Amen.
Thank you all for coming back this evening and joining us for service.
I want to thank Pastor Shelley for allowing me to preach here today.
So we're in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and the verses that I want to focus on here are verses one
through three where it says, Now the Spirit speaking expressly that 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 the hot iron, forbidding to merit
and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth.
Now in verse three it says these people are teaching lies, their doctrines of devils and
their conscience seared with the hot iron.
One of the things that they're teaching is that we should abstain from meats.
And tonight's message is the abstaining from meats heresy.
The abstaining from meats heresy.
And I'll go through some religions that actually teach that people should abstain from meats,
that they should be vegetarians, they shouldn't eat certain things, and the Bible doesn't
teach that.
Now I'm just going to go through a few of these things.
I just looked up Wikipedia, that's just where I get my information.
It says, In addition, Christians of the Seventh-day Adventist tradition generally avoid eating
meat and highly spiced food.
If you don't have Seventh-day Adventist, you know, they'll stay away from shellfish and
other types of meat and spiced food.
It says Christians in the angelic, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, and Orthodox denominations
traditionally observed a meat-free day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.
I can't even say that.
But basically, it's the fasting Friday.
I grew up Catholic, and on Fridays we're not supposed to eat meat.
Now they allowed you to eat fish, but they said you couldn't eat meat.
So up in Wisconsin, in Green Bay, there are a lot of fish fries on Friday.
A lot of fish places.
My father, his brother-in-law, they owned a fish joint, and on Fridays it was booming,
man.
Business was great on Friday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and it probably still is, because
the Catholics teach that on Fridays you can't eat meat.
You can't eat steak or chicken, but you can eat fish.
And that's really for, you know, the Lent and the Ash Wednesday, but they ended up applying
it to every single Friday you weren't allowed to eat meat.
So there were a lot of times growing up where I would eat a hamburger on Friday, and I'd
feel really guilty that I was doing that.
I really did, because that's what they taught, that you couldn't eat meat on Fridays.
You can only eat fish.
Fish sandwiches were really popular in Wisconsin.
It says here in Roman Catholicism, specific regulations are passed by individual episcopates.
In the United States in 1966, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops passed Norm
Second and Fifth that bound all persons from age 14 to abstain from meat on Fridays of
Lent through the year.
In September of 1983, canonists 1252 and 1253 expressed this same rule and added that
bishops may permit substitution for either penitential practices, but that some form
of penitence shall be observed on Friday in commemoration of the day of the week of the
Lord's crucifixion.
The reason why they don't eat meat on Friday is to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ.
All right?
Now, there are other religions that teach that you shouldn't eat meat.
You should be vegetarians.
I'll go through some of them.
Hinduism teaches that you should abstain from meat.
It says, vegetarianism is an integral part of most schools of Hinduism, although there
are a wide variety of practices and beliefs that have changed over time.
An estimated 30% of all Hindus are vegetarians.
Some aspects of Hindus do not observe vegetarianism.
Jainism, which is another form of an Indian religion, is based on the principle of nonviolence
is what it is, but they teach vegetarianism is considered mandatory for everyone.
This religion teaches you have to abstain from any kind of meat for the rest of your
life, none whatsoever.
In modern Buddhist world, attitudes toward vegetarianism vary by location, such as in
China and Vietnam, monks typically eat no meat, with other restrictions as well.
In Japan and Korea, some schools do not eat meat, while most do.
You see, this is common around the world in religions that teach, hey, you should be a
vegetarian.
You're more holy if you do that.
Jewish vegetarians often cite Jewish principles regarding animal welfare, environmental ethics,
moral character, and health as reason for adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet.
Some Jewish point to legal principles, including Baal-Tashkit, the law which prohibits waste,
and to Tsar Beli Hayyim, the injunction not to cause pain to living creatures, poor animals
is what they're saying.
We should be nice to the animals, that's why we shouldn't eat.
And also it says the Bible Christian Church, this church called the Bible Christian Church,
a Christian vegetarian sect founded by Reverend William Cowhert in 1809 for one of the philosophical
forerunners for the vegetarian society.
Cowhert encouraged members to abstain from eating meat as a form of temperance.
But this isn't anything new, this has been around and people have been teaching that
the Bible says that you shouldn't eat meat.
That there are people that call themselves Christians saying, hey, be a vegetarian, it's
better for you.
Hey, be a vegetarian, that's what Jesus was like, hey, be a vegetarian so you can be more
holy.
But the Bible doesn't teach that at all.
That's heresy to tell people that they should be a vegetarian.
Some Christians, vegetarians such as Keith Akers, urge that Jesus himself was a vegetarian.
That's false and that's not true.
Islam explicitly prohibits eating of some kinds of meat, especially pork.
If you've ever been in the military and been overseas, you know that.
They will not eat pork whatsoever.
I used to bring breakfast to them and they'd always say, what is that, I'm not eating it.
If you had meat and you try to tell them, look, it's beef, it's not pork, they still
wouldn't touch it.
Now the nation of Islam is not the same as Islam.
Now Islam is an African-American political and religious movement founded in Detroit,
Michigan by Mr. Wallace D. Fard Muhammad on July 4, 1930, so don't get it mixed up with
Islam.
It's the nation of Islam.
Basically this religion would just go into penitentiaries and try to reform black Americans
that are in prison and they really got a hold of them back then.
Who was he?
Malcolm X turned into a nation of Islam.
Very wicked religion.
They teach that white people are devils.
It sounds like the black Hebrew Israelites to me, just know the form of it.
It's wicked.
They taught people to abstain from meats.
You can tell a lot of these religions are wicked.
These people are wicked.
They believe in wicked stuff.
You know, to teach people to abstain from meats is heresy and it's a doctrine of the
devils.
That's what it is.
We're almost to Genesis chapter 1, so we're going to go through it.
We'll just start with the first people that actually abstain from meat, actually abstain
from meat and there's a reason for it.
Genesis chapter 1, Genesis chapter 1, look at verse 29, God said, behold, I have given
you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree and
which is the fruit of tree yielding seed.
To you it shall be for meat.
So God gave a clear commandment here in Genesis chapter 1 that every tree which is the fruit
of the tree yielding seed shall be for meat.
Any herbs, any trees, you can eat that and it's for meat.
It's in the place of meat.
That's what it is.
You can have that for food.
Now Genesis chapter 2, go to chapter 2, look down at verse 8 in chapter 2, this is after
he physically formed Adam in chapter 2 in verse 8, it says, and the Lord God planted
a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the
ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for
food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good
and evil.
Look down at verse 15, and the Lord took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat.
The only thing that Adam was told he could eat were the trees in the garden.
He didn't say you can eat the animals, he said you can eat the tree, you can eat the
herbs, you can eat those things in the garden, that'll be meat for you.
And you think well why would God say that, well in the garden nothing died.
Eden was allowed to die, anything that had blood in the body would not die.
Man and animals lived forever, that's the way it was in the garden.
And so the tree and the herbs and the things of the ground for him to keep it, that was
for food for him, that was for Adam and Eve to eat.
But go to Genesis chapter 9, we see here we get another commandment from God, this is
after the flood.
And I believe the Bible teaches up until this time this clear commandment that you can eat
herbs but you're not going to eat the meat, you didn't have to tell him don't eat the
meat because nothing died, why would he tell him that?
But now in Genesis 9 we're going to give a clear commandment, this is after Noah gets
off the boat, this is after the flood.
It says in verse 2, 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 hand are they delivered, every moving thing that
liveth shall be for meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things.
He's saying even as the herb that I've given you, you can eat the meat.
This is the next clear commandment that we have in the Bible about eating food and God
adds in the meat.
This is what he said, you add in the meat.
So what do the animals and Noah eat while on the boat?
They eat herbs, that's what they ate.
That's what he had.
And when he got off the boat, we have a clear commandment that now you can eat the animals,
now you can eat that.
Okay, go in your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 11, Leviticus chapter 11.
But these people, they'll cite things like, oh, what about the poor animals?
What about them?
They're being slaughtered.
They're not being taken care of.
What about them, poor animals?
We see here that it says, and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every
beast of the earth, and upon every fowl, upon all that moveth upon the earth, upon all the
fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered.
God wanted them to eat them.
They're all delivered into your hand.
God's not saying, oh, the poor animal, don't eat them, don't kill them.
God didn't say that.
In fact, Psalm 8 verse 4 says, what is man that thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man that thou visitest him, for thou hast made him a little lower than
the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the
field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the
pass of the sea.
See, God has put all things on earth under man.
I'm not an animal.
I'm better than an animal, and don't tell me that I'm not.
God said that I'm better than an animal, okay?
I have a soul.
I have a spirit.
I am a person.
I can eat animals.
They're not the same thing, and people, they want to exalt these animals, or lower man,
so that, oh, poor animals, we shouldn't eat them.
They have feelings.
We need to watch out for them.
Well, that's not true.
God said that we can eat them.
God said it's okay.
When people are going to cite this, oh, what about the, this baby sea lions and the pandas?
I understand they're cute, and I've never had one, and I might feel guilty eating it,
but God said that I could.
You know, cats and dogs.
I wouldn't eat a cat or a dog, but technically I could, but I wouldn't do it.
I just don't trust it.
I've seen where dogs eat, and it's disgusting.
I'm not eating that, especially cats, the way they hack up, and then they eat what they
hack up, but during Leviticus chapter 11, we do have some dietary laws that came into
effect what God had given to Moses, and look at Leviticus 11, 46, it says, this is the
law of the beast and of the fowl and of every living creature that moveth in the waters
and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth.
So God had already made commandments of what animals they are not allowed to eat and which
they could eat, okay?
He said to make a difference between the unclean and the clean and between the beast that may
be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.
See, God said, hey, you should be clean from unclean.
I want to be separated here.
I want you just away from unclean stuff so you can be clean.
Clean over here and unclean over there, but there's actually a purpose to why God said
that, and it's a spiritual application.
It had nothing to do with what animal was better than the other because God made all
things good.
He said when he was done, it was all good.
Everything was good.
Everything was great when God made it.
Nothing was, well, I don't know about cats and dogs, but maybe.
But go in your Bibles to Acts chapter 10, we'll get the spiritual application of here,
what God was doing in Leviticus chapter 11.
This is Peter, and Peter's going to go talk to a guy named Cornelius, who God is sending
Peter to speak to him and to get him saved in his house and the men there.
Before he goes there, Peter's going to have a vision.
He's going to be in a trance.
He's going to have a dream.
It's said in verse 9 of Acts chapter 10, it says, on the morrow as they went on their
journey and drew nigh into the city, Peter went up into the housetop to pray about the
sixth hour.
And he came very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a
trance and saw heaven open 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 where men were all a matter of
four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of
the air.
It sounds like Leviticus 11, you know.
That's what it sounds like.
You're seeing all these different animals, all these creeping things and beasts, right?
He's hungry.
Maybe he's just imagining food, probably not, but, you know, he's very, very hungry.
And there came a voice to him saying, rise, Peter, kill and eat.
They see the physical application, it's like, look, I know you're hungry, can you just kill
and eat?
What are you doing, you know?
Just kill and eat.
Hey, Peter, God said, Peter, kill and eat.
Don't tell me that I'm a bad person because I want to eat a chicken, because I want to
eat a cow, because I want to eat a baby panda, because I want to eat a baby seal.
Maybe one of those, whatever, there's a lot of animals, they tell you, they couldn't eat.
Maybe they're endangered, maybe they're not.
I don't know.
But he said just rise, kill and eat.
So we're not a bad person if we go out there and kill food and eat it, but they want to
make people feel guilty.
They want to make people feel bad that they're eating meat, that they're eating beef and
chicken and things.
Like, I understand that maybe in the food industry today we do have a lot of bad practices
concerning food.
I think we can all agree on that, there's a lot of bad practices with our food.
And I honestly agree that we do get some bad food out there.
Yeah, we do.
You know, the food industry, you know, they're trying to maximize their profits and they're
going to cut corners to do that.
Are you not surprised that they have a love for money?
Are you not surprised that they're willing to go through what they do to make more money?
You think they care about our bodies to serve us bad food in order to get rich?
Does that surprise you?
Because it doesn't surprise me, but I'll still eat it.
I'm thankful for what I got.
It may be bad, but I'm still going to eat it.
It's still food.
But Peter said, not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
He's saying, look, you said in Leviticus 11 not to eat those things and I didn't eat
it.
I didn't touch it, God.
I didn't touch the common or unclean thing.
And the voice spake in him again saying second time, what God hath cleansed, call not thou
common.
Call not thou common.
But Peter, he got the spiritual application of this, of what God was talking about.
Yeah, all things are made good by the blood of Jesus Christ, even the food.
But look down at verse 28.
This is the application that we get that Peter understood.
He's a saved man.
He's getting the message that God has given to him and he said unto them, he goes to Cornelius
and he's telling Cornelius what happened and he said unto him, ye know that how that is
unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation.
But God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
So the context of what's going on here is that we're talking about people.
So Leviticus 11, when God was telling people to abstain from certain meats, it was just
a picture of the spiritual application that we should abstain from unbelievers.
We're not unequally yoked with unbelievers.
I want clean over here and I want unclean over here.
That's what he had.
That was the purpose of it.
And by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that has been done away with.
Go in the Bibles to Hebrews chapter nine, Hebrews chapter nine.
The seventh-day Adventist type people where they want to say, hey, you can't eat that
Levitical law.
Well, the Bible speaks differently about that.
Now, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we're entered into a New Testament and those
things are done away with because they were a foreshadow, they were a picture of things.
We can see that it was a picture of things.
The Levitical law abstaining from certain meats was a picture of people.
That's what it was.
God is, his mind is far beyond our own.
His ways are higher than our ways and thoughts than our thoughts.
Look at Hebrews chapter nine.
Look at verse one.
It's going to explain this about the New Testament, how those things are done away with and said
then we're just going to read a few, several verses here just to get things in context.
Let's start in verse one.
It says, then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly
sanctuary where there was a tabernacle maid, the first wherein was the candlestick and
the table and the shewbread which is called the sanctuary and after the second veil the
tabernacle which is called the holiest of all which had the golden censer and the ark
of the covenant overlaid round about with gold wherein was the golden pot that had manna
and Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of the covenant and over at the cherubims
of glory shattering the mercy seat of which we cannot speak particularly.
Now when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle
accomplishing the service of God but into the second went the high priest alone once
every year not without blood which he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people
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 which was a figure for the time then present
and which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the surface
perfect as pertaining to the conscience which stood only in meats and drinks and divers
washings and carnal ordinances and posed on them until the time of reformation.
Reformation reform is change.
It's something that's being changed.
What do we change from from the Old Testament into the New Testament?
What would change of these worldly sanctuary things that we have, right?
The meats and the drinks and the offerings.
Why?
Because the reformation was the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When he resurrected, we entered into the New Testament.
These cardinal ordinances were done away with because they were just a picture of Jesus
Christ.
The Passover was a picture of Jesus Christ.
The Unleavened Bread was a picture of Jesus Christ.
It was just a foreshadow of what was to come.
The Levitical law was a foreshadow of what was to come for the meats and the drinks.
And when he rose from the dead, those things were done away with.
But some people just want to hang on to that stuff.
Some people just don't get it.
The natural man receiveth not the things of God.
They just don't get it.
They want to hold on to that Levitical law that's already been done away with concerning
the meats and the drinks.
Go in your Bibles to John chapter 21.
I read for you verse 16 in Hebrews 9.
This is for where a testament is, there must also be a necessity be the death of the testator.
There must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
For a testament is a force after men are dead, otherwise it is no strength at all while the
testator liveth, whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
The Old Testament, they put the blood on the doorpost.
And in the New Testament, Jesus Christ's blood was shed.
You can't have it.
The Old Testament had the blood and the New Testament had the blood, but we had the blood
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And people will say, well, Jesus was a vegetarian.
Jesus abstained from meats.
Well, that's not true.
In fact, here in John chapter 21, this is when Jesus shows himself to Peter.
He calls Peter out of the boat after he just blessed him with a bunch of fish.
Verse 12 says, Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine, and none of the disciples durst
ask him, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord?
Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
So Jesus dined with them, and they ate fish.
They ate food.
Jesus was not a vegetarian.
He ate regular food like everybody else.
We'll go in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 14.
Matthew chapter 14.
Look, during Jesus, when he was alive, he kept the Levitical law, okay?
He kept all the commandments.
He didn't do away with any of them, okay?
And he ate meat.
We're going to look at this in Matthew chapter 14.
This is when they're going to go prepare the upper room for the Last Supper.
In verse 12 it says, And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover,
his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat
the Passover?
So his disciples are expecting, hey, the Passover's coming up, where are we going to eat it?
Where are we going to be for the Passover?
Now what's the Passover?
Go in your Bibles for me to Exodus chapter 12.
Let's see what the Passover is.
Let's see what the disciples were expecting them to eat when Jesus was alive.
They want to call Jesus a vegetarian.
Well, did Jesus keep the Passover?
Yeah, Jesus kept the Passover because that law was still instituted at the time of Jesus
because he hadn't risen from the dead yet.
They're like, hey, Passover's coming up.
We need to eat it.
Where are we going to go?
Well, what did they eat on the Passover?
Let's see.
Let's look at Exodus chapter 12.
Look down at verse 3.
It says, Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this
month they shall take it to them, every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers,
a lamb for a house.
And they shall keep it, the verse 6, look down at verse 6, and they shall keep it until
the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of
Israel shall kill it in the evening.
You see, part of the Passover was they were to take a lamb and they were to kill it.
And what are they going to do with it?
Look at verse 7.
They shall take the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the uppermost posts
of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
Look, this is part of the Passover in Exodus chapter 12, that they would take a lamb and
they would eat it.
So what do you think Jesus and the disciples did for the Passover?
Do you think they ate lamb?
I think they did, because that's the Passover.
Not only was the Passover the unleavened bread, but it was also the lamb.
They were both on the fourteenth day where they would take the unleavened bread and they
would eat the lamb.
So Jesus didn't keep the Passover, well I guess he broke the law then.
You're going to call Jesus Christ a sinner, you're going to say that he didn't keep the
law, he said he just like, ah, that's not for me, I'm special, I don't have to keep
it.
No, he kept every single commandment, even the Passover that he kept.
He was an example for all of us to do everything, and it says that it was the Passover.
Go in your Bibles 2, actually, yeah, look it down in Exodus 12 verse 11, it says, And
thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in
your hand, and you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover.
Eating the lamb was the Passover.
So when the disciples were like, hey, the Passover's coming, where are we going to eat?
You know, they were expecting like there was going to be a lamb there, and if there wasn't
a lamb there, they'd be like, this is not the Passover.
Passover was the lamb.
Go in your Bibles through 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
First Corinthians chapter 14.
So they'll try to trick people in abstaining from meat by saying that Jesus was a vegetarian.
You've got to be holy like Jesus, and they'll guilt people and make them feel bad that they're
not spiritual people because they're abstaining from meat.
They'll say, oh, you're not very holy.
You have to abstain from meat.
You've got to abstain from that stuff.
You've got to be like Jesus, and that's just false doctrine.
That's not true.
The Bible doesn't teach that.
Here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, it says, Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
So I want you to get the context there.
We're talking about idolatry here in 1 Corinthians 14, and it says, my dearly beloved, flee from
idolatry.
Verse 19, it says, What say I then?
Look down at verse 19.
What say I then that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols
is anything?
Are these idols anything?
No, they're nothing.
Idols are nothing is what it's saying, but I say that the things with the Gentile sacrifice,
they sacrifice unto devils and not to God, and I would not that you have fellowship with
devils.
See, we shouldn't have fellowship with people, with evil people that want to sacrifice unto
false gods.
Be not unequally yoked with believers.
The Bible repeats this over and over again, but look down at verse 27.
People will be like, well, you can't eat stuff sacrificed unto idols.
That's not necessarily true, and I'll give you a reason why it's not true, and it says
here, If any man that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go whatsoever
is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience' sake.
Don't ask for conscience' sake what is put before you.
Hey, if you want to eat it, eat the food for no conscience' sake, because it's good.
It's all great as long as we receive a prayer and thanksgiving, okay?
But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake
that showed it, and for conscience' sake, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof.
Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other.
For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?
For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of, for that which I give thanks,
whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, due to all the glory of God?
Look, it's not for my conscience' sake if I don't want to eat that, it's for somebody
else's.
It's because I don't want to be a stumbling block to somebody else.
Look, if somebody else is offended by eating things sacrificed unto idols, then I'm not
going to force them to do it.
I'm not going to push them to do that and be like, Why man, who cares, man?
What's the difference?
Eat it anyways.
Because we shouldn't be stumbling blocks to other brothers and sisters in Christ.
Look, if somebody wants to not eat something, then don't let them eat it.
Now obviously they start giving you Bible verses on why to eat it.
I would say, Hey, that's not right, that's heresy.
But look, if you just don't want to eat something, because you're feeling comfortable, that's
fine.
Don't eat it.
You know, if someone wants to, you know, obviously other people have different tastes, right?
If they want to not eat certain foods, that's fine.
They don't have to eat certain foods.
Some people just physically can't eat certain foods.
There are literally people, there's a person in this church that would probably die if
they ate regular food.
They can't even eat regular food like you would eat.
Their body would die.
There's people maybe also in this room that can't eat certain foods, that just can't handle
it.
Or maybe you don't have an appetite for it.
Now I'm not going to force someone to eat that they don't want to eat.
You shouldn't be a stumbling block to other people.
Now Romans chapter 14, go on to Romans 14, expressly talks about doing this, about just
judging people for what they eat.
Now I may not eat self-sacrifice on the idols, okay?
I may not personally do that, but if you do that, whatever, you know what I mean?
It says here, I'll continue reading, in 1 Corinthians 14, it says, whether therefore
you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, to all the glory of God, give none offense neither
to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God, even as I pleased all men in
all things, not sinking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
So why would Paul say, hey, I wouldn't do it?
It's because it was offense to somebody else.
If it caused somebody else to turn away from Christ, it caused somebody else to blaspheme
Christ, I won't do it.
If I want to get somebody saved, and if I don't have to eat this food, then fine.
Paul said I became unto all men all things, so that they may all be saved.
I'm just trying to save people, and if I just want to just be a good person to people, I'm
not going to be a jerk.
I'm not going to talk bad.
If I, you know, I work cable, and I went into a lot of Hindu's houses, I eat their food.
I didn't ask, well, who's just sacrificed on idols?
I didn't care.
Look, I took it, and I was thankful for it.
Thank you, God, for this wonderful food that you blessed this earth with.
I'm just thankful to have it, and I thank the person for giving me the food.
Was it sacrificed on idols?
I don't know, and I don't care to ask.
In Romans chapter 14, verse 1, it says, him that is weak in faith receive ye, but not
to doubtful disputation.
What does it mean, doubtful disputation, not fighting and arguing, not causing disruptions
and fighting about food and about why you can't eat and can't eat this and do this,
and this one's better for you, and I guess you're just not spiritual because you happen
to go to Whataburger and get a number two, okay?
If you want to go to Whataburger and get a number two, that's on you.
I don't really care what you eat, but don't try to force that upon me if I don't want
to do that, or that'll be a stumbling block unto me.
We shouldn't cause an offense unto other Christians over food because I feel like eating McDonald's,
which personally I don't like, unless it's a $1 sausage biscuit, I might do it.
I like Taco Bell, I'd admit it.
I worked at Taco Bell in high school, I got an appetite for it.
I worked at Pizza Hut in high school, I got an appetite for that, you know, and I live
in Texas now, so I got an appetite for Whataburger, okay?
So if you want to eat it, then eat it, but don't, but receive that person, but not to
doubtful disputations, okay?
We don't want to argue people about food and to get onto them and be this, this, this,
what do you call them, organic Nazi, like, if you like organic food, go for it.
I have nothing against you.
I don't care what you eat.
What you do at your house is your business, it has nothing to do with me.
What you eat has nothing to do with me, but until you start applying it to the Bible and
start teaching people to abstain from meats in the Bible, then it's heresy, just like
the flat earth.
And you want to believe in something stupid, that's fine, but if you apply it to the Bible,
that's heresy.
You have a verse to back it up.
Go in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter, chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6.
Look, I mention that because there are people who have been stumbled up.
There are people that have, that have had people just rag on them and get on them about
certain foods, okay, that made them feel really bad for eating certain things.
Look, I understand some people, they want to be healthy and they want to be organic.
That's great, but you shouldn't look down at someone and be like, oh, roll your eyes
at people, make them feel small and just insignificant and they're not spiritual.
That's not right.
You shouldn't do that.
Romans 14 one through two says you shouldn't do that.
He says, let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth
not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him.
He's a brother in Christ.
What are you worried about?
Look down Ephesians chapter 6.
Look, understand this, Ephesians 6 12, it says, for we wrestle not against flesh and
blood.
Are we wrestling with our flesh and blood here?
Are we worrying about the stinking food we're putting in our body?
Is that what you're worried about all the time?
Is that what you're worried about other people eating?
I'm not.
Other religions are.
Don't worry about the flesh and the blood.
Don't worry about what food they eat.
Don't worry about taking food from people and telling them to eat this.
Look, in the world of religion, they're going to push stuff like this because it says it
is a doctrine of the devil, and it'll come from people whose conscience is seared with
a hot iron.
You want to know something that's bad about a person, a preacher, if they tell you to
stay away from certain foods because that's what the Bible says.
That's a doctrine of the devil.
Should not follow that.
You should know good men from bad men.
Look, bad, I always believe that godly pastors will always point you in the direction of
Christ, will always push you in that direction, but evil, wicked, reprobate pastors will always
take you away from doing the things of God, will try to afflict you and make your life
hard on what you're trying to do and serve Christ.
Say, well, where's the good man of God around here?
Well, find one that points you in the direction of Christ, and that's the one.
Don't find one that wants to point you in another direction because that's not a man
of God.
And I believe that you're in the right place here.
And I say that because, you know, things are on my mind about people talking bad about
the pastor, and I'll back up the man that he is, and I may not always agree on everything,
but he's a good person, and I'll back that up every single time.
So we don't wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places, spiritual wickedness.
You want to fight the right battles?
You fight spiritual battles, the battles over people's soul, the battles over good and
right doctrine, those kind of battles, not battles over food.
They want to fight battles over food.
They want to flick your body and take away good, nourishing food that you should have.
They want to do that to you.
They want to teach you bad doctrine and heresy and doctrine of the devils, but God's saying,
don't you worry about the food.
That's fine.
Eat the food.
That should be the last thing that you're worrying about is what dang food you're going
to eat when you go to bed at night.
Just worry about spiritual things.
Worry about your spirit of your family.
Worry about your spirit and the spirit of your friends instead of the food and where
you're going to eat and what they're eating.
How about your brother's spirit?
Do you ever think about worrying about that?
How's my brother feeling right now?
Are you okay, man?
Is there anything I can do for you instead of looking down on him about the food that
he's stuffing in his mouth?
Is that what we're worried about because Joe Schmoe likes to get Taco Bell every Thursday
night?
Or are you worried about how he's doing?
You know what I mean?
How he's doing in his spirit.
Can I help you out with anything?
Let's forget about the food and let's just focus on the spiritual things in life.
That's really what we're going to point out here tonight is the heresy of the abstaining
from meats.
It's not godly doctrine.
It's bad devil doctrine.
We should worry about more important things in food and we should stick to good doctrine.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your wonderful word, Lord.
Thank you, Lord, for all that you've done for us, Lord.
Thank you for the good doctrine.
I pray, Lord, that you lead us in the right direction.
You help guide us, Lord, as we move on in our life.
I pray, Lord, that you just help open our mind to the right things, Lord, and keep the
bad stuff out.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.