The blood of Jesus Christ actually takes away sins. Nothing else can. So no longer do we have to bring a lamb or a goat, all of that is done away with in Christ and the new covenant.
Today I would like us to consider one more of these teachings of Jesus, and that is the Lord’s teaching concerning the great change that was about to take place with the coming of the new covenant. Now since we’re not Jews, and we’ve not had over a thousand years of Jewishness ingrained in the very fiber of our being since child hood, we cannot appreciate or even comprehend this. But the change that was beginning to happen when Jesus appeared on the seen adn was going to come with the New Covenant. Was so extreme, and so radical, that no Jew could’ve imagined it. And that’s what I want to try to talk about some today. The Lord’s teaching considering the change that was about to take place in the coming of the new covenant.
We already looked at one aspect of this awhile back and that was the Lord’s teaching concerning the inclusion of the Gentiles in the kingdom of heaven. And you remember He said, “Many will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the Kingdom (the Jews), will be cast into outer darkness.” Now that was unthinking able. These Gentile dogs sitting down with the patriarchs, and the Jews being cast out. You remember even Peter couldn’t imagine such a thing until he had a supernatural vision, from heaven, there in the book of Acts. To even go into the house of a Gentile. Much less would you have a Gentile sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you wouldn’t even go into a house of a Gentile; without a miraculous vision from God, to convince Peter, after having heard these teachings, to convince him to go into a Gentile house.
So this was one of the things that was going to change, but there are many other things that were going to happen with the coming of the New Covenant. And they would’ve staggered the imagination of even the godliest Jew. Let me begin by giving you one example. If you were a little Jewish boy or girl, this is what you were taught from childhood, about what food you could eat. I’ll just read a few of these too you, this is from Leviticus.
Leviticus 7:22-27 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall not eat any fat from an ox, a sheep, or a goat. 24 ‘Also the fat of an animal which dies, and the fat of an animal torn by beasts, may be put to any other use, but you must certainly not eat it. 25 ‘For whoever eats the fat of the animal from which an offering by fire is offered to the LORD, even the person who eats shall be cut off from his people. 26 ‘And you are not to eat any blood, either of bird or animal, in any of your dwellings. 27 ‘Any person who eats any blood, even that person shall be cut off from his people.'”
Leviticus 3:17 ‘It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall not eat any fat or any blood.'”
Then a little bit later in Leviticus:
Leviticus 11:1 The LORD spoke again to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth. 3 ‘Whatever divides a hoof, thus making split hoofs, and chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat. 4 ‘Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these, among those which chew the cud, or among those which divide the hoof: the camel, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you. 5 ‘Likewise, the rock badger, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you; 6 the rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you; 7 and the pig, for though it divides the hoof, thus making a split hoof, it does not chew cud, it is unclean to you. 8 ‘You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you. 9 ‘These you may eat, whatever is in the water: all that have fins and scales, those in the water, in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. 10 ‘But whatever is in the seas and in the rivers, that do not have fins and scales among all the teeming life of the water, and among all the living creatures that are in the water, they are detestable things to you, 11 and they shall be abhorrent to you; you may not eat of their flesh, and their carcasses you shall detest.
No catfish.
Leviticus 11:12-18 12 ‘Whatever in the water does not have fins and scales is abhorrent to you. 13 ‘These, moreover, you shall detest among the birds; they are abhorrent, not to be eaten: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, 14 and the kite and the falcon in its kind,15 every raven in its kind, 16 and the ostrich and the owl and the sea gull and the hawk in its kind, 17 and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, 18 and the white owl and the pelican…
You know, it goes on.
Leviticus 11:20-22 20 ‘All the winged insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you. 21 ‘Yet these you may eat among all the winged insects which walk on all fours: those which have above their feet jointed legs with which to jump on the earth. 22 ‘These of them you may eat: the locust in its kinds, and the devastating locust in its kinds, and the cricket in its kinds, and the grasshopper…
You know they did. John the baptist lived on locust and wild honey. And locust are still a delicacy in some places. But he goes on and goes through every one, and now this is spelled out in great detail. I’m tempted to read it all to you because it is so detailed.
Leviticus 11:43-45 ‘Do not render yourselves detestable through any of the swarming things that swarm; and you shall not make yourselves unclean with them so that you become unclean. 44 ‘For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. 45 ‘For I am the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; thus you shall be holy for I am holy.'”
Now I could’ve literally spent the entire hour reading these laws of God. They were God’s laws. And they were His commandments and it would’ve been unthinkable, and disgusting, and would’ve lead to the deepest sense of guilt for a Jew to have eaten what a lot of you ate this morning for breakfast, if you had any bacon for example. That was unthinkable, to eat a piece of ham or bacon. Multitudes of other things. And it would’ve been direct disobedience to God.
Now in light of all of that, lets turn to Mark 7:14.
Mark 7:14 Summoning the multitude to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside the man which going into him can defile him…
Did you hear that? In one stroke, that just wiped out everything that we just read. We just read over, and over, “if you eat that you will be unclean, you will be defiled, don’t defile yourself.” Listen to what He said, “there is nothing outside the man, which going into him, can defile him.” Incredible statement. And I don’t think the disciples had a clue, until years later, of what He had said.
Mark 7:15 but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.
(Rest of the transcript may come at a later date.)
