Address—Josh Costron
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Alright, let's just ask the Lord's help.
Lord Jesus, we thank thee for this beautiful day, thankful for the wonderful fellowship that we've had this past week. We thank Thee for the rich ministry that we've enjoyed and uh, all thy temporal mercies that thou support out upon us here with good food and umm, uh, roof over our heads and all these things. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much.
Uh, we take it all from thy loving hands, and now as we.
Take a little moment to open up Thy word. We pray that there be blessing, we pray for help as we would, uh, commit this little time into Thy care, and we ask it with Thanksgiving, and thy worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
I was sitting down. I was here the other day.
And just admiring this beautiful creation.
Looking around and you know, you see the the blue skies and the sun and the trees and the birds and all that. And as I was sitting down and just admiring it, I saw these.
2 Blue Jays and I think they're just a beautiful bird and there they were and doing their thing, I guess looking for scraps or whatever and uh.
And then they open their mouth.
And it did not sound pretty.
So here's this beautiful bird and it opens its mouth and it just betrays all its beauty by what comes out of it. And it's this ugly squawk. You can hear them in the trees and all that. So I was thinking a little bit about that and.
The Lord kind of laid something on my heart at that moment and the other night when I had our little chat.
Umm, I asked the kids who likes puppies and all their hands flew up in the air. So I can appreciate the fact that your kids enjoy animals. And so I think given that we're here in the creation, this beautiful creation that God has created and, uh, we're in the midst of nature.
Away from the cares of the world and so on. It's been a beautiful time.
I thought I'd maybe look at.
Umm, some animals in the Old Testament.
And I thought it might be fitting. I was thinking of what our brother Steve brought before us last night, the open meeting with respect to the the offerings. And it's not my purpose tonight to talk about the offerings. But, you know, I was thinking a little bit that God has something for us in the creation.
Umm, even in the animals in which he creates and makes that he he has a a lesson for us in these things.
And so as we go through the word of God.
Umm, these animals and so on carry meaning.
Often times, right, we've noticed that in the offerings, many times we see a picture of Christ and the burnt offering and the meal offering and the peace offering and the sin and trespass offering. Beautiful picture of Christ. So with that said, I'd like to maybe just take a few moments and, uh, look at Deuteronomy 14.
Now just to set this up here.
Deuteronomy is a book that views the people of God on the borders of Canaan, just about ready to enter in to take their inheritance. And Deuteronomy brings before us many.
Things that God would expect of the people, that He would command their obedience, that as they entered into into the land they would be obedient to Him, that they might enjoy their privileges as the people of God.
And, uh, now sometimes we.
We reference Kanan and you know, I know there are hymns out there that take the liberty of applying Canaan as being.
In type heaven, but Canaan is not a type of heaven.
And why is that?
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Well, because there's conflict in Kanan.
There's no conflict in in heaven for us.
But I think the point is, is that what we can get from Canaan and type is that it's a spiritual inheritance that God has given us, that we have and that we've, umm, talked about at length in the meetings that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. It's ours now, but it's a matter of enjoying it and walking in it.
And let me tell you this, that if you want to enjoy your portion in Christ now.
You and I are going to run into some conflict.
Spiritual conflict. The enemy hates it when you have your Bible open. The enemy hates it when he sees you on your knees. And so he's going to do everything that he can.
To try to disrupt that.
So we need to be on guard, don't we? We need to be vigilant. We need to be diligent. And, uh, we need to rise above all these things that the enemy throws at us. And it's going to take spiritual energy and vigor and, uh, we, we need to do that independence on the Lord and he will help us. So in Deuteronomy 14, here's these people, the people of God.
And the context of this chapter is their diet.
Their diet.
God concerned about what our diet is.
Well, physically, yes, I think God is concerned with what we put in our bodies. Absolutely. He would have us to be responsible and, uh, not to be gluttonous and all that kind of stuff.
But what I want to talk about is our spiritual diet.
Does God care about what we feed on? Yes, he cares very much. You know, this world has a it has a saying that you are what you eat.
And that is true spiritually.
What you and I feed on throughout the day, throughout the week.
We morally become what we feed on.
So if I could speak very frank today, tonight, if my life is taken up with the junk food of this world, I'm going to be a very unhealthy Christian.
If my life surround is is taken up with movies and.
You know, unprofitable things, bad music, all these things. And let's be honest, they're not good for us. We know it.
You know, we get no sustenance out of these things. Brother Steve was talking about cotton candy.
It looks nice. You put it in your mouth and it's gone and it does not satisfy and you eat enough of it, you're gonna feel sick.
So let's be honest, there's a lot of junk food in this world today. And it's a matter of the question is what are is that what we're feeding on?
While God is concerned with what our spiritual diet is made-up of.
What does he want us to be feeding on? Well, First off, let's.
Let's read here from verse one.
You're the children or the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art and holy people unto the Lord thy God. And the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, and above all the nations that are upon the earth. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. These are the beasts which ye shall eat, the ox, the sheep, and the goat.
The heart and the Roebuck and the follow deer.
And the pyg, and the wild ox, and the chamois, and every beast that part of the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts that ye shall eat. Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or them that divide the cloven hoof, as the camel and the hare and the Coney, so they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof. Therefore they are unclean unto you.
And the swine, because it divided the hoof, yet choose not to cut. It is unclean unto you. You shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.
These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters. All that have fins and scales ye shall eat, And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat. It is unclean unto you.
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Of all clean birds you shall eat, but these are they of which ye shall not eat. The eagle and the ocean Frauds, and the Osprey, and the glade, and the kite, and the Vulture after his kind, and every Raven after his kind. And the owl and the Nighthawk, and the cacao, and the hawk, and after his kind. The little Owl and the great Owl, and the swan, and the Pelican, and the Gear Eagle, and the Cormorant, and the Stork, and the Heron after her kind, and the Lapwing and the Bat.
And every creeping thing that flies is unclean unto you.
They shall not be eaten, but of all clean fowls ye may eat. Ye shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. Thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it, Or thou mayest sell it unto an alien, for thou art and holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seize a kid in his mother's milk.
Well, First off, he sets before them their privilege.
They are the children or the sons of the living gods and.
That is certainly a privilege of you and I as believers, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. It's our privilege to walk through this world as a redeemed people. And we talked at length the other night about the joy of salvation, to know what God has done by forgiving us and justifying us and redeeming us and reconciling us. And then he has brought us into this wonderful position of sons.
A place of dignity, privilege and responsibility. And as we move through this world, we are to represent Christ. We are to be we. We are, as Colossians says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And it is really the thought of Christ coming out of us.
The outshining of Christ, the moral features of Christ being seen in myself and flowing out in testimony to this world.
That's our privilege and.
So that kind of sets the bar, doesn't it? This is what I am.
And often God tells me what I am, and then he gives me some practical exhortations as to what is consistent with what I am already. Go through the epistles. You'll notice that often he'll lay out the doctrine, and then he will give the practical exhortations. Because God wants you to know what you are, and then he tells you how to act accordingly.
We need to keep this in mind and.
It would be very unbecoming for the Queen of England, let's say.
To just.
Live a careless life and then claim that she is the queen, which she is, but it is inconsistent with her the character of her position.
And it would really damage the.
The position that she occupies, wouldn't it?
So this is where we are, we are Christians, we are different from this world. We are called out once and what a great privilege that is. And So what should we be taken up with? Well, again in this chapter speaks of our diet and what should we be taken up with from a spiritual diet? I think you might get a little bit of that in verse four and maybe at the start of verse five. I'm not going to comment on every one of these. I don't think I could.
But it says the ox, the sheep, the goat, and then he goes on to the heart and seems to be some other small, uh, like a follow deer, Roebuck, some small deer.
The ox, these things speak of Christ. This is what we need to be partaking of and and he needs to be part of our regular spiritual diet. The ox you see in a picture of Christ in his in his patient service and then it says the the sheep, which is Christ is the patient.
Sufferer.
And we have the goat. The goat was often used in the Tabernacle system, and I would understand it to really point to his inward separation to God. And then the heart is often pictured as that animal that leaps over circumstances and rises above the difficulties in life.
That ought to be our our, our occupation.
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And is it? It's a question, It's a challenge for you, for me.
Am I feeding my soul with Christ every single day?
We need to be occupied with him.
Whether it be his inward life, or his outward life, or how he rose above the circumstances of life which these things speak of.
That is food for our souls, and we need it.
Lord Jesus is the bread which came down from heaven. He is the only one that can satisfy our souls as Christians. And you know we might pile on the the junk food.
And pile it on and pile it on and become spiritually unhealthy, don't we?
God does not want us to be taken up with things that are of no profit for our soul.
It says here that uh, every beast a part of the hoof and cleaveth the cleft into two claws and chewed the cut a cut among the beast that shall eat. What does that speak of?
Well, chewing the cut as some of you I'm sure, have some cattle here.
No, you know what that means?
You had your hand raised. You have something to say.
You you have a lot of cows.
Cool. OK, well, couch used to cut right? Umm.
That would speak of inward capacity, the ability to take in and really enjoy it and then digest it.
So you and I, as Christians have the Spirit of God. See, the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, because their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
The natural man cannot appreciate this.
This is the living eternal Word of God and thank the Lord He has given us His Spirit that dwells within us and allows us to enjoy.
What is on this? You know what is in this book?
And what a joy it is when we open it up every morning, every evening, whenever it is, and we can get something of Christ. And you know, there is nothing more satisfying than spending some time reading our Bible and being said by the Spirit of God. And so then the parted hoof. What is that?
What does that mean? The type of a separate walk, right?
Separation from the world.
You know.
We talk a lot. Sometimes separation is almost like a swear word.
Some Christians and ought not to be. You know God wants us to enjoy.
He's given us all things to enjoy, hasn't he? He touched on that verse earlier today. And but He wants us to be separate from the world he does not want us to have.
Fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, the Scripture says. And we can do that in many different ways. Listen, God understands us better than what we understand ourselves. God knows our hearts better than we understand our hearts. He knows what's good for us. He is infinitely wise. Who am I to judge Him or call into question what He suggests is good and what is not good for me?
You know, we need to take this book up. We talk about faith. Do we believe what God says about these things? If we do and we follow what God says in this blessed book, we will never regret it. We will be the better for it. And so do we need a separate walk from this world? Absolutely, because we have a nature within us that will go and gravitate towards those things that will kill us spiritually.
Says in Romans 8, does it not? Let's see here. Let's turn over to that.
This is what I'm talking about. Romans 8, verse 13.
Free. If he live after the flesh, he shall die.
But if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
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If we live after the flesh, we will die.
If we live in the realm of all the things that the flesh loves and enjoys.
And finds its pleasures in and we live over here. You know what's going to happen. We're going to have no power in our Christian life in testimony and service. We will be sapped.
And we're going to die spiritually in the sense of communion being broken. Death and Scripture brings the thought of separation. And when my communion with God, my life line with God.
Severed communion is broken.
So if I live after the flesh, in that sense I will die.
I'll be an unhealthy Christian now, thank God He restoreth my soul and he can bring us back one bad thought.
Can disturb our communion, cut it off. But it only takes a moment to confess that and get right back into communion with the Lord. It's important.
So going back to our chapter in Deuteronomy 14.
Verse seven speaks of those that chew the cud but divide, not the hoof.
These are.
This is maybe a type of a believer who is a bad influence, who does not have a separate walk. Young people, I want to encourage you tonight. I think of that verse often. I am a companion of all them that love thee and keep thy precepts. Do you surround yourself with people of like precious faith, who are an encouragement to your soul, who love the Lord and who want to walk for His glory in this life?
Are those your companions?
I hope that they are because I'm so thankful, uh, for those of my brethren who I have seen walk a godly life and have been such an encouragement and a help to me. Surround yourself with good godly Christian people and not those, there's many believers in this world who unfortunately are tied up with the world.
Carrying on with the world and they'll drag you right down.
It's important. God cares about art, not only our diet, but our companions as well. And there are some that we cannot walk with because of what they may hold or what they may be doing. And it's important that we don't just cast our lot into every mix of groups of Christians because we think that they're Christian.
The other verse eight may speak of those who, umm, are really a professing believer.
And are really not real. We live in a day and age when separation from evil is is paramount, it says. Let's see in Second Timothy.
Says second Timothy takes up the House of God in disorder. Ruin has come in. There is a call for individual faithfulness in a day of ruin. And notice this says in verse 19. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that name it the name of Christ.
Or the Lord depart from iniquity. You know the Lord in the new translation as it says there is very significant.
It's the on owning of the Lordship of Christ.
Very significant, but in a great house, that's the Christian profession. They're not only vessels of gold and of silver. So those who are real, but also of wood and of earth, those who are not real. So there's a mixture and some to honor and some to dishonor. Well, that can be a believer.
We as believers can be.
A vessel unto dishonor. That's what I'm talking about. We might be able to chew the cut. We might be able to have the inward capacity to enjoy the things of God. But my life doesn't show it. I live a different life. I'm really living a lie.
I can be a vessel under dishonor, but what does God? What meets His approval? Verse 21. If a man therefore purged himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified in me for the Master's use.
And prepared unto every good work. We want to be useful for the Lord. He wants us to be a sanctified vessel unto honor. It's important.
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Back to our chapter, you notice in verse nine he says that he speaks of fish. Who likes fish?
There's some hands. Does anybody have pet fish? All right.
Well, we can learn a lesson in fish tonight.
Says that a fish. It says these are the types of fish you can eat, those that have fins and scales. Obvious. Well, what does a fin do? If I threw a fish into the water that had no fins, what would happen to it?
It would sink, yeah, it would sink. Wouldn't be able to go anywhere, and ultimately it would die, right?
What does the Finn speak of? What does a fin do? It directs the fish and propels the fish through the current. Right, brethren, we are going against the current of this world.
The current of this world is absolutely opposed to all that we stand for as Christians. If we say white, they're going to say black. If we say yes, they're going to say no most times. And God wants us to move through this world with energy, but against the current. Not to be going with the current, but against the current.
That's normal Christian experience.
You know, you get what happens. And I think it's First Timothy four. We won't look at it, but I think it's there three or four where you see the effects of the current of apostasy in the Christian profession today. And the danger is that we as Christians can be caught up with its thinking and its ways. And God warns us against that because it has introduced itself into the Christian profession. And as I pointed out in Second Timothy.
There is this great House of profession and various things that are dishonouring to the Lord and we can get swept up with that. So it's not only in the world, but it's in the church at large.
We're part of it. We're part of this test, this, this great house.
And so we need to move through this world.
And against its current. And the Finn, I believe, would suggest that. And what allows us to do that is prayer in the word of God. It'll allow us to move through this world with the Lord's help and against the current of this world. Prayer is the powerhouse for the Christian. It ought to be something we're daily involved in.
As dependent upon the Lord, but not only did the fish have a fin.
It has scales and what were the scales to do?
Well, as the scales were there to protect it from its outward environment, it encased the fish.
This was a clean animal. This is this is God's ideal for our diet, if you will.
And does again. It's a picture of separation.
God wants us to be separate from the world because we're different from it. We have been called out of this world. We're to be a testimony to the world. We're to reach the World with the love of Christ and with the gospel. But he wants us to stand apart from it because we are different. It says that I think in Exodus ye are different, he said to the children of Israel.
OK, now he speaks of birds.
Again.
Isn't the Word of God amazing, just flush with truth, moral applications, spiritual lessons. Birds often in scripture speak of doctrinal or heavenly truth or things that.
Propose that that suggests truth as coming from heaven. That's not always the case. So there are clean birds that they were in the Old Testament allowed to eat.
But there are also unclean birds.
And very, very instructive to my soul. Notice this. But these are they of which ye shall not eat. The eagle and the Osifraj, and the Osprey, and the Glee, the kite vulture and the Raven, and so on. The owl, the hawk.
What marks these two birds?
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One they kill.
Two, some of them do their work at night, and 3 some of them feed on death.
Now, isn't this spiritually instructive for us?
I mentioned that verse earlier. God does not want us to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. There's a lot of entertainment, there's a lot of activity. There's a lot of things out there today.
That is of the enemy and that we can get drawn into. And you and I know what that is for our own souls. Brethren, I don't need to stand up here and give you a list. You and I know when we are partaking.
Of some something in our life that is not of Christ.
And that is feeding the flesh. You and I know that we know when it's happening.
And so is it that those things that the world finds pleasure in, you know, this world walks in darkness. It feeds on everything that is of death and darkness of the flesh. And that ought not to be in our spiritual diet.
And what I was, what got me going on this chapter, what I was thinking about again, I mentioned those Blue Jays.
Says the Swan.
Now what does a swan have to do here? Why is a swan in this list? You think of a swan.
A big, beautiful, glorious bird. Majestic, large wings, white, and often it's a picture of just something so beautiful.
We talked about hypocrisy in our meetings, didn't we? And the Swan, as I understand it, and I could be corrected, but I understand that they have no song.
Just like these beautiful Blue Jays, they open up their mouth.
And they betrayed themselves.
It was this ugly squawk, and I understand a swan is the same way. You think of songbirds, beautiful birds, and they just make this glorious song. Cheers the heart. Doesn't it come out early in the morning and you hear the birds singing? Swan doesn't have that. It's a picture to us of having an outward exterior, but inwardly.
Not much is going on.
I think of that verse that, uh, with the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
You know, there's a lot of stuff out there that looks really, really good, but inwardly it's terrible. Spiritually for us, it's not good.
And we talked about the Pharisees and the hypocrisy of this world, the religious world, and sad to say, sometimes even us as Christians can put on a pretty good exterior and inwardly if we've been feeding on the wrong stuff.
We're not gonna have much to give, and not.
Some bad stuff might come out.
It's not good.
So Swan.
Well.
You can move down the list here.
And I find in verse 21 Perhaps a umm.
A warning for us as parents, we're talking about a spiritual diet.
And it says here that at the end of the verse, thou shalt not see the kid.
In his mother's milk.
You know it's.
It's very important for us as parents that we bring the Word of God before our children.
And we have those moments of family reading and then we instruct our kids according to the word of God.
But this for me is a warning.
Because we can use the very thing that is for the sustenance and growth of the child and ultimately kill it.
You know, I've heard of.
Situations where?
You know, they put Jay and Darby's synopsis in front of a child and expect that their child is going to, uh, read through that type of stuff at such an early age or sit down and, and, uh.
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Reed long portions to the point where the child no longer can take it. Brethren, this is a warning to me that we be sensitive to these things.
They only can take in so much. We need to give them what is needed and not overwhelm their souls.
With meat and with milk as.
As much as we're to do that, we're to give them these things, the word of God, of course. But we ought not to see the kid in the mother's milk. It's turning around and using that very sustenance and it kills them.
So let's not overwhelm our children with these things, but let's give them what they need.
It's, it's, it's been very instructive for me and I've taken that as a parent to be mindful and to be, umm, balanced and how we present the scriptures to our children.
I'm not going to go very much longer, but just a couple more things I'd like to touch on. Back in Leviticus 11, you have the same list, but there's a couple other things in here that I find very instructive.
And it says in verse 21.
Yeah, these may eat of every flying, creeping thing that goeth upon all four which have legs above their feet.
To leap with all upon the earth, even these of them ye may eat, the locusts after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.
But all other flying, creeping things which have 4 feet shall be an abomination unto you.
You know the locusts in Scripture often was used by God in his government to bring about a judgment upon a nation, a people.
And suggest and this is a clean animal that they could partake of.
Suggest to me, brethren, that sometimes God may bring in afflictions.
And allow me to partake of it.
Ultimately for my good.
May allow me to eat.
Something of the locust.
And the effects of the locust in my life through his government. But you know, I take comfort we talked about this, but I take comfort in the fact that a father's loving hand will never cause us a needless tear.
He loves us too much.
Why do we discipline our children as parents? Because we love them.
And the Bible tells us that he scourges and chastens every son that he receives.
And we're all partakers of that. If we weren't, we would not be his.
And then finally.
Just jump down to just a thought here, just verse 29. These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth. The weasel and the mouse and the tortoise after his kind, and the ferret and the chameleon and the lizard and the snail and the mole, these are unclean to you among all the creep.
Whosoever doth touch them when they be dead, shall be unclean.
Until the evening.
You know, we spoke about.
That the South of the air oftentimes will be in type something of, uh.
Heavenly truth or principles, or at least propose that they are that something from heaven, but really are not. And we saw those unclean birds that might present a bad or false doctrine in type, and we ought not to have fellowship with that. But here we have little critters that go upon the earth.
So there are bad doctrines out there that we ought not to partake of, and we ought not, as Christians, to fill our diet with everything that is earthly.
And everything that ministers to man in the flesh down here.
We need heaven.
We need Christ, we need the ox, we need the goat, we need the sheep, we need the heart. That is what needs to fill our spiritual diet.
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So again.
We are what we eat and you know, we go away from places like this and it's pretty easy to get in line with God's thoughts and enjoy the word of God and and not be tainted by the world around us. But we're going back.
And the question is, what are we going to do with what we've learned here, what we've experienced here?
Are we just going to go back to maybe our old ways?
Are we going to?
Not take in the Word of God like we have here. Oh, I hope that you know what we've learned from these meetings.
Would have an effect on my soul and yours, and that we would walk for His glory, separate from the world and in testimony to His blessed name, service to His people. We need Christ every day. Let's not leave him out. Let's just pray. Lord Jesus, we just thank Thee for Thy precious word, and we ask Thee for blessing upon it to our souls tonight.
We committed into thy care, and we thank thee and thy worthy name.
Amen.