What Is Food?

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Now I know what you're thinking: "Oh, we're gonna review this again." Yeah, we're gonna review this again. I figure as part of the foundational series, we can talk about the food laws a little bit. I'm gonna go over pretty much the basis of the food laws—why we eat certain things, why we don't eat certain things. And then we're going to hit the New Testament to try to overcome some of the hard scriptures that have taught against food laws and said basically Jesus did away with kosher laws, Paul said away with a lot of this. A lot of this will be review and some of it might not. And so I'm hoping that this message is at least edifying. Maybe it's something that can be passed out to friends or family that really don't understand why you won't eat the bacon on your salad and so on and so forth.

Holiness is Being Set Apart

Before we get into diving too much into food laws, I wanted to start off with a verse found in the beginning of a section of Leviticus known as the Code of Holiness or the Holiness Code. And it states this: "Thus you are to be holy to me, for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples to be mine." And so we see this indictment, if you will, from God telling us that we are not like him. We are not like him. But he charges us on the same plane to say, listen, I want you to be like me. I want you to interact with me on the same field that I am on. I want you to have a relationship with me in the same scope that I dwell in.

And this scope, in our English translation, is called holiness, okay, or holy. Without going into too much detail, we know that the word holy in Hebrew, kadosh, means to be set apart. But that's not really the best translation. When I was studying the topic of Kedusha —preparing for a message I'm going to be doing a little while from now—sanctification being set apart, holiness, these words don't fully describe what holiness is, but set apart gets us close. You see, God never calls one person holy in all of the scriptures. Moses was never called holy. Abraham was never called holy. Noah was never called holy.

Elijah was never called holy. But groups of people were called holy. All of Israel was called set-apart. And then within Israel, you have certain groups that are more set-apart than others. You have the Levites. And then within the Levites, of course, you have the priests. And of course, even within the priesthood, you have the high priest. Different levels of holiness. And holiness tends to be defined by restriction, if you will. I got in a discussion with a lady when I was in Costa Rica. And we were speaking about being set apart and what that meant. And I was trying to make the case that in a world that rejects helping people, that rejects the justice and righteousness and mercy of our king, we should be set apart in the manner of showing love to the world and showing love to the downtrodden and showing love to the orphans and the widows and the people who need help.

And she was arguing that, no, we just need to separate ourselves from everyone. The concept was Christmas, during Christmas time. How far do we set ourselves apart from the world if we don't celebrate Christmas? And it was a very interesting discussion. And that's why I don't like saying set apart as the only definition for being holy because isolating yourself from the rest of the world doesn't necessarily make you holy. It sure does make you set apart, but you're not fully engaging in the sphere and every attribute of holiness that God has ordained his people to have.

We Are Grafted Into Holiness

What's very exciting is as believers in Jesus, believers in Yeshua, we have the New Testament writings, if you will, and as we discussed in what is Hebrew Roots, we talked about Galatians —how it speaks about that if you are a believer in Christ, then you are what? Abraham's seed. We know in Romans chapter 11, Paul is speaking and he says that, listen, if you are a believer in the Messiah, then you are grafted into Israel. Ephesians chapter 2 says the same thing. For once you were Gentiles, you were set apart from the kingdom of Israel that God calls holy. But now through the blood of Yeshua, you are brought near to the commonwealth of Israel.

You are grafted into the kingdom. Now, that sounds awesome, but there's a whole other scope of awesomeness that we get to step into, and that is the identity of holiness that goes along with Israel. If you're part of God's kingdom, then you are apart from the world. I have an artist's illustration here. Her name is Laura Kranz, and I found this picture absolutely perfect for describing a visual of what holiness is. Thus you are to be holy to me, for I am the Lord and holy. And basically she depicts all these little specks as all the people in the world, but we have this scope—this inner part of things— that only contains the holy people, those identifying with God and being holy as his people.

And so I thought this was just a cool visual. I don't know if anyone else thought it was cool, but I thought it was pretty cool because that's how I see it. When Shabbat comes every week, the world doesn't keep Shabbat. Israel keeps Shabbat. The ones who follow the God of the universe, they keep Shabbat. Why? Because now we have the qualification to keep Shabbat. Because as a people we are holy and Shabbat is holy, so we get to enter into the holy space as a holy people, right? Feast days: the world doesn't really keep God's feast days. They're not for the world; they're for him, right? Generally, we can debate Zechariah another time.

Passover—not anyone can just walk in and partake of the Pesach at the temple. No, you've got to be circumcised and you've got to be in the covenant, right? Sure, you can come and lollygag along. You can come to Sukkot and not be circumcised, right? Shavuot, sure, you can come circumcised, not circumcised, but Passover, the covenant meal, it's only for those who are in the sphere of holiness, in the sphere of being set apart. The covenant meal, if you will.

God Cares About All We Do

And so with this basis, I want to go into a couple of things. With this as our foundation, if God wants his followers to be holy like him, okay? Someone told me that it was very similar to water and oil, right? If you put water and oil together, what happens? They don't mix, right? And so the desire here is that we as water will somehow become more like oil so that we can mingle with God on a more intimate basis, right? This is done through, of course, the Torah and the commandments of God's kingdom, the constitution, if you will. And so on this basis, as followers of God, do you think God cares about what we act like?

It's a pretty common question. Yeah, I think so. If you act a fool, he's going to be, what are you doing? Stop it. You've got to bring a sacrifice because you've done that somewhere else. Right? You think God cares about how we speak? Yeah, I mean, if you're a holy people, if you're supposed to be set apart in the world, then you're not supposed to really talk like the world. Right? Right? Right? Those disgusting things that us guys like to talk about in the break room, you're not supposed to engage with that. The grotesque things that our flesh would want us to speak about sometimes, we're supposed to restrict that. Israel speaks differently, they carry themselves differently, they act differently.

How about the things that we think? No one can tell what you're thinking inside, right? It doesn't matter. Surely God doesn't care. And the Master said, if you even look upon a woman in lust, adultery. It's incredible. I'm going to talk about it a little bit later. Yeshua is the one who says, listen, he's talking to the Pharisees. He's like, it's not necessarily the things that go in your mouth that make you unclean, it's the things that come out of your heart, your imagination, your subconscious, and your conscious. So yes, as a holy people, as a set-apart people, as believers in Jesus, God cares about what we think and how we think. Thoughts should be pure,

Holiness in How We Dress

How about the way we dress? Laws in the Torah about how you dress. Man, don't dress up like a woman. Women, don't dress up like a man. Because how many times in my old job I worked for a minister and we would get letters all the time about men. They'd write it and then it'd be like, listen, I'm having a fight with my wife and I'm telling her the Bible says she can't wear no pants, man. So I need your help because your ministry has some authority and I want you to tell me the other scriptures that I can tell my wife she don't need to wear pants anymore because pants are a man's article of clothing and she don't need to be dressing up like a man.

And I had to break it to this poor fellow. He says, "Well, let's look at the context of when that was written, you know, in Israel at Mount Sinai. Everyone was pretty much wearing a dress, bro. Like, men wore skirts. I mean, I'll just tell it to you frankly. Ain't no men wearing pants in ancient Israel." Okay, the context is dressing up to appear like a woman. Pants, I think, were originally invented by the Persians for—and they were neutral. They were a gender-neutral article of clothing when they were first invented so that horseback riding could be more efficient. Specifically in warfare for men, but you know, I mean I would assume—I've never tried to ride a horse in a dress or a skirt, but I would assume that pants would facilitate the riding of a horse.

Right? Throughout time, different nations grabbed onto the pants idea. The Greeks hated it; men just wanted to wear dresses in Greece. I know that was much freer, right? And so they rejected the idea of pants. But to say that the Torah—when the Bible says that women should not dress like men and vice versa—applies to pants is anachronistic. You're taking something that we view today as a male-dominant article of clothing and placing it in a time where it didn't even exist. This is talking about men dressing up like a woman. Don't do that. Ladies, same thing. Don't do that. Does God care about how you dress?

Of course. He cares about how you dress. He wants us to be a set-apart people. He didn't want us running around naked. Paul had a lot to say about the appearance of women in his letters to the diaspora because the new women of Rome were appearing, and these were married women that were wanting and yearning to appear like the professional prostitutes in Rome. And so they were dressing like that. And he had a huge thing to say about the believing women: "Don't you do that, right?" Men, dress modestly. The things that we see, yeah. God cares about what you see. I know—this is getting rhetorical, it's okay.

What about the things that you hear? Of course, if you're not supposed to be speaking vile things, you're certainly not supposed to be entertaining them with your ears. What about what we teach our children? Does God care about that? Deuteronomy 6 verse 7 tells us that he cares about what we teach our children. We're supposed to instruct our children in the ways of the covenant. We're supposed to instruct our children in the ways of Torah. We're supposed to instruct our children to emulate Messiah.

God Cares About What We Eat

Right? Is it so far-fetched, after speaking about whether or not God cares about what we see, hear, dress, act like, and think, is it so far-fetched to dare to mention that God may, may care about what we eat? In Leviticus chapter 11, if you're unfamiliar with this section of scripture, I'm sure many of you are—I'm not going to read the entire chapter today. We're just going to review it. Read it when you get home; in the video, pause it and read it. Leviticus chapter 11 is when God is speaking to the nation of Israel—those who follow him, those who he is in covenant with. As believers in Jesus and Yeshua, according to Galatians , according to Romans chapter 11, according to Ephesians chapter 2, we are grafted into Israel.

We are part of his covenant nation. It's an awesome thing to view ourselves as being accepted in and grafted into this. In Leviticus chapter 11, the Lord speaks to his followers, and it's interesting because the entire chapter is about what they should eat and what they should not eat. You see, he says there are certain animals that are okay. King James calls them clean. Good, kosher, if you will. Stamped clean. And then there's a section of animals that in some verses are called unclean—so the opposite of clean, if you will. More specifically, he names them as abominations to you. If you eat these things, you're eating abominable things.

If I asked you to picture right now in 2016 the most disgusting thing that you can ever imagine eating... What was that old show that was on TV? Fear Factor? Nasty little bugs and stuff. Imagine the most disgusting thing you can ever imagine eating. Something that you would call an abomination. All of the animals that he says are not to eat are labeled under this. And this chapter is divided up into six different sections. The first section is verse 1 through 8. And the father speaks to Israel and he says, "Listen, all the quadrupeds, all the beasts on the field, if you will, walks on land, big old beast. Here's what you can eat, okay?"

Split Hoof and Chew Cud

Number one: it has to have a split hoof. So its hoof has to have at least two toes, if you can count toes on it. Not only that, it has to be split completely in two, cloven if you will, okay? So if it's split at the front but does not have a division all the way through on its feet, it's an abomination. You're not supposed to eat it. You can pet it, you can say it looks cute, but you can't eat it, okay? It has to have a completely split hoof, and it has to—they call them ruminant animals if you will—it has to chew a cud, which basically means it eats grass and then throws it back up in its mouth and eats some more, and then it, right?

It's a digestive system. Any beasts of the field that are carnivores pretty much aren't included in this list. A lion would not be included in this list because it doesn't chew a cud and it doesn't really have a split hoof. It has these pretty little paws that it rips you apart with. He goes so far to name some animals that may be confusing: the rock badger and the bunny rabbit, right? He says, "Though these appear to chew a cud, have you ever seen a bunny rabbit eat? Looks like a small cow, right? That's how animals chew a cud, right?"—and some actually debate that it does chew a cud since it eats its own poop.

Whatever. The rock badger and the bunny appear to chew a cud, but they don't have split hooves. That's what Leviticus says. Because they don't have the split hooves, they're an abomination. You don't eat these things. The pig. All right, pig. Look at its feet. Got hooves. Up the front, they're split. Are they split in the back? They're split in the back. We're 50% there to have some bacon. Pig doesn't chew the cud. This is what Leviticus says. It names a pig. It's gonna fake you out. It's gonna be tuned. It's gonna fake you out, but it doesn't chew the cud. Pig's an abomination. Don't eat it, okay?

It's interesting. I heard one commentary, lots of different commentaries about clean and unclean. One commentary said that because of the ban on eating blood, right, that was also on animals. If there's an animal that eats blood, then you're not supposed to eat that animal because you're not supposed to be eating the blood, so don't eat an animal that eats blood. Sure, I like it.

Fish of the Sea

The second section, verse 9 through 12, talks about the fish in the sea. Now it doesn't say too much about fish. Basically it says catch a fish and it has little flippers, it has fins, awesome, check one. And it also has to have scales all over its body. Now these aren't like big, these are real itty-bitty scales. In our English language we call anything that's hard and on the outside of an animal "scaled" to us. No, little scales. Shrimp have little fins. They don't have scales, they have shells. Okay, a catfish—I love some catfish down south, salt and pepper, right? Has fins, doesn't have scales. Catfish is an abomination at this point. You can catch them, touch them, "Oh, they're cool," throw them back. Don't eat them, right? An eel in the sea, don't touch that, right? A shark or a dolphin, flipper, how tempting it may be, don't eat flipper. It does not have fins and scales, right?

Birds and Insects

The fowls, the birds of the air in Leviticus 11, 13 through 19. A lot more birds of the air that it says do not eat than it says do eat. Basically, any birds that is a bird of prey, an eagle or a raven, catch little squirrels and eats them, you can't eat that. Also, if a bird is a carrion eater, it eats dead bodies. Anyone know a bird that eats dead bodies? Vultures? Can't eat that. Eagles? No, can't eat eagle. I guess a chicken? That's all I'm concerned about. Chicken's good. I'm okay. I don't even need to talk about anything else. Okay? Creeping things, whether they fly 20 through 28, basically insects.

The cute honeybee, no matter how pretty it is, don't stick it in your mouth. Wasps, don't stick that in your mouth. Okay? Big old centipede on the ground with all the thorns sticking out of it, don't stick that in your mouth. It's an abomination. Seems like very, very civil-minded things that God is telling his people. "Listen, you're holy now. You're not going to commit adultery. You're not going to steal. You're not going to do all these nasty things. Don't prostitute yourself. Don't eat this junk." The Torah wasn't written today. No telling what he put down. McDonald's, Burger King—who knows? But this was the junk food according to God.

You're not supposed to eat this. Anything that crawls on the ground, that slithers on its belly, we're gonna approach that here in a minute. Anything that slithers on its belly, nah, don't touch that. Snake, don't touch that. Creepy crawlies on the ground, earthworms, stuff like that, I don't think you can eat now, don't touch it. There are some insects that you can eat. It says insects that have big old long hind legs that they hop with, you can eat those. Some chocolate-covered crickets you got at Discovery Place, you're good to go. Big old locust, right? Locust and honey, I don't know. Grasshoppers, you want a sacote, you want to have a dare, dare your friends.

You're good with grasshoppers. It may not taste that great, but you're okay.

The Conclusion of Holiness

At the very end of Leviticus 11, it states something. Do I have a slide for it? Yeah, the conclusion of holiness: "I am the Lord your God." So he's concluding. He just goes through and he's talking about all this food laws and everything. "Don't eat this, don't eat that." So he's recounting, he's telling the Israelites, "I brought you out of the land of Egypt. What were the Israelites in Egypt? They were slaves. I redeemed you from slavery. I gave you freedom. I appointed you as kings in a nation. I want you to be holy like me. In order for you to be holy like me and to consecrate yourselves and identify with me because I brought you out of a place where you were a slave, don't eat the pig."

Matt, what's that have to do with me? See, in Romans chapter six and seven, Paul does something brilliant. He takes the Exodus experience and he redoes it, he reinterprets it in the lives of believers today. And basically what he talks about is he talks about how through the blood of the lamb, through the blood of Jesus, through the blood of Yeshua, you too were brought out of slavery. I wasn't a slave in Egypt. No, you were a slave to sin. That's compelling for me at least. I'll say no to bacon for that. I'll do that. If there's something that I can do to identify myself as being in the kingdom of God.

Now, I'm not saying if you've ever eaten bacon in your life, you're going to hell. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that God is saying the way you eat, just as well as the way you dress, just as well as the way you speak, just as how you act in public, all of these things show that you are set apart and a member of God's kingdom because he is your king and he is your God. So yeah, it's not a big deal for me anymore to send back a salad. I can't eat the bacon. I'm sorry. No bacon. It's not that big of a deal. I'm wearing the jersey of the king. I'm on the team playing for the kingdom of heaven.

Hut, hut. Oh, bacon. It's like running a touchdown to the other side of the field. No, stay on your side of the field. Play with your team.

Wearing the Jersey of the King

So out of all of the commentaries, and I want to go back to this because you guys want to see at least something interesting about the whole clean iron claim for those of you who've studied it. Jacob Milgram's in-depth analysis of the quadrupeds and the animals in Leviticus 11, that's all great. We have from Andrew University, talking about the different levels of holiness and the scopes between other nations and animals. That's an awesome little connection as well to why God said not to eat the animals. There's lots of explanations. Has anyone ever read an explanation online about why God told Israel not to eat the animals?

A lot of them talk about health benefits, right? Like the pig will give you worms in your brain or something like that. So you're not supposed to eat it. But it's not even about that for me. For me, I don't eat certain animals because God said don't eat certain animals. I don't care if they're healthy or unhealthy. I had chickens. They're some nasty little birds. But I can eat them. I don't know how we don't get cancer from chickens, but God says it doesn't matter. I would not limit God in his justification to choose animals simply based on your concerns for your health. This is about his kingdom, not your concerns for your health.

Of course, everything you do is supposed to be a blessing to you. And of course, health is an aspect of that. But I wouldn't limit God's justification for why he said certain animals just based on that. One thing I did think was cool, and this was something that was actually done at the temple conference. You guys got the deal. You'll see this. Ryan White taught this. And he had a very interesting hypothesis about this verse. Every creature that moves along the ground is to be regarded as unclean. It is not to be eaten. This includes all animals that slither along their bellies. You must never eat them.

What slithers on their bellies? Lizards do it. You can't eat a lizard. What else? A gator. Snakes, thank you. A snake slithers on its belly. That's what I'm going for. Also in Leviticus 11, if a little lizard dies in your water pot—like a clay pot—you smash the pot because it just defiled the whole thing, right? Any clean animals, if they die on their own, torn up by a lion or something, can't eat that. You got to be the one to kill it. And if there's an unclean animal on the side of the road, died on the side of the road, you can't touch it. Don't want to touch any of these animals because they're unclean.

Now clean and unclean we'll go over in a later time. Basically, these distinctions of holiness would separate you from approaching God's altar. If you were in an unclean state, you could not formally approach God in his temple. Significant. You wouldn't touch it. But the Bible does say one thing. You're not all out of hope. If you've got a big old alligator, and it's an award-winning alligator, I mean, this thing's like a 15-footer, and it died on your front lawn. You can't touch it, but you can sell it to someone who's not a believer. Make some money off of it. They're not going to be approaching God's temple, so by all means, sell it to the foreigner.

I find that interesting. What slithers?

The Curse of the Serpent

So the hypothesis involves making a literary structure comparison of Genesis chapter 3, verses 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and Leviticus 11, the chapter that we just went over. And basically it revolves around the snake. Now what happened in the garden? There was a serpent on the tree, right? What was the serpent? He was the cleverest of all animals, right? And we know the story of Adam and Eve. What happened to the serpent? He was cursed, right? Was he just cursed a little bit? No, he was cursed a lot. Now, as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve, pretty much all of creation got cursed. Even all the animals got cursed.

All the plants got cursed. Everything got cursed. But the serpent was definitely at the top of the list. Serpents must now slither on their bellies. All they can eat is dirt. And the serpent is the one that brought death into the world by tempting Eve and Adam. When we go over to Leviticus 11, we see something interesting that only certain meats are cursed, if you will. Only certain meats are more abominable amongst others. What type of meats? Things that swarm on the earth are specifically prohibited. And when this was being taught, I was like, well, that's kind of cute, but what about cows or animals that have hooves?

What about a pig? Why is that cursed? Or a camel. Why is a camel cursed? It says that a split hoof that is not divided is forbidden. He made the point by showing the tongue of a snake. I've never seen a snake up close before, so I couldn't tell you what the tongue of a snake looked like. But apparently, when a snake's tongue comes out, it is split, but it is not fully divided. Just like the animals that are forbidden to eat. This is the foot of a camel. Split, but not divided. Carrion eaters are prohibited, carnivores are prohibited, these are the things that feed off of death. Sea creatures without fins and scales look similar to a snake.

Maybe that's a stretch. But I thought it was interesting. This is just one of many concepts that scholars use to explain why God chose these certain animals. In Micah chapter 7, 16 through 17, there's a verse that states, "...nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all of their power. They will lay their hands on their mouths, and their ears will become deaf. They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens. They will turn in fear to the Lord our God and will be afraid." So those who are against the Lord are compared to the most cursed animal in Scripture, the snake.

I don't necessarily think it's bulletproof, but I found that comparison interesting. The reason I don't eat certain animals is not because they look like snakes. But I thought it was interesting. There's a lot of stuff out there, a lot of studying you can do.

A Second Witness

Deuteronomy 14 will give us a summed-up version. Bear with me. We're going to read it. If you don't want to read all of Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14 does a good job of quickly explaining and summing up every single thing in Deuteronomy 11. You want a second witness in Scripture of why you shouldn't eat the pig? Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14. We're going to start in verse 1. I'm just going to read through it quickly and you guys can see the specifics here. "You are the children of the Lord your God." Okay, what's that have to do with anything? "You shall not cut yourselves or shave the front of your head for the dead."

Don't mourn dead like other nations. For you are a holy people unto the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be people for him, a special treasure above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. So this is making me feel pretty good about myself. God is empowering me. He's empowering you. He's empowering all those that follow him. He's saying, you are holy. You are set apart. You are a chosen treasure that I call my people. So here's how to maintain that. You shall not eat any detestable thing, These are the animals which you may eat, the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoofs split into two parts, and that chews the cud among the animals. Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat such of these. The camel, the bunny rabbit, the rock badger, for they chew the cud or appear to chew the cud, but do not have cloven hooves. They are unclean to you. Also, the pig is unclean to you. And whatever does not have fins and scales, you don't eat it. It is unclean to you. All clean birds you may eat, but these are what you shall not eat. The eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the red kite, the falcon, all the birds like that.

Every raven after its kind. Big old ostrich. Don't try to eat it. It will outrun you and pick you down. The short-eared owl, the seagull, the hawk after all of its kinds, the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, all owls, or the carrion-eating vulture, the fish owl, the stork, or the heron after its kind, all of these you shall not eat, including the bat.

Honoring Your King More Than the Pig

Although every creeping thing that flies is unclean to you, you shall not eat any of them. You may eat all clean birds, you shall not eat anything that dies of itself, you may give it to the foreigner among you who is within your gates, who's not a believer, that he may eat of it, or you can sell it to the foreigner outside of your gate. Hey, I got a good deal on this alligator. Goes back to a Canaanite rite that they would do during their spring festivals. Two witnesses, Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, make it very clear not only what we are to eat or what we are not to eat, but why we are not to eat them.

Why are we not to eat such things? Because we are holy and set apart because we are in the kingdom, because we are in covenant with the God that brought us out of the sin of slavery or the slavery of sin. This is how we maintain our lifestyle and honor our king. Does it make sense? Pig tastes so good in the south. It's okay. Isn't your king worth more than the pig? I'll tell you a story. Fourteen years ago, when I was kind of just coming into the understanding of Hebrew roots, messianic, if you will, I started reading my Bible more after I met a little Jewish guy who believed in Jesus and changed my life.

And I started reading the Bible. I started reading the Torah from the beginning. And I was skipping through and I was kind of lazy reading. I opened up my Bible one day to Genesis chapter 8. And this is an incredible chapter because this is after the great flood that flooded all the earth. And what happened to everything? It died. Thank you, Brad. Only one that knew. Everything died in the flood, right? Magnificent event. And so we have Noah and his family, and I would have been a little scared, and they're throwing poop out of the ark. They have all the animals in, and they're floating, floating, floating, and finally one day they get to land.

To sum it up, they open the doors and the animals get to come out of the ark. Now this is awesome, right? So here's what happens. So in verse 18, Genesis chapter eight, so Noah came out together with his sons, his wife, and his son's wives. Everyone survived, right? Which was awesome, right? Because God had grace for Noah and protected his family. And all the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds and everything that moves on the earth, it all came out of the ark. All the birds fluttering out. It would have been magnificent, right? Little giraffes coming out, right?

The lions and tigers and bears all coming out, right? It would just have been a beautiful thing. Everything that moved came out of the ark, one kind after another, like in order, right?

Noah Starts Killing the Survivors

Then Noah, what did Noah do? Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and taking some of the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings. What? Noah starts killing the survivors. How many animals went extinct because Noah had to do this offering to God? I mean, how many birds and animals do we not even have today? Because there are only two, right? And Noah killed them and offered them to the Lord and dagnabbit. So this made me think: not only does Genesis in the time of Noah recognize the distinction between clean and unclean animals. Noah didn't go grab a pig and march right over to God. No, he didn't do that. Clean birds and clean animals he sacrificed on God's altar. In Sunday school, I was taught that Noah was told to get two of every animal onto the ark. And so imagine the terrifying reality of me realizing that Noah was ending whole species here by doing this great deed. And I had to get to the bottom of this because PETA would have a fit if they had read this. I mean, geez. So I read back a chapter.

Seven Pairs of Clean Animals

I got to figure this out. And so in Genesis 7 are some verses that I had read throughout my childhood and thought I had been taught in Sunday school, but I had not. And the Lord said to Noah, "When you build this ark, this is what you're supposed to do. Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in your generation." Not holy, right? Because that's not a title for individuals, it's groups. You're righteous. Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate. So I was always taught that Noah took two of every animal under the ark.

No, he took two pigs. He took two bunnies. He didn't take two goats. He took two of every unclean animal that Noah was not going to be munching down on in the future, mankind was going to be munching down on, that Noah was not going to be sacrificing. Of the clean animals, he was to take seven. In the Hebrew, it actually says the word seven twice. So most translations, I believe the ESV translation, and I agree with it, says seven pairs of clean animals. So 14 sheep you got to bring on, but you're only going to need two pigs. See, we thought it was a miracle that he had two of every animal, right? How big is our God now?

It'd be like doing the fish in the loaves to the thousands of people. It'd be like that in reverse, sticking all that back in the basket. All the animals in the ark.

Fourteen Giraffes on Noah's Ark

Seven pairs of clean animals God told Noah to bring in the ark. So when he came out and he sacrificed a few, they didn't go extinct. Okay? This is how I grew up envisioning Noah's Ark. You got two of every kind of animal on there. You guys realize that the giraffe is actually a clean animal? Yeah, I'm in. I can't wait. Orthodox rabbis in Australia. Yeah, giraffes are a clean animal. The only reason in Orthodox Judaism, the only thing keeping them from being butchered is they got that darn neck. They don't know where to cut them. True story. True story. In reality, Noah's Ark should look something like that. 14 giraffes on that sucker. Heads all out, flopping all around. That's incredible.

I show you this not only to show you something that caught me off guard a while back, but that clean and unclean animals were defined even at the time of Noah. Moses, right in Genesis, he thought it would be edifying for us to realize that Noah had a separation, a distinction between clean and unclean animals. Even before they were eating animals, right? Still important. Why? Because you can't offer an unclean animal to God on the altar, on the holy altar. That's why it was such an abomination at the time of the Hasmoneans. The Maccabean revolt, if you will, when the Greeks came in, the Seleucid Empire.

What'd they do? They built an altar, God's temple, and they sacrificed a sheep on it, sacrificed a pig on it. And this was the abomination that made the temple desolate, this defiled God's temple. We take sacrifices as we talked about in the Lord Eccles 4 and 5 to cleanse the altar. It just shuts the switch off. But Matthew, thank you for the history lesson of the Old Testament. Thank you for the history lesson about Noah's Ark. We had one of our own. It was Riley, wasn't it? Was it last year? Two or three years ago. Little Riley, they went to a VBS, right? Public VBS, church, local church.

Our Children Learning Things We Didn't Know

And they asked the question, they're asking the kids a question, hey, hey, hey. How many animals did Noah pull on the ark, right? And Riley raised her hand. And how many did she say? Seven of clean animals and two of unclean animals. How did the children's teacher at that church react? Had to go look it up. What? It's cool to see our children learning things that we did not know at their age. Amen? This story still makes me laugh. I wish I was there. Matthew, thank you for the history lesson. Thank you for telling me about the 14 giraffes that were on Noah's Ark. That's pretty cool, I guess. I'll bring that up at my Bible study and look really cool. Thank you for telling me about Leviticus. Hard book to read, but at least I know how to navigate it now in chapter 11.

Did Jesus Make All Foods Clean? But Matthew, I don't know how to break it to you. Jesus made all foods clean. Anybody ever heard that? I used to teach that for a long time. I used to argue that. Jesus did away with that. Do you know where that comes from? The main verse they pick out? Mark chapter 7. Turn with me in Mark chapter 7. We're going to talk about this. If Jesus did away with the kosher food laws, right? He didn't do away with the modesty laws. I hope not, right? He didn't do away with the laws of adultery. He actually expanded them. He made them more legalistic. If you even think about a woman in lust, you're an adulterer—as if you touched her.

Mark chapter 7. If Jesus did away with the kosher food laws, then I definitely want to know about it because I don't have to send all my salads back when they put bacon on them. You know what I mean? I mean, it'd be helpful. Matthew, Mark, chapter 7. And I'm going to go ahead and start in chapter 7 because we're going to get an idea of what's going on in this chapter and what Yeshua is dealing with his disciples. Okay? Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of his disciples eat bread, what were they eating? Eat bread with defiled hands—that is, with unwashed hands.

They found fault. They had an accusation. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. So the Pharisees and varying sects of Judaism around the first century had a very strict tradition of washing their hands before they eat anything. They felt like if they didn't wash their hands, then their hands were defiled and whatever they were eating, whether it was clean or unclean, they were going to defile it with their hands, right? Bread, in this case. The disciples were eating bread and they didn't wash their hands, so the bread was called common by the Pharisees.

"Look, your disciples were eating common things because they didn't wash their hands. This is the tradition of our elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received, like the washing of cups and pitchers and copper vessels and couches." Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not work according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?" And he answered to them, "Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written? This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."

Identity Markers and Fence Laws

Basically, Yeshua has his disciples, and his disciples were fishermen—regular folks, probably trained at a young age in rabbinic studies, but probably didn't get selected as a disciple, so went on to follow the jobs of their fathers. And here comes Yeshua walking along: "Hey, you follow me. Hey, you follow me." After the Hasmonean revolt, 2nd century B.C., the ideals of Judaism to identify anyone who called themselves a Judean, a Jewish person in the first century, became of foremost importance. How do we identify ourselves? How do we have these identity markers? Well, we're going to take the things in Torah, the commandments of God, and we're going to expound on them so we never break them.

We're going to make fence laws, and we're going to do all these extra commandments for the sake of God—of instilling in our children their identity of being a Judean. It's not a bad thing, right? We tell kids to get out of the kitchen if you're cooking because you don't want them to touch the stove and get burnt. Just stay out of the kitchen. Really, you don't want them to go up and touch the burner on the stove, but you're going to add an extra limitation there: just stay out of the kitchen while I'm cooking, right? The issue came into play when the parent forgot about the stove and made going in the kitchen akin to touching the stove.

Laws were fabricated throughout the many sects of Judaism. As we see here mentioned, there was one that said, "Listen, you got to wash your hands before you eat." Why? Because the Pharisees taught that the clean and unclean laws, even though they had to directly do with the temple, we need to try to implement them at home and through our daily walk in life. Even if we're not going to the temple, we need to do everything we can and expound on clean and unclean laws. And so one of these fence laws they made: "Wash your hands before you eat."

When Traditions Become Accusations

But we see that they're criticizing other people as if they're breaking God's commandment by breaking this tradition of the elders. Yeshua's calling them out on it. He's like, "Listen, guys, traditions are great, but when you're sitting here accusing other people, who's the accuser in scripture? The adversary, Hasatan. If you're being the accuser over things that aren't even relevant to breaking God's commandments, are you not being a hypocrite just like the prophet Isaiah speaks?"—following the commandments of men over the commandments of God when you're supposed to be reinforcing the commandments of God as your number one priority.

So Yeshua does further teach. He says to them: "In verse 14, if anyone has ears, let him hear." He's saying, listen, this is a mystery. This is a parable. You're going to have to think a little bit. I'm not necessarily being literal, but I'm getting to the point of the issues I'm seeing with this sect of Pharisees. Do you guys have your Bibles? Does it now say, "Thus he declared all foods clean"? Anybody raise your hand if that's in your Bible. That's a problem because if you look at the Greek, the Greek actually says something about purifying foods there, and so most translations translate that correctly.

"Don't you realize that what enters into your mouth doesn't contaminate your heart? It goes into your stomach and then it goes out of your stomach, thus purifying all foods."

What the Greek Actually Says

The issue with this translation is that the Greek doesn't say, "Thus he declared all foods pure." What the Greek says is purifying all foods. The King James Version and the ISV actually have this one right. What a lot of people fail to realize is that we have this doctrine that is taught in churches today. It was taught in my church, and it's taught that God gave commandments to men and Jesus destroyed those commandments through grace. We spoke about grace last week, right? We understand that's not what grace is exactly. And so this doctrine basically states that when Jesus died, he did away with the Torah of God. He did away with the commandments of God, or at least some of them, right? Like the Sabbath day and the kosher laws. But he kept all the other nine and ten commandments and so on and so forth. With that logic, we have teachers going even further—not even saying that when Jesus died he destroyed the Torah, but saying that even when he was still alive before the redemptive act ever took place, he's doing away with kosher laws. That doesn't even make sense.

Jesus Didn't Change the Laws While Living

Within the false teaching that Jesus did away with all of his father's commandments when he died on the cross, what Yeshua was saying to his disciples is that he's dealing with the Pharisees because the Pharisees have a heart issue. This is not a discussion about clean and unclean food. They were eating bread, and unless the bread was made with pork flour, it was not unclean. This was a separate issue, right? Yeshua's pointing at the Pharisees and he's talking to his disciples. He's like, "Listen, all the unclean things come from your subconscious, come from your heart. And the things that you think and the things that you say—when you do not forgive your brother and you harbor these things—you have defiled your entire soul.

Doesn't matter what you eat. Your heart is where it needs to start at. "No, don't eat pig. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about living righteously and living with a pure heart and loving your neighbor and walking in the ways of God and not being distracted away from the covenantal premise of how much God loves you." And so what Yeshua says, here's a better translation in verse 18: "And he said to them, 'Then you are also without understanding. Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot make him common? Since it does not enter into his heart, but it enters into his stomach, and then it goes into the latrine'—and then here's those Greek words—'which purges all the foods.'" Nowhere does it say in the Greek text that Jesus made all foods clean.

He's basically saying, "If you got dirty hands and you make some food dirty, your stomach's going to take care of it. It's not going to be me that makes the food clean. It's just going to come out. Will that satisfy you? Will it be clean then? A little dirt you got in your hands?"

A True Prophet Sent by God

The idea that the master destroyed food laws is not only absurd, but it does not even follow what most churches teach—that he changed the laws of God when he died on the cross. Because he's barely even started his ministry. No redemptive act has taken place yet. He's teaching right now. Jesus didn't eat pork sandwiches when he was going through Judea. He did not. If he did, he would be transgressing the laws of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. And some could make the argument that that would disqualify him from being the Messiah. Deuteronomy 13—you should mark that in your Bibles. It's a test that God gives for false prophets.

And he tells Israel, he says, "Listen. If a false prophet comes to you and he does a lot of miracles and they're really cool miracles, pulls a rabbit out of a hat and heals people and do all kinds of stuff, that's great. But if he teaches you to break any of the commandments that I've given to you, he is a false prophet. Just kill him, stone him, don't listen to any word he says." To say that our Messiah came and told people not to keep the laws of God means that he failed the test that God himself made of what a true prophet sent by God would establish. But if you ever want to know how to clean foods through your body, Yeshua gives a perfect illustration of the digestive system here.

The King James Version Has It Right

But Matt, okay, so maybe that doesn't say that the Messiah made all foods clean. King James Version does not say that. It says exactly what we just put up there. We know that Paul said that all foods are clean now, right? When you tell your believing friends and family that you don't eat certain foods anymore, sometimes they refer to Paul's letter to Timothy in Timothy 4:4 and 5. And if you read the entire context of the chapter, Paul is speaking about certain things that are being taught—don't marry is one abominable junk that people are teaching. And then some other group of people are saying to abstain from certain meats and so on and so forth. Paul was arguing a lot of different things about certain meats. Many of the meats that Paul was trying to deal with, especially in Corinth and Ephesus, were meat sacrificed to idols.

Food Consecrated by God's Word

He flip-flops on that a few times. We're not really talking about this time. This entire chapter doesn't list anything about clean and unclean meats in the context. Doesn't. But nevertheless, we have this verse we have to deal with that Paul says, "For everything God created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is to be received with thanksgiving because it is consecrated by the word of God in prayer." That's a hard verse because Paul is basically saying any food that's put before you—as long as you're thankful for it, you say a little blessing, "Dear God, thank you for this food"—it can be accepted, right?

This verse was brought to me many times and I read it, and when I first saw it I scratched my head. I'm like, I see what God says and I see what the Messiah stood for, but I don't understand what Paul's saying here. Any food? I mean, everything was made to be—all food was made to be received, right? As long as it's received with thanksgiving. Why? Because it is consecrated by the word of God in prayer. So if you pray over it, it's food. And then I was reading this verse one day and I said, "Wait, I totally agree with this verse. That just makes perfect sense. Anything can be eaten as long as it's consecrated by the word of God and prayer."

Well, what meats are consecrated by the word of God? Well, we just read them in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Again, this was not the context of the chapter, but if someone wants to argue this is the context of the chapter, we can play in that arena. Anything's good to be received as long as the word of God says it is okay, it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. Say thank you to God. "Cow, consecrated by the word of God? Thank you God for this cow. It can be received."

Paul at the Temple

Paul never said that foods are clean. Acts 21—we have Paul going to the temple to make sacrifices. Feed him pigging out on pork. Pigging out on pork. I like that. Pigging out on pork. He wouldn't have been able to approach the temple. No, Paul wasn't teaching those things at all. The context of Paul's letter to Timothy wasn't about food. And even if it is, it clearly states as long as it's sanctified by God's word and prayer, you can eat it. And Jesus—you're right. Even King James Version, old King Jimmy knew better than that. It doesn't even say that. He's talking about something else completely.

But Peter had a dream. Anyone ever showed you Acts chapter 10 and said, "Look, here we are— what, 20, 30 years after Yeshua died and resurrected. Peter finally got the message. He can have catfish for lunch"? Turn with me to Acts chapter 10. Now this is good stuff because Acts chapter 10—if you read it, you understand the context. Most people don't read it. But there's something that I realized rereading it through this time that I think a lot of people have missed for a long time. A lot of Hebrew Roots teachers miss something that's extremely important about Peter's dream. And so I want to try to identify that. But first, let's go ahead and start in chapter 10. Everybody okay if we read Peter's dream?

A Gentile Man's Prayer

Peter had a dream. It's important. So we have a Gentile man who's giving alms to people. He's being generous because he understands that his alms are a blessing. What he has is a blessing and he's responsible for what he does with that. So he's giving it to the poor and he's praying— not to Zeus, he's praying to Yahweh, the God of Israel, okay? At this point it would have been Hashem, the God of Israel in Judean history. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius!" So I really want to build the context here because this is absolutely amazing.

We think, "Oh, a Gentile saw an angel." No. A Gentile saw an angel. We're talking about a guy who was rejected by the majority of Pharisaic sects because he was not born a Jew. And because it says he was a God-fearer, that means that he had not gone through the formal conversion of Judaism yet, which was a man-made structure thing in the first century. It was very, very, very integral. And he's praying to God, and an angel shows up to him. How many of you would react with a little bit of excitement if an angel showed up to you when you were praying? And then the angel called, "Cornelius!"—like with a big exclamation mark here on my Bible.

And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, "What is it, Lord?" So he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God." This guy who wants to serve the God of Israel because he recognizes that this is the God of gods right here—rejected by the people of Israel, totally different. Look at the Paul series. We went over that. God noticed him. He noticed his prayers and he noticed that he was representing the God of Israel by giving to those that were less fortunate. There's a huge lesson there, guys. There's a huge lesson there.

What God Has Cleansed

So he said to them, "Just me." Okay, verse 1. But Peter looked up and said, "Not so, Lord. I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." Common or unclean? I thought they were the same thing. We'll get to that in a minute. "And a voice spoke to him again a second time, 'What God has cleansed you must not call common.'" Notice he doesn't say "what God has cleansed you should not call unclean." Unclean is unclean. Common is something a little bit different. What God has cleansed you should not call common. This is the point where the teaching goes that at this point, God was kind of taking Peter to the woodshed on "get with the program.

My son died so you can now eat unclean animals. Look, I made them clean." This is the teaching that is taught. This is what I was taught in church. Let's continue reading. Cornelius had made an inquiry for Simon's house. Oh wait, wait, wait, wait. So Peter's all kinds of confused. Apparently he didn't get the message that God made everything clean. He had to think about it and he just rejected that. "What was God trying to tell me?" And they said, "Cornelius the centurion, a just man who fears God and has a great reputation among all nations of the Jews, was divinely instructed." Remember last time we spoke about a centurion being a patron to the Judean community—it was not something that was so far-fetched because most Judeans during the first century were actually slave status.

Just FYI. So Peter's going with him to see this guy Cornelius. Verse 28. And as he talked with them, he went in and found many who had come together. Verse 28. If you have a pen or pencil, you might want to circle verse 28. This is when the dream is explained. Then he said to them, "You know how it is unlawful for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore, I came without objection as soon as I was sent." And I asked them, "For what reason have you sent for me?" Cornelius recounts about the angel, and then Peter tells him about the gospel, and Cornelius and all of his men are saved.

Remember how we were talking about those traditions that built upon each other in the first century? One of them was that the Judeans should separate themselves from other nations. Now, there are traces of this in Torah for things like marriage and so on and so forth, but just walking into another man's house was taught that it defiles you if he's not a Jew and you're a Jew.

Common or Unclean?

What does Peter say the answer to his dream is in verse 28? The whole dream—God has now shown me that I shall not call any man unclean or common. Here's what I've seen other people miss in Hebrew Roots. When the sheet came down from heaven, what kind of animals did he see? All sorts of animals. See, it's taught a lot of times that he saw a bunch of unclean animals, right? And God told him, "Go and eat the unclean animals." And Peter was like, "Nah, I can't do that. I've never eaten anything unclean." That's not what he says. He says, "Unclean, or common." And if we look at the verse again, it wasn't just unclean animals.

It says, "All manner of four-footed beasts, on top of all kinds of birds, on top of the things that slither on the ground"—which we know are unclean. All manner of four-footed beasts. It means there was both clean animals and unclean animals in that sheet. There was a cow and there was a pig. There was a giraffe and there was a lion. And God tells Peter, "Go and eat." I don't think that God was trying to tell Peter to go eat a pig. I think God was telling Peter, "Look, there's your cow. Why don't you go get some of that beef? You know you'll like it." Peter says, "No, Father. I've never eaten anything common or unclean."

The pig. It was taught that clean beasts, if they were in contact or around unclean beasts, they were made common—which was like a byproduct of unclean, simply because they were around or among people or animals that were unclean. What Peter was saying is, "Father, I'm not going to eat that cow because it's common, because it's standing beside that pig and all those other slimy things. I can't eat anything that's made common." The Lord's over here, "Don't call anything unclean that I've made clean." He never said the cow was unclean because it was standing beside a pig. "You're fixing to be sent to a Gentile who has grown up a pagan and he lives in a pagan community, a bunch of other Gentiles."

Don't you call anything unclean or common that I have made clean. Just because he's a Gentile doesn't mean that he is outside of my reach. Just because he's a Gentile doesn't mean that he's not deserving of my love. Just because he's a Gentile doesn't mean that I don't have a plan for him in my kingdom. Don't you call anything unclean or common that I have sanctified and made clean. So Peter goes to the house. Ooh, is that threshold? I'm not supposed to be doing this? But God has shown me the wisdom in his plan for delivering the world. John , God so loved the world. It is a global scope. Don't you know that it's unlawful for a Jew to go into a Gentile's home?

Make us common, be defiled. Not that we won't be Jewish anymore, but it's gonna bring us down in status. What are you talking about? Go and eat! Go and do the mission. But God has shown me that I shall not call any man unclean or common because God has sent me to preach the gospel. Tell me your story. An angel came to you. That's magnificent. Let me tell you my story now. And let me tell you about a king by the name of Yeshua. And Cornelius and all of his household was saved that very day.

A Global Scope

In our quest to be holy or set apart, going back to some interactions I have with other people who are in the movement, some people have no desire because we're so focused on what it means to be set apart, right? We think that we're set apart, therefore we might as well be like our own little jail cell and everyone outside be zombies or something. Like we can't go outside to them. We might get bit or something. Just stay in our little gated prison. Guys, we're supposed to be taking the gospel to the nations. The people who we think are unclean or uncommon, God says, no, they are not. I have a plan for them.

Yeshua was not sent to condemn—John , the verse right after—I was not sent here to condemn the world. I was not sent here to kill all the Gentiles, all the other nations, no. All the wicked people, all those people who are far from God, all those people who have the addictions, all those people who have cursed God, all those people who don't know how to get out of the life that they are in right now, all those people who have unforgiveness, all those people who think that they are so bad in their flesh that they will never be accepted by God's love, all of those people I have made clean and now you need to go and fetch them and fish them and hunt for them in the name of my son. That is the gospel. That is how we are set apart.

You can't be a fisherman on land. You got to get on the boat and go out into the water where the fish are. This is what Peter's vision was all about. How dare us try to manipulate it to mean bacon is clean now. The message is so much more edifying and so much more impactful to believers today than we should limit it with our biased hermeneutics of scripture when the reality is it's showing that Peter—even though he heard the issue, even though he knew he was supposed to go out and teach all nations—he didn't know just how far out God was going to send them. I'm going to send you way out there. All those friends you got that say they don't believe in God—yeah, they're unclean, they're going to hell—they don't have to.

All those friends out there that watch those nasty movies and cuss all the time—yeah, they ain't never going to come praise and worship. I can never picture a day where they're going to raise their hands during praise and worship. Yeah, but I can. All those people out there, drug addicts, pornography addicts, have that drinking problem, they just can't kick. Yeah, they've chosen their gods. No, they've chosen to try to resolve something in their life that only I can take away. And guess what? I'm sending you as my emissary. Don't you call them unclean. Don't you call them common. Don't you wipe them off the slate. I haven't wiped them off the slate yet.

The Mission to All Nations

Therefore, the mission for all of the disciples of Messiah was to go to all nations with the sign and the integrity and the message of the gospel. This is what Peter's dream was all about. In Hebrew roots, we failed at this. Just fail, big fail at this because we yearn to identify with this simple phrase to be set apart. I'm not like all them, so I don't go near them. Yeah, that was the attitude of Messiah. Samaritan woman. You guys have no idea the attitude towards the Samaritans. Judeans saw them as half-breeds, imposters of the faith, anti-covenant followers. Nobody went to them with the love of God.

One man did. Dragged his disciples with him. What are we doing here? If we're truly supposed to be ambassadors of Christ, as scripture says, and guys, I believe we're supposed to follow the food laws. Do what? The first sin. A food law in the garden. Follow the point. A food law. Something that went into the mouth. Fall of mankind. So Romans chapter 10 says you must confess with your mouth. Through that same vessel, you proclaim God as your Lord. Yes, we're supposed to follow the food laws. But guys, don't let this whole holy set apart thing go to your head. You're supposed to be set apart in the fact that you're a light of the world.

And you only see the light in a dark place. That's where Yeshua sent us to be ambassadors, as witnesses. Don't ever forget that. And don't ever let someone tell you that Yeshua has a limited scope on who he wants in the kingdom. You don't deserve to be in the kingdom, neither do I. God chose us. God has chosen all men to come to him. That's his plan to save everybody. And we are the vessels of making that happen.

Set Apart as Ambassadors

Peter had a dream. 1 Peter , we end with this. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace. We talked about that last week. Grace that we will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also will be holy in all of your conduct, in everything you say, do, dress, think, eat. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. See, it's through the grace we reciprocate as obedient children, being conformed. When we were ignorant about something, that's fine, but now that we are no longer ignorant, we get to walk in that grace.

What's funny is Peter quotes a verse here from Leviticus. He quotes a verse from Leviticus—not just any chapter in Leviticus—a verse talking about being as obedient children, following and living in the grace of God, right? In all manner of our conduct, as an example of who Yeshua is, emulating him. He quotes the concluding verse in Leviticus 11 to do this. Leviticus . For I, the Lord your God... Consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the earth. I find it interesting that when Peter's trying to get his point across, he goes back to Leviticus 11 as a standard.

Let that sink in. I hope if you walk away with anything today, it's a new respect for Peter's vision, that it had nothing to do with kosher laws and that's not even the point. But what it did represent was the fact that as setapart people, we are set-apart as ambassadors of Yeshua. And that is our job to not only live an example after Yeshua, but go and teach others everything that Yeshua has taught us. Hey guys, I'm Matthew Vanderels, pastor at Founded in Truth Fellowship, and I really hope you enjoy this message. If you would like to see more messages and teachings like this one, please subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here.

You can also visit our website to find out more information about our ministry and what we do right here. And if this message has been edifying to you, please consider supporting us and the ministry through our secure online giving portal here. This will ensure this message, along with many others, will continue to reach those who find themselves far from God. If you'd like to write us, you can do so at Founded in Truth, P.O. Box 38042 Rock Hill, South Carolina, zip code 29732. You can also check out our Facebook page at facebook.com/foundedintruth. I pray that you stay blessed. I pray that you guys stay encouraged.

And I pray that you stay fit. Founded in Truth. We'll see you guys next time.