Now, tonight, I'm going to complete my sermon from this morning. I didn't even get halfway through my sermon this morning and I had so much material that I wanted to preach and I didn't want to rush through it so I'm going to finish my sermon from this morning. Let me just do a very quick review about what we talked about this morning and then I'm going to get into the new material of tonight's sermon but I preached this morning about this false doctrine that I've seen just spreading like wildfire and it's becoming a very prevalent teaching amongst Baptists and just amongst Christians, in general.
This movement of a Judaising movement or forcing us to go back into keeping of the Jewish customs and the Mosaic law or telling us to call Jesus, "Yeshua" and the wearing of Jewish outfits and just this whole thing of trying to get us to keep the Sabbath Day and keep these feast days, blow a trumpet on a new moon, things that do not apply [to us 00:00:57] in the New Testament. Just to give you a quick review this morning, we talked about the facts and I proved to you from the Bible that this thing of calling Jesus, "Yeshua" is a fraud. It's not based in reality. It's not based on anything that's biblical at all and that it's the name of Jesus that's the name above every name to which every knee should bow.
We also went through the book of Hebrews this morning showing that the New Testament is repeatedly called the better testament and the better covenant established upon better promises and that's simply because the Old Testament dealt specifically with a group of people, the nation of Israel. The Bible makes it clear, they failed. It wasn't that there was any flaw in the Old Testament, it was that they did not continue in the covenant that God gave them and because of that, the kingdom of God was taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit thereof.
We talked about the fact that this calling of people by "rabbi" is something that the Bible specifically tells us it's sinful and wrong and we talked about several other things. I want to start out tonight by talking about the Sabbath Day because this is another thing that I'm constantly hearing these days, is Christians being told that we must observed the Sabbath day in the New Testament. Now, when I was a kid, it was just the Seventh Day Adventist that I even heard of. Nowadays, it seems like more and more people are getting sucked into this and it's a false doctrine and I'm going to prove that to you.
Let's start out, keep your finger there in Hebrews 4 but let's flip over to Colossians 2 quickly and we'll just look at this once again in Colossians 2, then we'll get into the material in Hebrews 4 and I'm going to explain it to you but look at Colossians chapter 2. In Colossians chapter 2, we find a very important passage about some of the differences between New Testament and Old Testament but look at verse 14. It says, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ."
Here we see that because many of the ordinances that were part of the old covenant were blotted out, taken out of the way or done away in Christ, therefore, we should not let anyone judge us in regard to meats, drinks and he also says there, "holy days or of the Sabbath days." Right here, it's telling us that the Sabbath day was one of those ordinances that was blotted out, that was done away in Christ, that was a shadow of things to come.
What did the Sabbath represent? What did the Sabbath signify? Go back, if you would, to John chapter 5. John chapter 5, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John ... Because those that teach us today that we as Christians of the New Testament must observe the Sabbath will often tell us, "Jesus kept the Sabbath and we need to keep the Sabbath too." And they'll say or they'll tell us that, "Yeshua kept the Sabbath," or whatever. But they'll us, "Well, Jesus kept the Sabbath." Well, that is simply not true.
Jesus did not keep the Sabbath and the Bible explicitly tells us that in John chapter 5. Now, first of all, there were many things that Jesus did that were part of the old covenant or Old Testament because of the fact that the Bible says that the New Testament began when Jesus Christ's blood was shed on the cross. Because the Bible says, "A testament is of force after men are dead, otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first covenant was dedicated without blood." And it talks about the fact that the blood of animals was used to sanctify the first testament and that the blood of Christ sanctified the second testament, the New Testament, the better testament.
What we see is that when Jesus Christ lived on this earth, that was still the old covenant, that was the Old Testament. Until he died on the cross, that is where the New Testament came into force according to the book of Hebrews. That being said, Jesus did not keep the Sabbath and let me show you where it says that in the Bible. It says in John 5:15, "The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole." Because they're upset that he had healed this man on the Sabbath.
Look at verse 16, "And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day." Look at verse 17, "But Jesus answered them, 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.'" Is Jesus working on the Sabbath day here? Then look at the next verse. "Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."
Now, an important principle of Bible interpretation is that when the narrator of the Bible is speaking, it's always accurate. I mean, when the Bible ... Look, this isn't just the Pharisee saying that he broke the Sabbath. This is the narrator of the Bible telling us that he broke the Sabbath, that he said that God was his father and that he made himself equal with God. By the way, this is a great scripture on the fact that Jesus is equal with God. It says here he made himself equal to God and it says here that he broke the Sabbath.
Now, you say, "Well, that means that Jesus sinned." Absolutely not. Jesus Christ was without sin. The Bible says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." The Bible says he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Well, you say, "Well, why was it not a sin for Jesus to work on the Sabbath even during the old covenant?" Because look, working on the Sabbath was a major sin in the Old Testament. It was a major sin, not a minor sin. It was a big deal.
But yeah, here Jesus says, "Well, I work on a Sabbath. My father worketh hitherto and I work also," and it says, by doing so, you've broken the Sabbath, meaning he had not rested on the Sabbath. Well, go to Hebrews 4 and I'll explain to you why because a simple understanding of what the Sabbath means and what it represents helps us to understand why Jesus was right to work on the Sabbath but why everyone else was not supposed to work on the Sabbath under the old covenant, under the Old Testament.
Now, one thing I like to point out to people is that all throughout the Old Testament when we're looking at things that came after Moses, there's a lot of talk about keeping the Sabbath and it's a big deal but then in the New Testament, we never have one time in the entire New Testament, not one time where God tells us to keep the Sabbath, not once. Contrary-wise, we have two places, Colossians 2 that we just looked at and Romans 14 that tell us not to worry about it.
If we have two places saying, "Hey, that was done away in Christ. That's blotted out," and nothing telling us to keep it. Then you know what? How in the world can you believe that this is something that we're supposed to be doing in the New Testament? When he flat out said, he blotted out those ordinances. They were done away in Christ. Another thing that's important to understand is that there's no commandment that was given to observe the Sabbath until Moses.
In the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, there's no talk of keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath was part of the Mosaic Law. It was one of the carnal ordinances that was imposed on them for a time. It was symbolic of something that was fulfilled in Christ. Jesus did not come to destroy the law, he came to fulfill the law and it was fulfilled in Christ. Hebrews chapter 4 explains us how the Sabbath was fulfilled and if you understand this, it makes perfect sense why Jesus worked on the Sabbath and that's why they wanted to kill him because he's working on the Sabbath.
Now, look if you would, at Hebrews 4 verse 3. It says, "For we which have believed do enter into rest," and by the way, this chapter, I mean almost every verse in this chapter is about rest and it specifically talks about the Sabbath day. He says, "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest. Seeing, therefore, it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, today, after so long a time, as it is said, to day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
What have we seen so far? The Bible, first of all, told us that we which have believed in Christ have entered into rest. Then he talks about people not entering into rest and he says they did not enter into rest because of their unbelief. Then it says in verse 8, "For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God." Watch verse 10, "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."
Over and over again, this passage, if you believe you've entered into rest, those who are in unbelief have not entered into rest. He repeated that basically four times. And he's saying here what it means to enter into rest is when you've ceased from your own works as God did from his. Because he said when God created this world, God spent six days creating the earth and he rested the seventh day. The Bible is saying when he rested the seventh day, he ceased from his works.
The Bible compares that to being saved. He says when you believe on Christ, you've entered into rest because you've ceased from your own works as God did from his. That is what the Sabbath represents. Now, look if you would at Hebrews chapter 6. I didn't have this in my notes but it just popped into my mind. Over in Hebrews 6 verse 1, it says, "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God. Of the doctrine of baptisms," and on and on. I like what Brother [Gareth 00:11:51] said in a sermon that he preached in the Preaching class.
He said, "Dead faith is faith without works. Dead works is works without faith." Here when he says, "Dead works," these are people that are not saved but they're doing works. The Bible says that the beginning point of salvation is repentance from dead works and faith toward God. Because you see, most people that aren't saved but they think they're saved, what are trusting? They're trusting their works. The Bible says we can't trust in our works and still be saved. We have to repent from trusting in our works and we have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that's called entering into his rest. Why? Because you don't work your way to heaven.
The Bible says, "For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." The Bible says, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Look, you don't work your way to heaven, you rest your way to heaven. You rest your way to heaven. You say, "That sounds great." Now, look, I'm not saying we don't do any work but you know what? The work that we do has nothing to do with getting us to heaven because salvation is a Sabbath of rest where God did all the work. We just rest in him.
Here's the thing, in order to be saved, we have to cease from our own works, meaning that we can't try to work our way in. We have to give up on that and say, "You know what? I can't earn it. I can't work for it. It's a free gift. I just need to receive it by believing in Jesus Christ." Look, that's what this is teaching in Hebrews 4. He says over and over again, "If you believed, you've entered into rest. If you haven't entered into rest, it's because of your unbelief." He says, "He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."
The Bible is crystal clear here and he's spending an entire chapter virtually in chapter 4 explaining to us the significance of the Sabbath. That is a great picture of resting on what Christ has done, ceasing from our own works and just believing in him and that Jesus will give us rest. Not limited to certain days, he says, but that Jesus Christ will give us rest if we cease from our own works and trust in him. Now, when Jesus died on the cross, he spent three days and three nights dead because the Bible says in Matthew 12:40, "As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
Jesus Christ said he would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Now, if Jesus Christ had already risen from the dead early the first day of the week when they went down there to bring the spices and so forth to the tomb, he was already gone. The stone was already rolled away. That means that the three days that he spent in the heart of the earth, just to keep it simple, were basically Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Those are basically the three days that he was dead and then he rose again the third day which is Sunday.
If Jesus Christ was dead for those three days and three nights and if we think about the fact that Jesus Christ was slain as the Passover lamb and he was slain on the 14th day of the month Abib and that's a whole another sermon of itself, there's plenty of evidence for that. The Bible explains, there was the Passover when he was crucified. Well, if you think about it then, then that means that that Thursday was the Passover. Then, that Friday was the Feast of Unleavened Bread which would come on the 15th day of the month Abib and then what was Saturday? The Sabbath day.
Now, look, was anybody supposed to work on the Passover? No, that was the Sabbath of rest on them also. Was anybody supposed to work on the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Was anybody supposed to work on the Sabbath? No. Therefore, for the three days and three nights that Jesus Christ was dead, no one was doing any work or at least they weren't supposed to be doing any work, isn't that correct?
Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread and the normal Sabbath and then first day of the week, he's risen. That is a great picture of the fact that while Jesus Christ was purchasing our salvation, nobody can do any work because he's showing, "Look, I'm doing this. You rest for all three days," because people will say, "Well, it was done. He's on the ..." No, no, it's a death, burial and resurrection. During that time of the death, the burial and resurrection, everybody is supposed to be resting and that's a picture of the fact, look, you can't work your way to heaven. He doesn't need your help. Jesus paid it all.
Therefore, that is how Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath. He fulfilled the Passover. He fulfilled the unleavened bread when he said, "I'm the bread of life." He was without sin and he fulfilled the Sabbath day by doing all the works as we just rested. Now, look, that's why Jesus worked on the Sabbath. He said, "Well, my father worketh hitherto," because look, Jesus did all the work for salvation. We don't do the work for salvation. We rest in him. That's why it makes sense for Jesus to work on the Sabbath but us not to under the old covenant.
Now, another thing, go if you would to Philippians chapter 3 and then we're going to go Galatians. Go to Philippians chapter 3. [It said 00:17:48] right there it should explain to you why we don't observe the Sabbath in the New Testament. Why don't we observe it? Well, because God specifically told us in Colossians 2 that it was fulfilled in Christ, it was blotted out, it was done away. It was something that was a shadow of things to come. It was a picture. Hebrews 4 explains to us that our Sabbath is Jesus Christ and that it is not limited to a certain day of the week but that rather we rest in him as our ticket to heaven. We don't try to work our way in. We've ceased from our own works to get us into heaven.
We covered that but another thing that we see is the commandment that New Testament believers must be circumcised. Number one, we saw the Sabbath day is not for us in the New Testament today but another thing that you'll see often taught is they'll say that we, as New Testament believers, must circumcised our children and be circumcised. Again, this is more of the Judaisers. Those are trying to impose on us things that are done away in Christ, things that had to do with the old covenant that are specifically repealed in the New Testament.
Look if you would in Philippians chapter 3 verse 2, it says, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision." And then he says, "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." When he says, "Beware of the concision," the word concision, he is basically using a derogatory word for circumcision. He's basically calling it the concision. It means like the chopping off or the cutting off.
He's saying, "Look out for these people who basically just want to cut off your flesh." That's what he's saying when he says beware of the concision and he says them very similar in Galatians that it is why I'm basing on that, why I believe that's what he meant by that. He says, "Because we are the circumcision." He basically says, "Look, you don't need to be circumcised because we are already are the circumcision. If we worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh."
Now, keep your finger there, flip over to Romans chapter 2, the left in your Bible and compare what we just saw in Philippians 3 with Romans chapter 2 verse 28. The Bible says, " For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter whose praise is not of men, but of God." Here the Bible is saying that the truly circumcised one is the who is circumcised in the heart, not in the flesh. That's why he says in Philippians 3, and he's talking to Gentiles. He's talking to the Philippians, Philippi, Macedonia. These are not Jews.
He says, "We're the circumcision if we worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Now, let me ask you this, are the Jews today rejoicing in Christ Jesus? They don't believe he's the Messiah. They are not a Jew, the Bible says. They might be one outwardly but the Bible says the real Jew is the one who's a Jew inwardly whose circumcision is not in their flesh but in their spirit because they rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Go to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians deals with these over and over again the subject of circumcision. We could turn to so many places in the New Testament that tell us that circumcision is not a New Testament practice for us but look at Galatians chapter 2 verse 3 and tell me if there's any doubt about this scripture. It says, this is Paul preaching, "But neither Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." He's saying, "Look, I did not force Titus to be circumcised." Now, poor Timothy, he started hanging around with Paul before Paul had figured this out. Paul had Timothy circumcised as an adult because he basically, Paul, there were times when Paul struggled with some of his upbringing as a Pharisee with Gamaliel. He was hanging on to some of that stuff sometimes. But when we see Paul writing scripture under the inspiration of God here, he always says it right.
He says here, "Look, Titus was not compelled to be circumcised." It says in verse 4, "And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." Here he says that look, there were false brethren creeping in trying to get Titus to be circumcised and he says, "We didn't give subjection to him. We wouldn't listen to it. We wouldn't do it."
Titus was not circumcised. The author of the book, get this now, the author or not the author [inaudible 00:22:48]. The recipient of the book of Titus, one of the pastoral epistles who Paul is writing to lifting up as a great man of God not even just a pastor but a pastor who was commissioned to start churches in every city in Crete. The man who Paul said, "I'm trusting you to start churches everywhere in Crete was not circumcised."
But we're supposed to believe in the New Testament that we're supposed to circumcised our children and be circumcised as adult man? No, wrong. The Bible is clear here. Now, look at chapter 5. Go to chapter 5 and look at verse 1. Galatians chapter 5 verse 1, the Bible reads, "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."
Now, does Galatians 5:2 look like a pretty good verse on telling Christians to be circumcised? I mean, how can you read Galatians 5:2 and walk away saying, "Oh, I need to circumcise my children. I need to go out and get circumcised." He says, "Behold, I, Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace."
What he's referring to here is that people were getting circumcised because they believe that they had to get circumcised to be saved. That's what these false brethren were teaching that came in, in Acts chapter 15. They came in and they said, "You must be circumcised and keep the law." What Paul is saying is, "Okay, you want to be justified by the law? You want to be saved by keeping the law? Well, then, okay, forget about grace. You want to be saved by law? Okay, keep the whole law."
The Bible says in James 2 verse 10, he said, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." See, it's impossible to keep the whole law and Paul says, "If you want to be saved or justified through keeping of the law," he said, "You know what, if you're going to be circumcised, now, you're indebted to do the whole law. Now, that you're trusting the law to save you, that's what you have to do." But look, the Bible is never commanding us to be circumcised in the New Testament.
Contrary-wise, he's telling us it's of the heart. Contrary-wise, he's saying, "Titus, you don't need to be circumcised. Contrary-wise, he's saying, "Here, look, don't go out and get circumcised. That just shows me that you're not even saved," that's what he's saying to them. Now, look, obviously, I'm sure there are plenty of people in this church that are circumcised because we live in America and basically, in America today, circumcision is something that's just a part of the American culture through the Jewish influence that is basically influenced going back to what, the 1930's, 40's, 50's? Because everybody before that generation in America was pretty much not circumcised.
I mean, before World War II, 97% of Americans were uncircumcised. Why? Because the Bible is clear that this is not a New Testament doctrine. It has nothing to do with being a Christian or believing in Christ. That's why 97% of Americans were uncircumcised before World War II. But because of World War II and the whole thing of the Holocaust and so forth, a lot of the Jewish doctors and so forth started to basically promote this and say, "Hey, you need to be circumcised for health reasons." Really, it was just because they just wanted people to be circumcised, I guess, so that they wouldn't use that to determine who's a Jew and who's not like they did in Nazi Germany.
Look, no question, Nazi Germany was a horrible wicked place. Adolf Hitler is a wicked man who's burning in hell right now. Obviously, there were many Jews that were killed and so forth, no question about that. But you know what? That's not going to make me circumcised my children because of something that happened in World War II. That has nothing to do with Bible doctrine. Now, you say, "Well, Pastor Anderson, I just believe that there is a health benefit for being circumcised and so I'm going to continue to circumcise my children." Well, let's keep reading and see if that holds up with Scripture here.
It says in verse 5, "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness and by faith. For in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love." What he's saying there in verse 6 is that basically, there is no benefit to being circumcised and there is no benefit to being uncircumcised. It says the same thing in chapter 6 verse 15, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." I'm not going to walk away from reading the Bible and say, "Well, you know what, I'm just going to be circumcised just in case or I'm going to circumcise my children just in case."
Because of the fact that it's not something that avails anything. God is saying, there's no benefit. There's no reason to do it. Therefore, we don't believe in doing it. He says in verse 7 of chapter 5 back where we were, he said, "Ye did run well, who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you." "This teaching that you need to be circumcised," he's saying. Now, go to chapter 6 and he goes into a little more detail about it. He says in verse 12 of chapter 6, "As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh," and these are the concision. That's what he's referring to. "They constrain you to be circumcised."
He's saying they force you to be circumcised. He says, "To make a fair shew in the flesh, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." He's saying that they're circumcising you just to avoid persecution, just to basically please the Jews, just to make Jews happy, we're just going to circumcise you. No, he said, "Look, they're making a fair shew in the flesh, they're trying to glory in your flesh," and he says in verse 14, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." He's saying, "I don't care what they think. I don't care what people think about the fact that we don't circumcised our converts and we don't circumcised our children. It's not necessary. It's not biblical. It's not the New Testament. It is something that is done away in the New Testament and therefore, it is not something that we need to observe in the New Testament.
Let's move on to the final point that I want to make. Go to Genesis chapter 9. Quick review, we've debunked these things one by one. Number one, that his name is Jesus not Yeshua. That is a false teaching. The New Testament was not even written in Hebrew. Modern Hebrew is a language that wasn't even invented until the 1800's because Hebrew was a dead language for over 1,500 years. There was only a written language and did not have a native speaking verbal component.
Therefore, it is impossible to know how Hebrew was pronounced thousands of years ago. We know that a lot of the Hebrews, we show it from the book of Judges, couldn't even make the SH sound. All of the whole tribe of Ephraim was unable to make the SH sound. The [SH 00:30:19] sound, according to Judges chapter 12. We see that that whole term of, "Oh, we must call him Yeshua," is a fraud. His name is Jesus, the New Testament never calls him Yeshua. It always calls him, Jesus. The Greek would be Iesous, not anything near Yeshua.
We talked about the fact that observing the Torah is a fraud. Exalting the Old Testament above the New Testament is a fraud. We talked about the fact that every rabbi is a false teacher because otherwise, he would obey Christ when he said never to be called or to call anyone rabbi except him. He's the only rabbi. We saw that the Sabbath Day is something that God specifically tells us, done away in Christ, fulfilled by Christ. We saw that circumcision, not a New Testament practice. Today, this trend of everything being all Jewish and we're all going to ... There are literally today, Christians who are having their children circumcised by rabbis on the 8th day.
Now, I remember I confronted my mother about this. Maybe this is too much information but I confronted my mother about this. I said, "Mom, why was I circumcised as a child? This is not the New Testament. You've gone against the Bible here." She said, "Well, Steven," she said, "You were not circumcised on the 8th day. We were not doing it for a religious reason. We weren't trying to be under the old covenant. We just did it because I guess, everybody was doing it. I don't know why." I always like to say, I still have all my wisdom teeth. I've still got my tonsils. I've got my appendix. The only part of my body that was removed was before I was old enough to have anything to say about it and I screamed and cried, they didn't listen.
Anyway, look at Genesis chapter 9 and it says in Genesis chapter 9 verse 1, because I want to talk about the last thing that those that want to bring us back under Old Testament ordinances that were specifically done away with and try to make us live as do the Jews and they somehow think that they're more spiritual if they act Jewish. I mean, literally, I've got a thing in the mail the other day from a Christian ministry telling me I need to order this Jewish prayer shawl and it shows this God as Jewish guy with this like over his head and he's praying. It's like, oh, man, it said, "When you put this thing on, you're going to feel the power of God."
It said like, "This thing is made in Jerusalem. I mean, it's made from the same sheep where Jesus said, 'I'm the good shepherd.' This thing is ... You put on this shawl and I mean, you're going to feel the power ... It's just like Jews have been praying with this thing for hundreds of years, man." But why would that make me want to put that thing on when that's not biblical? But it's just, oh, let's just be ... It's just cool. It's like the cool thing. It's like kids at school, they'd like get on these trends where they're all going to dress this cool new way.
When I was kid, there was this trend. This is going to sound ridiculous but those are that my exact age will remember this. What about when people wore their clothes to school backwards? Remember Kris Kross? That lasted for what, a month? It was short-lived but man, for like a month, it was like all the cool kids, man, they put their ... Because there was some rap group of like these 12 year olds called Kris Kross and they'd wear their pants backyards [inaudible 00:33:45] and kids would come to school really baggy and it was all backyards and like Kris Kross, yeah, all the stuff.
That's like right now, this is like the Christian equivalent. "Yeah, we're going to put on the shawl. We're going to wear the Star of David around our neck and we're going to like celebrate Yom Kippur and we don't even know what that means and it's going to be great." It's just like they're getting on this bandwagon, it's nothing biblical and in fact, Paul rebukes it harshly and he literally says, when he talks about them observing the moons and different things like for example in Galatians 4. He says, "Ye observe days and months and times and years." He said, "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed labour on you in vain."
He's sitting there saying in Galatians. "I'm [hearing 00:34:32] about you getting circumcised? You're celebrating the New Moon?" He's like, "I'm afraid of you. I feel like I waste my time with you. Why are you going back into bondage? Why are you trying to keep the Mosaic law or customs that were done away in Christ? Do you even understand the Gospel?" This is not something that we need to have a part of and you see Christians wearing those little hats on the back of their head and you see them putting on their prayer shawl and then you see Christians and I thought this was interesting.
Somebody showed me a picture where these Christians are going and praying in Jerusalem at the Wailing Wall. They're praying and they got the hat on and this is it ... But here's the thing though. [inaudible 00:35:20] brought up an interesting point. The Bible said that when Jesus looked at the temple, he said, "Not one stone would be left upon another that would not torn down." Yet I've heard so many people say, "Oh, that Wailing Wall, that's part of the original temple from Jesus' day." No, it's not because guess what? Every single stone upon another was torn down in Jesus' day. I mean, surely after Jesus lived in the same century, 1st century AD.
That wall is just some wall that was near the temple or something. But it has nothing to do with the temple itself. But they think, "Oh, man, if I can just put my hand in prayer," and then they get all sad about that mosque being there. "Oh, man, we need to get the temple back." Look, let me tell you something. That temple was destroyed for a reason. Jesus pronounced its destruction. It wasn't just, "Oh, the Muslims came and built that."
No, Jesus said, "This temple is going to be destroyed because I said so." That was his will that that thing be destroyed and you know what? In the New Testament, we don't go to some temple. Our body is the temple. The house of God is the church of the living God today. We don't worship in a temple made with hands. The Old Testament temple was destroyed on purpose by God. He used the Romans and destroyed it to fulfill his judgment upon Christ rejecting Israel. That's what happened.
Anyway, the last thing that I want to cover tonight in these two-part sermon is this trying to bring New Testament believer under Old Testament dietary laws. This is a big one, right? The abstaining from pork, abstaining from shrimp, trying to basically bring us into conformity with the kosher diet in the New Testament. Well, if you were to look at Genesis chapter 9, the first thing that I want to show you in regard to this is that before Moses came on the scene, all meats were allowed to be eaten. Not just the ones that were on the clean list of the Mosaic law.
The Bible reads in verse 1, "God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.' And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hands are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you." Now, isn't that a pretty clear statement? "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. Even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat."
Some people will try to teach that it's always been wrong to eat pork. It's always been wrong to eat shrimp. It's always been wrong to eat rabbits. But it really hasn't because when Noah got off the earth, he was told to eat every moving thing that liveth. Does it move? Is it alive? Let's eat it. It wasn't until thousands of years later with the Mosaic law that certain foods were put off limits and there was a symbolic meaning there. It was a temporary thing.
Now, again, go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 4. The reason I show you that is because all of the things that were done away in Christ, the carnal ordinances, the meats, drinks, the washings, the ceremonies, circumcision or the Sabbath day, all the things that were done away in Christ, they're all things that are not intrinsically wrong. Like for example, isn't it just wrong to steal? I mean, it's just wrong to steal. I mean, isn't it just wrong to kill somebody? Isn't it just wrong to lie? Isn't just wrong to lie? Isn't just wrong to commit adultery? These are things that are just wrong. They've always been wrong and they always will be wrong, right? No question about that.
When the Bible talks about things like, in the Old Testament like homosexuality. I mean, that's just wrong. That's always been wrong. It's always been filthy. It's always been perverted. It's always been wicked. When the Bible talks about cross-dressing, men-dressing like women ... It's always been wrong, always been wicked. But here's the thing, eating pork isn't in that category. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with eating pork because if there were something wrong with eating pork, God wouldn't have told Noah to eat pork.
He's not going to tell him, "Noah, it's okay for you to lust after women that you're not married to," and then later on say, "Oh, in the New Testament, that's wrong now." It's like, that's always been wrong because in Proverbs, it commands us not to lust after women and then in Matthew, Jesus reiterated that when he said, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her." Those are issues of morality. Those are issues of right and wrong. Those are issues of just they're always wrong. They've always been wrong, they always will be wrong, right?
Not resting on a certain day is not in that category. Eating pork is not in that category. Not being circumcised is not in that category. You see how there are things that are more of a symbolic nature, a ceremonial nature and then there are things that are just wrong, sinful, bad things? Two different things. If the Old Testament tells us not to do something that's sinful and bad, we shouldn't do it in the New Testament either because what's right is always been right and what's wrong is always wrong. But when it comes to these other specific ceremonial things, these are the things that were only temporary because there's really nothing sinful about eating pork in the first place.
Now, it was a sin when God said, "Don't do it." I mean, if God said, "Don't drink milk," then that would make drinking milk a sin just because obviously, if God says don't do it, don't do it. But he only said it for that specific time. Now, look when we get into the New Testament. Keep in mind, for the vast majority of human history, eating pigs was fine because all the way up to Moses, thousands of years and thousands of years since Christ, it's been okay. It was only like a period of, I believe what, 1,600, 1,700 years or whatever. I don't have the numbers in front of me right now where you weren't allowed to eat it from the time of Moses to the time of Christ whatever time period that is, less than 2,000 years.
But anyway, if you would look at, where did I return, 1 Timothy? Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4. The Bible says in verse 1, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times," and are we living in the latter times? "Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained."
Now, he used some funny kind of plays on words here. He says, "First of all, they're commanded to abstain from meats." Meat is a word that's always referring to food in the Bible, isn't it, always? He's talking about food specifically saying in the latter times, it's going to be this evil, lying people who depart from the faith that they're going to command you to abstain from meats but let me tell you right now that, "Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by word of God and prayer."
He says, "If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things," he said, look, these stuff needs to be preached. This isn't just something where, "Oh, if people don't want to eat pork, then whatever." He says, "No, we need to put the brethren in remembrance of these things. If we're going to be a good minister of Jesus Christ." Then if I used the word, "nourished" which is an eating word. "Nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou has attained." In the next word, he said, "But refuse profane and old wives' fables." He said, "Don't refuse pork. Don't refuse shrimp. Refuse profane and old wives' fables." Being nourished up in the words of sound doctrine and all meats are good as long as you say the blessing for it and thank God for it.
If you pray and thank God for your good, it will be just fine. Now, that doesn't mean that your Twinkies and Ho Hos and McDonald's is going to be just fine if you just pray about it because guess what? McDonald's is not a creature of God. See, I've heard people look at this and you try to tell people on healthy eating. He tried to tell me, "you need to eat healthy. You need to stay away from all these garbage, it's chemical, processed." And they'll say, "Well, the Bible says every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving." They will say, "It's sanctified by word of God and prayer."
Who's saying "Amen" to that now? Anyway, but here is why. But here's the thing, it's true. Everything that God made is good. All the fruits and vegetables, I mean, if anybody told me that a certain fruit or vegetable, "Oh, don't eat that. That's bad for you." I'm not going to listen to that. God created it. God created the animals to be eaten. I mean, that's what they were made for. He said, "I've created them to be meat for you." He's saying, "Look, the fruits and vegetables that I made, the meat that I give you, it's all good for you," and he says, "Just pray and thank me for it and it's sanctified. It's clean at that point.
But here's the thing, God did not create partially hydrogenated soybean oil. God did not create genetically modified soy lecithin. God did not create sodium benzoate. God did not create the Happy Meal, I mean, this stuff is so processed and I think that a good rule of thumb for healthy eating is to eat your food as close to what God made it. The closer we are to what God made, the healthier the food we're eating and the more that we do to alter it or process it, we're getting away from what God created and we're getting into unsanctified possible territory as far as food that we're eating.
Now, look, I didn't say everything needs to be raw because God created these foods and he specifically teaches us to cook food. He specifically talks about boiling food. He talks about roasting food. That would be like the barbecue, right? He specifically tells us to cook meat and not to eat the meat raw but that we should cook the meat. I'm not saying we should eat it as close to what God made. Let's just eat raw meat. No, no, no, and there are people, believe me, that eat raw meat. Yes, there are. There are people who feast on just like a raw steak and they go, "This is healthy, raw food diet."
Now, if you buy the meat at this grocery store and do not, you'll die. No, I'm not kidding. If you eat raw meat from the grocery store, you will die. You'll get E. coli or is it E. coli? Yeah, E. coli, H157:H7 or whatever. You'll get these ... Yes, exactly, you'll get these E. coli. I remember one time, my wife, when we were first married, she was making like meatloaf or something and it's mainly raw ground beef and she just stuck her finger in and just pops some of that raw ground beef in her mouth just to taste it, taste the seasonings. I'm like, "What are you doing? You're going to die." Because she was from Germany where there's a different standard of the meat.
Because here's the thing, if you took a cow and raised it in a clean environment and it's grass-fed and it's butchered properly and everything, theoretically, the raw meat is not going to hurt you. But here's the thing, most meat today at the grocery store contains E. coli, just all of it. That's why they're really big on cooking temperatures and saying, "Look, you've got to heat this all the way." Now, with steak, it's not as important. The reason why is because a steak, if you think about steak, it's one piece of beef, right? Only the outside of it is exposed to germs. The inside is protected.
With a steak, all you have to do is cook the outside. If you cook the outside, you're killing all the germs because the inside has never been exposed to the air and the germs and the bacteria. With the steak, it's okay to have a steak that's pink in the middle, right? But with hamburgers? You got a hamburger that's pink in the middle, you're on thin ice. You're in a danger situation because of the low quality standards of the meat today that it's almost all of it is a little bit contaminated. As long as you cook it all the way through, you kill all the germs, you're good to go.
I don't know what that has to do with the sermon but this is a cooking lesson from Pastor Anderson. Leave your steaks a little bit pink in the middle but make sure that your cheeseburger is well-done all the way through if you don't want to die of E. coli. What am I saying? Can somebody help me figure out what I'm talking about? What passage are we in? Still in 1 Timothy 4 after all this time?
Every creature of God is good and what I was saying is that we want to eat our food as close to the way God made it as possible. The less it's been refined and processed, the better it's going to be for us nutrition-wise but we should cook our food. That's what I was saying. But if you would flip over to Acts chapter 10 and verse 9, Acts chapter 10, I'm just finishing up here. This is my last point. But you know, we ought to be careful what we eat though because there's so much bad food out there today and the love of money is the root of all evil and there are people out there who are just greedy people and they just care about making a profit.
They've got chickens living in their own dung and stacked on top of each other and filled with disease and they've got cows that are up to their knees in their own excrement and they're dirty and filthy. I mean, they have cows that are ... I think the law says that in order for them to slaughter the cow, it has to be able to walk like five feet or something. You know what I mean? Like they'll bring in the cow and the cows are like, "Oh, I made it." "It's healthy. We could eat this."
The Bible tells us, "Don't eat things that die by themselves." The Bible tells us, "Only eat animals that you've slaughtered. Don't do something that died on its own." But today, literally, I mean you've seen the videos of it. These exposing inside the meat industry and you see these cows that are just ... They're having to pick it up with the forklift because it can't even walk. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil just serving tainted meat and just trying to make maximum profit jamming everything in and just trying to produce the cheapest quality that they can to make money.
But you know what? That's what you're putting in your body and you can have all kinds of health problems and you know what? I'm all for saving money. I'm all for being frugal and living a frugal lifestyle but you know, one area that we do not seek to save money is food because every dime that you save on your food by buying cheap junk food, every dime you save, you're going to spend a dollar at the hospital someday. When you're filled with disease and when you got all kinds of cancer and diabetes and heart disease, you're going to wish that yo would have sprung for the cage-free or whatever. You know what I mean?
You want to wish that you sprung for the higher quality stuff and I don't believe that God expects us to eat chemicals and genetically modified processed garbage. I believe that God can provide my needs to feed me. I'm not saying I'm going to eat a steak dinner every night. I might have to eat rice and beans and be poor but those rice and beans are going to be organic and naturally raised. I told my wife, I said, "Honey, if we ever get poor, we're not going to buy this junkie food. We're just going to buy like rice and beans organic, good stuff and locally whatever."
But anyway, back to the dietary laws. I'm not trying to bring you into bondage now. I'm just giving you a little advice. Whatever you want, Manny, pray for that McDonald's, maybe God can work like a red-sea miracle and cause that actually to be nutritious for you. Hey, is anything too hard for the Lord? Anyway, you can make a chicken nugget nourish you. Anyway, the last thing I wanted to point out is in Acts chapter 10 verse 9. It says, "On the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he became very hungry, and would have eaten and while they made ready, he fell into a trance. And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth. Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things, and fowls of the air."
"And there came a voice to him, 'Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.' And Peter said, 'Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, 'What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.' This was done thrice and the vessel was received up again into heaven." Three times, God tells him, "You need to eat this beast." And he says, "Whoa! I've never eaten anything unclean." And he says, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common or unclean." Isn't that exactly what he said in 1 Timothy when he said that the meats, all types of creatures of God were sanctified by the word of God in prayer?
If God has made it cleaned, if God has made it sanctified, we should not call it unclean. All I have to say this, the purpose of this morning's sermon and tonight's sermon is so that you'll not be carried about with every wind of doctrine and this is the trendy thing. This is the popular doctrine now of Christians refusing to eat pork and Christians observing the Sabbath and wearing Jewish clothes and talking about Yeshua and [Yahweh 00:54:11]. These people did not get this teaching from the Bible. We need to make sure that we are reading the Bible and that we're getting everything we believed from the Bible and that we're giving precedence to the New Testament, that we are reading the New Testament, studying the New Testament and that it is our final authority.
If the New Testament becomes our final authority of all subjects whether it's Bible prophecy, whether it's dietary laws, whether it has to do with keeping the Sabbath or if the New Testament is our final authority, we wouldn't be getting mixed up in all these Jew worship and trendy, "I'm going to be like a Jew" type of Christianity, this Torah-observing Christianity. I think between this morning's sermon and tonight, we've shown scripturally that this stuff just doesn't hold water. Therefore, we don't need to be Messianic Jews. We need to be a Baptist.
By the way, these Messianic Jews need to join a Baptist Church because their movement is filled with false doctrine and I'm not trying to emulate it and I do not feel like just because somebody's a Jew, they just have this magical ability to understand things in the Old Testament that I don't understand because the same anointing abides on me. The same Holy Spirit will teach me all things. That's all I need. I don't care if I'm as Gentile as they come, if I've got the Holy Spirit living inside of me and the King James Bible in my hand, I don't need to hear what any rabbi has to say to understand the Bible.
"Oh, you need to understand the Jewish wedding custom." No, I don't. I've no interest in that. "Oh, the Bar Mitzvah," no, not interested. That is not Christianity and I'm not interested in it. Judaism is a false Pharisaical religion that denies the Lord Jesus. I don't want anything about my life to resemble it. I want to be a Bible-believing, New-Testament Christian. Again, nothing against Jews as long as they believe in Christ and as long as they reject the teachings of the dietary laws and the circumcision and all the stuff. If they come in here teaching circumcision, that's false doctrine. Paul warned us about it. He said, "I don't give subjection to this people who come in talking about getting circumcised. Not even for one hour, I'm going to put up with it." He said, "I'm afraid of it. It's false doctrine."
Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. "Father, we thank you so much for the New Testament, Dear God, and we thank you for the Bible. It's a lot easier for us to understand these things even than it was for Paul because Paul didn't even have the complete New Testament Scripture. We have the whole New Testament. It's so easy to read it and see the complete picture. Help us not to be sucked into these trendy fads and these Hebrew-roots movement or sacred-name movement or whatever it calls itself. Help us to stay away from this stuff and just stick with the New Testament. Stick with the Bible, stick with Christianity and not get to following Judaism, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen."
