Chewing the Cud

Q: What does the Bible say about dietary laws?

The Bible teaches that dietary laws, as referenced in Deuteronomy, are not about physical food but rather spiritual relationships with God. In Deuteronomy chapter 14, God provides dietary laws that classify certain animals as clean and unclean. However, these laws are not intended to govern righteous living through diet; instead, they illustrate the distinction God makes regarding His people. The New Testament clarifies this further by showing that what is consumed does not affect one's holiness, as true defilement comes from within. Acts 10 illustrates this shift in understanding when God tells Peter not to call unclean what He has made clean, thus signaling the inclusion of Gentiles among His chosen people. Ultimately, these dietary restrictions point to a deeper relationship with God and highlight the importance of faith in Christ rather than adherence to external laws.

Q: How do we know that eating certain foods does not make us righteous?

Eating certain foods does not impact our righteousness because holiness comes from a relationship with God, not dietary observances. The belief that diet can influence one's righteousness is fundamentally flawed from a biblical standpoint. Jesus emphasized that it is not what goes into a person's mouth that causes defilement, but what comes out of the heart (Matthew 15:17-20). In Romans 8:1-4, we see that righteousness is fulfilled in the elect through Christ's perfect obedience, not through adherence to dietary restrictions. The dietary laws serve as a reminder that holiness is inherent in one's identity as a child of God, defined by His grace, rather than by actions taken or foods eaten. Understanding that we are declared holy leads us to act in accordance with our identity rather than trying to establish it through works.

Q: Why is understanding the purpose of the law important for Christians?

Understanding the purpose of the law is crucial because it points to our relationship with Christ and His fulfilling of the law for our redemption. The law's primary purpose is to highlight the holiness of God and man's inability to achieve righteousness apart from Christ. In Deuteronomy, the laws serve to show God’s chosen people how to live in obedience, reflecting their special relationship with Him. However, as established in Romans 3:20, the law also reveals sin, thereby directing believers to Christ, who perfectly fulfilled the law (Matthew 5:17). Recognizing that the law does not save, but rather points us to the necessity of salvation and grace through Christ, allows Christians to live joyfully in the freedom of the Gospel rather than in fear of legalistic adherence. This understanding shapes how believers engage with Scripture and grow spiritually, emphasizing faith and obedience that stems from love for God.

Q: What does it mean to 'chew the cud' spiritually?

To 'chew the cud' spiritually signifies meditating on and internalizing God's Word for spiritual nourishment. In the context of the sermon, 'chewing the cud' is likened to the practice of meditation whereby believers are called to consume the Word of God deeply. Just as ruminating animals chew their food multiple times to extract maximum nutrition, Christians are encouraged to engage with Scripture through contemplation and reflection. This process is essential for spiritual growth, providing the necessary sustenance for our walk with God. As believers internalize the truth of the Gospel, it not only transforms their understanding but also motivates their actions and desires to seek more of God. The act of meditating on God's Word leads to a deeper hunger for His truth, encouraging ongoing spiritual development and a richer relationship with God.

by my wandering heart to thee,
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I
love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it, seal it for thy courts above. I invite your attention back
to Deuteronomy chapter 14. We will be looking basically at
verses 7 and 8. The Lord said, Nevertheless, these
shall ye not eat, that chew the cud, or of them that divide the
clove and hoof, as the camel, and the hare, and the coney.
For they chew the good, but divide not the hoof. Therefore they
are unclean to you, and the swine, Because it divided the hood,
yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean to you. Ye shall not
eat of their flesh, nor touch their carcass." Now occasionally,
online or on TV or in magazines, and on bookshelves in Christian
stores, I see advertisements for eating according to scripture. And it's often called the Bible
diet. and was taken from this passage
as well as a passage in Leviticus chapter 11. The promise of course
was that in these books that you read and in these articles
the promise is that eating this diet result in not only health
and wealth and weight loss but could eventuate in a more vigorous
spiritual life. Many books have been written
on the benefits of the dietary laws here presented but most
of them finally end And if they end that way, that was their
goal to start with. That what you eat is a means
of accomplishing personal righteousness. The only problem is that such
thinking is not true on any level and is void of spiritual instruction.
What you eat naturally, no matter what it is, has no spiritual
value. It's food. It's food. And it never concerns
righteousness or defilement according to the Word of God. What is taken
in the mouth is cast out the draft. It's from what's inside
a man, in his heart, that causes him to be defiled, not what he
eats or does not eat. Also, these dietary laws are
summarily dismissed on the natural level in the Book of Acts. And
actually have something to do with the revelation of the inclusion
of the Gentiles among the elect. before God hung down a great
sheet above Peter as he was on the housetop praying. And on
that sheet was all manner of beasts, both clean and unclean.
And the Lord said, Take, eat. He said, Not so, Lord. There
are some unclean beasts here. I can't eat these. He said, Don't
you call unclean what I've made clean. Now, that was a matter
of preparation. All that was, was he was about
to send Peter to the house of a man named Cornelius who was
a Gentile. A man hated and despised and considered not one of God's
children ever. But he was going to that house
and he was going to preach the gospel and the Lord was going
to save that household. But the preparation was the dietary laws
were something else altogether. They meant something else altogether. So the meaning of this passage
has nothing to do with what you naturally eat. Nothing to do
with producing holiness and nothing to do with causing defilement.
As always, the understanding of the law, and the law meaning
the commandments that God gives and the book that He has written,
rests in two absolutes. First, the law is spiritual and
therefore cannot be naturally perceived or applied. Secondly, the law was completely
fulfilled in every jot and tittle by the Lord Jesus Christ. and
that done for all the elect and the righteousness that is in
the law was fulfilled in the elect by the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ according to Romans chapter eight verses one through
four now the fact that these laws and restrictions have nothing
to do with being holy is settled in this very text verses one
and two our Lord says his people are already holy they're his
people therefore they are holy ye are the children of the Lord
God. You are the children of the Lord
God. Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any bondage between
your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy people,
not that you can be by what you eat. Thou art a holy people unto
the Lord, and that's where holiness counts, unto the Lord. And the
Lord has chosen thee a peculiar people, and the word peculiar
means a purchased, prized possession, unto Himself. And it will be
above all nations that are upon the face of the earth. So this
is not being spoken to folks who don't know God. This is not
being spoken to say, well, if you'll do this, something will
happen to you. Something will happen to you. If you eat this
kind of food, then you will become a holy person, a spiritual person.
No, you're already holy. He's talking to his beloved people. They're not spoken to people
who by obedience have become anything. They are spoken to
those who are the children of God, to those who are holy, chosen,
and peculiar. These are to practice the dietary
restriction because they have a relationship already with God. They do what they do because
they are righteous, not because or to become righteous. And the
first verse is a reiteration of a central theme in Deuteronomy
and indeed the basis of all the law. The first commandment is,
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. stands to reason in
that which follows it thou shalt love the Lord God and thy neighbors
thyself. The reference to cutting is about
the practice of many false religions in which men cut themselves in
order to gain their God's attention. You see that around Easter time
all over the world. Men take whips with chains and
take off their shirts and beat themselves and cut themselves
so they'll bleed. So they think God will recognize
and God will take take notice of them, that God would be pleased
with them because they themselves bleed, they themselves suffer.
This is what they believe. The matter of baldness between
the eyes and the hair, that was a practice of those who were
grieving, sometimes would shave their head or cut off their eyebrows.
The Lord said that, and they did that to show that they were
grieving to get attention to their God. To get attention to
their God didn't work. because their God was no God
at all. But that's what they did. They thought that by bleeding
they would assuage God's anger and He wouldn't be angry with
them no more. You remember the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings chapter
18 when Elijah laid out that altar and poured water in the
troughs and poured water all over the altar? He said, you
call on your God and I'll call on my God and we'll see who's
God. And the prophets of Baal, 400 of them and 800 later, They
prayed and prayed and got no answer. They started at sunrise. It was a sunrise service and
they started at sunrise and about noon they hadn't got no answer
from God. Nothing had happened. They were praying that the altar
would be consumed or the sacrifice would be consumed. So they began
to cut themselves. Because they felt like if they
suffered that their God would pay attention to them in all
Elijah did, he prayed unto God and said, show yourself to be
God. Let these people know that you're
God, and God sent down fire from heaven. But they cut themselves
because they believe that their suffering, somehow their suffering
put them in a right standing with God. People actually believe
that today. They may not cut themselves,
but they believe if they suffer, if they bring suffering upon
themselves, if they make vows of poverty, if they make vows
of sadness, vows of contrition, vows of grief, if they do this,
then God will pay attention. Listen to me very carefully.
We all suffer. Every child of God suffers. I
went through 72 years of my life without a great trial. But I'm
going one through one now. Going through one now, and I
suffer. And I know you suffered with
me, you've shed tears with me. I know that. But let me tell
you that my suffering accounts for nothing. It will not please
God. It is not designed to please
God. It's designed to bring me to
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it will not do anything. It will not accomplish anything.
Nobody's suffering will. Your suffering won't pay for
anything. It won't account for anything
with God. God is not pleased that way. They believe God requires blood
and suffering, but theirs is a bastardization, a counterfeit
of what they think pleases God. God is not pleased with self-righteousness.
He's not pleased with your blood or your suffering. It's just
that simple. God tells His children, His holy children, His chosen
and treasured possession, that they are not to inflict pain
and suffering upon themselves or bleed to approach Him. They
are accepted already. They're already holy. their purchased
possession are already His. Already His. The rest of the
passage deals with what is commonly referred to as dietary laws.
Remembering that the law is one, as God is one, and this passage
is as much about Christ and His work and His people as that part
of the law concerning sacrifices and offerings. The largest portion
of this passage deals with what the children are to eat and not
eat. That simple. Here's what you're
supposed to eat. Here's what you're not supposed
to eat. The important thing to consider is that the Lord Himself
designates which animals are to be eaten and not to be eaten.
All aspects of edible life are covered. Beasts of the field,
fish of the rivers and the oceans, birds of the air and the land.
Our Lord does not give specifics as to the quality of the meat.
He does not say that fish without fins and scales are poison or
that pigs carry trichinosis. When you read these dietary laws,
that's what they talk about when you read these books. Oh, you
eat a pig, you're going to get trichinosis. I eat a pig every
morning. And I ain't got trichinosis. And I like fish without scales,
too. I love catfish. So do most people here. Love
a good bait of catfish. Our Lord didn't designate these
and say these is poison. He didn't say that the pig was
poison, or that the fish without scales was poison. Or those that
had a cloven hoof and didn't chew the cud were poisoned. Or
those that had a solid hoof and chewed the cud were poisoned.
He didn't say that. He said, don't eat them. Don't eat them. This was an edict from God. Our Lord simply says that one
is clean and the other is unclean. And that makes for the fact of
it. The cleaner to be eaten and the
uncleaner not to be eaten. God himself makes the distinction.
Therefore it's not to be questioned as to why. and no discussion
need follow concerning whether one is good for you or not. The
only thing that should follow a clear edict from the Lord is
unquestioned obedience. What is the difference in these
creatures? The difference is the declaration of God and that's
it. What's the difference between a catfish and a bass? What's
the difference? No difference. They're both edible. But God says one's clean and
one's not clean under the law. He said that. That's the difference. What God says is the difference.
That's always the case. The difference is the declaration
of God for the child of God. That's always enough. That's
always enough. Now what are we to glean from
this passage? It is important to understand that this is all
about a single thing. This passage is about the relationship
with God our Father. And since you are a holy and
a chosen people, you are to seek to do what pleases God. And what
pleases God? According to Scripture, what
pleases God? One thing is said to please God.
One. Faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. For them that come to Him must
believe that He is in the reward of them that diligently seek
Him. The faith that pleases God, what's its object? It's object
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ. And the faith
that is toward Christ is born from above by the Spirit through
the preaching of the Gospel. That's how it comes. My words,
they are Spirit and they are life. You are not born again
of corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed, even the Word of God which
liveth and abideth forever. And this is the Word of God which
by the Gospel is preached unto you. of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth." It might be the kind of first fruits in
all of them that believe. All these admonitions and restrictions
carry equal weight. They are more specifics in the
words concerning those beasts that chew the cud, however. Our
Lord really got down to basics. The others He just named. Eagles,
owls, you know, cormorants, the heart, antelope, all those things. He just named them. But here,
in this matter of chewing the cud with a cloven hood, this
he spent some time on. Spent some specifics on it. About
those who chew cud and don't have split hooves, and those
who have split hooves and don't chew cud. The rest of the beasts
seem more to be more of a listing, and not so particular in their
description. Some of the creatures are now extinct and would be
difficult to research. Others are rare and not well
documented. They cannot be researched. They
are distinguished by God and are to be eaten or not. But here
is the thing, they are food. They are food. Clean beasts are
to be eaten because they have to do with the believer's relationship
with God. That is what it says. We will
spend some time with the distinctions made concerning the beasts in
verses 6-8. The beasts that are to be eaten are those that chew
the cud and have cloven hooves. That's what he says. The beasts
that chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves or have cloven
hooves but do not chew the cud are not to be eaten. That's the
word he gives. Now the clean beasts, they picture
two things. First, their food. They are to
be ingested. They are to be eaten. Being ingested,
they support life and energy. They sustain the eater for his
walk in this world. What is the food of the believer? What are the green pastures and
still waters? What is the feast of fat things?
What is the wine on the leaves well refined? Well refined it
is the Word of God. The Gospel, the glory of God.
My Word is the food of God. The clean beast is a representative
of Christ. representatives of Christ, the
living word. The unclean priests represent a false Christ or a
false gospel. One is the word without the walk,
the other is the walk without the word. Neither is to be eaten,
they are unclean. A false Christ is not to be eaten.
I know men and women like to say, well you know we are all
going to the same place. No we are not. God's children are going
to glory. Everyone who is not a God's child
is going to hell. And the difference whether they believe this, not
some of it, believe it as God's word from heaven, not to be questioned,
but to be bowed to and appreciated. This is our food. This is what
the believer lives on. Secondly, the clean beasts represent
the believer themselves. The beasts are distinguished
by what and how they eat, And the mark they leave on the earth.
I know everybody wants to leave a mark. I've always said I won't
leave a greasy spot on history, and that's a fact. But they ingest,
how do these cloven hoof, cud-eaten characters, how do they exist?
They ingest the grass of the field, that which God has supplied
them. Then they ruminate it. They're
called ruminators. They chew it. They chew the cud. what they do the manner in which
this is done is that the beast eats his fill he's got several
stomachs you see the cow does he eats his fill and then he
lays down and he masticates chews the cud he masticates what he's eating
and then he coughs it up and eats it again and chews it some
more It's not until he's chewed the cud to full nourishment that
he gets back on his feet. And what does he do then? Find
some more food. That's what he does. This is
the life of the child of God. His strength to walk and eat
comes from eating, and from rumination, from meditation, from chewing
the cud. Seems a rather simple life, doesn't
it? Well, actually it's very simple. eat, lie down, ruminate,
so you'll have energy to get up and walk to the next place
you're going to eat. This is the life of the child
of God. The believer feeds on Christ,
he hears the gospel, he ingests the truth, he does not eat then
go out and do something else, not the child of God. He eats
and rests and ruminates, masticates and meditates on what he's heard.
He ponders and chews the cud. He meditates the Word, gains
the full nourishment of the Word, and when he has pondered it and
filled himself with it, he gets up on his cloven hooves and goes
out and eats some more. The Gospel is the sustenance
of his life and the energy it produces is hunger for more food. The walk of the child of God
is to feast on the Word of God. The work that the believer does
is ultimately about the food that he eats. And the matter
which food he has eaten ends in greater hunger for more food.
That is the scheme of God. He is a hearer and a doer of
the Word. The Word ingested and meditated upon produces the walk,
and the walk as far as for more Word, more of the Word. This
is the child of God. People who have no interest in
the Word of God have no interest in the God of the Word. It's
that simple. But if you love the Word of God
and you come here to feed on the Word of God, you know what?
You're going to be here next time the door is open so you can eat again.
You're going to eat again. This is what we do. The world
takes the Word and uses it as a motto, a book of sayings and
works, a book to get people busy and works without the Word. The believer feasts, chews the
cud, gets up and walks to where he can feast some more. The word
of God, the gospel is the food, the meditation and the aim of
the walk of the holy and chosen and treasured possession of the
children of God is simple. More food. More food. This is the life of the child
of God. Feed me until I want no more. And feed me again. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Chewing the Cud

What does the Bible say about dietary laws?

How do we know that eating certain foods does not make us righteous?

Why is understanding the purpose of the law important for Christians?

What does it mean to 'chew the cud' spiritually?

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About Tim James

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Chewing the Cud

What does the Bible say about dietary laws?

How do we know that eating certain foods does not make us righteous?

Why is understanding the purpose of the law important for Christians?

What does it mean to 'chew the cud' spiritually?

Sermon Transcript

About Tim James

Comments

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