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Colorado Springs a service of Salem Media Group 100 points of the word the following prerecorded program is sponsored by a pathway to victory a ministry of 1st Baptist Church Dallas today on pathway to victory with Dr Robert Jefferson today we're going to look at the individual who Jesus said was the greatest person in all of human history and yet even though Jesus said that about him this individual had moments when his faith was shaken to its very foundation welcomes a pathway to victory with author and pastor Dr Robert Jeffers at some point nearly every Christian goes through a season of doubt regarding God's existence or his goodness and many are quite frankly too ashamed to admit it today on pathway to victory Dr Robert Jeffress looks at Jesus and his surprising reaction to the crippling doubts of one of his most faithful disciples Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message Dr Jeffers David there is a lot of excitement at pathway to victory these days because we are just ramping up with our largest matching challenge ever a group of faithful friends has designated $495000.00 as an incentive to motivate our listening family to give generously this month and already people are responding to the call our prayer is that we will reach and exceed the mark so that $1000000.00 or more can be deployed to reach more people than ever before with the good news about Jesus I want you to be asking God to guide you as you prayerfully decide how much to give whatever the size every gift every dollar you give will be doubled until we reach that goal and as an added benefit I've written a brand new daily devotional here's today when you give a generous year and gift toward the matching challenge this devotional is designed is a perpetual book meaning that it never expires and you can refer to it for years to come so when you give today. Be sure to specifically request the leather bound pathway to victory daily devotional you can use throughout 28 tain now as we study the book avoid to learn more about Jesus I ask our creative team to help me put together a brochure for you that would encourage you in your faith in God's word this resource highlights $37.00 specific predictions that foretold the coming of Christ when you begin to see the multiple prophecies that have now been fulfilled in the Bible it will give you confidence in the credibility of God's word and it gives you the reason that you can trust him with your life so in addition to this devotional be sure to ask for the exclusive resource called Jesus the fulfillment of God's prophecies now it's time to get started with today's study from Luke Chapter 7 doubt is a natural part of the Christian experience so how do we handle those in evitable moments of uncertainty I have titled Today's message for those who don't most of us at some point in our Christian lives have times of great doubt in fact I've come to believe those who never doubt are those who never think much about their faith a magic power that has today for shoulder hands and I'm not going to but if I were to ask you how many of you have ever had a time in your Christian lives when you question your faith I magine most hands would go up with the day it happens all of as it was some point in life. Now you may be a student you grew up in a Christian home in a Bible believing church like this one but you go off to college and you hear the so-called facts. And you think well if the Bible is wrong about that what else is or wrong about or maybe you have a child or a grandchild who is rebelling against God and you pray continually for that son or daughter or grandchild to return back to God and yet they move further and further away from God and you think if God can't be counted on the answer a prayer like that what good is he or had your mate a strong follower of Christ has been struck with a debilitating illness that is left that made in a terrible painful existence for months perhaps years and you begin to question if God deals with his followers like that why would I want to trust in him. All of this is some point in our why well question even of the wisdom or even the existence of God If that's true of you you're in good company it may surprise you to know that some of the greatest men and women in history you have been used by God have all had times of great down I think about Martin Luther who said at one point in his life Christ was holy last I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy against God The Puritan preacher Richard Baxter said that his faith rested on quote probabilities instead of full undoubted certainties a fellow Puritan leader named increase Mather wrote in his diary things like I have been greatly molested with temptations to atheism. A church in Chicago the lay deal Moody's membership because of his beliefs that same the so uncertain actually you can go back further in history than that people like Moses Jeremiah a wide Joe even the Apostle Paul had moments of doubt even the Lord Jesus himself while he hung on the cross said My God my God why have you for saken me. Today we're going to look at the end of the Jew all who Jesus said was the greatest person in all of human history and yet even though Jesus said that about him this individual had moments when his faith was shaken to its very foundation even though he spent his ministry proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah the Son of God He himself begin to doubt that because of money answered prayer and undeserved suffering in his life. Or as we're talking about John the Baptist if you have your Bibles today I want you to turn to Luke Chapter 7 because today you're going to find this message very encouraging if you've ever had periods of doubt in your life or in the life from somebody you care about deeply Let's look and see what God's word says for those who doubt well in chapter 7 beginning with Verse 18 and the disciples of John reported to him about all these things all what things you may wonder Well the disciples of John went back to report to John all the things about Jesus the miracles he had performed just like we looked at last time the healing of the century and slaves the raising of the widows only son from the dead and how they go back to report to John what Jesus was doing now of course the question was Where was John when they reported to him let's go back to remember where we are in the story of John himself the last time we saw John he was with the River Jordan John was bad times saying John was announcing get ready for the long awaited Messiah. To come that was his ministry in the wilderness and then one day Jesus appeared and remember John proclaimed the whole the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and Jesus. Down requested that John Bad Times him but John's ministry didn't stop there we last saw him in Route 3 when those things happened but after that time John continued to preach that Jesus was here but not only that John in his ministry continued to confront an ungodly culture and ungodly rulers one of those rulers that John the Baptist confronted was Harriet and this The Tetrarch the Cain who had taken his brother's wife as his own no wife and John the badness condemned him for this holy and as a result John was imprisoned and later he would be beheaded Either way I have to stop here and make an obvious but important point for today you know when John preached he didn't just preach to God's own people the redeemed Israel lives main point John talk to unbelievers he didn't just popped up unbelievers about their need for Jesus Christ as their savior there is no evidence in John's words to Herod that he ever said Harry did you need to trust in Jesus as your Savior and said he said erred what you are doing is wrong and it is a violation of God's standard somehow we have allowed them to see fit into our culture our Christian culture this idea that God's people especially pastors and absolutely no right to speak to an ungodly culture that we can only talk for Christians and if we haven't talked to non Christians the only thing we can ever talk to non Christians about is their need to accept Christ as Savior that's the only message we have for a lost world wrong wrong wrong John the bad this is confronting an ungodly leader who's living in an ungodly way and talking to him about the sanctity the holiness of marriage why he was doing was wrong. Yesterday I got an idiotic e-mail. And all right you know I didn't say the guy was an idiot I said what he was writing was idiotic you make the distinction yourself but he said you know pastors who get mixed up in politics they are pro feigning their calling they are mixing holy with the profane and pastors should never ever do that well thank God And I mean that thank God John the Baptist involved for that kind of idiotic thinking he was willing to confront an ungodly ruler and say Thus saith the Lord and you look at all of the prophets of the Old Testament whether it's Isaiah Jeremiah Daniel they didn't live in a cocoon and just speak to God's own people they spoke to a gun Godling cultures Well thank God the pastors of our own American history didn't fall for that malarkey that all you can do is talk to unbelievers about Christ and nothing else you look at our American history it was Christian pastors who were at the forefront of bringing change in our nation it was a laugh road regiment the black robe regiment big group of pastors courageous pastors in the American Revolution who stood up and said we are not going to put up with the tyranny of King George any longer we believe in a Free Church and a free state it was pastors who led the way for the abolition of slavery in our country it was pastors who were at the forefront who led for civil rights in our country because they chose to get involved in the political process and I believe ladies and gentlemen that Guards people and especially pastors are to be the ones right now standing up and talking about the sanctity of marriage the sanctity of life and religious freedom if we don't do it who's going to do it God has called us to do that. Back to the story of John year John would be beheaded but right now I do Chapter 7 John is in prison he's been there for 8 key months languishing and at this point the joggler disciples of John go back to report to John about all the things that Jesus is doing to look at verse 19 and summoning 2 of his disciples John Simm them to the Lord saying argue the expected one or do we look for something else. Cause what are you saying are you the expected one have you had a heat stroke Don't you remember John you are the one who said the Homo the Lamb of God who takes away the sin in the world Eve said here is the one who is the answer to the Old Testament prophecies for a messiah what's wrong John why are you having these doubts not actually read people who say what John really wasn't asking for himself he was asking for others around him who had those doubts now he asked a question here in verse 20 asked the same question again Lord are you the Messiah what one cause John to doubt that remember the Old Testament prophets and John believe that when the Messiah came he would come not only to be the savior of the world but the king of the world he would come not only to offer salvation but offer freedom from oppression they didn't understand that there would be a gap of thousands of years between the Messiah's 1st commoner and his 2nd coming when Jesus came to 1st time he came to be the sacrifice for our sins the suffering servant but he's coming back again one day as today and when he comes back again he's coming to rule the world and justice and righteousness Well they didn't understand that they thought it was the whole ball of wax with one coming and so he . John anything order you the expected one I mean after all I mean you've said some nice things you perform some pretty impressive miracles but I'm still here in prison and so where is this freedom that you've been talking about it hasn't happened yet now John out of his respect for Jesus actually softens the question a little bit he pulls his punch he says the Lord are you this expected one of the Old Testament or have we just misunderstood it should we be looking for someone else at the root of John's question was or profound disappointment and what Jesus was doing or not doing in his own life John was saying Lord if you're the expected one why am I in this dark damp Roman prison let me stop here for a moment and point out what I believe are for sources of doubt in our life if you or somebody you know doubts his or her Christian faith is usually for one or more of these reasons and I want you to write this down 1st of all on live to truth unlived truth can be a source of doubt one of my seminary professors used to say to us he said remember this preacher's nothing will cause more doubt in you're alive than trapped again in an lived truth. He was saying if you stand up week after week and pro fast and teach things that are not true in your own life it's going to cause doubt that's not only true for pastors it's true for all of us if there is a contradiction between what you profess to be true and how you actually live you can't live with that dissonance for a long period of time I killed Christians who are living disobedient only one of 2 things is going to happen soon either you're going to change your behavior or you're going to change your blade. Yes but you can't continue to claim what the Bible says to be true and live a disobedient lifestyle and live truth can be the source of that out Secondly an unexamined faith can be the source of doubt and somebody who said it's better to debate a question before settling it then decide what question before debating it you know that old adage The Bible says that I believe it that settles it that's a great motto but it really doesn't work that well the fact is there needs to be a time when you closely study in examine what you believe because there is going to come a time of testing there's going to come a time a doubt in his 1st Peter 315 says you need to be ready to give an answer to anyone you as including yourself for the hope that is with you you know this is especially true of students who go off to college they grow up in a white this church or a Christian home and then they go and they're confronted with an ungodly professor who teaches ungodly things and they begin to question their faith. And I think about that atheist professor who is lecturing his class one day and he said I'm going to prove to you that God doesn't exist and he looks up and he said if you're up there I want you to come down and write me a. Few minutes pass and nothing happens. Finally a 300 pound football player at the back of the class stands up strides walking toward the professor gets in front of the men told coxing. The professor stands up wipes the blood off of his nose and said Why did you do that. Bob players said God was busy so he sent me. Now students somewhere you're going to meet a professor like that who has all of this have a dance and that's why you're so important that you be grounded in your faith and know what you believe in why you believe it and on examine faith can be a source of down now there's really nothing in the text that suggests that there was any unlived truth in John's wife or an unexamined faith but these next 2 sources of doubt I think apply inferred source of doubt can be an answer prayer you know John wasn't upset about what Jesus was doing it's what he wasn't doing John the bad this said send a message to Jesus and ask him if he's the expected one what John was really saying was hey geezers remember me and heard from you 19 months have you forgotten about me no doubt he was requesting that Jesus intervene in his situation. Many times we do the same thing we ask God for an intervention in our lives to do something miraculous on our behalf or the behalf or somebody we care about deeply and yet the more we plead with God the more silent God hears the heavens the same as brass and that causes doubt for many people the 4th cause of down is probably the bottom line because of doubt and that is undeserved suffering as sort of a recently asked a cross section of Americans if you could ask God only one question what would you ask him you know what the overwhelming response was God Why do you allow suffering in the world. Now I have the sneaking suspicion people respond that way and they want to know about suffering you know they're really not thinking about earthquakes famines starving children in Africa when they ask about suffering in the world they're talking about suffering in their world. Or and why do you allow bad things to happen to me by the way that question isn't original David Solomon job all asked the very same question and here was the question God If both believers and unbelievers suffer a financial hardship illness divorce death. Then what use is that being a believer. That's what John was really asking he said Lord if you can't even get me out of this prison what good are you and I want you to notice how Jesus responds 1st of all he speaks to John directly through these messengers Secondly he speaks to the multitude who are overhearing the whole conversation and finally he has a word to the Farriss 1st of all to John himself when you're verse 22 And Jesus answered and said to John's messengers go and report to John what you have seen and heard the blind receive sight the lame wall the lepers or clans and the death here the raised up the poor have the gospel preached to them Jesus knew John was in prison he couldn't see all of this so he said go and report to John everything that I'm doing and then Jesus said and by the way verse 23 remind John blesses it is he who keeps from stumbling over me that word stumble means to ensnare and track he was saying very gently to John John remember you'll be a lot of help here with me if you don't stumble over me because I'm not performing just the way you think I should. I prepared Today's message for those who doubt and I'm hoping you'll join us again on Mondays pathway to victory point I'll continue this study and what Chapter 7 before I turn the microphone back over to David let me urge you to take a few moments today or perhaps this weekend to contact pathway to victory with your special end of year generous gift with so much turmoil in our country and so many families and people losing their way or asking God to help us expand our influence not only in America but around the world gratefully there's an active matching challenge right now in the amount of $490.00. $5000.00 this plan allows us to double the size of your December year in gift so that a gift of $100.00 becomes 200 dollars 500 dollars gift becomes a $1000.00 you pick the amount and it's automatically doubled until we reach they go to say thank you for participating I'm eager to sink you the brand new and exclusive to victory daily devotional this is one of the most beautiful and comprehensive books we've ever offered with inspirational chapters to fill out every week day in the new year it's a handsome book I'm bound in leather that would also make a thoughtful Christmas gift don't forget that when you respond today I'll also include the multifocal the brochure called Jesus the fulfillment of God's prophecy This demonstrates how 37 prophecies about Christ Ministry and the Old Testament were fulfilled I think your faith in God's Word will be strengthened as you see these amazing prophecies and their fulfillments So there's really never been a better condo invest in pathway to victory than right now would you be among those who join us in this all out effort to reach more people with the hope and comfort of Jesus Christ God will use your generosity to pierce the darkness with a light of His Word. 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Box 223609. 75222. P. O. Box 223609. 75222 I'm David. Wishing you a great weekend then join us again Monday when our study in the Gospel of Luke continues right here on pathway to victory with just. 100 points film word. A young wife and mother knew where to turn for help with their family. Jim Daly help us give the gift of family to more parents like Betsy call 800. The Simply put we make people happy. Well there's only one way will resurface cabinets. Replacement kitchens only custom built cabinets people for a fabulous look bathrooms you can count on the tried and true done right bathroom renovation system and Windows and Doors how much your $0.02 worth Well it starts with the quality window or door yes but I'm here to tell you that preparation installation and finish are exactly why they'll be able to join those that say done right by me so folks whether it's kitchen floors or even replacement windows and doors as always you have. It done right. 18036. Abraham. It's. 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Welcome to the broadcast outreach of Living God ministries with Aaron budge and Aaron discovered Jesus is His Messiah while preparing to be a rabbi he now teaches for several organizations and is the teaching pastor for a living God ministries strongly distinguishing between the old and new covenants presents the scriptures from a day and historical frame of reference joint here and now as he reveals the reality foreshadowed in the new life we can now experience because of what the Lord Jesus accomplished for us. This covering the Gospel and being saved can be a very exciting experience for an individual. When a person gets saved they live with a sense of anticipation and expectation and they should because being saved is exciting discovering who God is is very exciting but sometimes over a period of time this tends to dissipate a little bit the excitement dissipates and goes away in a person will then be left with questions like what happened why is it that I was so enthusiastic before and now I just simply feel disappointment I feel as though I'm further away from God than when I 1st got saved even what happened what went wrong this does happen on occasion in there are of course many reasons why this happens but what I would like to talk about today is what people will sometimes do in response to this discovery that they have that they had this great sense of enthusiasm and expectation when they 1st got saved and then it just sort of dissipated a little bit and they really believe that they need to now do something in order to restore or perhaps even resurrect that initial excitement that they once had now what happens in many congregations of Christians is that people often get taught the Law they get taught the law in different ways different laws but in general expectations get placed onto an individual where we will say things like you need to do this and you should not do this and when people try to live according to these rules or regulations laws principles for daily living however we may describe them when a person begins to live this way what happens is that a person fails they fail at times and when they do they will believe that God will not accept them as he once did and so with this kind of theology or with this kind of belief. What people will tend to do in response is they will recommit themselves they will rededicate themselves they will try harder they will really devote themselves to trying to be who they believe God wants them to be this then becomes the objective of the Christian life for many people what people do after they get saved and they get excited and then a lot of promises are made they become very enthusiastic about these promises people tell them that they're going to be blessed but when these blessings don't come when these promises tend to be unfulfilled when these things happen then people tend to look for other ways to deal with the issues that they find themselves dealing with and this is one of the ways that they will deal with these issues is they will become committed even more they will become devoted even more but to what to try to be who God wants them to be and this can only be defined with a set of laws you must have a set of laws they you identify the you pick and choose a you are going to live in obedience to you are going to repent from your sins you are now going to live in obedience to the commandments that you have selected and somehow that will then get God to respond to you and he will now fulfill all those promises that you thought he should have fulfilled already or he is going to bless you in ways that he ought to because he's going to show you for all your effort these are the kinds of things that people begin to think about these are the things that people tend to believe they may not say directly but indirectly it can be found throughout their entire life existence you can discover that this is how people tend to function so what will an individual do well they will need to identify. The laws the commandments the rules they will have to find a list they need a list you have to have a list in order to accomplish this objective that you now have you need to have the list of things that you're going to do and the more committed a person is the longer this list will tend to be what some people do who are very committed who are really determined. What some people will do in this case is they will pick certain laws in the Old Covenant found within the law of Moses they will pick some of them that they believe are not being observed like they should be they will of course continue to try to observe all of those laws that everybody told them not to do which I can understand things like Do not kill do not steal things like that I can certainly appreciate that but they will add to that they will identify the laws it might be missing in the Christian life things like the dietary laws the dietary laws tend to be a very popular selection for individuals who really want to be committed who really want to be devoted they will select the dietary laws to start out with and then they will select the Sabbath law and other laws laws related to the festivals for example things like that they will then trying to obey or observe as much of the law is they can with hope that maybe through that promises will be fulfilled blessings will be received they will have a close relationship with their God that they don't really seem to have right now this tends to be the origin behind many people's pursuit of living a life in obedience to the dietary laws and other laws now what I would like to talk about in this program and probably the next program as well is this subject of the dietary laws I decided to take a few minutes just to give you some general background as to what may motivate and individual to pursue these but of course there are many different people who pursue these laws for different reasons I'm just giving you the most common reason why I find people are trying to live in obedience to the dietary laws as well as many others that are somewhat related to the dietary laws or at least fall in the same classification as the dietary laws in the. Text of living in obedience to the commandments in order to be blessed by God or in order to have promises fulfilled by God or in order to show God that you love him things like that the dietary laws tend to be quite popular with those who are the most determined with those who are not as determined they will focus on other things and those things will have the same effect in terms of failure and depression and other consequences if people experience when they try to live a life that they can't but when it comes to the dietary laws a person can live in obedience to those laws and yet only those who tend to be really committed to this task will pick those I mean to me it seems a little bit odd because there are other people who are not as committed and yet they could pick those laws because they are easier to obey than some of the other things that they try to accomplish but I'm just going to call that an anomaly at the moment and instead what I want to do is I want to spend some time talking about the dietary laws in the context of an individual trying to obtain something that they do not have that they believe that they should obtain or that they should have they're trying to restore some excitement that they had once before they're trying to make sure in some way there are many motives now what I want you to consider of course is the fact that we have already been blessed by God he has already fulfilled many promises to I have done many radio programs on this subject program such as the will of God our inheritance in Christ things like that so I'm not going to focus on the blessings that we have already received or the promises that our God has already fulfilled in many cases people are pursuing these blessings and these promise is not recognizing that they have already received what they are truly pursuing I want to refer you to those programs for that subject in this case though aside from the motive I really want to talk about the importance of the dietary law. Laws I want to talk about the importance of them because I find many people will look at the dietary laws and say something like Well you know that's just the law that's the old covenant we're now under the new covenant and then they just ignore it they just move on and they continue in their Christian life and just say well that's just part of something that happened in the past and God used that at one time but there are other things that are more important to us now and in many ways that's true I can understand that there are many things that are more important to us now but this is still important this is very important I believe that if an individual does not understand the dietary laws that there are many things in the Scriptures that they will not understand what I mean by that is that it's not so important to understand the dietary laws what is important is understanding the implications of the dietary laws what's important is to understand the effect of the dietary laws it's important to understand the role that the dietary laws played in bringing about salvation in bringing the gospel to the Gentile world in order to understand the conflicts that were taking place in the development of the early church you have to understand the dietary laws the implications of the dietary laws the effect of the dietary laws that's what I'm talking about is that people will tend to ignore the laws that God gave through Moses just because they are part of the Old Covenant not realizing the effect of those laws and what they meant to the people at the time that the Gospel was being revealed and it was going out into the world it had a profound significance to the reunification of the Jew in the Gentile to become one in Christ Jesus and I believe that if you do not understand the dietary laws in this context it's my belief I really believe that you're missing something. But you're missing something that God gave that he wants you to know that he wants you to understand that he wants you to appreciate So that's what I want to talk about now in order for me to get into this the 1st thing I'm going to do is tell you what the law is because you need to know the law you've got to know what the law is now the law was well defined in Leviticus Chapter 11 in my opinion that's the best place to look concerning the dietary laws read through Leviticus Chapter 11 and you will see the list that God gave concerning what you can eat and what you can't eat now of course this list was given to the nation of Israel and this did result in some very important things and I will tell you what those things are in just a minute but this list was given to the nation of Israel to observe that they could eat some things and they could not eat other things and if you take the time to read through Leviticus chapter 11 then you can identify the things that you can eat the things you cannot eat but let me give you some examples concerning what you can and cannot eat in Leviticus Chapter 11 the Lord said that animals that both chew the cud and have a split those can be eaten but if an animal choose the cut and does not have a split hook you cannot eat that animal or if the animal has a split but does not chew the cud then you cannot eat that animal for example the cow has both a split and choose the cod but the pig has a split and does not chew the cud and so you can eat a cow but you can eat the pig animals that come out of the ocean can be eaten but only those animals that have both fins ends scales if the animal comes out of the water out of the ocean and it does not have been since scales then you can not eat those animals certain insects can be eating those that have jointed legs like. Locusts For example if you're interested in eating locusts but you cannot eat other insects that do not have jointed legs now there's a whole list that you can go through and you can identify the foods that you can eat and the foods you cannot eat and if you were to examine the animals closely you probably will find many good reasons as to why you would not want to eat some of those animals like bats serve things like that you may not be interested in eating spiders I can understand that there are some significant health concerns for some of these animals for example not just the taste of the concerns for how they look or whatever but there can be some serious health concerns related to these but I'm not going to talk about that right now all I want to do is tell you that these are the laws these are some examples concerning the laws and there are probably some very good reasons as to why you would want to eat some animals and not eat others now he also spoke about the containers that these animals could be placed in for example if the containers that are used in order to either capture store prepare whatever the containers are made out of wood or cloth Well if they come in contact with an unclean animal then those containers need to be washed otherwise you will have violated the dietary laws but there are other containers such as pottery or the oven that is used in order to cook these animals if the animals come in contact with the pottery or the oven then you will have to destroy the pottery you will have to destroy the oven and so there are some details concerning the containers the utensils things like that with relevance to the dietary laws and these laws are very well defined now what I would like you to consider is what will be the effect what will be the consequences. If a person lives in obedience to these laws what will be the consequences what will be the effect of an individual observing the dietary laws if they are devoted if they are committed if they truly live according to what the law demands then how will that affect the way that they relate to the people around them well if everyone else is observing those laws then there probably won't be any significant concern but if there are people who are not observing those laws then those who are observing those laws will find themselves isolated from those who are not there will be a separation between those who are observing the dietary laws and those who are not observing the dietary laws this is a very important thing to recognize that if the Israel lights assume these laws to themselves if they live in obedience to these commandments then how are they going to do business with the phony sions for example how are they going to hang out with the Cayman Knights they're not because the phony Shin's had a specific diet that they enjoyed they enjoyed lots of animals that came out of the ocean they did not have both pins in scales for example they ate pigs the Cananites as well and so what would happen between the Israel lights and everyone else in the region well they would be isolated from them they would be separated from them they would not be able to trade with each other they would not be able to eat with each other they would not be able to have any commerce with the other because the dietary laws would be violated it would be ver. For the Israel lights to engage with the other nations in any way it would be virtually impossible for them to be able to do that because they would violate the dietary laws through the commerce through the activity through the relational connections between the 2 it just would not work out very well and I believe that this was done on purpose I believe that God is stablished the dietary laws for this purpose to isolate the nation of Israel from all the other nations now there are other laws that have been identified that could fit in the class of dietary laws for example in Exodus Chapter 23 verse 19 again that's Exodus Chapter 23 verse 19 also in Chapter 34 verse 26 that's Exodus Chapter 34 verse 26 and Deuteronomy Chapter 14 verse 21 in these 3 references the Lord says something about diet that you are not to cook a calf in its mother's milk or boil a calf in its mother's milk that you're not to do that this is another law that is found in these 3 locations and these have been assumed to be dietary laws I say that they have been assumed to be dietary laws only because I don't think that they are and there's 2 reasons why the 1st reason why I do not believe that this is part of the dietary law is because it's not part of Leviticus Chapter 11 that's the 1st reason of course it doesn't have to be but I do make that assumption that is my own personal assumption but the 2nd reason to me is much more important it's much more profound and that is that this is actually a description of an ancient Canaanite religious practice and it's my belief that the proper context of. This law especially where his place and how it's used I believe that the Lord is saying that you are not to worship the gods of the Canaanites or any other god for that matter but that if they were to exercise this practice if they were to do this thing then they could have an association or there could be an association made that perhaps they are worshipping and other God And so it's my opinion that that was the intent of that specific law found in these 3 different places but the rabbis they did not believe that they really did believe that this was part of the dietary law and so I would proceed with that I'm just telling you that in my opinion is not part of the dietary laws but the Farriss did believe that it was part of the dietary law and so they incorporated this within their diet within the way that they lived in such a way that they would never ever eat meat and milk products in the same meal that's how they dealt with it they would never eat anything that was a meat product with a milk product they would normally separate the 2 meals between 4 and 6 hours the reason why they did that was because they believed that there was a risk there was great risk involved in eating both meat products and milk products the risk was that perhaps the meat products the hamburger the steak those products might have come from an offspring of a cow that provided the milk products and if that was the case then you would eat the milk product you would eat the meat product and through the digestive process is and the increase in body temperature you would perhaps in effect be boiling the meat in its mother's milk that was how far they went concerning trying to live in obedience to this particular law but the purpose of that decision the intent of that decision was to just simply reduce the risk reduce the. Henschel that may be may be we could violate the law in some way and so if we just live this way if we eat this way then we will never violate this law which in my opinion is the description of an ancient Canaanite religious practice that they should not have been observing Anyway that's how I read that now to this day the Jews today who are the descendants of the Israelites they are the people of Israel who have survived to this day to day they still observe these laws to the extent where when it comes to meet in the products they have 2 different refrigerators they have 2 different sets of dishes and utensils plus 2 more different sets for Passover and other holidays some will use 2 different avenues 2 different sets of pots and other utensils in order to cook their food people do live this way today so just as people were isolated back then what do you suppose is happened today well the Jews are for the most part isolated from the other people today if they are living in obedience to the dietary laws in the same way that the people were back then as God required if they do that then they will find themselves being just as isolated from everyone around them as the Israel lights were isolated from all of the nations around them during the time when God gave the commandments Now again I believe that this isolation that this separation was done by God on purpose what do you suppose this purpose would be I believe that the purpose was to bring about the society the culture the economic the religious and the political infrastructure so that the Messiah would come in the way the god wanted the Messiah to come to bring the Gospel and provide salvation for humanity now when he. Accomplished this through 1st isolating the nation of Israel I believe that he accomplished this through the dietary laws he used the dietary laws in order to isolate the people to separate the people so that he could do a specific work with these people and then when the time came to reunite the Jews who with the Gentile when that time finally came which was after the Messiah came he died for the sins of the world he rose from the dead at that time the Gospel needed to be taken out into the Gentile world he then used the dietary laws again in order to bring the gospel out to the Gentile world now there's of course a lot to say about this and I will take the time to talk about this in the next broadcast but for those people in your life or maybe you're one of these people who have decided to live according to the dietary laws to incorporate them in your life if you know people who are incorporating them into their life into their lifestyle one of the questions that needs to be asked is why why are they doing that is it because they believe they will sin if they violate the dietary laws Well this is a very important question is it sin is it not sin Well technically it is a form of sin but when you look at the penalty for violating the dietary laws it's not the same as the penalty for violating other laws of God And so if it is a sin that will separate us from our God I would like to know that I would definitely like to be aware of that but when I study the law I do not see that this is a sin that God declared we would be separated from him personally through violating these laws instead you will be separated from. Then nation of Israel that was the penalty that he described and I of course will talk about this more in the next program now if you are observing the dietary laws for health reasons and by all means I certainly would encourage you to do that if that's what you want to do I can appreciate that but if you believe that your relationship with your god is affected by a decision like this if you believe that he will bless you in return for this that he will intervene in a Divine Way in your life as opposed to intervening divinely in the lives of other people who are not observing the laws as you are if that's the case then I would question the validity of that I would question the intent of an individual who was pursuing that again I do believe that we need to ask the question why and answer that legitimately Otherwise we might be making decisions in our lives that are not necessarily reflective of what our God has done for us what he has given to us and we may not fully know the New Covenant that has gone into effect I will continue with this in the next broadcast. You've been listening to the broadcast out of reach of Living God ministries you can hear all of our programs for free through our radio archive the living God Ministries dot net that is living God Ministries dot net to help us develop new radio programs and continue broadcasting on this and other radio stations send your contributions to living God ministries p.o. Box 38353 Colorado Springs Colorado 80937 or use the donation link on our website living God Ministries dot net that is living God Ministries dot. Net. 147 the word Christina grew up in a broken dysfunctional family but she didn't want to raise her son the same way focus on. That but I could identify with. All that anger and how did they counseling. 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