Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Have you ever wondered why the Mosaic law had so much to say about what was clean and unclean? As Pastor Rich unpacks our text, Deuteronomy 14, we have We see the gracious heart of God in the laws that He gave the people of Israel.
His heart is for human flourishing. And in light of Jesus, who touched the unclean without becoming unclean, Who made all things new? we can see the hope and joy our God has for his people. From the Old Testament to the New. Let's listen to this message titled A People Holy to the Lord.
This is part two of a message first preached on august fourth, twenty twenty four, at Grace Bible Church in Winston, Salem.
So this is why The distinguishing mark is how you perceive life and death. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 says that we are not to sorrow as those who have no hope. In other words, sorrow, but sorrow with hope, because there is hope. Hope. Because we hope in the one who said, I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me shall never die. That's hope. Also 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 through 9. Blessed be the God and Father. Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith. For a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. We've known this, haven't we? What is this? This is the disposition of God's people who live with hope even in the midst of hardship and suffering and even death.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.
So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, May be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Do you remember memorizing that? I encourage you to go back and review that and re-memorize it again.
so that it sticks with you. That the big picture. Encapsulated in those few verses. That is the distinguishing disposition of the child of God. It is a distinguishing mark of God's, one of the distinguishing marks of God's people.
How you perceive life and death.
So we continue here in verses 3 to 21, a big part of the chapter, a second distinguishing mark of God's people is how you pursue human flourishing. How you pursue human flourishing.
Now, this has a lot to do with diet.
Now, this is going to deal with that which is clean and that which is unclean. And in the Old Testament era, Old Testament law, it wasn't just foods, there was unclean behavior. There were unclean people, right? Depending on the state of your body. And so We're going to touch on that a little bit.
A lot more of that will be covered as we go through the book of Deuteronomy. But let me begin with a starting point here, okay? What is all this about clean and unclean? The starting point is this: God created us.
So we bear his image. We are his image. God created us for a full and perfect life with Him. He is good and he created everything good. It is our sin that separates us from him.
It is human sin that has brought brokenness and sin and defilement into this world.
Okay. But God created us for a full and perfect life with Him.
So in general, understanding the clean and the unclean, that which is associated with life and health. is considered Clean in the arena of clean. As God sees it, as God presents it. Because again, we're talking about attitudes, we're talking about behaviors, okay? And when we come to the New Testament, it's not about material things.
Jesus points to something far different, and we're going to be looking at that here in just a second. But in general, that which is associated more with life and health is. Deemed clean. That which is less healthy and closer to death. is considered unclean, which is why you don't touch a person with leprosy.
Or, depending on the state of your body, you could be considered unclean. Or certain kinds of foods are considered unclean. Because they were less healthy and even closer to death.
So why does God impose this on his people? It's not like God is up there saying, I want you to eat that, I don't want you to eat that, because I just don't want you to eat that. No, that's not what he's doing. God is gracious and he is good. And he has the well-being of his people.
If you remember, if you belong to God, you are the object of his loving concern from eternity.
So he has his people's well-being in view here. Not only their well-being, but also from distinction, their distinction from what he would consider detestable things and harmful practices. This is why he establishes categories of clean and unclean.
So the first category would be health and hygiene. Health and hygiene, and in this particular chapter, he's dealing with diet. What do you eat? What do you not eat? What do I want you to eat?
You have to remember: where is Israel right now when the Lord is giving this to them? Where are they right now? Answer this for me: where are they? They're in a wilderness. It's not like they can just go right down to the butcher shop and say, hey, you know, fix.
They have to be careful about what they eat.
So what could they eat?
Well, they could eat venison, beef, mutton, goat. But there are other things that they could not eat. Why could they not eat the other things? We don't know exactly why, except for the distinguishing marks of those animals. What is it about them?
God didn't want them eating scavengers. And I don't want you to eat scavengers. I want. Animals that eat other animals. Right?
Okay, uh birds of you look at the birds that are listed in the text here, most of most of them are birds of prey. Don't eat those, all right? I want you to eat fish. You can eat fish, but I want you to eat the fish that swim, all right? But I don't want you to eat sea creatures that crawl on the bottom of the ocean.
Somebody emailed me last Sunday and said, Why are we not in Deuteronomy? I said, Because I'm in Virginia and Bobby's going to be preaching.
So, why are we not in Deuteronomy? Because I don't want Bobby to preach against lobster. I'm a fan of lobster.
So those are the reasons why. And we will know in time, God, why did you choose these animals and not those? But you remember, this is not where clean and unclean was first introduced. Where was it first introduced? Way back in the early parts of Genesis when God was leading the animals to the ark.
We always think they went two by two. Am I right? Is that right? Is that true? All of it was just two by two?
No. Clean animals, there were seven of them. Yeah.
Well, you know, Noah and his family needed to eat for a year, right?
So that's why.
So, anyway, so it's not only health and hygiene relative to diet here, but also, also. It's matters of disassociation from abominable practices. Remember, these people, the people of Israel, were surrounded by extremely pagan nations who did really abominable, detestable things. As forms of worship, and a big part of worship is how they eat. And as he talks later on, the portion that Daryl, that DJ read this morning, That was a form of worship.
How the people ate was a form of worship. Think about that. How you eat is a form of worship. Wow.
Okay, so disassociation. Let's look at one example. This is a terrible thing. Look at verse chapter 14, verse 20. The end of.
Verse 21. Did you find it? The very end of verse 21. It seems like it just comes right out of nowhere. This is right out of the blue.
But he mentions it several times in the law, okay? You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. What on earth? What he's referring to is a pagan ritual. And it was It was a ritual of fertility.
So you would take a young goat Yeah. Take a mother's goat and boil that milk and put the young goat in that milk as a pagan ritual of fertility. And God said, You're my people. Don't do that. See, that's why stuff like that.
So, the clean and the unclean, and the reasons for dietary things like that is not only for health and hygiene, but also. to disassociate with abominable and cruel practices. It was cruelty, is what it was.
So, as we go through the scriptures and studying chapters like this, what makes a person unclean. including the state of the body or their behavior separates that person from God.
Now it is God's desire to be near and with his people. It is God's desire for his people to be near him and with him. But there has to be a cleanliness about it, right?
So that's why in the law you will find that there was a purification process for those who became unclean for one reason or another. There was a purification process that involved time. It involved washing and involved going before the priests. Why did God establish this? Because there were health-related benefits.
These were nomadic people wandering through a wilderness.
So there are health related benefits to this, but also... In this, there is a foreshadowing of the reality in Christ that is coming in Christ. the very last chapter of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter four. is a verse that is quoted in a Christmas carol. The Son of Righteousness will appear with healing in his wings.
healing in his wings. And all of this that is in the law is a foreshadowing of Christ. And so that takes us then, let's move now to the New Testament, think about the New Testament. Jesus appears on the scene. John has declared him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And what does Jesus do? He touches a dead person. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace Mission.
To help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good. and your deepest satisfaction in Him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
