, what's he do to Peter? He lets
down a big sheet. And that big sheet's got catfish
flopping around in it. That thing's got some dung beetles
in it. It's got some rabbits in it,
maybe some camel meat. God said to Peter, arise, slay,
and eat. And Peter said, no. Isn't that
what he said? No, Lord. I'll never eat anything
that's unclean. And now God just stirs up the
whole pot. Doesn't he? He said, don't you
call common or unclean that which I have cleansed. And he ain't
talking here about food. We ain't talking about I can
eat me some snake meat now. I ain't got nothing to do with
that. Now you want to eat snake meat, you go right ahead. I'm
probably not going to. But that ain't the point. He's
talking about people. You remember, we've already looked
at it. You're not supposed to eat meat
or drink blood with, you're probably supposed to eat meat with the
blood in it, or drink the blood according to law, right? Don't
do it. You hang up, even if it's a clean
bistro, that blood's for God. And you let that thing drain
out. You bleed it, as we say. And then you don't take that
like the heathen would do, and take and drink that, or cook
that blood. And then Jesus Christ comes along, what's he say? except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you ain't got no life
in you. That's stirring the pot. See, God says my thoughts are
not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. God has the
right to do things as it pleases him. He can come in and disannoy
the law to honor his holiness and justice. And as a matter
of fact, if my understanding of the testimony of the preponderant
testimony of scripture is true, God, because of his holy character,
had to do that. He had to do that. He couldn't
save one sinner unless Jesus Christ did everything he did
when he come to this earth. So that is the Old Covenant versus
the New Covenant. But now I'm gonna show you the
Old Covenant shadowing the New Covenant. The clean diet was
for clean people. Isn't that what we read here?
You see, God didn't care what all those heathen, he didn't
care what the Aztecs in South America were eating. Did he send
them a law? Did he go deliver them out of
that big Matsu Pichu or whatever? Did he deliver them from there
and bring them all the way across the ocean and set them down in
the land of Canaan? He didn't give them no dietary law because
he hadn't given them any Christ. He hadn't given them any Christ.
This dietary law was only for those who had been brought up
out of the land of Egypt. Yes, they were clean people,
but they were clean because they were first redeemed. Now we know
that God may well have included some Aztecs in that. because
it had nothing about coming out of Egypt physically, any more
than it had avoiding a chameleon physically. It had to do with
God revealing to you your sin and the glory of his son. That's
what it has to do with. It's clean versus unclean. Secondly, the type. Remember,
it's more than critters. It had to do with vessels, clothes,
skins, sacks, hits, seeds, water, all these things. In other words,
it's truth versus error, truth versus heresy. Whether it's the
gospel message we're preaching, whether it's the doctrine we're
holding to concerning any aspect of Scripture, whether it has
to do with our conduct, whether it has to do with our attitude,
whether it has to do with our motives. Why? Because Paul reiterates
the Old Testament command in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians
6 verse 14 all the way through chapter 7 verse 1, and Paul starts
it out this way, be ye not unequally yoked together. and he sums it
up by quoting the Old Testament and says, touch not the unclean
thing. He's not talking about just food
there or raiment there. The clothes of a leper had to
be dealt with. Mason, you couldn't just get
leprosy and say, well, I can't use these no more than just sell
them in a yard sale. How could you? Sometimes they had to be
disregarded altogether. You see, He says, come out from among,
and I mentioned this the other day, what, T-H-E-M, and He ain't
talking about critters. He's talking about people. He's
talking about people. Here's another thing, this type
of shadow. I want you to see clean versus
heresy, or truth versus heresy, clean versus unclean. I want
to give you a few examples. I had nine, and I realized nine
would be way too many to try to deal with this morning. But
before I give you just these three examples, I want you to
listen to me. Antichrist religion, when I say
antichrist religion, this book talks about antichrist. John
said antichrist already come. One of Antichrist's biggest deceiving
things is he's convinced so many people, I'm not there yet, but
I'll be there one day. The spirit of Antichrist's already
in this world, that means Antichrist is here. Just like the Spirit
of Christ is in me. Mac, that means Christ is in
me. The hope of glory. And I'm tired of hearing people
talk about Antichrist. Oh, that's somebody to come.
He's here now. And his error surrounds us everywhere. And God is now saying, come out
from among her. Be a separate. Because if you
don't, you're gonna partake of her plagues. And that woman rides
Scarlet-coated beast and that beast is said what he was and
is not What's it say and yet is Is Yes Now when I talk about
antichrist, I mean, I don't mean anti Jesus But they are anti
Christ because there's a lot of Jesuses out here that man's
made up in his own mind, but there is but one Christ, and
that's the one that accomplished everything the Father sent him
to do. An anti-Christ religion today
does not warn us of clean versus unclean. I'm not saying they
never, they might tell you fornication's wrong, don't commit fornication.
It's a whole lot more than that. You can be the I guess I'm the
least fornicator that ever walked. You could be the most clean,
un-fornicating person that ever walked and still perish in the
devil's hell. If you miss Christ, it don't
matter how moral you are, you are unrighteous in God's sight. So, Antichrist religion doesn't
say, well, here's a chameleon. and we don't care, let's just
eat the chameleon. No, they infiltrate and they
try to use the clean, but they say here's something that's clean.
They'll try to pass off a possum as beef. They try to pass off
an eel as a walleye. They try to pass off a dung beetle
as a grasshopper. Can I prove that? Yes. Men talk
about their will as being superior to God's will. Do they not? Especially when it comes to salvation. Now maybe not service, because
we all need to get into the will of God, don't you know? But when
it comes to salvation, they express that man's will is superior to
God's will. Am I lying on them? Am I misrepresenting
that? One reason I know I'm not is
because I used to be one of them. Listen to what John wrote. John one he came into his own
his own received him not this is Christ But as many as received
him to them gave you power to become the sons of God Even to
them that believe on his name which were born. That's what
Joe was talking about which were born not of blood What's that
next one? Nor the will of the flesh nor
the will of man so man's will don't mean squat and I ain't saying man don't have
a will. I'm saying this book says our will is as corrupt as
our heart. And our hearts are desperately
wicked. We are wounds and bruises and
nasty stinking sores from the top of our head to the soles
of our feet in God's sight. That's trying to give me some
rat and say here's some lamb's meat. when you try to push off
human will on men and women. Here's another one. Charismatic
self-glory, and try to push that off as the worship of Christ.
Remember a couple Sundays, I missed, couldn't be here. I wanted to
be here, I couldn't be here. So I, like any other idiot, turned
on the TV, And I was waiting for our broadcast to come on,
but like any idiot, I turned it on too early, knowing I was
turning it on too early. And there's a guy up there and
he's dancing around. He ain't talking about the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He talked about him, him, him,
and them, them, them. And goes over and he just slaps
his leg and he's preaching. He was glorifying men. He was not preaching Christ. Here's the problem. The Apostle
Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, here's one of the hallmarks
of a true God sent preacher. Verse 5, for we preach not ourselves. I am as sinful as you. And you are as sinful as me. And I am not your example. I
am an in-sample. Because I show you how God's
people ought to be when God works in them both to do His good pleasure.
And I show you exactly how God's people ought not to be when I
start walking after the flesh rather than walking after the
spirit. When my mind is caught up with self. For we preach not
ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. Same day, listen to another one,
preached for 25 minutes, philosophically, trying to encourage people to
do what's right. I'm serious. And they said, now
it will take five minutes. Oh, he said, I won't be too long.
And he preached about Jesus Christ. They even told him, I ain't gonna
take long. Why? Because people don't wanna hear about Jesus
Christ. Tell me what I can do. Tell me what I can do. That's
trying to give me snake as goat meat. That's what it's trying
to do. It's not taking snake, Joseph,
here's snake. No, they dress it up. Take all
the bones out, take the skin off, chop the head, chop the
tail, and just add you a chunk of meat. Say, here, here's goat
meat, and when you've eaten it, you know what you've eaten? I
don't care how good you think it is. You've just eaten snake
meat, not goat meat. What about this one? Here's the
last one. Decisionism and easy-believism. You know we are swamped with
that. People are telling people, just make a decision for Jesus.
The Bible doesn't say anywhere or even indicate you make a decision
for Jesus. It says that believe in his heart
that God raised him from the dead and that he is Lord. That's
what it says. and ease, I was brought up under
ease. Come forward, just pray this
prayer. God's got to save you. That's what we taught. Compare
that to spirit-wrought gospel regeneration. God has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation hell through sanctification of
the spirit, and that's got to happen first. And belief of the
truth. Therefore, if you're sanctified
by the spirit, the truth's gonna be there somewhere. and you're
gonna believe the truth pretty soon. Because God don't sanctify
you just for you to float around sanctified. Well, I'm sanctified,
I don't believe in the Lord, but Lord, the Spirit sure worked
on me. You're full of it. You've gone
bonkers, you need a pill. is sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth, and how do you get there? Where unto
he called you by our gospel, and they ate no other way. Well,
I had this great, marvelous experience. I'm happy for you. I don't doubt
that you did, but that's not the way God does it. Has nothing
to do with decisionism or easy-believism. That's somebody, now here's another,
that's somebody trying to hand me a rabbit. Well, look, it chews
the cud. Now what's wrong with deciding
for Jesus, Joe? Huh? What's wrong with believing?
Right? There's your rabbit. And he's
chewing the cud, just like the cow is. But he ain't got a split
hoof. He's an unclean animal. I don't care how you slice him
up. Chop his feet off. Bless God he still didn't have
a cloven foot. And you can't dress up the lie
of Antichrist and make it help anyone spiritually. Again, I
say, you can't chop off the rabbit's foot and then everything be okay,
because he's still rabbit meat. Now I will sum this up. Preacher, somebody said, Preacher,
you get worked up. I know, because I remember where
I was one time. And I remember what it took for
God to get me out of that. It was an Egypt and bondage scenario. Did you know that? It was an
Egypt and bondage scenario just as much as our brothers and sisters
of Israel had back yonder. I was in just as much slavery
as they were. Now let me sum it up, Colossians
2, and he's writing this even to Laodicea, you remember the
Laodiceans? They evidently went downhill
pretty quick. Did they not? One of the reasons may be because
they didn't pay heed to this right here. Colossians chapter
two. Speaking of Christ, briefly,
verse in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
That's all about God the Father and of Christ. In this I say,
lest any man should what? Here we go. Beguile you with
enticing words. They'll dress up that unclean
meat of that unclean beast and make it real presentable, but
it's still an unclean beast. For though I be absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order, and what else? And the steadfastness of your
faith in Christ. As you've therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, that's the same way you ought to walk.
So walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and established
in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with
thanksgiving. As I said, there is no unclean
meat in Jesus Christ. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through what? Philosophy? an empty deceit after
the tradition of men, and after the rudiments of the world, and
what does that mean? It means anything other than
Christ. Do you see that? It means, I don't care if you
call it tithing, I don't care if you call it Sabbath worship,
and you actually worship on the Sabbath rather than the first
day. Sabbatarians listen to, I can say it, if you did listen
to them, They got to constantly mention that the sixth day is
the Sabbath day, and they are right. But you ought to worship
Christ on the Sabbath day, and on the first day, and on the
second day, and third, and fourth, and fifth equally. And not after Christ, for in
Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
what? Complete in Him. In other words,
Joe, he's like that big, nice Thanksgiving meal. And you eat
probably turkeys, probably an unclean animal, ain't it? I know
swine's flesh is. You bunch of sinners, you. And you eat, and you eat, and
you eat, and you are stuffed. But you look over at that dessert,
do you stop? Maybe some of us do. Do you look
over, well, I'm full. We're full in Him, but you know
what? I still wanna eat, and eat, and
eat, and nibble a little here, and nibble a little there. And
if you don't, you've never really met Jesus Christ. Let's stand
and sing number 68 and we'll be closed with that.