Paul writes to the Galatians to warn them of the danger of turning away from the pure gospel of Yeshua Messiah and turning toward a gospel that is no gospel at all. But, as it always seems to go, many don’t want to hear it. The allure of the false prophets can be strong. The promise of becoming a part of an elite group can be overwhelming. We as human beings gravitate to being a part of a large group. We find comfort in numbers, as if those numbers are the barometer of blessing and right doctrine. The thought is that if most people believe it to be true, and practice it, then it must be right. But history is rife accounts of this not working out well. Many followed Hitler. He came with a message that appealed to people in a time of need. It felt good. Most got on the bandwagon, believing they were a part of something that was right and good. But the story ended with many people dead and a Europe in ruins. That is an obvious example that most sane people can identify with. But the reality of what Paul is talking about is not as obvious to most people today.

Religion is the undercurrent that has flowed through society since the beginning. Even those who say they are agnostic or atheist have a religion, especially when push comes to shove. When we find ourselves in a tight spot, especially one that seems to affect our very lives, we automatically turn to something that we perceive is bigger than we are. But if our knowledge of the Truth is lacking we are prone to fall for the lie.

The lie, as we’ve talked about many times, is packaged to look like Truth. The Bible teaches us that the devil himself masquerades as an angel of light. Paul writes of this in 2nd Corinthians Chapter Eleven, in connection with false apostles. The false apostles say they represent GOD, being called of GOD to do so, yet they preach a false gospel. Paul relates this directly to Eve being deceived by Satan in the Garden. She was deceived, as we’ve looked at previously, by her lack of knowledge, or her lack of commitment to the Truth of what GOD said. We know that Adam knew clearly what GOD said, willfully listened to the voice of his wife, and willfully transgressed the Commandment. He was not deceived. But both of them died. The wages of sin, defined by John as lawlessness, is death. But Satan package his lie to look like a good thing, something to be desired. Eve, for whatever reason, bought the good looking lie. Bible history tells us that it didn’t work out well for her. But if we are not serious Bible students we will miss the lesson we must learn from it all. It didn’t work out for us either! We too, because of the choice that Adam and Eve made, are destined for death! But there is a Way.

In the very beginning Satan came to Eve with the lie designed to look like Truth. It is difficult to know the lie from the Truth if you don’t know the Truth. Many in the Traditional Church rail against Torah and those who keep Torah. But they don’t know Torah. Many in what is called the Messianic Judaism movement adhere more to the orthodoxy of Judaism for the practice of Torah because they don’t know Torah. Paul writes to Timothy (1st Timothy 1) about these people, saying that they are “wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.” I’ve encountered – and have been one myself – those who make “confidence assertions” based, not on what GOD said, but on what men have said.

Man has a lot to say. Just look at Facebook. Everyone has an opinion and they’re eager to voice it. And then those of whom that opinion appeals to jumps on the thread and it becomes a free for all. Religious movements are built this way. It has always been this way, but without Facebook and the other social media sites to make it easy to give voice to it all. There are many voices with varying messages. But the common thread in all of them is one that is rooted in thoughts and notions that don’t line up with what GOD said, and was written in His Word. Many make “confident assertions” about a variety of issues that are not rooted in knowledge of the Truth, but in opinion, group speak, and elite agendas powered by exclusivity. When someone comes along and points out that the views being expressed aren’t rooted in reality that person becomes the enemy. This is what Paul is talking about in this portion of Galatians Chapter Four, when he asks, “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

We have seen clearly, in Paul’s letter, in context from the salutation in Chapter One, that he is dealing with false teachers who are bringing a different gospel to the Galatians. If you move from Galatians directly to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians you will see the same issue being addressed. These false teachers, of a false gospel, were making the rounds. Paul has identified these false teachers as those devoted to Judaism – and proponents of Judaism, alongside faith in Messiah. The crux of the issue is drawing these new Galatian believers into Judaism in order to complete the process of salvation and access to the kingdom of GOD. This, as Paul continues to bring back throughout this letter, and other letters he has written, is through the rite of the proselyte that has as it’s central ritual – circumcision. Circumcision is a Commandment of YHWH. But their application of the Commandment, or Law of Circumcision was wrong. They were faulty in their understanding and knowledge of the Truth. But it didn’t stop them from making “confident assertions” concerning the Law of Circumcision. They had made themselves “teachers of the Torah/Law” even though they didn’t understand either what they were saying, or the matters about which they made “confident assertions.” These Judaizers didn’t listen to Yeshua either, when He addressed this problem in Matthew Chapter Twenty-Three.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” -Matthew 23:15

They were shutting people out of the kingdom of heaven, by their lawless traditions by their lawless application of the Law of circumcision, converting men to lawless Judaism. The proselyte was expected to follow the traditions of the elders. And those traditions of the elders of Judaism were practiced by setting aside the Commandments of Torah, according to another conversation Yeshua had with the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew Chapter Fifteen, and Mark Chapter Seven. Keep this in mind when you read Mark Chapter Seven and Matthew Chapter Fifteen. Stick with the context of the traditions of the elders, versus the Commandments of YHWH. The traditions replaced the Torah Commandments. The ritual of washing the hands was at issue. That ritual is not in Torah. They didn’t believe Torah! The witness from Yeshua Himself, that these men did not believe or practice His Torah, according to what is written by Moses is clear. They were devoted to the traditions of the elders, that WERE NOT what He said. They made themselves out to be teachers of the Torah, but they didn’t understand Torah or its application. It gets no plainer than His statement to them in John Chapter Five.

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” -John 5:39-47

 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” -Matthew 23:13

In Matthew Chapter Twenty-Three Yeshua, called Jesus by Traditional Christianity, is talking to the Scribes and Pharisees who seat themselves in Moses’ seat. They desire to be called teachers of Torah. That is what Yeshua means by His warning to the people to do what they say, while seated in Moses’ seat, but DO NOT Do what they do. These false teachers read the Torah from Moses’ seat, yet they followed Torah according to their own additions and subtractions. They loved the idea that they were the teachers of the Torah; the concept that the people needed to come to them to learn how to keep Torah. Yeshua said of them, “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.” But their false teaching and misapplication of Torah kept them from entering into the kingdom of GOD and kept those of whom they converted to Judaism, through the rite of the proselyte, from entering into the kingdom. But they presented an elite exclusive club to the people. If you wanted to be in their club you had to do it their way, become a part of them, and hear their voice.

When you create something that is exclusive, and appears to be for the elite, with proprietary knowledge and perks that go along with membership, people are drawn to it. As I mentioned before, history shows that Hitler did just that. But the elders of Judaism did the same thing. And the so-called “church fathers,” of Traditional Christianity have as well. Judaism, and, I believe from the context, these who are of Messianic Judaism, that Paul is talking about in his letter to the Galatians, have done the same thing. Christianity says that Israelites have to reject the Torah and come join the Traditional Christian Club. Judaism says that Yeshua is a false prophet who transgressed Torah so you must leave Yeshua and come join Judaism, and follow the evolving traditions of the elders of Judaism. Messianic Judaism says that faith in Yeshua is good, but you need to turn to the sages, the elders of Judaism for your practice of Torah. The so-called “Passover Seder” is just one example among many. They teach as Torah the commandments and doctrines of men. And they are unable to see the Scriptures, both the Tenakh and the Apostolic, in Messiah. The approach to Torah in the flesh, focusing on the type as though it is the True, causes them to miss the True. These Judiaizers, who I believe professed faith in Messiah, were of that sort. It was leaven that they were holding on to, and introducing to the Galatians, seeking to bring them into their elite club. This is why Paul tells the Galatians “They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.”

Being shut out of the elite club makes some to do whatever it takes to be a part of that club. The way into the Club of Judaism was to go through circumcision, with a ritual baptism, and then begin to walk in the traditions of the elders of Judaism. The wall was erected to keep those out of the club who would not submit to the authority of the traditions of the elders.  I repeat, it is not Torah that the Judaizers are presenting to the Galatians. They are not legalists, in the sense of keeping Torah. They are illegalists who do not believe Torah, yet think they do, and they are proponents of the commandments and doctrines of men – the traditions of the elders of Judaism – that have been instituted by setting aside the Torah Commandments of YHWH.

Here is the seriousness of the matter. The Truth of Torah is only in Messiah. He is the point, the purpose of Torah. Torah, as well as all the Scriptures, are only understood spiritually. Torah is spiritual, as Paul states in Romans Chapter Seven.

And notice what Paul writes in 1st Corinthians Chapter Two.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual word. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” -1st Corinthians 2:12-16

Do you see why Torah can only be understood in Messiah? It is the Spirit of Messiah who spoke Torah to Moses. Those who are born again, with the Spirit indwelling them, have the mind of Messiah. The Voice of YHWH is the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Messiah. Adding the voices of men to the Voice of Messiah is adding leaven to the unleavened Word of YHWH. Saying that Messiah is not enough and one has to become a part of Judaism through a lawless application of the Torah Commandment of circumcision leads away from the Truth of Torah. One must set aside the Torah that Messiah is the very purpose for, in order to submit to the traditions of the elders. They are not one and the same. But many believed that then, and many believe that now.

Yeshua says, in Matthew Chapter Six….

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” -Matthew 6:22-24

What do you focus your eyes on? What is your desire. Whose voice do you listen to? What motivates you to do what you do? Do you try to keep your eye on Yeshua while keeping your other eye on a messiah who is according to the commandments and doctrines of men? Is your eye bad, because it is not focused solely on what GOD said? If that is the case you are in “great…. darkness.”  You may have never thought of that, but I pray you will consider it now. Yeshua said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”  Is your master and rabbi the Spirit of Yeshua who lives in you? Or are you attempting to hear His Voice while entertaining the voices of men who teach as doctrine their traditions? It won’t work. There is only one Master and one Rabbi and that is Yeshua. The best any man who is called to teach the Word of GOD can do is only say what He said and was written and established in His Word, from Torah to Revelation. Even Yeshua did that when He was in the confrontation with the very devil, serpent and liar who spoke to Eve in the Garden. Eve should have said the same thing that Yeshua said to Satan’s false application and handling of the Torah. Yeshua said, “It is written.” If “It is written” was powerful for the Messiah to use in defeating the wiles of the enemy, why do so many today refuse to stick with “It is written?” What was written by Moses, as we saw clearly in John Chapter Five, is synonymous with believing Messiah. Again, the Spirit of Messiah, according to Peter, spoke to the Prophets those things about Himself. But if you don’t believe Moses, you won’t believe Messiah. If you don’t believe Moses you won’t know Messiah – you are unable to recognize Him. And you can only know Torah in Him. The written Torah is inseparable from the Living Torah. In order to understand what the Author was saying, you need to hear what the Author says. He is still speaking today, to those who have ears to hear. How will you know His Voice? He will only speak “It is written.”

Do not be drawn away by man’s exclusive clubs built upon proprietary knowledge and authority they have given themselves. They have seated themselves in Moses’ seat, calling themselves teachers of Torah, yet they do not know Torah. They are filling pulpits each Sunday morning in places all around the world. They are in synagogues in diverse places. They fill positions as teachers and rabbis, in gatherings of Messianic Judaism. They are comfortable voicing their opinions, though they are not rooted in Truth, sometimes squabbling over their differing versions, but finding false fellowship in misapplied Torah. Some say, we all believe in Jesus, and the rest are minor issues that don’t really matter. Some say, we all keep Torah and observe the Sabbath. These other minor issues are disputable and shouldn’t matter. But we’ve already seen what happens when the leaven of man’s doctrine is added alongside the Truth of Torah. Torah is only in Messiah, who came as the Torah made flesh, and is in keeping with what is written by Moses. He said so.

He, YHWH, is the “Self Existent One.” He was not created. He is the Creator, who ways and thoughts are so far above our own that we cannot grasp them. It is the same with the all the words written in the Bible. Without spending time in learning what the words really mean we are left to interpret the Scriptures through traditional thought that has divorced itself from the original meanings of the words. Further, when we read the Books of the Bible, beginning in Matthew, having likewise divorced ourselves of the contextual foundation of the Books preceding it, we again are left to interpreting the Scriptures through traditional thought. And traditional thought is not the thoughts of the Self Existent One.

The Appointed Feasts are of the Self Existent One. They are not the appointed feasts of the Jews. They made His Feasts their own by their traditions of additions and subtractions from what He said. They attempted to keep His Feasts in the flesh, and not as directed by His Spirit of Truth. They didn’t hear His Voice. They didn’t hear His Voice when they read Moses, therefore, as Yeshua told them in John Chapter Five, they did not believe Moses, though they trusted in what Moses wrote. We can read the Bible, my friend, say we believe it, but if we’re reading it through the lens of traditional thought, and not by submitting to His Spirit and Truth, we will hear the same words from the same Living Word/Torah. He said they didn’t believe Moses therefore they didn’t believe Him. You cannot separate Him, and what He said as the Word made flesh, from what He said to Moses. He spoke the same thing to Moses that He spoke when He came in the flesh. And His Spirit still speaks the same Word today, if we choose to hear Him, and reject the word of man.

Today we see Jesus through the lens of traditional church thought. We have been conditioned to see Him in that light. We don’t see Him as the Son who came speaking the Words of of His Father, YHWH. And we don’t see that in Him dwells all the fullness of the godhead, literally “divinity,” bodily, as Paul writes in Colossians Chapter Two. What is His name and what does His name mean? Traditional thought says He is called “Jesus.” But if you do the easy work of looking at what His name is, in the language of the foundation of Scripture, you will see that it is Yeshua, or Yahshua. Many will argue the spelling. I’m not here to do that. I’ve spelled it both ways and have been accosted by someone in one or the other camps each time. The point is, what does the name mean. It contains the root of the name YaHWehH, the Self Existent One. And His name means Yah is Salvation.  – Yahshua, or Yeshua.

So what does all of this have to do with my opening statement that “The Sabbath Day is the focal point of the Moedim?” I’m getting there. Stick with me. It takes a little bit of time to connect the dots. And I’m not planning on connecting them all in this post. The internet cannot contain all the connections. And I am still being shown the connections, everyday. He is infinite, and His ways and thoughts are higher than mine, and I’m only seeing the dots being connected, in His Word, by the work of His Spirit. Traditional thought doesn’t allow His Spirit the freedom to reveal the Truth. Traditional thought, toward the Word of GOD, and the who He is, is not submitted to Torah. As Paul succinctly stated, in Romans Chapter Eight, the flesh is absolutely unable to submit to Torah. Torah is, according to the very meaning of the Word, the “instruction,” of GOD. He gave it to Moses, from His own mouth. He invited all the people to hear from Him, yet they refused. He is still inviting all people today. But you cannot come if you are devoted to your traditional thought, not submitted to Torah. Traditional thought is rooted in the flesh and cannot discern the ways and thoughts of the Creator – The Creator who ordained the Sabbath Day, as we read the account in Genesis Chapter Two.

Traditional thought doesn’t entertain the Truth of who the Creator is, and what He said, at creation. The foundation of Scripture, that gives His Instruction, is thought to be old, outdated, done away with, in Christ. This Christ that the traditional church says she follows has his foundations in something other than the foundation of the Instruction of the Self Existent One.

John Chapter One identifies the Creator as Yeshua, as does Colossians Chapter One and Colossians Chapter Two.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” -John 1:1-5

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” -John 1:14-18

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven” – Colossians 1:15-20

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” -Colossians 2:8-9

There are key words that are used in these passages that have been redefined by traditional thought. Word has been defined as a new word that has no connection to the Word given in the beginning at creation, by the Creator. Even though, as incredible as it seems, John is referencing the Creator at creation! The word “Light” is likewise redefined apart from the foundational meaning of the word. David identifies the Light as the Torah, the Instruction of the Self Existent One, in Psalm 119. But traditional thought cannot allow itself to submit to the authority of the foundational texts of the Torah, the Psalms, the historical books, and the Prophetic books of what is ill-defined as the “Old Testament.” How sad. The darkness does not comprehend the “Light” shining in the darkness. He is the Light, and He is the Word from the very beginning. He spoke the Torah to Adam, and all who would listen to His Voice. He spoke Torah to Moses and instructed Moses to write it down so for everyone to read the Word. But the darkness does not want to come into the Light, because it exposes the darkness as wicked, as John says in John Chapter Three.

Yeshua, the Word, the Light, came in the flesh. He came to set the record straight, and to destroy the works of the devil, the liar from the beginning. From the very beginning, as we read the account that Moses wrote, under the Instruction of the Self Existent One, that we know as Yeshua from Paul and John’s testimony, the liar has been twisting the Instruction of the Creator and deceiving the professing bride. He didn’t come in the spirit of the liar, to change what the Creator said from the beginning. He is the Creator who spoke from the very beginning. He came to destroy every thought that vaunts itself above the knowledge of the Self Existent One. It is as Paul writes, in 2nd Corinthians 10:5-6, “destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.” These thoughts that are not His thoughts are the traditions of men that are not rooted in what He said about Himself. He spoke through His Torah, and He still speaks through His Torah. Apart from hearing His Voice we will not understand His Torah.

We have approached His Torah in the flesh for far too long. With varying fleshly interpretations we have built our own gospel that is devoid of His Spirit and Truth. One man’s version says Sabbath is not for us today. Another man’s version says that I can choose my own sabbath day, and keep it in the way that fits me and my personal agenda. Another man’s version attempts to keep the letter of Torah/Law, in the flesh, and resorts to adding to what He said, with fences constructed by men, encompassing us, that in reality keeps the Spirit from causing us to walk in His Torah Statutes and Commandments. The traditions of men, that Paul references in Colossians Chapter Two, are not the Torah Instructions of the Creator. But traditional thought has blasphemed the Holy Spirit, in saying they are led by His Spirit in saying that Paul is saying that Torah is done away with in Messiah.

The Truth is that Torah is established in Messiah, who came to fully preach it. And in Him every lofty thought of man is destroyed. But we have to choose to tear them down! And we can only do it in Him, the very Creator who spoke Torah from the very beginning. It is only in Messiah Yeshua, as defined by the foundational Word and Instruction that He gave.

Sabbath is the focal point of the Moedim. It is the first that we see ordained by Him from the very beginning. Sabbath challenges our hearts. Are we willing to hear Him when He says “remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy?” Or are devoted to our traditional thought, unwilling to cast those thoughts down in order to know Him for who He really is. If you can’t keep His Sabbath, in Spirit and Truth, on the day He ordained, and commanded that we remember and keep, you will not know Him for who He really is.

You may know Him on some level, in your lawless stage of your walk with Him, now. But He is unwilling that you stay there. You are walking in darkness. Are you willing to come into the Light of Torah, in Spirit and Truth, so that those things that you walk in now, that are darkness, may be exposed as wicked? Are you willing to admit that your rejection of His Sabbath is sin and wickedness? He is faithful to cleanse and restore you when you confess your sin and repent/turn away from it, and turn to His Truth.

He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is Messiah Yeshua, the Word from the beginning. And He commanded that we remember His Sabbath Day. Will you bow your heart to the Truth? He cannot be separated from what He said. And He has not changed what He said.

The devil is a masterful liar, the chief liar from the beginning. He has established a counterfeit of epic proportions. He has deceived the professing bride of Messiah to believe the polar opposite of the Truth of why Messiah came, died, and was resurrected.

Traditional thought, inspired by the devil, is that His death set us free from His Torah/Instruction. This same traditional thought defines sin apart from the Standard of His Instruction. But He came to destroy the works of the devil, the liar from the beginning, who has twisted His Word and deceived the nations. He came to set us free from lawlessness, not free to be lawless!

“Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother” -1st John 3:4-10

I pray that you will hear His Voice, believe Him, and allow His Spirit to write His Torah on your heart, put His Torah in your mind, and cause you to walk in His Torah Statutes and Commandments. I pray you will allow His Spirit to cause you to remember and keep His Sabbath Day, beginning today. Today is the day. Will you hear His Voice, or will you harden your heart, as they did in the rebellion? He loves you and wants you to be free to walk as He walked, in the perfect Law/Torah of Liberty, and realize the promised blessing. It is only in Him, the Messiah foretold, by Him, in His Torah.

Sabbath Peace to those who walk by His Rule.

The amazing picture of the Sabbath Day, being a rehearsal of what is yet to come, is so wonderful. One day the sun will set on this heaven and earth, and a new heaven and earth will be. We will be resurrected, our bodies changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, putting off the mortal and putting on immortality. We will be at rest and in intimate relationship with our Bridegroom that our minds cannot imagine. We have never heard of anything or seen anything by which we can compare such incomparable joy and peace.

A new city will come down out of heaven; The New Jerusalem, adorned as a bride for her Husband. She will be clothed in the white wedding garment, which are her righteous works, in obedience to the tenets of the marriage covenant, the Torah of YHWH, in Messiah Yeshua. She will have believed what Yah said, in and through Messiah Yeshua, speaking forth the Torah of Yah. Because of her belief/faith, she will have accessed grace, in receiving the New Covenant, in the blood of the Passover Lamb of YHWH – Messiah Yeshua. And by that work of grace she was caused to obey His Statutes and Commandments of Torah, and made ready to receive Him.

The dwelling place of GOD will be among us. We who have received the promise in Messiah, the only Son of Promise, will have our God living among us. We will be His special people in a way we have not ever experienced. When we see Him face to face, Yeshua in His resurrected body, and we in ours. And our every tear will be wiped away. There will be no more pain or sorrow. No death and no sin!

There will be no temple in that city, the New Jerusalem, for YHWH El Shaddai and Yeshua, the Lamb of Yah are its temple. The sun and moon will not be needed in this city, for YHWH has lit it and the Lamb, Yeshua is its Lamp. The Word, the Torah of YHWH, is the Lamp, Messiah Yeshua, and they are give Light to the city. We are that city. The Torah of Yah leads us to this ultimate destination, by way of the Lamp unto our feet, Yeshua, the Living Torah/Word of Yah.

What a glorious culmination and consummation of the marriage of the glorious Bridegroom Yeshua, and His bride, who has readied herself for the wedding day and eternal wedded bliss. But sadly, everyone is not a part of the Bride, and in the New Jerusalem.

Outside the city are the “cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Their names will not be found in the Lamb’s Book of Life. They will have been blotted out by their choice to live in opposition to the Torah of YHWH, not accepting His Son, the Lamp that lights the way for those whose names are written in the Book, to bring them finally to the New Jerusalem, which is from above, and is free – free to worship the Beloved in Spirit and Truth.

Those not found written in the Book will hear the dreadful sound of Yeshua saying, “Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness, for I never knew you.” These will be made up of those who have rejected His Torah in favor of their own self established righteousness, apart from His Torah/Instruction. These will be made up of the wicked who murder, steal, lie and commit all kinds of obvious abominable acts. But these will also be made up of those who are nice people from a worldly point of view. Some of these are those who profess to be disciples of Messiah Yeshua, or YHWH, who have simple rebelled against His Torah, in favor of a man-made gospel and a Torah-less messiah that is not the True Messiah.

In the end the false prophet, the beast, the liar of old will be thrown into the lake of fire, no more to deceive the nations. And those not found in the Book will be cast into that eternal flame of unending punishment along with them. HalleluYAH that the liar is finally judged, but sad for those who believed the lie, for they are found to be children of the liar, the devil, the serpent from the garden. And they share the fate of their father.

The Tree of Life was in the garden. Because of rebellion against the Torah of YHWH, man was barred from that Tree, lest he eat of it in his sinful state, and live forever in that lost condition. Yah, in His mercy, made a way for man to return, keeping us from the Tree of Life that we might have an opportunity to accept His offer of grace in the blood of His Son, the Passover Lamb, to be made new and able to submit to His Torah, in the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Messiah. And at the end the Tree of Life will be once again made available. But not to all.

“And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.”

Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Blessed are those who wash their robes (literally “keep the Commandments), so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

I, Jesus (Yeshua), have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.” Revelation 22:10-21

The Apostle John wrote this, as given to Him by the LORD. John wrote extensively about keeping the Commandments and loving YHWH and one another, in his first letter, 1st John. In Chapter Three of 1st John he defines sin for us. It is transgression of the Torah, the Law of GOD. And we know that Yeshua said that he will tell the those who practice lawlessness to depart from Him. John writes in Revelation, in reminder of Deuteronomy 4:2, not to add to nor take away from what GOD has said.

Do you remember His Sabbath Day? Do you care about it as He does? Are you willing to set aside your tradition, or your pre-conceived notions, or your own pleasure, while refraining from speaking your own words and going your own way (Isaiah 58), and keep His Sabbath appointment. Will you hear the call and come aside to rest from your weekly labors, and hear from Him, gathering together with the other members of His bride, in rehearsal for the coming wedding feast and consummation? Or will you be asked to leave because you are not clothed in the wedding garment, which is the righteous acts/works of the saints? The choice is yours.

Most of this post is from Revelation 19-22. Please take time to read it, along with Matthew 7, and 1st John. Hear the Voice of the Bridegroom, the Passover Lamb of GOD who is the Lamp unto our feet. He is the Lamp of Torah, the Light, the very Word of GOD, who will shine lamp to your feet, to show you where to walk, if you will submit. Psalm 119:105

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10

   “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” -Exodus 20:8-11

May those who have ears, hear what the Spirit is saying. He speaks no different now than He spoke to the prophet Moses. Do you hear? Will you believe? Or will you continue to hear the voice of the liar from the garden? The blessed day that many of us are rehearsing for is coming. Will heed the call and keep the appointment?

In past Sabbath Day posts I’ve discussed the Sabbath being a two part Commandment. But a deeper look shows a three part commandment, as we look at it as given in Leviticus Chapter Twenty-Three.

“The LORD spoke again to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD’S appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings.’” -Leviticus 23:1-3

Leviticus Chapter Twenty-Three lays out the Moedim of YHWH. The Moedim are the “Appointed Times” given that we are to keep. Our Creator made the appointment and told us, His creation, to keep the appointment with Him. He is there every time. But are we? Do we understand how important these appointments are to Him, and how serious He is about His Commandments? When He says, “Come meet with Me,” why is it so easy for us to put His Commandment on the back burner in order to pursue our own pleasure?

Consider what Leviticus Chapter Twenty-Three is saying. We see the reiteration of the Commandment to work six days, not five, or some other arbitrary number. And then we see that we are to rest on the Sabbath Day, the seventh day of the week. Which, by the way, is undisputed world-wide as what we call Saturday. But then we read, in Verse Three, that it is a “holy convocation.” What is a holy convocation?

Let’s look at what the words mean, according to the Hebrew words. What does “holy” mean?

H6944
קדשׁ
qôdesh
ko’-desh
From H6942; a sacred place or thing; rarely abstractly sanctity: – consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (X most) holy (X day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. -Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon, KJV+ e-Sword

Ko’-desh is from H6942, which means “clean.”  Holy means clean, along with something that is sanctified, consecrated, dedicated and hollowed. It is a sanctuary. The picture of the Sabbath is of a consecrated, hallowed day, dedicated for a purpose. The purpose, as we’ve seen, is to rest from all our labor, after our six days of work. But then we have the word “convocation.” What does convocation mean?

H4744
מקרא
miqrâ’
mik-raw’
From H7121; something called out, that is, a public meeting (the act, the persons, or the palce); also a rehearsal: – assembly, calling, convocation, reading.

-Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon, KJV+ e-Sword

Something “called out,” a “public meeting,” also a “rehearsal.” The word “mik-raw’” is from the word “kaw-raw’.”

H7121
קרא
qârâ’
kaw-raw’
A primitive root (rather identical with H7122 through the idea of accosting a person met); to call out to (that is, properly address by name, but used in a wide variety of applications): – bewray [self], that are bidden, call (for, forth, self, upon), cry (unto), (be) famous, guest, invite, mention, (give) name, preach, (make) proclaim (-ation), pronounce, publish, read, renowned, say. -Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon, KJV+ e-Sword

We’ve been called out to keep the Appointments made by GOD Himself, on His hallowed, set apart Day. We’ve been called to a public meeting of the saints, to a reading of His Torah, and to a rehearsal for what is yet to come.

Traditional Christianity says that Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath, therefore we don’t need to concern ourselves with it. Some say that the LORD’S Day is now Sunday, because Jesus rose on the First Day. Some say that can choose their own Sabbath Day, to fit their own personal pleasure and agenda. None of these perspectives are supported in the Scriptures. What does our Creator say?

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. -Genesis 2:13

GOD set apart the Seventh Day, the Sabbath Day, after His labor of creating the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, including us. He blessed it and sanctified it, because of what He did. And then He tells us, in Exodus Chapter Twenty, to “remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” 

Why does Traditional Christianity choose to not keep holy what He has commanded we remember and keep holy?

Genesis Chapter Two says that GOD sanctified the Sabbath Day. What does sanctify mean?

H6942
קדשׁ
qâdash
kaw-dash’
A primitive root; to be (causatively make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally): – appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy (-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify (-ied one, self), X wholly. – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon, KJV+ e-Sword

The Sabbath Day has been pronounced “clean” by the our Creator, who is Yeshua, according to John Chapter One, and Colossians Chapter One. It is a day that He has “appoint(ed),” and it is a consecrated Day, that has been dedicated, to be kept.

Why does Traditional Christianity set aside the Sabbath Day, that our Creator has set apart, made holy, declared clean, and commanded we appear before Him in a public meeting, to read His Torah, to hear from Him, for their a day of their own choosing? Even a day that was set apart for a pagan god? How far has the professing bride drifted from the marriage covenant she has said she will keep? The marriage supper of the Lamb is yet to come. The professing bride is not keeping the wedding rehearsals of the “holy convocations” of the LORD, given in His Torah. She is keeping days of rehearsal for pagan gods, while saying she is devoted to and betrothed to the Bridegroom Yeshua. How can it be?

All the Moedim (Feasts), appointed times of YHWH are appointments He has made and commanded we keep. He keeps them every week and each time the annual Moed occur. Do we take them as seriously as He does? The very first one mentioned in Leviticus Chapter Twenty-Three is the weekly Sabbath Day, that we are commanded to keep holy, and remember. We are “called out” by GOD to appear before Him, together, corporately, on His “called out” Day.

The word that is translated as “feasts” in Leviticus Chapter Twenty-Three is “Moed.”

H4150
מועדה מעד מועד
mô‛êd mô‛êd mô‛âdâh
mo-ade’, mo-ade’, mo-aw-daw’
From H3259; properly an appointment, that is, a fixed time or season; specifically a festival; conventionally a year; by implication, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congregation; by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal (as appointed beforehand): – appointed (sign, time), (place of, solemn) assembly, congregation, (set, solemn) feast, (appointed, due) season, solemn (-ity), synagogue, (set) time (appointed). – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon, KJV+ e-Sword

Again, it is a fixed appointment, made by the LORD, that we are commanded to keep. It is convened for a definite purpose for us to come together as a congregation, in a place of meeting. It is a solemn assembly and a set time.

Why does Traditional Christianity feel they have the autonomy to change the set time of the LORD, or to simply ignore it altogether?

We are commanded to assemble each Sabbath Day, and on each of the annual Moedim (Moedim is plural of Moed). We are there to get instruction and revelation from our Creator, who speaks through each of us, as we are submitted to His Spirit. He reveals our hearts that we might see those things that we hold to and practice as in keeping with the marriage covenant or that show adulterous hearts and practices that we might confess and repent. We are being clothed in Messiah for the coming marriage supper of the Lamb. The Sabbath Day is not yet fulfilled.

Why does the professing bride live as if it is completely fulfilled and she can disdain it in favor of a pagan day?

On His set apart Day, His Sabbath, do you see the commandment to assemble and rehearse as importantly as He does? He calls it a Holy Convocation. Traditional Christianity calls it bondage and that those who keep the Day are defined by them as legalist, and that they have fallen from grace. Where is this found in Scripture? It is not. How can so many people take Scripture that have nothing to do with the Sabbath Day, and twist it to fit the lie that Sabbath is done away with?

I have asked before, and I ask again, “Show me where Sabbath is done away with, changed, or man has been given autonomy to choose his own Sabbath Day, in the Scripture.” You must show it in the Word, not in commentary. It must be in context with all the Bible, the whole counsel, in order to be established. Show me. If you can, I will repent for I do not want to walk in opposition to the Word of my Creator.

Hebrews Chapter Ten adds seriousness to this topic.

“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. 

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE,
         HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.

BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH;
         AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” -Hebrews 10:19-39

The Passover Lamb has come. He has shed His blood to set us free from the bondage to sin, lawlessness. We are free to keep His Torah, and to appear before Him, on His Appointed Times, as He commanded us to. We must appear because we still have sin, as John points out to us in his first epistle. Sin must be removed because nothing unclean will be in the New Jerusalem, who comes down from heaven as a bride. That bride is made up of those who have washed their garments by keeping His Torah, and Moedim. See Revelation 19:8 and Revelation 21:2.

This is all accomplished in Messiah Yeshua. Read again, from Hebrews Chapter Ten, that tells us that we are not to neglect “assembling together.” Assembling together is what the Moedim are all about. We are “called out” to gather together. That has not changed with the change of the priesthood. We can now enter directly into the holy place, before the throne of grace, because He has entered in through the veil before us. We are to be exhorting one another to those good deeds, that as Paul writes in Ephesians Chapter Two, that GOD prepared “before hand that we should walk in them.” It is accomplished by His work of grace, as we believe what He said (faith). This happens in the weekly and annual holy convocations, the Moedim of our Creator. When you don’t heed the Commandment to gather you are missing the work of the LORD through His people on His Appointed Day. This is the New Covenant that was inaugurated in His blood. The covenant He made with us is that we should walk in His Torah, by grace through faith. He does it, if we will submit to Him and to His Truth. It is by His Spirit, not by our power or might. But we must obey. We must keep His Appointment. Consider this as we revisit a portion of Hebrews Chapter Ten.

 ”Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Apart from receiving the gift of grace in Messiah Yeshua the Torah is written on stone and is an indictment against us. But when we enter into the New Covenant it is written on our hearts, put in our minds, and we are caused, as we submit to His Torah and work of grace, to walk in His Statutes and keep His Commandments. Once we have been enlightened and know what is Truth, we are in a pretty tight spot. We are then held responsible for what we know. If we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the Truth we set aside the sacrifice of Yeshua, who died, as the Passover Lamb, to set us free from lawlessness. It is not that we no longer have sin, because we do. The difference is what we do when we see our sin, in Light of Torah. Do we confess and repent (stop doing it) or do we continue in our sin/lawlessness, and expect our version of His grace to cover us in our rebellion?

The Torah written on stone brought physical death to the one convicted of rebellion against it, on the testimony of the required witnesses. But in the New Covenant the witness is GOD, with whom we have said we enter into covenant with. This covenant is in His Son, the Son of God, the Son of Promise. When we disregard His Torah, and His Moedim and view them as unclean, then we are regarding “the blood of (Yeshua) His covenant” as unclean. We are trampling underfoot the Son of GOD, who died to set us free from lawlessness, when we continue willfully in lawlessness. It is an insult to the Spirit of Grace who works grace in the heart of the one who believes (faith) what GOD said, when one says that His Sabbath is no longer relevant, or is done away with, or changed, or is according to what I say it is. Because the Spirit’s work of Grace, as defined in the Bible, is that He causes us to do the works that He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

To those who disregard His Sabbath as irrelevant, I encourage you to consider what He said. It will not line up with Traditional Christianity. You are not keeping His Appointment and are missing what you need to be clothed in Messiah, being made ready as His bride for the marriage supper to come. The Sabbath Day we are rehearsing for is coming. Will you be ready? You will not be if you are not rehearsing, hearing from and obeying the Director.

To my brethren who profess to be Torah observant. Do you regard His Sabbath Day as holy, a called out day that we are called out to keep, and gather? What takes precedence over assembling with the saints – those who are called clean by Him to appear on the Day He has called clean? What is more important than keeping the appointment that He made? Concerts, picnics, shopping, staying home and watching TV? What is it that you deem more important than appearing before Him on His Appointed Day? Are you committed to the part of the body that you are called to be a part of? If you are called to be a part of the body at a particular location then you are to be functioning as a part of that body. When you don’t keep the appointment with your brethren you miss what the LORD is doing with that part of His body. You are fragmented and are not receiving the nourishment that you need. When you gather you will feel like you are “out of the loop” and not connected. You will miss the progressive work of revelation and growth that Messiah is accomplishing in that particular part of His body. You are not hearing from the Director either, because you are not coming to the rehearsal that He has called.

He is serious about it. Are you? Am I? Here is how serious He is.

“For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

The LORD will judge “His people.” Yes He will judge those in the world who have rejected His offer of salvation. BUT He will judge His people who say they are called by His name. On what basis? On the basis of what He said. Do you have faith? Do you believe what He said? If you do, and submit to His Truth/Torah/Word, then He works grace in your heart that will be seen in your life in obedience to Torah, not willful sin. You won’t be in rebellion to His Torah, ignoring His Sabbath and other Appointed Times. You will be pliable in His Hands, willing to confess and repent, and be cleansed in His Blood and restored, on a day by day, minute by minute basis. You will not trample the Son of GOD underfoot, see His blood that inaugurated the New Covenant as unclean, and insulted His Spirit of Grace in saying that His Spirit told you that you can do what you want in regards to His Sabbath and Torah.

The final judgement is coming. We must judge ourselves now, in Light of the Torah He has given, confess and repent, in order that we won’t be dismissed into outer darkness on the day of final judgement.  Sin is defined as lawlessness. It is transgression of Torah. I leave you with the Words of Messiah Yeshua, from Matthew Chapter Seven.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” -Matthew 7:21-23 

What YHWH created, and instructed was not good enough for Adam and Eve. Eve resorted to adding to what was instructed, and was deceived by the serpent. Adam chose to listen to the voice of his wife and willfully disobey the Torah/Instruction of YHWH.

David realizes that we all still have that same rebellious nature of unbelief in each of us, even today.

I’ve included the entire Psalm below for you to read. Pay close attention to David’s gladness for what our Creator has done. He gave all that David needed at creation. David remembers that when he remembers the holy (set apart) Sabbath of the LORD.  David sings praises for joy at what YHWH has done. He did it all in those 6 days of creation, and then He did no more work. It was complete.

YHWH has not added to nor taken away from what He established, and who He is, at any time. And neither should we. But Eve added to what He said, while Adam took away. Eve was deceived because of the addition to what the Spirit of Truth had said, and Adam willfully sinned, disobeying the direct commandment, given to Him by His Creator. He removed the Voice of Truth from his hearing and replaced the True Voice with his wife’s voice. David recognized that this fallen state was in every man born of Adam, as did Paul. Through the first Adam, because of his willful disobedience, death came to all of his descendants/seed. But through the second Adam, Messiah Yeshua, came life to all who believe in Him. He is the very Spirit of Truth that spoke to Adam in the Garden of Eden. David knew Him. He spoke to David. David’s Psalm 92 is acknowledging his relationship with his Creator, remembering what He did and gave, and choosing to walk in the Truth of Torah.

David knows that the knowledge of GOD/Elohim, the Father/YHWH, the Son/Yeshua, and the Holy (set apart) Spirit of Truth/Spirit of Messiah, is only found in what the Creator established and gave in six days of creation, and continues to speak throughout time. And that knowledge is only accurate when there is no additions to or subtractions from what He gave and instructed. But, David writes, a senseless man has no knowledge of the deep thoughts of YHWH. He says that a stupid man cannot understand Him or what He has done and said. And these wicked people who ignore the clear gift, given by Yah in six days of creation, and the gift of His Sabbath rest will be destroyed forevermore. When we understand that David’s Psalm is about Sabbath we have to acknowledge that the precedent that was set from the very first people created, our foreparents, Adam and Eve, is that they died for their wickedness in adding to and subtracting from what GOD said to them. Today the professing bride of Messiah/The Spirit of Truth, adds a pagan day as the sabbath unto the LORD, in the first day of the week, a work day of our Creator and given to us as a work day. And the His professing bride takes away His Sabbath and spurns His perfect gift. For in six days He created and rested on the seventh/Sabbath Day, and commanded us to do so as well, remembering His perfect work of creation, for us! Consider this as you read this Psalm. Are you following the way of the first Adam, or are you, by grace through faith, in the power of the Spirit of Messiah/Truth, following the Second Adam, the sinless Creator, Yeshua Messiah. He is the same as He has been since the beginning and He is the ancient of days, who lives outside of our time space continuum, The Self Existent One/YHWH. He is GOD! Whose voice will you hear?

A Psalm, a Song for the Sabbath day.

1It is good to give thanks to the LORD
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

2To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night,

3With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
With resounding music upon the lyre.

4For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done,
I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

5How great are Your works, O LORD!
Your thoughts are very deep.

6A senseless man has no knowledge,
Nor does a stupid man understand this:

7That when the wicked sprouted up like grass
And all who did iniquity flourished,
It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.

8But You, O LORD, are on high forever.

9For, behold, Your enemies, O LORD,
For, behold, Your enemies will perish;
All who do iniquity will be scattered.

10But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
I have been anointed with fresh oil.

11And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes,
My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me.

12The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree,
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13Planted in the house of the LORD,
They will flourish in the courts of our God.

14They will still yield fruit in old age;
They shall be full of sap and very green,

15To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

As we studied Torah those of us who were beginning to submit to it would discuss what we were seeing and experiencing as we began to see and obey the Commandments. This caused great consternation among those who were making choices to not submit to Torah. When Pastor Ron talked about Torah from the pulpit, that was a bit of a problem for many, but when some of us began to believe and obey what GOD said, it became a bigger problem for them. When we began to openly talk about what Yeshua was doing in our lives through keeping Torah, that was just too much. Many began to leave the fellowship.

Understand that there had never been a mandate from the pastor and elders to keep the seventh day Sabbath. We simply taught the Word, in context, and begin to obey it, as we gained understanding in what was written and revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. But the witness of the Spirit’s work will always cause either a reaction or response. Many react and recoil. They could not get past the traditional thought that obedience to the Law of GOD is bondage and legalism. We had all been taught that keeping the Law of GOD caused one to fall from the grace of Christ. But the Spirit of GOD, through the Written Word, took us back to the foundation and showed us the love of GOD in His Torah. Sadly, many reacted and ran away. Some of us responded and ran toward Him. We are still running toward Him. Some are still running away. But some are returning!

There is an awakening to the Truth in the world today, and in our local communities. Some are being drawn to the Truth of the Father, by the Father. The Book of Revelation speaks of those who have ears to hear. This book, written by the Apostle John, as revealed and instructed by the LORD, is about these last days that we live in. The Spirit of Truth is speaking and those who have ears to hear are beginning to listen, believe, and obey. As Paul said, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of GOD.”

Here are three portions of Scripture I leave you with, to consider, on this Sabbath Day.

“Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.” -Daniel 12:1-4

What is written in Daniel is clearly talking about the last days. Notice that those who are “found written in the book, will be rescued.”  This is found in The Book of The Revelation also. And it is connected with those who have ears to hear.

“He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” -Revelation 3:5-6

The Greek word translated as “white” has the meaning of “light.” Whose Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path?  Psalm 119:105 tells us that it is the Word of the LORD, Yahweh. And Psalm Chapter One Hundred-Nineteen is all about the beauty and power of the Torah. Daniel says that those who have insight will shine brightly. They shine brightly as Moses did, after hearing the Word/Torah directly from the Word of GOD, the Spirit of Messiah, the Spirit of Truth on the mountain. His face shone so brightly that those who saw his face turned away. Moses was drawn to the Light. Others, seeing the reflection of the Light in his countenance turned away. Those who are found in The Book of Life will be clothed in white/light. The Book of Life is mentioned again in Revelation Chapter Twenty.

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.” -Revelation 20:11-12

Notice that judgement is “according to their deeds.” Revelation 20:1-3 says that the dragon that is chained and thrown into the pit is the one who deceives the nations. When we’re willing to take the journey back to the beginning we find the serpent who deceived Eve. He is the great liar, the father of liars, who asked the question, “Did Yahweh really say?” The deception was meant to, and its result was, to cause disobedience to the Instruction/Torah of Yahweh. The dragon is still deceiving many today, and has been since the beginning. He preys easily on those who are not committed to and submitted to what GOD said, without any additions to or subtractions from it. Eve’s error was in adding to what GOD said, concerning the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man has added to what GOD said, in His Torah/Instructions, since the garden. Judaism and Israel continued in deception; being deceived themselves, and being used by the enemy in deceiving others. The traditional church simply continued the tradition of adding to and subtracting from what GOD said. It is especially evident in, what I believe, is the lynch pin in the Torah – Sabbath. Sabbath was instituted at the end of six days of creation, set apart – made holy. And we were told to remember it. But the dragon has deceived most into setting it aside, subtracting from His Instruction/Torah, and adding to it the pagan Sunday observance in replacement of the LORD’S Day, the Seventh Day/Sabbath. The Standard for judging out deeds is His Instruction. Belief, which means obedience, brings blessing. Unbelief, meaning disobedience, brings a curse. We are told what happens to the sons of disobedience in Ephesians Chapter Five.

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” - Ephesians 5:6-13

Once again we see the concept of “light.” Being “formerly darkness,” meant we were away from the Light, which is Biblically identified as Torah, by David, in Psalm Chapter One Hundred-Nineteen. We are told, by Paul, to “not to be partakers with” these “sons of disobedience.” We are commanded to expose them and their “deeds of darkness.” These are the deeds that will be judged, that we read about in Revelation Chapter Twenty. Consistently, in Scripture, Light is contrasted with darkness, even from the very beginning, in Genesis Chapter One. And we know that the Light is the Torah of Yahweh, according to David. John said, in 1st John 1, that we have fellowship when we walk (together) in the Light as He (GOD) is in the Light. But the dragon has deceived many to believe that the Light is now darkness, and the darkness is now light. The Scripture is clear – what is good is not called evil, and what is evil is called good.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
         Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
         Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
         And clever in their own sight!” -Isaiah 5:20-21

The theme is consistent – good and evil, Light and darkness. Those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight, sounds like those who read things into Scripture that are not written. Reading Romans Chapter Fourteen to say that it is about Sabbath, when the subject of Sabbath is not even hinted at, is a good example. Another example, among many, is saying that Matthew Chapter Fifteen and Mark Chapter Seven is saying that what is unclean can now be eaten with Yahweh’s blessing, when the subject is a ritual hand washing, that was a tradition of the elders of Judaism, and not in the Torah. Yeshua exposes the darkness that is contrasted with His Light. His disciples were accused of transgressing the darkness of lying tradition that set aside the Light of His Torah. They called the actions of His disciples evil, when their actions were good. And they were saying that their dark tradition was Light. Yeshua contrasts them and exposes the lie. Those who have ears to hear, will hear what He said to those Scribes and Pharisees, and apply it to their traditions today.

The Spirit of Truth is speaking today, for those who have ears to hear. I’ve been thinking about what Daniel wrote about the prophecy being sealed until the time of the end. People are going back and forth, and knowledge is increased. Many are puffed up with knowledge. Leaven puffs up, my friend. Leaven is what is added to wheat flour to cause it to rise. But leaven is also a type of sin. Sin is adding to what GOD said. The leaven of our additions to and subtractions from His Torah puffs us up. Just as Isaiah writes, man has become “wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” When Isaiah wrote this he was talking about the Light being what GOD said and the darkness being what man said. Man speaks from his own resources, being wise in his own eyes and clever in his own sight. So about this book being sealed up until the end of time……

Revelation is about the end of time and about those who are in darkness and those who are in Light – those who keep the Commandments of GOD and have faith in Yeshua, versus those who have faith in a christ of their cleverness and wisdom and keep the doctrines and commandments of men. With the Instruction to Daniel to seal up the book until the end, in mind, notice what is told to John in The Book of The Revelation.

“And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.” -Revelation 22:10-15

Revelation Chapter Twenty-Two says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the Tree of Life.” The Greek word does not mean “wash their robes.” It means “keep the Commandments.” Why the NASB renders it “wash their robes,” is beyond me. The KJV renders it better. I’ve pasted it below, from e-Sword, with the Greek lexicon numbers. You can download e-Sword for free, or look this up at Blue Letter Bible, or on Crossswalk’s Bible Study Tools. See for yourself.

“BlessedG3107 are they that do G4160 his G848 commandments,G1785 that G2443 they G846 may have G2071 right G1849 to G1909 the G3588 tree G3586 of life, G2222 and G2532 may enter in G1525 through the G3588 gates G4440 into G1519 the G3588 city.G4172
For G1161 without G1854 are dogs, G2965 and G2532 sorcerers, G5333 and G2532 whoremongers, G4205 and G2532 murderers, G5406 and G2532 idolaters, G1496 and G2532 whosoever G3956 loveth G5368 and G2532 maketh G4160 a lie.G5579“

The Tree of Life was given in the beginning. The way to the Tree of Life was barred by cherubim with flaming swords, due to the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Eve was deceived by the father of all liars, the dragon, the serpent of old, the devil himself. Adam and Eve were barred from the Tree of Life by their disobedience to the Commandments of the LORD. Notice that the only way the cherubim with flaming swords are removed for anyone is to keep the Commandments. Look closely at those who are on the outside. It is those who love and practice the lie. The liar began lying from the beginning, and he found willing subjects to believe his lie and continue in the lie. They died, being barred from the Tree of Life. The way back is to reject the lie and believe the Truth, to walk in the Light as He is in the Light, being the very Light Himself. He, Yeshua, is the Living Torah, made flesh, and He brings life to those who believe what He said. He spoke nothing but what His Father told Him to speak. He spoke the Words of the Father to Adam, to Cain, to Abel, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to the Prophets, to the Apostles, and He instructed it to be written down for us. He is the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Messiah, the Word that came to the Prophets. And now, as we are in, what appears to me to be, the end days, the book is unsealed and His Truth is being proclaimed world-wide, for those who have ears to hear.

It goes back to the very beginning, the very foundation of the world. The reawakening to Sabbath is the key.

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” -Exodus 20:8-11

 “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” -Genesis 2:1-3

Who will you hear? Do you have ears to hear what He is saying? He is not saying anything different than what He told Moses. Do you believe what Moses wrote? In John Chapter Five He told the Scribes and Pharisees that they didn’t believe Him (Yeshua/Jesus) because they did not believe what Moses wrote. Why? Simply because He told Moses what to write. Moses wrote, at the Instruction of the Spirit of Messiah, to “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” Will you believe what He said and what Moses wrote? Will you “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy (set apart)?” Will you believe the Truth, or love and practice the lie? The choice is yours.

]]> http://torahperspective.com/remembering-the-sabbath-day-april-14th-2012/feed/ 0 http://torahperspective.com/messiah-first-fruit-unto-the-father-resurrection-from-the-dead/ http://torahperspective.com/messiah-first-fruit-unto-the-father-resurrection-from-the-dead/#comments Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:16:26 +0000 Banner Kidd http://torahperspective.com/?p=740 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” -1st Corinthians 15:20-28

It 12:40PM, Sabbath Day, in the 1st Month. Today, by our contemporary calendar, it is April 7th, 2012. Around 2000 years ago, our Passover, Yeshua, the Passover Lamb of YHWH, was spending his last of 3 days in the tomb. He arose at the close of the Weekly Sabbath, as The Feast of First Fruits began.

“You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God.” Exodus 23:19

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  “Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. He shall then bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests; and shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil with all of its frankincense. And the priest shall offer it up in smoke as its memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD. The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a thing most holy, of the offerings to the LORD by fire.

 Now when you bring an offering of a grain offering baked in an oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers spread with oil. If your offering is a grain offering made on the griddle, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil; you shall break it into bits and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. ‘Now if your offering is a grain offering made in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. When you bring in the grain offering which is made of these things to the LORD, it shall be presented to the priest and he shall bring it to the altar. The priest then shall take up from the grain offering its memorial portion, and shall offer it up in smoke on the altar as an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD. The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a thing most holy of the offerings to the LORD by fire.

No grain offering, which you bring to the LORD, shall be made with leaven, for you shall not offer up in smoke any leaven or any honey as an offering by fire to the LORD. As an offering of first fruits you shall bring them to the LORD, but they shall not ascend for a soothing aroma on the altar. Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.

Also if you bring a grain offering of early ripened things to the LORD, you shall bring fresh heads of grain roasted in the fire, grits of new growth, for the grain offering of your early ripened things. You shall then put oil on it and lay incense on it; it is a grain offering. The priest shall offer up in smoke its memorial portion, part of its grits and its oil with all its incense as an offering by fire to the LORD.” -Leviticus Chapter Two

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“And Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.’” -John 12:23-26

Messiah is our Passover. He who knew no sin, took our sin upon Him. He was the spotless, sinless Lamb of YHWH, who was tested and approved, found worthy to be the sacrifice for sin, to set us free from the bondage of sin. The proof was in the resurrection from the dead, as the First Fruits.

The risen Lamb is the First Fruits of the land of YHWH. He was the kernel of wheat sown into the ground, that sprouted up and bore much fruit. He is not alone. We who serve Him and follow Him will be with Him where He is. He has gone ahead to prepare a place for us, in His Father’s house. His Father is our Father, if we truly belong to Him. We have been adopted into the Family of YHWH, through and in Messiah! He overcame death. We who serve Him will never die! We will lay down this earthly tent, but we will put on an incorruptible body, like unto His. We follow the First Fruits, Messiah, being “much fruit” unto the Father.

 “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” -Romans 7:4

It all leads back to the Father, YHWH. The Messiah, the Passover Lamb of YHWH, slain from the foundation of the world, came to set us free from the Law of our husband. He died and rose in newness of life so that we can be married to Him. YHWH divorced His people for adultery. According to the Torah a man must not remarry the woman He has put away. The only way was for Him to come and die and be raised again in newness of life. Then He is free to take His people back as His bride! Now that union bears fruit to the Father. Messiah is the First Fruits.

This is presented to you to consider. Time and space will not permit all that can be seen and shown in Scripture about Him and how He fits every tiny piece of Torah, being the very purpose of Torah. I pray you will take time to consider Him in His Torah and Feasts. Reject those pagan additions, like the lawless Easter season that is upon us. Seek Him, the Passover Lamb, who has risen as the First Fruits unto the Father. And submit to Him during The Feast of Unleavened Bread, to allow Him to remove the leaven of sin, the additions to and subtractions from Torah that we live and practice, while saying we belong to Him.

He is risen! He is the First Fruits!

According to what is written we observed from the Biblical account of Yeshua’s death as the Passover? Remember, each day, Biblically, begins in the evening.

He ate Passover with His disciples on Tuesday (4th Day) evening.

He was crucified Wednesday (4th Day) during the day, dying at the ninth hour.

He was laid in the tomb and spent the first night in the heart of the earth on Wednesday (5th Day) evening.

He was in the tomb all during the 5th Day, daylight hours of what we call Thursday.

He was still in the tomb last night, our Thursday, as the 6th Day began.

He still lay in the tomb today, as the 6th Day drew to a close.

He would still be in the tomb tonight, as the 7th Day, the Sabbath begins.

He would have lain in the tomb all during the daylight hours of Sabbath, tomorrow.

He would have risen early on the 1st Day, what we call Sunday, shortly after sundown, on what we call Saturday evening, fulfilling The Feast of First Fruits.

When He arose on the 1st Day, early in the evening, He had spent 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth, fulfilling His prophecy according to the sign of Jonah.

This account fits the Feast Days of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits. That is why we are commanded to keep His Feasts, and to reject the pagan holidays. It is how we know who He is  and what His mission was and is. It is how we can recognize Him and distinguish Him from the man of lawlessness to come.

Bless YHWH for His Feast Days. Many times they are bitter sweet. These are bitter in remembering that He came, suffered and died for my sin, and the sin of the whole world. The Bible says that He became sin for us, yet He, Himself, knew no sin.

It is sweet in that His sacrifice as the Passover set me free from sin and death. Because He lives, I now live also, and one day I will rise as He did.

Because of this I want to live to please Him. I love Him because He first loved me, and gave His life for me. Because I love Him I want to keep His Commandments. It is just as He said, “If you love Me, keep My Commandments.” I know this to be true in me.

During The Feast of Unleavened Bread we have removed leaven from our home. I doubt we got it all. I know we are trying to be very careful about not eating leavened products. But I realize, and I’m trying to teach to my wife and children that, just as we are to remove the leaven from our homes, we must be looking, in the Light of Torah, for the sin that is in each of us.

We know we have sin because the Bible says that if we say we have no sin we lie and the Truth is not in us. If we are born again the Truth is in us – the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Messiah indwells us. Because the Living Torah is in us He is faithful, if we’re willing to submit, to show us our sin, in the deep recesses of our heart, because He is the One who writes Torah on our heart and puts it in our mind.

Paul said that, in the flesh, we CANNOT submit to Torah. But in the Spirit we can, according to Romans Chapter Eight. Obedience to Torah is a serious matter. Obedience, according to Torah, brings blessing. Disobedience brings a curse. Willful transgression of Torah is a fearful place to be, according to Hebrews Chapter Ten. This is especially true if we claim to have have the Spirit of Truth, and have received the gift of His grace, and His blood in The New Covenant. Because the reality of all of that is that we are set free from lawlessness. We can now submit to Torah!

My friends, Torah is not bondage. The Feasts are beautiful. His Sabbaths are full of liberty and rest. When we answer His call, appear before Him at His Appointed Times (Feasts), we meet with Him, hear from Him, and are strengthened, and we know Him more, and know His redemption plan more – a little more each year.

I pray you will consider His Feast Days. Even if you’ve missed the Passover, you can repent, ask Him to reveal Himself to you. You can change your plans to mow your lawn, work in your garden, go shopping, or whatever busy work, home work, or work for overtime pay, you have planned for tomorrow, on His Sabbath. Determine to stop and meet with Him. He will bless you for it. And if you continue in the remainder of this Feast, to look at your life in Light of Torah, with your sin exposed by His Light, and ask Him to help you to rid yourself of it, you will be blessed.

The first step will be a removing the leaven of the pagan sabbath, coming from Roman Catholicism, on Sunday, and keeping His Sabbath, beginning right now. I pray you will remember His Sabbath, established at creation and begin to keep it, by grace through faith. Reject man’s satanically inspired day and keep His Sabbath Day. In this you will experience the reality of The Feast of Unleavened Bread. Leaven will have been removed! Then you will be eating Unleavened Bread – The Bread of Life that came down from heaven; Yeshua, the Living Word/Torah. And this is just the beginning of a journey, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, year by year, until He is ready to call you home.

I pray you are willing to take the first step. He will help you. Then He will show you each subsequent step in the walk. You will be in the process of being fashioned for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. You will be putting off the old man clothing and putting on the raiment of the Bride; Messiah Himself, being readied for Yeshua, our Bridegroom.

I pray you will consider this, in Yeshua. Remember the Sabbath of YHWH, as He commanded. Remove the leaven of the addition of the pagan day of Sunday as sabbath.

Sabbath Peace,

-Banner

We believe that Yeshua, the Messiah, the Lamb of YHWH has come and fulfilled these Spring Feasts, as they pertain to Him. The Passover as given in Exodus, and, as it seems to appear to me, possibly seen since creation, is a type of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that we see mentioned in Revelation Chapter Thirteen. We are told by Yeshua to observe the Passover in memorial of His death, and we’re reminded that we will see Him again. In Luke 22:15 He says that He will not eat of the Passover again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of GOD. When was it fulfilled? When He was killed, becoming our Passover, the sacrifice to free us from the bondage of sin. He is the Passover Lamb of YHWH, as we seen testified to by John, in John 1:29. and by the Apostle Paul, in 1st Corinthians 5:7, in connection with keeping The Feast of Unleavened Bread. Since we believe that the Scriptures teach that He, Yeshua, is the True Passover Lamb, slain to set us free from bondage to sin/lawlessness, we no longer observe the type of the physical lamb being slain, roasted and eaten on Passover. He was, and is the fulfillment of Passover for those who believe. Messiah is the goal, the purpose of Torah, and the Feasts of Torah.

Messiah is the Passover Lamb of YHWH, who was murdered by the rulers of the world. But His death, and resurrection redeemed us from the curse of sin and set us free from lawlessness. As we looked at in a previous post, concerning the timeline of His fulfillment around 2000 years ago, He fulfilled the Spring Feasts perfectly, fitting in with His timing. He not only was slain as the Passover Lamb, but He was resurrected at the beginning of the 1st Day of the week, being the First Fruits, according to the Feast of First Fruits, as the Spirit of Messiah foretold through Moses the prophet. Again, I encourage you to read the previous article, if you haven’t done so yet, and do the math, with your Bible as your reference, and see that He does not fit the pagan/lawless holy week of Roman Catholicism and Traditional Christianity, but He fits the Spring Feasts of YHWH. He does that because He is the Word of YHWH/The LORD who spoke them to the Prophet Moses concerning Himself, as Peter testifies in 1st Peter 1:10.

Peter’s testimony about the Spirit of Messiah is a key piece to the, seeming mystery, or puzzle as to knowing the Messiah, or the Christ as Traditional Christianity calls Him. Being the Spirit of Messiah, who is the Spirit of Truth, the Word of the LORD/YHWH who spoke to the Prophets concerning Himself, then we can know that He has not changed and neither has His Word. And we know that the prophecies concerning Him, are the types given of the True – He is the True. The writer of the Book of Hebrews says that He serves in the True Tabernacle, not made with human hands, as the Eternal Great High Priest of YHWH. He is our Great Eternal High Priest. We are His tabernacle/dwelling place. He serves in us. The tabernacle that He instructed Moses to construct was a type of the True. The priesthood of Levi was a type of the True. We serve as priests under the True Great High Priest. This does not set aside the type, but should cause us to see the type through the True, as we still observe them. But we must see those that are fulfilled as fulfilled. What I mean by this is that we are not to still be looking for the Passover Lamb to come and fulfill Passover. He has done that. He has fulfilled First Fruits. He fulfilled those things that only He could fulfill. And we are to fulfill those things that remain for us to fulfill, BECAUSE He fulfilled those that only He could fulfill.

What does Paul say, in Romans Chapter Eight, that sheds light on this?

“ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” -Romans 8:2-17

Notice that GOD/YHWH sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” He condemned sin in the flesh. He did not condemn the standard for sin, the Torah. The Torah identifies sin. And we are not sinless. But He wants us to be. If we say we have no sin we are a liar and the Truth is not in us, according to John Chapter One.

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” -1st John 1:5-10

We have sin, and that is very evident to us, if we look at our lives in the light of the Standard that identifies sin, the Torah/Instruction of YHWH. But, now, if we believe, and submit, He has set us free from sin. We now have a choice, whereas we didn’t before, being hopelessly and helplessly in bondage to sin. Sin, as John says in 1st John Chapter Three, is lawlessness – transgression of Torah. But now, having been set free we are to submit to His Torah, in the Spirit, as Romans Chapter Eight tells us. Why? Because in the flesh it is impossible to submit to Torah. But we are no longer in the flesh, but have the indwelling Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Torah, Spirit of Messiah indwelling us.

Paul wrote, in Romans Chapter Eight, that He, GOD, condemned sin in the flesh. When He died, his flesh man died. He condemned sin in the flesh, so that we are buried in the likeness of His death, so we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. We are to walk in newness of life. We find this in Romans Chapter Six.

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” -Romans 6:1_7

Sin is identified by Torah. Transgression of Torah is sin, which is lawlessness. Because we have, and are experiencing His work of grace, should we continue in sin? Will that make grace increase? Paul answers emphatically, “May it never be!” We’ve been set free from sin, Paul writes. The body of sin is done away with, not the Standard that identifies sin – Torah. We are no longer slaves to sin. He did this for you and me, if we believe His Word, His Instruction/Torah, and submit to it. We can if we are in the Spirit. We can’t in the flesh. We’re the problem. Not Torah. Torah identifies our problem. He did this for us. Now we have our part to play. Now that we can submit to Torah, we must choose to do so. We could not make that choice before. Our bondage precluded our choice. He did what only He could do. Now we must do what we can now do, because of His fulfillment as the Passover and First Fruits.

What did He do, that no man could ever do. We could not die as the perfect Lamb of GOD, and neither could an innocent little animal/lamb. Only He could. We could not raise as the First Fruits unto the Father because we are sinful. He kept Torah perfectly – the only human who ever did, or ever could. But there are things, if we believe Him, that we are to be doing, because He came and died for us, as our Passover.

He has ascended to the Father, sent His Spirit to indwell those who believe His Gospel, given in Torah and the Prophets, and reiterated in the Apostolic Scriptures. His Spirit works grace in the heart of a true believer that should be evident in the life of that believer. It is His work of grace in His New Covenant in His blood, the blood of the Passover on the door posts of our heart. It is His door post if we belong to Him. We are His dwelling. Because of that He wants to cleanse His house. This is where we play a part.

His Spirit writes His Torah Commandments on our heart, puts it in our minds, to cause us to walk in His Statutes and keep His Commandments, as The New Covenant says, in Jeremiah Chapter Thirity-One and Hebrews Chapter Eight. He is doing His part still, if we are willing to choose rightly, and submit to His Work of grace. We can only submit to His Work of grace as we choose to submit to His Instructions – His Torah.

The first thing we have to do is submit to His Torah. It is the Word of the Living GOD/YHWH, and the Word is Messiah, the Passover Lamb, the First Fruits unto the Father. And that submission means we walk in obedience to His Instructions/Torah. And when we choose to do this, He works more grace in us, continuing to cause us to walk in Torah Statutes and Commandments. When we do this, we will be caused, by Him, to keep His Feasts, every week, with His Sabbath, and the annual Feasts, beginning with Passover, continuing into The Feast of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Shavuot (Pentecost), The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles).

We keep His Feast of Passover in memorial of His death as the Passover Lamb, for us. We don’t eat lamb because He is the Lamb of YHWH/GOD. He is the Word of YHWH. And then we keep The Feast of Unleavened Bread, submitting to His work of grace to cleanse us, His House, of the leaven of sin. Sin is what we add to and or take away from His Torah.

He is the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. In Him there is no leaven. Leaven is what we add. When yeast is added to wheat, in baking bread, it permeates the whole loaf, causing it to rise. It is no longer pure wheat. When we add our words to His Word, we change His Word from its pure state. No wonder Paul says that knowledge puffs up. In our arrogance, believing we have knowledge that supersedes the knowledge of the YHWH, as given to the Prophets, including, and especially Moses, we are puffed up with leaven. We’ve added to what He gave the Prophets, and leavened the Word of GOD. And we are leavened. He wants that leaven to leave His House.

As we keep The Feast of Unleavened Bread, and remove the leaven from our dwelling places, we get the picture of our GOD who wants to rid His dwelling place of the leaven of hypocrisy in the additions to and subtractions from His Torah/Instruction. We are to be diligent and faithful to remove the leaven from our house, as He is from His. And if we are seeking to do that in our lives, His dwelling, then are looking at the True that the type represents. Let us keep the Feast, each day, throughout this 7 day Feast, and remove the leaven of sin and hypocrisy. We must ask Him to reveal it. That is His work of grace. If you aren’t interested in keeping this Feast, then that is the place to start. You disregard for His Torah Commandment to keep the Feast, and rid your dwelling of leaven, is sin/leaven, you are leavened, and in sin. You must repent of that. But that is just the beginning.

As you begin to remove the leaven from your home, ask Him to reveal the leaven in your heart, and practice. And then be willing to throw that leaven out as well.

My friends, the practices of Roman Catholicism and the Traditional Church are leaven. They are sin and hypocrisy. GOD hates them and they are what He seeks to cleanse from His Dwelling. He wants us to eat only unleavened bread, while getting rid of all the leaven.

The Feast not only tells us to rid our homes of leaven, but also to eat only unleavened bread. He is the Bread of Life. Torah tells us, and Yeshua says it again, in the record of His Words when He came as the Word made flesh, about physical bread, versus the Word of GOD. The Word of GOD, the Spirit of Messiah spoke this to Moses, BEFORE He came and spoke it to the Scribes and Pharisees. And He is still saying the same thing.

“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. “ -Deuteronomy 8:3

“But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”’” – Matthew 4:4

After saying these words in Matthew Chapter Four, He is immediately tempted by the same lying spirit that deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden. The difference between Eve’s conversation with the serpent, and the Living Torah, was that Yeshua did not add leaven to the Bread of Life, the Pure Torah. He accurately spoke the Torah to Satan. That defeated Satan. That same power is what we need in our lives. It is His grace in us, that because He is our Passover, and is the First Fruits, we, in Him, and He in us, we now can submit to His Torah, and to His Spirit’s work of grace. And when we do, we don’t have to worry about what to say to the devil, or to men who are in the sway of the lying spirit, the serpent from the beginning.

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” -Matthew 10:16-20

What serpent do you suppose He was speaking of, when He said this? We know, don’t we. It was the serpent who lied to Eve, saying, “Surely you will not die.” And what dove do you suppose He is speaking of? Remember that John the Baptist testified that he saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Yeshua as dove.

“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’” -Matthew 3:16-17

Hear Him. He is the Spirit of Truth, who only speaks what the Father gave Him to speak. And this same Spirit of Truth is in you and me, if we are indeed His. And He will give us what to speak. We will speak only what Yeshua spoke when He walked in the flesh. And when He came and walked among us in the flesh, He only spoke the Word of His Father, that He spoke when He was instructing the Prophets, including Moses, what to write for our Instruction/Torah.

Keep The Feast of Unleavened Bread. Do not be arrogant and say that you don’t need to keep that old Feast. It was only for the Jews, wasn’t it? No, it wasn’t. Why did Paul say what He said to the Corinthians, who were not Jews?

“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in factunleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” -1st Corinthians 5:6-8

This is the Truth. What will you do with it? Will you continue to boast that you are under grace, and not under the Law? If you continue to disregard His Torah, you are proving that you are under the Law. To you the Torah is the Law of sin and death. Remember what Paul says in Romans Chapter Eight.

“ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” 

It is about being in Messiah Yeshua. Your relationship to Torah is decided upon your relationship to Yeshua. Are you in Him? If you are, and you are living according to the Spirit, Torah is written on your heart, placed in your mind, by the Spirit, and you will be caused, as you submit, to walk in Torah Statutes and Commandments. The Torah/Instructions that teach us that the wages of sin is death is no longer in effect over you. You are no longer under it. But you now have the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua. The Torah is not written on stone, as an indictment against you. He nailed the indictment to the tree with Yeshua. The Torah is on your heart, administered by His Spirit of Truth, and not by faulty men.

Seek Him. Pray for His Word and His Work of grace to be real in you. Keep the Feasts.

Peace,

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Maybe that means I have to look a little closer at Noah. I have been, but maybe a lot closer.

By the way, today is the day, as best we can tell, that Yeshua was crucified. He would have been laid in the tomb tonight. By His sacrifice and resurrection, being the Passover Lamb, and then the First Fruits unto the Father, we are new creations in Him, if we believe and obey the Torah, by grace through faith.

It is by the Spirit of Messiah that we can walk in the Truth of Torah. Torah doesn’t save us, but saved people have a desire to keep Torah. Maybe not all of it, at first, but as you come into contact with Torah, the Spirit will not lead you to disobey Torah.

Peace,

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