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men Deuteronomy chapter number 14 we've gotten into the part of Deuteronomy where we're getting into some of the specific commandments of the Mosaic law we're past the part where it was a lot of just generalization pleading with people to worship the Lord and not to follow other gods now we're getting into specific rules last week if you remember chapter 13 it was all about false prophets and people that would try to get them to worship other gods how they should be executed etc but in chapter 14 verse 1 it starts out ye are the children of the Lord your God you shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth now in the New Testament we are actually called the chosen people and the peculiar people what's funny is that a lot of independent fundamental Baptists don't believe that we're the chosen people in the New Testament they still somehow think that Christ rejecting Israel is chosen or that unsaved Jews are chosen and that's who they'll use that terminology about the chosen people but what's funny is that every independent Baptist Church I've ever gone to always preached that we're a peculiar people hey we're supposed to be a peculiar people but the thing about that is if you look at that passage in 1st Peter chapter 2 that says that we're a peculiar people it's referring back to statements like this in Exodus and Deuteronomy how the children of Israel are a chosen nation they're a holy nation they're a peculiar treasure unto the Lord and then here we see it right here God has chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself these things go hand in hand that's what peculiar means and so we get into 1st Peter chapter 2 he says look in time past you were not a people but now you are the people of God in time past you had not obtained mercy but now you have obtained mercy and he's talking about the Gentiles you know the Gentiles did not used to be the chosen people of God under the old covenant it was the physical nation of Israel whereas in the New Covenant every saved person red yellow black and white is part of the chosen people and so we are a peculiar people unto the Lord our God so in the Old Testament God is telling them you are above look at that at the end of verse 2 you are above all the nations that are upon the earth not by their own goodness we saw a few chapters ago he said look it's not because you're righteous but by virtue of being God's chosen peculiar people that puts you above the rest of the people on this earth and so therefore you should have some self-respect since you are God's people and we as children of God in the New Testament we as ambassadors for Christ we should have some self-respect and what does that mean don't mutilate your body don't mutilate it don't deface it what know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and so don't defile the temple of God don't cut yourselves now this is something that the heathen do sometimes this could be for aesthetic purposes tattooing or just carving different shapes or designs there are all types of mutilations that people do around this world there are those tribes where they put all those rings on their neck and they try to make their neck really long or they'll put the disc in their lip or they'll do the giant gauged ears lots of strange piercings and cuttings and all types of mutilations right now specifically he says don't cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the day now what is that baldness between your eyes for the day I don't know if that's like a shaving off of part of the eyebrows or something but I think just as a general rule of thumb you could boil down a lot of this Old Testament teaching on appearances don't look weird don't do weird stuff to your body don't do stuff that makes you look don't get a weird haircut you know because you read these verses like don't round the corners of your head don't mar the corners of your beard marring means like take a chunk out of don't take chunks out of your beard don't shave between your eyes and you know what's he saying he's just saying don't make yourself look strange you know there have been all kinds of strange practices and haircuts throughout time it's nothing new under the Sun you know there are all these weird haircuts that where people just like shave a one-spot bald and just have like a ring of hair and I'm not talking about people who you know that happened to them naturally if you got the cul-de-sac going on and nature did that to you you're in compliance you know you're fine I'm talking about people who literally did that on purpose and they make this weird ring like those weird like that weird monk haircut where they do that weird ring of hair or like shave it all and there's just like this one ponytail coming out and I mean there are other haircuts I'm probably not as good at describing verbally but there are some weird haircuts out there like throughout history and throughout the tribes of this world and God wants us to look the way that he made us to look right we're made in the image of God so God has made us all beautiful in our own way God has created us in his image and so men are to look like men women are to look like women and we should not try to make ourselves look like an animal or an insect you know I mean I I'm serious right now because I've seen some women their face looks like an insect face because they do this weird thing like this weird eye makeup to make it look like a huge eyes you know and it's like I'm just I'm thinking it looks like an insect or a reptile right you know God just wants us to look like the normal humans that he made us to be just don't do anything weird right now you say well pastor answer we're not under the law but we're under grace okay but here's the thing it's not about just legalistically following a rule it's more about the principle here that obviously this is heathen stuff don't do it your body it doesn't belong to you so don't deface it so and then when it comes to cutting yourself you know cutting yourself as a subject that occurs throughout the Bible because the prophets of Baal cut themselves right and the Bible says that that was their manner that was their custom that was something that they did regularly the prophets of Satan because bail is demonic bail is either Satan himself or some minion of Satan and the prophets of bail are cutting themselves in worship to their false god and then of course in the New Testament we see people cutting themselves when they're demon-possessed and today the emos of this world and the Goths and young people who are upset about this that and the other will cut themselves or maybe they'll they either cut themselves because they're demon-possessed and they're demonic themselves or they're just trying to copy someone who's demonic some star or some musician or actor whatever their hero is or just some kid at school that's doing it and you know kids will do this as like a cry for help or just to try to get attention or whatever but look here's a tip don't do stuff that's satanic to try to get attention find a way to get attention that's less satanic then cutting yourself okay and look if you just you know people just say oh well you know these have to like cut themselves they can feel pain and feel alive or something well let me introduce you to the sport of ultra running you know if you just want to go out and hurt I got sport for you you know you can just go out and go through all the pain that you can handle out running for miles and miles you know there are other ways to hurt yourself that are more healthy and more biblical okay if you just if you like pain but cutting yourself is not the answer so don't make any baldness between your eyes for the dead don't cut your and a lot of people will try to be like well you can cut yourself as long as you're not cutting yourself for the dead you could get you know it's like come on the baldness between the eyes is for the dead and then elsewhere it'll talk about cuttings in your flesh for the dead printing any marks on your body well you know just as long as you're not doing it for the dead no my friend just don't do this stuff don't round the corners of your head don't mar the corners of your beard don't make baldness between your eyes don't make any cuttings in your flesh don't print any marks on your body just don't do it why because you're a holy people and the Lord your God and the Lord has chosen you to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth we're supposed to be different we're not supposed to just try to go through life trying to fit in and be just like everyone else we want to be different we want to be a cut above we want to represent Christ in the best way possible we want people to be able to look at us and see a difference in our lives well let our light shine so that men could see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven and how are they gonna see that if we're just trying to copy this world and be just like everybody else in this world so that forms its own complete thought in verses 1 & 2 then we change gears in verse 3 and it says thou shalt not eat any abominable thing don't eat any abominable thing these are the beasts which he shall eat the ox the sheep the goat and we get into these dietary laws about what is allowed to be eaten under the Old Covenant and what is to be had in abomination what is to be shined what is abomination mean in this context shined avoided don't touch it don't go near it stay away from it okay and we have a list of what they're allowed to eat and what they're not allowed to eat these are the beasts which you shall eat you know ox right which is basically a cow so you can eat beef sheep which would be mutton goat which is goat meat I guess I don't I'm not interested a heart and a roebuck we would think of those as deer type animals right you know those are in that deer family obviously animals today aren't exactly the way that they were back then or classified the same way different part of the world and so forth but you know heart a roebuck a fallow deer that's probably just three different kinds of deer wild goat as opposed to the domesticated goat the pie garg I've no idea what that is the wild ox this is some kind of a wild cattle that's out there the chamois that sounds like something that would be sold at like 1 in the morning on TV by by Billy Mays this chamois is amazing and then every beast that part but but here's really the long and the shorter he's listing specific animals but he says every beast that parted the hoof and cleave it the cleft into two claws and chew it the cud among the beasts that he shall eat so he kind of just breaks it down when it comes to these mammals that it has to do with if they part the hoof and chew the cud they're good to go okay and obviously part of this is just symbolic and I'm not gonna preach it tonight but I preached an entire sermon called chewing the cud and parting the hoof and I talked about three different things that that could represent scripturally one thing just just quickly I'll just touch on is that you know you could think of it as a symbolism for walking the walk and talking the talk you know when it comes to righteousness or godliness in our lives see all these things in the Old Testament law they have a lot of symbolism and there's a lot of typology and a lot of allegory going on it's very deep but just right on the surface animals that have cloven feet and chew the cud are good to go to eat and then it says nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud or of them that divide the cloven hoof as the camel and the hare and the coney so basically camels and rabbits he says are not clean because they chew the cud but they divide not the hoof therefore they're unclean unto you and the swine because it divides the hoof yet cheweth not the cud it is unclean unto you so he's saying it has to be both of these not just one or the other you shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their dead carcass so you're not supposed to even use their skin or use their hides for anything you know you could ride a camel obviously they use camels throughout the Bible in the Old Testament but you don't want to do like you don't want to deal with their dead body and so forth you don't touch their dead body to you know in order to get some kind of a product from it it's kind of interesting when you think about the fact that John the Baptist clothed in camel's hair when you know you're not supposed to touch the dead body of camel but maybe you know some Gentile can touch the dead body make the camel hair product and then sell it back to you and you're good to go that's probably what John the Baptist did so you know let's just assume for a minute that John the Baptist was not sinning by wearing camel's hair right let's just assume for a minute that God looked down and approved of his camel's hair outfit then I would say that that shows us that we shouldn't be like the Pharisees where they're kind of like taking all the rules too far and obsessing over extreme compliance because if he's saying don't touch a dead camel does that mean that I can't wear a camel's hair outfit that's you know me I guess can't maybe it's just is it just the hair without the skin and and the thing is still alive and you shave it I just don't know how you could make clothing from just the hair I don't know where this is one of those things we're gonna have to find out when we get to heaven but anyway the point is you can still be around a camel even if it's an unclean beast you could ride on it you could wear a camel's hair outfit assuming that John the Baptist was right and I think he was to wear it we don't want to be like the Pharisees where we take a rule and then just go to an extreme where we just can't get anywhere near any camel products now you should stay away from camel cigarettes but that's another sermon so the camel rabbits pigs don't eat them don't touch the dead carcass these shall ye eat of all that are in the waters all that have fins and scales shall ye so your basic fish you can eat fish because they have fins and scales all types of fish and there's too many to mention right whatsoever hath not fins and scales you may not eat it is unclean unto you so that'd be something like an octopus or a shrimp or a sea and em just any kind of weird like a sea cucumber starfish like seahorses just any you know I don't know if anybody wants to eat those things but those are the type you know you wouldn't eat those type of things because they're not like normal fish with fins and scales and then he says of all clean birds he shall eat but these are they of which he shall not eat the eagle and the ossifrage and the osprey and the glied now I know what an eagle is I don't know what an ossifrage and osprey I think I saw a logo on a backpack who knows what I'm talking about isn't that a brand like osprey okay so I know that one don't eat it where the backpack be like John the Baptist you wear the you wear the outfit but you don't eat the animal so the osprey ossifrage the glied no idea the kite that's some kind of a black scavenger bird predator bird vulture after his kind a raven after his kind the owl and the nighthawk and the cuckoo and the hawk after his kind and what what a lot of these unclean beasts seem to have in common is that they tend to be carnivorous beasts right because if you think about the stuff that is clean to eat cows and sheep and goats and that you know those are usually gonna be plant eating nowadays I'm sure they feed them animal products unfortunately but you know those are mainly vegetarian things and these kind of birds are eating carcasses that the hawk is obviously a predator the Eagles a predator vultures and kites and so forth are eating carcasses Ravens so that's the kind of stuff he wants us to say or not wants goodnight but in the Old Testament that they were supposed to stay away from the owl the nighthawk the cuckoo the hawk after his kind the little owl and the great owl and the swan and the pelican and the jeer eagle and the cormorant and the stork and the heron after kind and the lapwing and the bat and every creeping thing that flyeth is unclean unto you they shall not be eaten but of all clean fowls ye may eat and of course elsewhere the Bible does explain that when it comes to creeping fowls that beetles are allowed to be eaten and locusts are allowed to be eaten so various insects can be eaten but other just creepy crawlies stay away from according to this okay so are we should we be following this you know the question is is this binding in the New Testament or let's say it's not binding but is this just something that we should do because it's healthier because it turns out that pork is bad for you or the shrimp is bad for you or something like that because that's what a lot of people will try to claim and I've noticed that the Judaizers who want us to follow these Old Testament dietary laws will sometimes come at you with this song and dance about how everything he's telling us not to eat is unhealthy now some of the things on this list I could see yeah it's probably not the best thing to be eating but there are some unclean beasts on this list that I think probably are very nutritious and very good for you like for example I don't think that there's any health problem associated with eating pork or using pig fat for cooking and I mean the taste is incredible when you're cooking with pig fat everything's just way better okay but also I mean shrimp I believe is one of the healthiest things you could be eating it's very good for you I love it good lot of protein low calorie tastes great I eat shrimp every chance I get now I know for a fact that in the New Testament God 100% allows us to eat all types of meat in the New Testament because this is a subject that comes up repeatedly in the New Testament and I'm not going to re-preach my sermon from a few weeks ago but if you didn't hear my sermon on Galatians eating with the Gentiles I would highly recommend that you go back and listen to that sermon on a recording because in that sermon I went through all the evidence especially the part about where Peter sees the vision where he's told to kill and eat unclean beasts and I went into great detail and to me the one that was really powerful is in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 where he says anything that's sold in the meat market you eat it without asking any question for conscience sake and if you go to a Gentiles house and you're invited over for dinner just eat all the dishes that they put in front of you without asking any question for conscience sake just whatever meat they put in front of you just eat it I mean it's crystal clear that in the New Testament we are no longer to follow these dietary laws now here's the thing I believe that the reason why a lot of these things have been done away in the New Testament is because they only had symbolic meaning and that from a human standpoint they're just arbitrary okay so if these things were truly unhealthy then why would God encourage us to eat them in the New Testament if these are all just bad stay away from them you know you're gonna be so much better off just sticking to the clean list I don't believe that for one second same thing with circumcision and again we don't have to sit and wonder about circumcision like oh I don't know are we allowed to eat non-kosher meats in the New Testament absolutely because it's dealt with in the New Testament it's dealt with in Galatians it's dealt with in Acts and I already preached that sermon but same thing with circumcision I mean Galatians talks a lot about circumcision and speaks very negatively toward adults going out and getting circumcised because they think that somehow that's gonna help them spiritually Bibles very negative about that but at the end of the day in Galatians chapter 5 and again in chapter 6 he says that neither circumcision availeth anything neither uncircumcision so he says look circumcision doesn't do anything for you it doesn't harm you it's just the keeping of the commandments of God in the Old Testament it's just something that was a sign of the Covenant with Abraham but when I was growing up a lot of preachers would try to say like oh being circumcised is healthier and it's gonna protect you from disease or blah blah blah I don't believe that for one second because the Bible says circumcision doesn't avail anything if it had a health benefit then why would you say it avails nothing why would he say don't do it is he trying to keep you unhealthy as a Gentile yet you've got these people over in Africa with this mobile circumcision mobile and you know if an adult were to get circumcised here's a tip go to a brick-and-mortar building not a not a mobile circumcision unit because when you're getting circumcised in the back of a truck that is sketchy big time and I'm not making this up when we were in Botswana there were like these big semis drive they would they would be parked by the side road it'd be like a big like hey everybody gets circumcised and there was like a DJ and it was like a party and he's like yeah you know trying to make it seem cool to get circumcised and they're all these like advertisements telling you to get circumcised how it's healthier and it there's all these benefits and the DJ's they're making it seem cool and it was like you go into the back of this truck and they have all I guess they had a medical staff there and they're gonna it's a it's the circumcision mobile I'm telling you you see some weird stuff on these missions trips and you come home and you're just like God bless America land that I love but it's a jungle out there folks but I don't I just don't believe that I don't believe there's a health benefit to being circumcised I don't believe that eating off this list is gonna keep you healthier that abstaining from pork or abstaining from shrimp is gonna keep you out there I don't believe that I believe that these ceremonial ritual laws of the Old Testament were arbitrary and they only were a figure for the time then present and that they've been done away in Christ and that they only have spiritual meaning at this point and they don't have any physical significance in our lives okay and and that's why Paul is so horrified by the Galatians getting circumcised or wanting to eat off of this approved meat list the apostle Paul is horrified because there's no good reason to do it except just to be following the old covenant which is done away in Christ and the apostle Paul looks at that as hey if you're gonna get circumcised you're basically saying that Christ didn't come and die on the cross and bring in the new covenant is what is what you're basically saying like in his mind it's like a denial of Christ being the Messiah which you you know you may think he's overreacting but he's he's inspired by God rebuking them hard saying you know you foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you before whose eyes Christ Jesus has been evidently set forth crucified among you now obviously Jesus wasn't literally crucified among the Galatians but he was set forth as crucified among them meaning that verbally through the preaching of the apostle Paul he was crucified among them in the sense that like they're hearing about his crucifixion so vividly through spirit-filled preaching and the apostle Paul is saying hey how can you not get that we're in the New Testament has Christ been crucified or what and and and so wanting to subject ourselves to these old covenant rituals and and ordinances and arbitrary things of the old covenant is tantamount to a denial that Christ did his redemptive work on the cross and ushered in a new covenant you know that's the way the Apostle Paul is looking at it and that's the way the Holy Spirit's looking at it so it's it seems a little bit extreme to say it that way but that is what the book of Galatians teaches if you read the book of Galatians and we've been talking about it a lot on Sundays and so this is serious subject it's it's not just like well you know some people follow these dietary rules and some people don't know anybody who follows these rules right here is super suspect I'm afraid of you that's what Paul said Paul was not cool with people following these rules because because we are under the new covenant we are under grace we're not under the law and these things are specifically in the New Testament done away in Christ now you're saying does that mean that you know every rule that we find in the Old Testament no longer applies no because some of the rules in the Old Testament are not arbitrary right some of them are just actual issues of right and wrong that never change or they are things that do have intrinsic value in our lives okay like and and again we use the illustration when we've been going through Galatians about living at home with your parents they have rules for you but then when you grow up you go out on your own and you're no longer under your parents rules but here's the thing a lot of your parents rules are arbitrary they just cuz I said so and it's just their specific rule their specific preference it's not a matter of right and wrong it's just how they do things right but some of your parents rules are really smart and make sense and even once you move out you're gonna keep doing them because they're just they just make sense and they're smart you know if your parents have a way of doing things that works well you know when you move out you're gonna keep doing it because it's smart it makes sense it works well and then obviously if your parents are teaching you things like don't steal and don't kill those are just always right and wrong issues and so you're always gonna follow those rules because those are God's permanent rules well here's the thing when it comes to the Mosaic law you kind of have the same thing going on you have rules that just represent absolute right and wrong it's always wrong to steal and kill it doesn't matter whether in the Old Testament New Testament before the Old Covenant it doesn't matter whether we're in the days before the flood after the flood we're in the millennium it's just stealing and killing and adultery are just wrong those type of things you know those things are just always wrong okay that's what people would call the moral law of the Old Testament right then you have what I would call the civil law the government laws of like hey these are the punishments for crimes well here's the thing those don't apply now because of the fact that we're living under a different government we don't have the Israel government but I would say that those civil laws should be the basis for our secular laws today so so for example if we want to figure out how do we handle a murder trial I don't think we just make up our own way to handle a murder trial we should look at the way God told the children of Israel to handle a murder trial so we should get advice from the civil laws just like we get advice from our parents if our parents are have a good way of doing something and of course God's way of doing something is always gonna be the best way and so there are certain things that are moral laws those are just absolutes they're always the same and then you have civil laws where we don't have the type of government that Israel had we're living in the United States it's a different government but we could still get ideas and we should still look to God's law as the perfect law when it comes to civil matters and then you have what's called the ceremonial law which is all these kind of arbitrary what the Bible calls the the carnal ordinances the meats the drinks the divers washings the carnal ordinances that were imposed on them until the time of Reformation meaning that these are temporary laws that are just specifically for the Old Covenant and they're carnal ordinances they're the rules about being clean and unclean and the washings the divers washings the carnal ordinances so I know this might seem a little complicated but here's a really simple way to explain this if you just want to explain this to someone in a really simple way it's this unless the New Testament specifically changes something we should assume that the Old Testament still stands as far as just how to live our lives you know how do we live our lives well if the Old Testament said you know hey this is how you live your life well unless there's something in the New Testament explaining how that's done away in Christ or that was temporary or that that's a carnal ordinance then we would just assume that the status quo remains for example Jesus Christ never mentioned anything about homosexuality so nothing he didn't change anything nothing changes it's the same teaching that we have in the Old Testament is the same teaching that we'd have in the New Testament then when the Apostle Paul comes along and he writes about it in Romans chapter 1 or in you know you can read about it a little bit in like 2nd Peter chapter 2 or or the book of Jude make allusions to Sodom and Gomorrah and so forth you know they're all just affirming the Old Testament's teaching on that so we wouldn't assume that something has changed you know if the Old Testament said men should not put on women's clothing why would we assume that that has changed that's a moral issue that's an absolute right and wrong same thing with cutting yourself and mutilating yourself shaving between your eyes and everything it's not about being legalistic or being under the Mosaic law it's more like these are just things that you just shouldn't do they're just they're just always just wrong things and here's another good rule of thumb typically things that took place before the Mosaic law and after the Mosaic law you know tend to transcend the Mosaic law because a lot of these things like for example when Noah got off the ark okay he was told that he could eat every living thing that breathes it he was told to eat all animals but then Moses receives these dietary laws in Deuteronomy chapter 14 and so that goes to show that guys like Abraham Isaac and Jacob were allowed to eat all animals and so if you think about human history you know this world that's been around for approximately six thousand four hundred years right how much of that time was pork off the menu you know from around 1500 BC until the time of Christ so you know fifteen sixteen hundred years so what does that mean that means for three quarters of human history we've been allowed to eat pork and shrimp everybody see how that works because I personally believe that they are eating meat before the flood there's some people who believe that they're totally vegetarian all the way to the flood I don't believe that I've preached on that myself in the past but that's I don't want to open that can of worms right now but the point is that certain things that happen before the law and after the law transcend the law and they have an actual purpose like is getting circumcised gonna bring us closer to God no not according to the book of Galatians is following this dietary law is going to Chipotle and ordering the the barbacoa instead of the carnitas is it gonna enhance your life in any way spiritually or physically no the barbacoa is just as good getting circumcised eating these it's not really gonna do anything what you know what's the point of blowing a trumpet on the new moon is that gonna enhance my life in any way or enhance me spiritually following the Jewish calendar Rosh Hashanah and all that no and that's why the Apostle Paul so horrified because the only reason to do those things is to be following the Old Covenant which is done away in Christ okay now as we move on in this chapter we get to the and I want to get off the food thing I was gonna talk about verse 21 but I'll have to deal with that in a future sermon but because I want to get to this part where he talks about tithing because a lot of people will say well tithing is one of those things that's done away in the New Testament okay well let's think about that here is why I would say that tithing is not done away in the New Testament because of the fact that there's no Bible verse in the New Testament that says that it's done away so if we're gonna follow the general guiding principle of things that aren't mentioned as being specifically done away are not done away then we would assume that tithing is still a thing because of the fact that in the New Testament it's not in the list with meats drinks divers washings carnal ordinances there's no and tithing right it's not in that list another point that I would make about this is that tithing also is one of those things that was happening long before the law so it wasn't something that started with the Old Covenant it's something that transcends the Old Covenant because it's something that was going on before after it's just always a thing for example in the book of Genesis Jacob vows unto the Lord he anoints the rock and he calls it Bethel which means house of God he says this is God's house the Hebrew term Bethel means house of God and he anoints the rock calls it Bethel and he promises that he will give one tenth unto the Lord right and then of course you have Abraham who gives one tenth unto Melchizedek who represents Jesus Christ some would even say it is an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ okay and there's a very strong case to be made that Melchizedek is literally an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ but at the very least he probably just symbolizes Jesus Christ that's what I would say but you know I've gone I've vacillated on that over the years but the thing about Melchizedek he receives one tenth from Abraham he receives the tithe from Abraham Jacob is tithing and then also you can find other examples that are not as explicit because I mean it explicitly talks about Abraham tithing and Jacob tithing but you could also just think about the fact that for example you know in the book of Joshua they fight ten major battles and the first battle everything goes to God and then the other nine battles they're allowed to take the spoil for themselves from AI on and so you could look at that principle over and over again you can even think about the fact that Cain and Abel when they offer their offering unto the Lord the big colossal difference between Cain's offering and Abel's offering is that Abel's offering is the blood of the lamb you know he's bringing the firstlings of the flock the Lamb of God which take it away the sin of the world is Jesus and Abel's offering symbolize that Cain's offering is fruits and vegetables that's the colossal difference but there's another subtle little thing there that Abel actually brings of the firstlings of the flock and throughout scripture firstlings and first fruits are associated with the tithe because it's the first tenth that goes unto God and so we could go on and on with all of the Old Testament scriptures on tithing that even transcend the Old Testament law even before the law tithing is a thing but then the other point that I would make is that in the New Testament the Bible explains in the book of 1st Corinthians chapter 9 that just as in the Old Testament the Levites and the priests did not have a secular job they did not have fields that they plowed but that they lived from the holy things of the altar they lived off tithes and offerings he says even so in the New Testament has God ordained that those that preach the gospel should live of the gospel and so there's a New Testament principle that those who are preaching should be full-time and that they get paid based on tithes and offerings and obviously the tithes and offerings go to a lot more than just paychecks because they go toward the building and the lights and the events that we do the food the mission strips etc now in the New Testament you also have a talk about tithing and I'm having to just kind of give you an overview quickly for sake of time then we're gonna dig into Deuteronomy 14 and finish up but for sake of time I'm not having you turn to these just because you can look these up later but Hebrews chapter 7 talks about tithing and it talks about how Abraham tied unto Melchizedek and that's a picture of tithing unto Christ Christ lives forever and that's who he's tithing to and you know the Levites received the tithe in the Old Testament but before that Melchizedek received the tithes and he's Jesus again nothing negative about tithing nothing saying don't tithe okay and then you do have this principle that the New Testament preachers and teachers of God's Word replaced the Levites and the priests according to 1st Corinthians chapter number 9 so the people who speak against tithing in the New Testament one of the things that they will say is they'll say well you know tithing they'll say was never money they'll say tithing was never money it was always agricultural goods it was you know they'd go through their crops and bring one-tenth of the crops one-tenth of the cattle and so forth but here's the thing about that that's simply because back then it was an agricultural based economy well I mean when it talks about a wealthy Job is it's not talking about his portfolio and his stocks and bonds and all these different CD accounts that he has it's talking about hey he has this many sheep this many cows you know that's how wealth was measured in those days but let's see if they're even right about it not being money in the first place so let's let's jump into verse 22 it says thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed again the word tithe simply means one tenth so he's saying you shall tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year and thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose to place his name there the tithe of thy corn and of thy wine and of thine oil and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always and so notice they eat their own tithe in the place which the Lord shall choose they bring one tenth of their increase okay what they actually gained they bring one tenth of the increase and they bring it to the place the Lord shall choose which is ultimately Jerusalem before that it's the tabernacle wherever the tabernacle happens to be and they bring that tithe and that provides the Levites with food and the priests with food because they don't have an income so the people who are the servants of God and the house of God they eat of the tithe but then the people who bring it they also eat of it too right so it's it's really for everybody's benefit the Levites and and priests it's their livelihood but the whole congregation eats from the tithe so for example if our church puts on a barbecue or something you know we buy all the food and you guys are eating your tithe literally so you know for example when we have the missions conference we have the church picnic and there are all these burgers and hot dogs drinks we're not charging 10 bucks you know to sell back to you that food because that food was purchased with your tithes and offerings so that's the idea here they come and actually eat the tithe with the Levites and the priests they actually get a piece of it themselves and then it says in verse 24 if the way be too long for thee so that thou art not able to carry it or if the place be too far from thee which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee then shalt thou turn it into money so think about this it might not be practical if you grew all this grain to bring one tenth of that grain because you know you know what are you gonna do load up a semi I mean this is thousands of years ago so it might just not be practical to bring okay one tenth of the apples let's go you know one tenth of the cow you have some big cattle drive every time you go to Jerusalem it's just not practical he says if it's if it's if it's too much stuff or if it's too far or if it's too difficult to actually give one tenth of your actual stuff because ideally you're supposed to look at your 10 sheep and take the best one and give it to the Lord and that's your time ideally you got 10 sheep you give one of them to God but he's saying look practically speaking you might not want to bring this weird hodgepodge of all your different you know it's like okay we got to bring a couple turkeys for the Lord you got to bring some chickens you just have this this this petting zoo that you're trying to cattle drive across Israel right 3,000 years ago it's just not practical so he says what you can do is just turn it into money meaning you can just say okay this sheep is worth a hundred bucks so instead of bringing the sheep I'm just gonna bring a hundred bucks so to sit there and say oh the tithe is never money well that's funny because according to this you can bring money you can turn it into money because it's really just about getting the Levite what he needs it's not about necessarily bringing that exact beast now he doesn't want you to switch out a good for a bad and a bad for a good he just wants you to give the first unto the Lord or if there's a doubt give the best unto the Lord but you can turn it into money bind up the money in thine hand and thou shalt go into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose and thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after for oxen for sheep or for wine or for strong drink or for whatsoever thy soul desireth and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God and thou shalt rejoice thou in thine household and then notice verse 27 this is the key the Levite that is within thy gates thou shalt not forsake him for you have no partner inheritance with these like look this guy needs to make a living he doesn't have an inheritance he doesn't have land he doesn't have a business he lives off the tides and offering so don't forsake him make sure that this stuff gets done so that he has something to eat at the end of three years thou shalt bring all the tides of thine increase the same year and shall lay it up within thy gates and the Levite because he hath no partner inheritance with thee and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow which are within thy gates shall come and shall eat and be satisfied so you know it's going the tides going toward charity for poor people widows fatherless it's going to the staff the Levites the priests and everybody in the congregation enjoys it together the Lord thy God may bless thee and all the work of thine hand which thou doest so let's back up and talk about this whatsoever thy soul lusteth after you know this is not really the way that we would express this in 2023 and here's the thing the King James Bible is such a magnificent translation I believe that it is the greatest translation of the Bible that has ever existed in any language in the history of mankind I mean it's the best translation that's ever been written greater than any that's ever been done and it's magnificent the only downside of the King James that it was translated 400 years ago but here's the thing that's not really a big deal because thank God our language hasn't really changed that much in the last 400 years so in 2023 we are able to understand the King James and of course these bunch of eggheads in seminary was all you can't understand it you know we're not as dumb as you think we are we can understand this thing you know and they act like oh it's so hard to understand you know the King James it's a give me a break like get some smarts buddy I mean we you know any look I read a lot of books that are not the Bible and let me tell you something every single time I read a book unless I'm reading a children's book to my kids I'm saying like every time I read a book it always contains a word I don't know and I you know I feel like I have a pretty decent vocabulary but yet every single time I read a book I don't care if it's fiction I don't care if it's nonfiction I don't care if it's modern or old every single time I read a book it uses a word that I don't know and so you know what I do I look it up in the dictionary and I end up doing that every single time I read a book and so yeah of course sometimes when you're reading the King James Bible you have to look some things up in a dictionary and sometimes things are worded in a way that's a little bit archaic or different but honestly the trade-off of having this magnificent version so powerful so accurate 100% accurate wonderful version the fact that it's a bit archaic you need to just get over it okay because these new versions are 100% trash their total trash and so oh it's a trash version but the good news is it's in 2023 language it's like I'd rather have the awesome correct version from 1611 than the trash version from 2023 and I think I can figure out that these and the vowels and look up a few words in dictionary you know and so and so you're gonna find some things like this this is a little bit archaic when it says what's over there so lust it's after because we're not gonna in 2023 talk about lusting after food right when we use the word lust that is kind of narrowed in its meaning today so that when we say the word lust people are automatically thinking of things that have to do with fornication or adultery right because today that's all that word means but if you think about like for example if you speak German the word loose it just means any kind of desire just anything that you feel like doing you say hey I have lust to do that it's just like to do anything it could be used about literally anything okay well back in 1611 the word lust was broader like that where it could be used about anything so when it talks about whatever your soul lust at that it's basically just saying you know whatever you feel like buying to eat whatever you feel like buying that's what you buy that's all it means so we don't want to read too much into that word lust and think like it's like something that you're just oh man I'm just really craving that or so like it's not that extreme it's really just saying buy what you want so don't get hung up on that word because that is not the key to understanding this passage it just is saying buy whatever you want okay and so that's the way the word lust was 400 years ago it's just talking about desire buy what you desire it's not like you're just lusting after it like just crave it like you're just drooling for it it's just you want it okay so you bestow the money for whatsoever thy soul lust adapter for oxen for sheep or for wine or for strong drink or for whatsoever thy soul desireth notice how the word desire there is used notice how the Bible kind of defines itself so that you know these people act like the King James is just so hard well you have the soul lusting and then just a couple lines later the soul desireth so you can kind of put two and two together that these are the same thing so lusteth soul desire and again that's what I was just explaining is that it's just what you desire what you want that's it whatever you want you buy it and you eat there before the Lord now a lot of people turn to this passage and say well this proves that drinking alcohol is acceptable because you know if you want to spend your money on strong drink then if you're lusting after strong drink well then drink up buddy because you know you and let like me and the Levite and the fatherless are just gonna be just you know just had drinking songs and partying and strong drink all around shots all around you know no that's not what the Bible saying because first of all you know strong drink does have legitimate uses everything in this world that God has created has been created for a reason and does have legitimate uses okay and so notice that it doesn't say you're gonna drink before the Lord so you're gonna eat before the Lord because the strong drink could be used in cooking right you could use strong drink you can use wine in cooking I think that all of us have probably been to restaurants and eaten food that was cooked in strong drink or in wine who would say I can think of a dish that I've eaten myself put your hand up in the air if you can think of a dish that you've had whether you know you've had that that fondue or that flambéed whatever fancy schmancy food where there was some liquor involved strong drink hard liquor beer wine and these things when they're used in cooking will not intoxicate you at all right the alcohol is cooked off there's no entire you don't get drunk because you just ate too much beer battered cod it's never happened it never could happen so he says you'll eat before the Lord so to sit there and take that you know the Bible says wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise and he specifically says look not on the wine when it is red when it giveth its color in the cup when it moveth itself right for at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder that is describing fermentation though look down on the wine when it is red is because wine gets its redness from the skin of the grapes which is where the yeast is located you know that white stuff on the outside of grapes you ever wonder what that stuff is right and you're like do I wash it off do I eat it what do I do you just eat it it's fine but that yeast is what ferments the wine so in order to ferment the wine they let it soak in this after they crush the grapes they leave the skins there and they let it soak in those skins so that that yeast can go to work fermenting right and when the yeast ferments the wine just as we actually breathe in oxygen and what do we exhale well guess what bacteria and yeast they end up exhaling carbon dioxide as well which is why you get naturally carbonated beverages right you can make naturally carbonated soft drinks that are non-alcoholic like for example kombucha but also you can make alcoholic beverages that are naturally carbonated because the organisms that are doing the fermenting those are living organisms the yeast that's doing the fermenting ends up producing carbon dioxide as a byproduct and so when the Bible talks about it moving itself a right we're talking about the movement of a carbonated beverage okay and so what he says look not on the wine when it is red when it giveth his color in the cup when it moveth itself a right we're talking about signs of fermentation the redness from having soaked in those skins and the movement from the carbonation from the byproduct of the yeast that is doing the fermenting and so God's telling us don't even look at it it's you know it's bad stay away from it you're not wise if you're deceived by it so apparently drinks that are strong with alcohol drinks that are fermented to the point where they'd be an intoxicating beverage we should stay away from we shouldn't drink them that's what the Bible teaches we should be sober now obviously any sugary drink will have minuscule amounts of alcohol in it kombucha could have up to a half a percent of alcohol in it or something like that but you could walk into the grocery store and buy kombucha without showing your ID a five-year-old could walk in and buy kombucha at the grocery store they're not gonna get carded why because it is so low in alcohol it's not considered an alcoholic beverage okay now obviously in the ancient world without refrigeration sure their drinks maybe have a little more alcohol in them than ours do but they were drinks that would not be considered an alcoholic beverage because they're so low in alcohol that they're not gonna make you drunk at all they're not gonna make you but but then there are purposely fermented drinks that are high in alcohol that would get you drunk and God's saying stay away from that stuff don't drink that so so how we'd apply this in today's world if they're checking your ID that is what you should not be drinking that is clearly an intoxicating beverage and you should stay away from it it's a sin don't drink it and so people try to use this verse to say well hey if you're lusting for strong drink go for it buddy but again we're talking about buying whatever you want of commodities food products this could also be and here's another possibility because I would say that you know even if it is and we're assuming that strong drink means strong as an alcohol which may not even be what it means in this context because you could also make the case that this is just a strong drink because it's highly concentrated and extremely strong potent spicy it could be very spicy and you see a spicy drink was this fundamental Baptist you know I drink spicy drinks all the time in fact I drank a spicy drink last night it was called reeds ginger beer with extra ginger bite okay so yeah there are spicy drinks in this world there are strong drinks so you could but but even if it's alcohol I would say it's being used in cooking which is why he doesn't say you drink it he's saying that you eat it right you eat these things and they could be flambéed you could cook with them it could be all types it could be also strong vinegars and things that are non-alcoholic apple cider vinegar and so forth so anyway the point is no I do not believe that God is telling you to go and you and the Levite and the orphan are gonna get drunk because here's the thing about that is that you know the Levites and the priests aren't supposed to drink alcohol anyway I mean the Bible makes it clear like hey they shouldn't drink any strong drink they shouldn't drink any wine whenever they go to serve God in any way well you know when they're bringing this stuff down there you know there's service for God that's going on why would they be drinking this stuff with the Levite but if they're cooking food with it or if it's non-alcoholic you know so you know I hope that you see that this verse is not a proof text for why it's okay to drink but this again is a verse being ripped out of context you know whenever people are using a verse to teach something that's false it's typically out of context because the actual context here is all about tithing and making sure that the Levite gets fed and making sure that the house of God has the resources to function as the house of God it's not a text about drinking there's no mention of drinking in this text it's about eating food with a Levite so if you're gonna use it to say yeah this shows that drinking alcohol is acceptable according the Bible you're taking it out of context whereas if I'm in Proverbs look not on the wine when it's red when it giveth its color in the cup when it moveth itself for right wine is a mocker strong drink is raging whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise that's in context because those verses are specifically warning you about the dangers of alcohol is this singing the praises of alcohol or talking about the virtues about it no it's not it's about something totally different it's a verse being misunderstood misapplied taken out of context and so here's the thing although tithing is part of the Mosaic law so is not killing so is not stealing I would make the case that tithing transcends the Mosaic law because it's something that happened before the Mosaic law Abraham's already doing it Jacob's already doing it and I would also argue that it has a legitimate function in the New Testament because it funds the local church it actually pays for the local church and it pays for the preachers of the gospel to be able to preach the gospel full-time so it has a function does circumcision have a function it has no function does abstaining from pork have any kind of a spiritual function does it really do anything for us no it doesn't does following the Jewish calendar or blowing a trumpet have a function those are all arbitrary things the washings the carnal ordinances whereas tithing actually has a function in the New Testament to fund God's work God's house God's servants and so forth let's borrow it's another word of prayer father we thank you so much for this chapter and what we could learn from it Lord help us to take these principles and apply them to our lives Lord and that we would realize that we are a peculiar people and that we should live our lives in a way that is pleasing to you we should be holy and separated and realize that we're special as Christians in the New Testament Lord help us to respect ourselves and also to follow your word Lord help us not to be sucked in by the Judaizers who would try to get us to follow carnal ordinances that have specifically been done away in the New Testament Lord and also Lord thank you for providing a way for the New Testament Church to be funded so that we could do great things for you and have full-time servants of yours evangelizing this world for Christ and it's in his name we pray amen