I.H. Klassen
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In the last part of the 10th verse, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly loss, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, or a special people, zealous of good works?
Now we know that the world doesn't read the Bible, but they do read the believer and it's a real exercise as to what kind or what do they read.
And.
The word here is to adorn the doctrine. Now how could we do that? Well, it really would be by walking in the truth, or in the doctrine. And so he does bring in the fact that the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared into all men at one time, in all that God had to do with Israel.
As one nation, as it were, but now the grace of God appears to all men.
Well, it's wonderful, isn't it? It's not now a particular people, but it's to everybody.
And what is the grace of God do when the grace of God teaches us, it not only saves us, but teaches us.
It's so different to be taught by the grace of God than by legality. Should we say by the law?
And so.
The word there is teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly loss, we should live soberly, righteously and godliness present world. And I'm thinking especially of a verse 14 that says to purify unto himself a special people.
What God is doing that? And we have a scripture to turn to in the Old Testament. But first I'd like to turn to Philippians.
Chapter 2.
Now again I say that the world does not read the Bible.
Nor could they understand it if they did. But somehow they can tell the believer just how he ought to walk. And the moment a believer steps out of the line, the world right away can will point the finger and say, well, what are you doing? How come you're doing that? That's kind of strange that the world knows that, but they do. But now in verse.
Two for instance.
Still a little pursuing the adorning the doctrine verse 14 of chapter 2 Do all things without murmuring and disputing. Well, what a word that is. Wouldn't that adorn the doctrine?
And that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God. Now notice the sons of God there without rebuke.
When you get the children of God, it's relationship. When you get the sons of God, it's testimony.
That the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as light.
In the world or stars?
Holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither have labored in vain. So again you get that side of things of shining as stars in this world. Now it's a real exercise, isn't it, as to what kind of a light I'm giving off.
And.
Paul here to the Philippians tells them said that you are the lights of the world and if you don't give the light, the world won't have it.
And the Lord was here and saw He was the light of the world. But now you and I are.
Well, we might say, well now, how can we render a testimony? How can we be a light? Supposing I set out to be a testimony for the Lord or a light, I'll never be one. If I make that my object, I will never be one.
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And so I believe we learn from the 14th of Deuteronomy how that we can be a light or a testimony in this world.
Should we say almost without knowing it, but I believe every person that has set out to be a testimony.
Falls by the way, because the object is really wrong right from the beginning.
Now this first verse should really read Sons if you look at the.
J&D translation. You would read songs. And so we had in Philippians sons, your sons, and in Titus we had that we were a special people unto the Lord. Ye are the sons of the Lord your God. He shall not cut yourselves nor make boldness.
Make any baldness between your eyes for the dead now.
In this verse.
Sons, you know, speak of well, a son delights, I mean a father delights in the son who serves him, it says in Malachi. So how wonderful to be sons, to be representatives of these, of the father. You might see a son, you might say, well, he looks like his father, he talks like his father, he acts like his father. Well, that's what God would have this would be.
Rendering testimony.
But how could you do that? It can only be done by acquaintance with the father, as it were.
And so.
It's a little bit, we might say a little bit negative here now that it says ye are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves nor make any boldness between your eyes for the dead.
Well.
To disfigure ourselves for the dead. Now who are the dead? Well, the dead are the world. They're dead and trespasses and sins and how easy it is sometimes to disfigure ourselves for the dead. That is, and I've been guilty of it, that to hide the fact that I'm a child of God. Sometimes in a certain company as a as a young man especially or a boy I would I didn't want.
Know that I was a Christian and sometimes I would act in such a way that they wouldn't think I was one. Well, in a way I was disfiguring myself for the dead.
And.
We can do that, you know, in our work or business or anything. We can, we can somehow.
Deter people's thoughts as to.
Away from the Lord, or at least not bring the Lord before them. So it it's not impossible, as it were, to to disfigure ourselves in some way in order that people might not think that we're believers.
Well, the warning is here not to do that.
No, I trust that I wouldn't do that now. But there were times where the reproach was so strong that I didn't want people to think that I was a Christian.
And.
So I purposely, as it were, it is figured myself. Well, I'm ashamed of it now.
And then he adds, For thou art and holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar or a special people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. Well, it's a remarkable thing that God has chosen you, and he's chosen me, that I might be a special people.
A special one to himself and.
What a privilege it is we need to be a representative of the Lord Himself.
And speaks here of God, having chosen you and chosen me.
For this special place, well, how am I going to meet it? How am I going to handle it?
Now, there's one statement here. You know, this whole chapter speaks about eating and sometimes said we are what we eat.
This is a saying just in the world that we are what we eat, remember?
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The man I used to work for, he said if you want to feel good at 20, start eating right. I mean, if you want to feel good at 40, start eating right at 20. And he said if you want to feel good at 60, start eating right at 40. Well, there's some truth to that, you know, And but there's one statement here. Now, this is what thou shalt not eat abominable things. Now that's one, one negative thing here.
Thou shalt not eat.
Any abominable thing so to.
Well, perhaps I can tell you an example better, but I was in a home in Phoenix and was invited there for dinner that night. I came in around 4:00 and the lady put an ice.
Plate of chocolates in the living room on the coffee table.
And I know she was trying to do me a real favor, but I knew better than to eating those chocolates before dinner. But she had two children that came and helped themselves. And she came in the room and she said, no, children, don't eat those chocolates. You want to spoil your supper, spoil your supper. And so she went out again.
And pretty soon she came in again and they had helped themselves. And so she just scolded him, said you're going to not want your supper.
Well, then me, I'd have taken it up and put it up someplace where they couldn't reach it, but I don't know why she didn't do it. But anyway, supper time came and sure enough.
They tried to make them eat and they cried and everything, and pretty soon they had to put them both to bed without any eating supper. But.
This happens in our lives to we can spoil our appetite for the things of God.
And the world has designed many things to give us, to give us to spoil our appetite for reading the word.
And we have to admit it. We can come into our house. The Bible might be laying here and there might be a magazine there or a newspaper.
And we pick up the newspaper first, or the magazine. Why do we do that? Then afterward we might take up the Bible to read it. And somehow the appetite isn't there. It's been spoiled. So we have to be careful not to expose ourselves to things that would ruin our appetite.
Somebody said to me the other day, you know, I read the Bible. I just don't get anything out of it. I just can't get anything out of it. Well, I just thought, well, maybe you have spoiled your appetite for the Word.
And so I believe it's very timely before it says what you can eat for, it says what you shouldn't eat.
And so then you come to verse 4.
These are the beasts which ye shall eat, the ox, the sheep, and the goat. Now these were clean animals.
And they could be eaten.
And now, of course, in just a historical sense, if you'd want to take it that way, well, you wouldn't get too much out of it. But when you see that each one of these animals represent the Lord Jesus Christ in a special way.
You first have the ox. Now the ox speaks of strength. It speaks of that animal that can pull a load. A member of my brother-in-law saying that he used to skid logs out of the mountains. He said two oxen could pull skids, more logs than four horses. And I said well how could that be? Well he said the ox just lays down in the yoke until the log gives, but the horses that the log doesn't.
Began to seesaw. And unless you have a very good driver, you really can't do very much with them. And so when we think of the Lord Jesus going through this world, how many times we need to feed on him as that one that was had endurance, the one that went steadily forward.
Our eyes just have to in certain problems, we just have to get a vision of the Lord before us and to say, well Lord, how did you meet this and learn from his word how these things were met? Now I think 40 times.
In the book of Mark alone you get expressions like immediately.
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Forth with a non the Lord was going forward and.
The.
It speaks really of endurance.
Now what does it say in Hebrews that we count them happy that endure?
And so you might say, I might feel like giving up or falling by the way, but how wonderful to get a little meal of the one that never turned back, that had every reason to turn back. But he didn't. He went forward. And so in the ox you get the Lord represented in that way.
Now you come to the sheep, and the sheep is that patient sufferer.
Well, there the Lord Jesus Christ again, we have him how many times in scripture as that patient sufferer, you know, a sheep. Again, I'm thankful that I'm acquainted with some of these animals. It really helps. I sometimes hear sheep stories from people that live in town and they're really way wrong because they they have not really known what sheep are, what sheep will do.
But a sheep is a very patient.
Animal and.
If you have noticed in Isaiah 53.
It speaks of he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, and the chess man of our peace was laid upon him, and by his stripes we are made whole. It's always he, he, he is. But now you come to a verse a little further down and it says, let's turn to it, maybe to get it. Isaiah 53.
Now notice how it says here in verse 7.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as the sheep before his shears. No, her shares is done, so it changes from his to her.
Shares is done so he opened not his mouth.
Now, if that would have said his, one of those Eastern shepherds would have said, well, there's something wrong there.
Because.
A male will not go willingly to the shearers or to the slaughter. They fight. I've I've worked with them and it's it. Unless you're strong, you have a hard time getting a male into the sharing pen. But are you just? If you open the gate, she walks right in.
And she doesn't say anything, as it were. She takes the shearing without a struggle, but the ram won't.
Know my my nephew told me that they charge twice as much for sharing a ram as they do for a you because the ram fights well, you can see the picture. It wouldn't have been a true picture of the Lord Jesus if it would have said a male because the Lord did not resist.
He and that word is really you There, you lamb. It's a female.
And so he walks, and the Lord just went patiently forward.
And I might say at this time, why was it that though?
A deer or a row?
Those wild animals in Song of Solomon, for instance, and we have them here too.
Why weren't they used for?
US burnt offering.
Never. They were clean animals. They divided the hook, they chewed the cod, but they were never used for a burn off.
Well, I think the answer comes quickly. You have to take those by force.
You couldn't. They're not. They're not domesticated where they will.
Where they're tame, where they walk, as it were, into the slaughter, you would have to take them by violence. And the Lord Jesus was not taken by violence. He went.
Steadily forward and he went to the cross and so now you might say well in in Acts 8 it says before his shares, but you can see the picture in Acts 8 is that the cross is passed and the Lord has returned to all the strength of Iran.
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There and so it says his shares in act were Phillip is relating it to the Ethiopian unit.
So here what a wonderful meal one could have as you, as you ponder that lamb that was led as a sheep to the slaughter of that one that was patient. I get impatient just to get a glimpse of the patient one. It does something for me. And the thing of it is, it's nice to be acquainted with a patient one before we get impatient. Then we might not even get impatient.
Well, the next is the goat. Now what is said about the goat is that it's stately and going.
Proverbs 30 speaks of the gate, the goat, as stately, and so the Lord Jesus was stately and going there wasn't a discordant note in the Lord's life, as it were.
A boy of 12, he sat in the temple.
And he and he and it says that he, he both heard them and asked them questions.
His conduct there was just imperfection, as it were.
And you know the blessed Lord.
Adam could never have felt for that little baby over there.
Adam could never have felt for a six year old boy. No, because Adam was created a full grown man. But the Lord Jesus came in this world as a baby and that he could feel, he could feel the feelings of a boy of 12. He was there at once. He could have the feelings of a of a child at four years old. He was there once.
Isn't it wonderful to have such a savior?
And how they're to feed upon him what it does for you.
Well, there's a work of God in the heart as we feed on these animals. Think of the Lord Jesus before Pilate, how he conducted himself before the Sanhedrin. There was there was something stately about the Lord. There was something that was perfect in going. And so these animals.
To to eat them, to live on them. It's just wonderful, isn't it?
Now somebody says sometimes what? Preach Christ, Preach Christ, Preach Christ. Well, I say, you can't leave me blank, just Christ. But if you can see Christ in these animals and in some of these, these scriptures that we have, why, that's what enlarges the heart and fills you, then you have something to eat.
Well then you come to to the heart.
Now there's one outstanding thing said about the heart, and that's in Psalm 42. It says as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Well.
How there was ever that longing, as it were.
With the Lord, his relationship with his father.
Before I came away, a brother came to our house and he said I want to, I want to want to give you something. And so he lived far away but.
And so I unpacked it and here was a text that he had made.
And instead on this text.
He arose a great while before it was day, and went into a solitary place.
To pray well I don't know how I could given me a better text. I just they just touched me when I thought of how unfaithful I am and hear the blessed Lord.
I need to do that really, I need to raise a rise a great while before day and pray. But the Lord, I would say, well, you wouldn't need to do that. And yet the Lord didn't.
And so those things are just.
It just melts the heart, and then you have the Roebuck and the fellow deer and the wild goat and the pieguard and the wild ox and the chamois.
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Then I would have to admit that I know very little about these animals that are here. I know the ox and the sheep and the goat and the and not too much about the heart, but I believe it's something that.
When we get to glory.
There will be no end of revelation of things.
Of the hymn puts that their new wonders daily learning and when I was down in San Diego there was an advertisement came out in the paper of a preacher and was going to have.
Some meetings, wherever he is.
And he just in bold letters put there, he said.
Something like this, Who wants to go to heaven anyway? It's what? What's there to do up there? Just, you know, people have that feeling already. What am I going to do and have them?
Well, he, I never saw this before, but he was actually preaching on that line.
What are you going to do in heaven? Well, beloved Saints of God, you and I tonight might enjoy a little portion. Thank God for that. But heaven will be a just a continuation of enjoying these things, different things. They'll be like I said, their new wonders daily learning as the hymn puts it. And so I think in a lot of these things that we really don't know much about them. Why?
In that scene of glory there won't be one dull moment if we think about it in any way. What will I do there? Why? I'm sure that we don't know the Lord.
You know, it's strange that men have that thought, those thoughts. And I, I can sympathize with them. Here's a man that that wants to, he's looked forward to retiring, retiring. Oh, I'm going to do this and I retire and do that when I retire. And so I get 65. And so he retires and pretty soon it's true. He's done all the fishing he wants and he's done all the traveling he wants. Now he doesn't know what to do.
Well, he thinks heaven is like that, but heaven isn't like that.
So let's not be deceived by these things. So you come then to the the characteristics of the clean animals.
The animals that you may eat, every beast that part of the hoof and cleave at the cleft into two claws, and chew the cud. Among the beasts that you shall eat. So there you have the clean animal. The animal you could eat was one that had a divided hoof.
And one that killed the cub.
And so the chewing of the cod is like we might say, were you you masticate the food with them now.
You know the cattle will go out in the Meadow and they'll graze the cows.
No 'cause they'll graze.
Then they'll lay down and they'll chew the cotton. You know, a cow has four stomachs. And so all the food goes into the second stomach to begin with. And then when she's resting, she coughs that up and re choose it and then she swallows it and then it becomes beneficial to her. And so the cow, as it were, she she grazes in the Meadow, she takes in food.
She lies down, she chews the cod, and then she gets up and the milk maid comes along.
And gets the milk. And what does she do with the milk? Well, maybe, maybe 25 or 30 people will get the benefit of the milk of that one cow. Well, the cow isn't aware of it, is it? There's really the thought of testimony, if I'm going to be a testimony, isn't to set out to be one, but if I am, as it were, eating these animals.
Well, there's going to be a testimony without me as it were being aware of it. And so the the cow dispenses milk and many get the benefit of it and the cow could she's she's really.
Unaware of it. And so again, I say as we eat these clean animals, as we feed on the Lord Jesus, there's going to be a Saber of Christ given off and there's going to be there's going to be a testimony. It's going to be a light. But you don't say, well, I'm a light of the world because it doesn't work that way.
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So it takes both the divided loop both speaks of a walk and separation.
Now again, I remember in my own life where where I read the word quite a bit and I had a chance to read it. The fact is.
I was driving 12 head of horses and driving in the hills and you had to rest those horses every 10 minutes or every 15 minutes as they because it was hard pulling over the hills and all. And so I had a testament in my back pocket and I pulled out and read it and sometimes we had to rest in 5 minutes or so and then we went on. But I was, I was amazed at how little I grew in connection with them. I thought that there ought to be some.
I thought there ought to be some retention of the Word and some profit from it, but really the Lord convicted me that I was not really walking a separated walk. There was a divided wolf was lacking, and consequently.
So it doesn't mean how much you eat that helps you, it's how much you assimilate. A cow gives milk according to what she assimilates, not what she eats.
And so it's the same with a believer. It's what we assimilate that that is a help. But it does call for separation. You just cannot go on with one foot in the world and profit by the things of the Lord.
Well, then it says what you should not eat. Verse 7. Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud.
Or of them that divide the cloven hoof, as the camel, the hare, the pony. For they chew the car, the divide, not the hook, therefore they are unclean unto you. So here are some animals that chew the cod, but they have a solid hoof, they don't divide the hook. And so there's an appearance of taking in the word, but there's not a walk according to it.
And as we already mentioned, this is this is very destructive and detrimental.
Now these, these animals, you know, they might look ever so well, but.
And it's quite a serious thing, isn't it, To be able to eat as it were, to take in the word, to read the word and not walk according to it. That's really a serious thing. And yet we find souls that way. I do, and perhaps others have, especially in our day, that they talk in a religious way. But the fact is, a man told me.
That I'm always a believer.
And I hadn't, I hadn't seen him for a long time. But he said, you know, Clawson, my wife got saved, I got saved, my wife got saved, my boy got saved, my daughter got saved. And he just went right down the line of everybody getting saved. Well, I thought that was wonderful. And finally he told me, says.
Will I give him the gospel? I don't say you have to change your ways. You can live just like you're living now.
But accept the Lord as your savior and all is well. Well, in a certain sense, you know this is true. We're not saved by works, but there's no scripture to back that up to say you can get saved and just carry on as you ever did. There's no nothing to block you to do just like you used to do. Well, even the even the ranked unbeliever knows. Like I said to a man.
Why don't you accept the Lord as your Savior?
And, and he said, well, I have changed my ways. I said change your ways. Who told you you have to change your ways? Well, he knew there was, there was, he knew in himself that it would call for a change of ways. So those that can take in the word or take up the word and not walk according to it, well, we're not to eat them.
As it were, and nevertheless now it says verse eight and the swine, because it divided the hook.
You have not the cut. It is unclean unto you. He shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcasses. Well, here we have the pig, the swine, and.
We've raised a lot of them and they have a divided hook.
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But here they are down in the wallow and their nose is digging up.
And continually and you hear a crackle, crackle, crackle. And you say, what are they eating anyway?
They're getting something out of the mire, but yet they have the divided book.
Well, this is real serious again, isn't it? We do have a very large The fact is, we have a city that's inhabited by a certain cult.
They they.
They are all shut down tight on Saturday and Lord's Day. They start their business until Friday afternoon, then they shut down again.
And we've had quite a few, quite a bit to do with people like that. And sometimes people say, well, are you one of those people?
And I say, well, no, What makes you a thing? Well, you're kind of goody goody, and you're kind of pious and so.
They link you up with with those folks.
But it's a solemn thing, and I say it with sadness, that there is no apprehension with them of who the Lord is. When I was in the hospital, my son brought in a text, and he hung it on the wall. And it said unto you, therefore which believe He is precious. Well, these nurses, you know they'd come in and.
Before that was put up, they'd come in and they'd read me some nice poetry about the Lord and they'd pray at the bedside and, and.
All kinds of nice things. But when he brought that verse in, I said, look at that verse. Isn't that a nice verse? And they just grew up blind. Just a blank came over their face because they don't know the Lord. And the serious thing is that God does not manifest Himself to them.
And it's just so evident that they may have everything outward, but they don't know the Lord. Well, we have the warning not to eat those things.
Now you come to the fish. These you shall eat of all that are in the waters. All that have fins and scales shall ye eat, And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat. It is unclean unto you.
Now I think here in the fish especially.
It brings out.
Should we say how we are or how we may act in our natural habitat now? Water is a is a very it's it's the fish's home.
It's the fact is it couldn't live anyplace else but in the water.
And So what? It seems to me this brings us right down to our everyday living. It's where our habitat is, where we live. How do I conduct myself?
Where I live, where I work, I can't get out of it. I've got to work for a living and I've got to live and I have a wife and I have children and so.
How, how testing those circumstances are. Sometimes I might be able to act much better here in the meeting room or even in public than I do at home. And many a brother has injured himself in his ministry and his power is because he failed in how he acted at home.
Well, he might have a wife that doesn't tell on him, but still.
There is an eye above that sees all those things, and what a testimony I can be in my very circumstances, and how many times maybe our children have been turned aside because we have not carried out a little testimony or a little light in our everyday circumstances.
But this isn't easy because it's a place, you know, I come home tired from work and I let my hair down, as it were, and.
And the children are noisy and I get provoked. Well, all those things that we have no excuse for before the Lord. There might be, if there's exercise, a remedy for them. But anyway, they had to have fins and scales. Now a fish with just fins was an unclean fish, and a fish with just scales was an unclean fish. But they needed both.
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And so this the the Finns.
Or that which would give them to go upstream. You know, any fish can go downstream, any fish can float with a tide, but it takes a good fish to go upstream. And the the scales are there for protection because the enemy is always there trying to get in his his sphere or dagger or his his weapon.
And so those scales as what keeps it out.
So I believe the fish is a real test as to our own.
Personal habitats.
And I sometimes say.
We probably fail the worst there at home.
Well then, we come to the birds. Now the birds speak of.
Of doctrines you know in the 18th of Revelation, the tree there, a tree of profession, was the hold of every unclean and hateful.
Bird. And it speaks of doctrines, that it's doctrines. But now it says here of all clean birds ye shall eat. And then it names 21 unclean birds. And then it says again, But of all clean falls ye may eat.
Well, why? Why doesn't it say, well, I don't eat the ball the.
These are the of which ye shall not eat. Now I believe the the point that's made there.
These 21 birds speak of of of false doctrines or that type of thing. And if we feed on the clean birds that's reading this says thou shalt.
All clean birds you shall eat.
That's like my mother told me once a year many years ago. And when working in the bank, she didn't work there, but.
Someone she knew had worked there and he went to work and the banker gave them.
Money for a day to put in their pocket and to feel sober. Dollars quarters and dollar bills and all that.
And so in a couple days, the new man that was hired there, he got the feel of that money.
And then when they passed counterfeit money, then immediately protected by the feeling. And so if we feed on the clean birds which speak of Christ, while there again we can detect it the moment that something false is inserted.
Well, it's really the way now. Some people remember we had a sister in the meeting about 40 years ago.
And she can be in Lords Day and I hear say to my father, well, you know, I heard about this false religion and I looked into it and, oh, it's awful. And then again, she'd come along and she would tell about another one. Well, finally my mother said to her, now if you get acquainted with the good birds, you don't have to.
Even investigate these others, you know that they're bad. Oh.
The Lord has raised up some brothers have have investigated some of these cults and things, but we don't have to go and and find out what they're like because you know what kind of dangers that might suck us in.
It's amazing. I was back east and then the South and everywhere and here you'd find two boys with a nice haircuts and clean shaven riding on bicycles going from house to house.
Giving out certain liturgy. And they were. They were nice appearing boys.
And.
You get some other literature and you know what it was? It was an evil doctrine that they had. And yet they had every outward appearance of being attractive. And it's it's amazing this was nationwide that that's what's going on. We had them in Walla Walla and went to Denver and there they are. And you go to Des Moines and there they are. And so.
But you don't have to read their literature to find out what it is You you can you can feed on the clean birds. And just in a moment you can see that they don't have a savior. Well, now just notice some of these birds, the eagle, for instance, and the osprey and the Vulture.
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And the Raven. Now something interesting about these animals.
The ego especially, you know.
I sometimes go in the field, maybe early in the morning. We had the 600 acres to cover and he said I see three or four vouchers flying around and I'd say to myself, a dead animal someplace and sure enough you're down there and there was a cow that had died or a calf had died. But they're right there. They won't feed on anything living.
A cow can lay there like dead and they won't touch him, but the moment that cow is dead, they're there and they're eating it.
Well, how that gives them away that they'll feed on dead stuff?
Now you come to the Raven. For instance, the Raven can eat both. The Raven can eat wheat, and it can eat dead stuff.
All be careful of people that can feed on wheat. You know, wheat speaks of the word of God. Feed on that and then they can turn around and feed on corruption.
So it's a warning there, isn't it? Then you come to the owl. Well, it was about the owl. The owl does its work. At night. We have owls. All of a sudden you see a little light, almost flown down, grab the mouse, gone back to his roost.
They have a very keen eye, but they do their work in the night, men of darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.
Well, then you come to the Swan, for instance.
You're a pretty animal. My what a beautiful, beautiful animal.
And so you say, well, what's wrong with that? Anything so graceful and beautiful as that sure must be. All right. I'll tell you one thing. Let the Swan open her mouth. She's a very grating voice.
It reminds us of the Antichrist, doesn't it then?
He had two horns as a lamb, but.
He spake as a dragon, so we have to be careful about these things. They all have a way of exposing themselves.
And so it says, but all clean for all she may eat.
Now you come to verse 21. You shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself.
Thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it to an alien without a holy people, unto the Lord thy God. Now will we learn from that you shall not eat anything that diet of itself.
Well, there again, it's a little hard to explain it. We know literally it means an animal that would would die of itself wouldn't, should not be eaten by an Israelite. But to us, what does it mean? Well.
Maybe I could put it this way?
There was a man that was driving a school bus the same time I was and.
He was exercised about being saved, but he turned it away and turned it away all the time because he used tobacco.
And so finally he came to the fact that he needed to be saved, and he got saved.
And so he told me this. He says I took my pipe and my candle back and I put it up on the refrigerator. And he said the first day passed and I saw it there and, and I left to go. And the second day passed and I left it go. But he said the third day I got such a hunger for it, I went over there to get it. But lo and behold, my wife had taken it and lifted up the stove lid and dropped it in.
And the thing was was gone. So he was through. He made a sacrifice. See, there's no sacrificial value to something that has died of itself. There's a.
And sometimes, you know, a person might say, well, I know I'm involved in something that I shouldn't be involved in, but but I just can't give it up. And so when I retire, I'm glad I'll be able just to get rid of it. Now, Brother said this to me once. He said, I know I'm involved in a situation that's not of the Lord, but he said, I'm just looking forward to retiring to get out from under this thing. And so just about two months before.
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Never, as it were, got out of the situation.
It just he wanted to get out of it without it costing him anything. Now there's all kinds of reproach that we can bear or come upon us and we may evade that reproach or we may pay the price. So if it dies of itself, well, I may lose the taste for Princess. Speaking of this man that threw his his pipe away and that type of thing. At the same time there was a brother in the meeting.
The doctor told him that if he didn't.
Quit using this.
Why he was a candidate for lung cancer.
So we got rid of it but still there was number sacrificial value connected with it.
Well, he says you might sell it unto a stranger, an alien. How could a stranger an alien might get some good argue? Well, they could, you know, even if they if they after they retired, they got rid of it, as it were it it didn't. There was no sacrificial value to it, but they profited by it anyway. Might think of a man that lived maybe to me that that was a drinker and he was.
I was sad really, how his children suffered from it and everything and.
Finally, he decided to give it up, as it were, and the whole family profited by it. He's unsaved man, he still is, but anyway, the whole family profited by it. So an alien or a stranger might profit by it, but it's no sacrificial value, as it were to one of the Lord's people that.
Eats that which die of itself. Now I suppose I didn't make that plain, but you'll have to take it that way.
Ask some questions afterward. Now here we come to a phrase, Thou shalt not see the kid in its mother's mill.
My brother once told me that if you find a thing three times in scripture.
It means that's very important. And three times in Scripture this this verse comes, thou shalt not see the kid in its mother's milk.
And you say, well, what does that mean anyway? Well, I think there are a lot of practical thoughts in connection with it.
Now.
One thing.
The milk was to sustain the kid, wasn't it? Instead of boiling him with it.
And I believe that many parents have taken the Word of God and they destroyed their children with it rather than nourishing them with it by the way that it was applied to the children.
So we need to be careful that we don't destroy our children with even with the word of God. I stopped in one day to pick up a little taller, about 8-9 years old to take a little taking a little outing. And he says to me, I can't come. And I said, what's the matter? And he said, well, I, I did something wrong and my.
The lady he was staying with wasn't his mother. Never.
His mother was unable to take care of him. He said I disobeyed and this lady is making me write a scripture, quite a long scripture, 100 times. And so he said, I'm sure that'll take me a whole day. He wasn't a good writer anyway. But in a way she was using the word of God in the wrong way, I feel.
Anyway, she would almost turn him against it rather than.
Prophet by it, and so there are many and now when it comes to that verse that we said adorn the doctrine of God.
Now we have that. Now we need to adorn the doctrine of God or we might turn people off.
My neighbor might say, well, if if you're if you're a Christian, I don't want to be one. Maybe I've got a cluttered house and everything is sloppy and he might.
He might, I might be witnessing to him and all that, and yet I just turn him off because I'm not really adorning the doctrine.
And there are many ways you see, this is really something unnatural. It's very unnatural to to boil a kid in his mother's milk because you might say, well, the mother doesn't know anything about it. The kid doesn't know anything about it. But still the Lord knows something about it. And it would be a very, a very repulsive thing to take the very milk of the mother and to boil the kid in it.
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And so there are a lot of little ways and I'm sure, brother, that you know.
Better than I do some of the ways work. You make Christianity obnoxious.
And.
It's like a brother that got saved and.
And he wanted to go home and tell his folks. And I said no, Walt, when you go home.
When you present the word to them. If you want to do that, do it in a way.
That you know that isn't obnoxious. Don't do it in a big proud, bold way and don't try to cram it down their throats. Well he did exactly the opposite what I told him and the first thing he did he cut the ears off of his of his loved ones and they have no use for him till this day.
Whereas if he could have gone in there and been an example.
To a believer first and be kind to his parents instead of telling they're all wrong and just a lot of little things would have given him an end. But he didn't do that and so he didn't get any. Well, in a sense, he was seething a kid in his mother's milk.
And I'm thinking of another case where a brother came to the conference with his family, had I think maybe 5 little children.
And on his way out, he stopped in a city, and this city was hot weather was June, and the hairy wife and the five children in the car. And he parked them along the street there in a hot place. And he gets out, he blows out a lot of gospel tracts, and he disappears for a couple of hours. Well, you wouldn't say, well, I don't have our gospel tracks.
But it actually turned his wife and his family against those things.
So in a way, instead of adorning the doctrine.
He made it really distasteful to the family. Well, there are just a lot of things, and Christianity is very practical. And I'm telling you, it's no use doing a lot of fine preaching if there's no consistency with it. Remember again, in a family where this kind lady had invited the company.
And.
Dinner was ready, she had on the table and she said about John.
Come on to the table he was visiting with the company.
And he said, we're visiting. We're visiting over the word of God. And so she waited for a little while and didn't come again. She said, well, everything's getting cold, won't you come? And you just cut her off, you know?
The man was visiting over the Word of God, but what was he doing? Was he adorning the doctrine? No, he made it obnoxious.
Well, it's serious. The Lord has a way of dealing with these things.
Real serious, this man that I'm talking about, they gave out the tracks. He's losing his family.
And the poor man that wouldn't come to dinner, he lost his wife very shortly after that. The Lord took her home. So that's by the way, but.
It's really very important, as it were, to adorn the doctor. The man looked at you and said if you're a Christian, I don't want to be one, There must be something wrong.
So.
Again, we have it now. Ye are the sons of the Lord your God and we're to shine as lights in the world.
And so it tells us what not to eat, and then what we can eat.
And then to remember those birds get acquainted with the right and everything else will manifest.
And then again, remembering there are things in our lives that it would be to the glory of God if we gave them up. There have been some sacrificial value connected with them. But.
If we're not going to give them up till we lost a taste for them, or till we retired while they've been almost sacrificial value connected with it. And then let's not forget, thou shalt not see the kid in its mother's milk.