Greetings and welcome to the Beacon Broadcast from Beacon Baptist Church on Kirkpatrick Road in Burlington, North Carolina. The Beacon Broadcast is supported in part by the gifts of faithful listeners. If you'd like to correspond with Pastor Barkman and The Beacon Broadcast, or if you wish to support this radio ministry, write to The Beacon Broadcast, Post Office Box 159, Alamance, NC 27201. The Beacon Broadcast, Post Office Box 159, Alamance, NC 27201. Now with today's message from God's Word, here is Pastor Greg Barkman. Well, we are continuing our study of the question of foods. It comes up in 1 Timothy chapter 4, when Paul is dealing with apostasy, departure from the faith, and he gives two illustrations of apostate teaching. Number one, forbidding to marry, and number two, commanding to abstain from foods, or as I think one translation puts it, to abstain from certain foods, because that's obviously what is meant here. when he says, Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received. with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God in prayer." Now that's pretty straightforward, pretty plain, pretty difficult to misunderstand. You have to really be trying awful hard to misunderstand what Paul, by the Spirit of God, is saying there in regard to everything, both plant and animal, everything is legitimate food for the child of God. But, of course, some do not believe that, and some actually teach that the Bible requires a vegetarian diet or something of that sort. Now we started on the broadcast yesterday going through the different stages of human history and the different dietary regulations that God gave to different stages of human history. And we have to read the Bible historically and consecutively to get the full picture. And so we started with creation when God created Adam and Eve vegetarians. And apparently the human humanity was in a vegetarian state until after the flood. And as we saw on the broadcast yesterday, God specifically, specifically, and dogmatically gave animal flesh for food following the flood. I'm going to read it again. Genesis 9-1, So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the field, on every bird of the air, and on all that moves on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs." Now again, nothing could be clearer, nothing could be plainer. All the animals, land animals, birds of the air, fish of the sea, all without exception, have been given to you, to mankind, for food. They are now food just as much as previously plants were food, but now Animals have been added to it. Meat has been added to vegetables for food. I, the Lord God, have said it. I, the Lord God, have done it. I, the Lord God, have commanded it. I instruct you to add meat to your diet from this time forward. That's pretty clear. I don't know how you can get around that. Now the question is, what changed? What changed to make a vegetarian diet a more healthy, suitable diet before the flood, and to now require meat to be added to the vegetable diet after the flood? And since the Bible doesn't tell us what changed, I cannot say with any dogmatism, but I do point out that apparently something changed. My guess, and this is only a guess, my guess is that what changed was the atmospheric conditions. My guess is that after the flood, there is a stronger presence of the sun, stronger radiation that comes to man that has shortened man's life. Because along with the change in diet, there's also a change in longevity. And before the flood, men lived to be 900 years old. And after the flood, the lifespan quickly shrunk down to 80 or 90 years. Now we read about a number of people after the flood who lived longer than that, Abraham and so forth, but it's clear that the normal lifespan shrank considerably after the flood. I suspect that there was a vapor canopy that filtered out many of the harmful rays before the flood. That canopy which might have been more than a vapor canopy, it might have been a liquid canopy. But anyway, that obviously there was an enormous amount of water, either in vapor form or some other form, available in the atmosphere before the flood that all came down in the flood. Water came down from above, water came up from beneath, and the whole earth was flooded. And if there was a canopy that collapsed, Presumably, it's now God. Now, God could, of course, have lifted it back up, put it back into place, but if he didn't, then something very significant has changed. Is that the explanation? I do not know, but I suspect that may be it, but that's only opinion. I hope sanctified opinion, but only opinion. But something has changed. And whatever has changed, now God says it's not only permissible, but it is desirable that meat be added to your diet. In other words, something changed to make meat, I want to use the word necessary, and I think that's the correct word, but certainly to make meat desirable. Before it was not necessary, and therefore it was not utilized. Now, man needs meat in his diet. Now that's the way I interpret the scripture. Now, I know there are vegetarians that are convinced that we do not need meat, we can get all the protein we need from a proper use of beans and so forth, and I'm convinced that you can get an awful lot of it that way. And I'm convinced that we in the West, and particularly in America, eat far more meat than we need. I'm convinced of that. We overdo it. We eat more meat than we need. We eat more meat than is good for us. I believe that, and I'm guilty of that. And yet I am not prepared to believe that we are better off with no meat. I think that is an overcorrection. I think that is an overreaction. I think that is overdoing it. And I'm not convinced that people who eat a vegetarian-only diet are actually healthier than those who add an appropriate amount of meat. I think that the Bible indicates that we now need meat, And I think that medical science actually confirms that. I don't think there's any evidence that, across the board, that everybody would do better with a vegetarian diet. Now what a vegetarian diet does is makes you thinner. And thin is better, but I'm not convinced that Eliminating meat entirely from your diet is actually a healthier diet. I think not. So, from the flood until the days of Moses, every kind of meat was permissible. Then, in the Mosaic Covenant, the restrictions came, not eliminating meat, but restricting certain types of meat. Now certain land animals were allowed, others were prohibited. Certain sea animals were allowed, others were prohibited. Certain birds were allowed, others were prohibited. All of these categories that were allowed without exception before Moses were now restricted under Moses, but that of course was only for the children of Israel, not for the rest of the people of the earth. Was there a health reason for this? I think so. Was there, well, is this therefore God's direction for us? No. Why not? Because when you come to the New Covenant, the Mosaic requirements are lifted. You read about that in Mark chapter 7, and then of course you read it in our text in 1 Timothy chapter 4. But in Mark chapter 7, Jesus is teaching, and I'm going to just skip down, because I don't have a lot of time. So verse 14 of Mark 7, And he called all the multitude to himself. He said to them, Hear me, everyone, and understand. There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him. But the things which come out of him, these are the things that defile a man. And he's talking about the thoughts and the words that come out of our heart. That's what defiles you. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. When he had entered a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. So he said to them, are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him? because it does not enter his heart, but his stomach, and is eliminated, and then this phrase in the last part of verse 19, thus purifying all foods. And I think that thus purifying all foods is Mark's inspired commentary on what Jesus just said. In my Bible, thus purifying all foods is still in red letters as if Jesus said it, but I think that's a mistake. I think Mark is commenting and saying, when Jesus said this, he at that point, with that statement, purified all foods. He said that it's permissible for God's people to eat anything. The Mosaic requirements are gone. They're lifted. And of course, they are lifted in the New Covenant. They were ceremonial in nature. And they were not moral in nature, they're ceremonial in nature, and they're gone. And that is exactly what Paul is telling us in Timothy, when he says, foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth, for every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. And that takes us right back pre-Moses, back to Noah, back to the flood, back to what God gave to humankind after the flood, every creature, land, air, or water, added to vegetables and plants for man's diet, and it's all allowable. So please, dear friend, and I'm going to wrap this up and not come back to it again, please, dear friend, don't make dietary restrictions based upon the Bible. That is wrong. That is sinful. That's apostasy. If you have personal preferences based upon diet, medical reasons, whatever, help yourself. You've got liberty to do that as long as you don't try to make it a matter of biblical teaching, biblical requirement, Christian doctrine. When you do that, you have sinned. You have propagated apostasy, departure from the faith. Don't be guilty of that. Until tomorrow, at the same time, Greg Barkman saying good day. May God give you His eternal peace.