HalleluYah! How is everybody doing today? Awesome! Is everybody staying warm? If you are staying warm, that is a blessing. It is really cold. The folks up in Minnesota are telling me it is -30 and -40. Now THAT is cold! This is a heat wave for them.

So, you might recognize some of these graphics. We are going to get switched over to the study title for today– a very, very important question for us: “Does Keeping the Law = Denying the Messiah?”

How many of you, after having come to the understanding that Yahweh desires us to observe His Law, have heard concerns from Christian friends and family that you are in danger of losing your salvation?

How many of you have heard that somehow now they are scared that you are “estranged from Messiah” and that you are going back under the “curse of the Law?” Do those words sound familiar? And there are some who are genuinely concerned for your soul. I am not saying anything otherwise.

They might even think you are completely lost and you have embraced Judaism and that in our efforts to keep the Law of Yahweh that you have denied the Messiah in some way. That is a serious charge. That is a real serious charge. You are talking “lake of fire” kind of stuff.

They might even say, “Well, you know what? If you are going to start doing these things, then you better keep the whole Law. You better keep the whole thing because Yahweh will require you to keep the whole thing, and you will not be saved unless you do.” Sound familiar?

They might say, “Well, you have rejected the freedom and the liberty that we have in Messiah.”

We get this liberty now to violate the Sabbath. We get this liberty now to eat pork and shellfish. We get this liberty to ignore the Feast Days and embrace the ones that come from paganism.

Does that sound like liberty? It doesn’t sound like liberty to me, but they see that as being liberty. And, really, they do mean well. Well, some of them might be just trying to knock you down a few notches and scare you.

But they are generally afraid, sometimes, to even listen to what you have to say because of how they have understood Paul’s letters, especially the ones to the Galatians. And I understand. They have these concerns. I am not mad at them for caring about me. I am glad they care about me.

And if they say this to you, tell them that. “Thank you for caring about me. I am glad you care about me. Surely you are not just trying to knock me down. You are trying to say, ‘Hey, I am concerned about you.’ So I am glad you have the willingness to say something.”

And I am glad there are people who care. I would hope they would not stop caring about my soul. The last thing we want to be is estranged from Messiah or under some kind of curse.

And so, we do not want to minimize or set aside what our Savior has done for us. And, by no means, do we want to do anything that would jeopardize our salvation once we have received Him. And so, it is important that we examine these claims in light of the Scriptures.

So I want to take a close look at this and to what other people are saying so that we can be very clear as to what is actually going on when we begin to embrace Yahweh’s Law as our standard that we are seeking to live by.

Now what Christians typically say is that keeping the Sabbath and keeping the Feast Days and observing the clean and unclean and various Old Testament commandments, that when you start keeping these particular commandments, somehow you are crossing over to the point where you are denying the Messiah’s “finished work at the cross,” as they would say it.

And my question is: How can that be? I don’t quite understand where they are coming from when they say this.

Here is what they mean. If you are keeping the Law, they do not mean keeping the Law like in the sense of honoring your parents and other things that the Law tells us to do.

What they really mean is keeping the Law simply means this: You are keeping the Sabbath Day. You are keeping the Feast Days. You are observing the clean and the unclean and some miscellaneous commands like land Sabbath and tassels, and things like that.

When you say “keeping the Law,” that is pretty much what they are thinking of. There are other things that are “keeping the Law” that they do not think about are actually “keeping the Law.”

For instance, no one would say you are denying the Messiah because you keep 9 out of the 10 commandments. If you have “no elohim before Me,” if you don’t bow to idols, no one says, “You are denying the Messiah.”

They never say, “You are denying the Messiah. How dare you honor your parents and refrain from murder and adultery! How could you do that?” They never say, “You are under the curse of the Law because you are not out there stealing and murdering people.” They never say that. But if you keep that #4, then you are denying the Messiah somehow.

Denying Messiah?

1. Having no elohim before Him.

2. Not bowing to idols.

3. Not taking His name in vain.

4. REMEMBERING THE SABBATH.

5. Honoring parents.

6. Refraining from murder.

7. Refraining from adultery.

8. Refraining from stealing.

9. Refraining from bearing false witness.

10. Refraining from covetousness.

Now I just don’t see how that makes any sense. It is just another one of the commandments that He has there in the Decalogue (in the Ten Commandments). It doesn’t cause you to somehow run away from the Messiah. It is just one of the ten. And so, where is this coming from?

You know, about 100 years ago, nearly all Christians observed a “Sabbath.” I mean, it was a first day of the week Sabbath, which really isn’t a Sabbath. But, you know, lately, a Sabbath on Sunday has even become inconvenient. And a lot of Christians feel the freedom to ignore it.

And so, their claim is that Messiah rose on the first day of the week, so “we keep Sunday.” That is their claim. And my question is: How is it that I am denying the Messiah by resting on the seventh day of the week, but you rest on the first day of the week and you are not denying the Messiah?

I do not see that lining up too well. And so, what is it about that?

Well, here is what they often will say: “I don’t need to keep a Sabbath. I rest in the Messiah.” Have you heard that one? “I rest in the Savior and His finished work at the cross.” And they actually have that kind of an intonation. It is not “cross.” It’s “crawss.” I am not making fun of anybody, but it is just something I have noticed.

And their quote to support this is:

Matthew 11:28 – Come to Me, all [you] who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 – Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 – For My yoke [is] easy and My burden is light.

Those are beautiful words, really. But you find other places where it talks about “rest for the soul.”

Psalms 116:6 – YAHWEH preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me.

7 – Return to your rest, O my soul, For YAHWEH has dealt bountifully with you.

So when Yahushua says these words, He is not talking about somehow when you receive the Messiah, that enables your body to rest a little bit better. It is talking about a rest for the soul.

The soul deserves the lake of fire. The soul deserves all the turmoil it is going through. But when we receive the Messiah, our soul can be at rest because we know where we are going. We do not have to fear the lake of fire.

So as long as we are coming to Him, we are going to find rest for the soul. Apart from the Messiah, our soul is in great danger. Apart from the Messiah, our soul will be destroyed. Apart from the Messiah, we have no salvation. But it is salvation, according to Psalm 116, here, that gives rest for the soul.

He is not talking about the Sabbath in this verse. He is not. He is not saying, “Come to Me, and break the Sabbath.” He is not.

“Come to Me, and you will not need to worry about that Sabbath Day anymore.” He is not saying that, whether the seventh day of the week or the first day of the week. He is simply saying, “Come to Me, and you will find rest for your soul.”

The Sabbath was made for man so his body would rest and have time to stop and focus on this relationship he has with Yahweh. In fact, I can demonstrate from Scripture what Yahushua is really doing is pulling people away from the yoke of the scribes and Pharisees and pulling them toward HIS yoke, which is light.

He is humble. He is lowly. He is not going to put too much on you at one time. In fact, the way of rest for your soul, according to the Scriptures, you can read it in Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 16:

Jeremiah 6:16 – Thus says YAHWEH: Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way [is], And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, `We will not walk [in it].’

17 – Also, I set watchmen over you, [saying], `Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, `We will not listen.’

18 – Therefore hear, you nations, And know, O congregation, what [is] among them.

Gentiles. Nations. Goyim.

Jeremiah 6:19 – Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people — The fruit of their thoughts, Because they have not heeded My words, Nor My law, but rejected it.

It is the rejection of the ancient paths, the Law of Yahweh, that causes one to not have rest for their souls.

The Sabbath was given so that we would be blessed with rest. Salvation was given so that we would have rest for our souls.

It is all really one and the same, because if we would walk in perfect obedience to Yahweh’s Law, we wouldn’t even need a Savior. So it is still really pointing us in the same direction. But it is Messiah who enables us, in the eyes of Yahweh– in spite of our sin, in spite of our failures– to be considered perfected already through Him.

And so, it is through Him that we receive forgiveness of sin, and therefore we are not accounted to have violated the Law, and therefore, in the eyes of Yahweh, our souls will not be in torment and turmoil in the age to come, but our souls will be at rest.

And so, what the Torah, the Law of Yahweh, is pointing us to is ultimately the Messiah, because that is how He lived. That was His way. That was the way He lived HIS life. He did not violate a single commandment. And so, if we pattern our lives after Him, what will happen? It will be the evidence that He lives in us.

1John 2:5 – But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of Elohim is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

6 – He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

How did He walk? Did He keep the Sabbath Day? Did He keep Yahweh’s Law? Then that is how we ought to walk– just as He walked. That is the evidence that He lives right here. That is the evidence that we have the Law of Yahweh in our heart– that we are living as He lived and acting as He acted and loving as He loved. That is the evidence.

So I fail to see their logic that somehow if we live differently than how Messiah lived, we are proclaiming the Messiah, but if we live like Messiah lived, somehow we are denying Him. That does not compute in my mind. And it certainly is a different idea than what is being taught here in 1 John chapter 2.

If we say we abide in Him, we will walk like He walked. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. He isn’t any different today than He was when He walked the earth. And He won’t be any different when He comes back. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And if He lives in you, then He will do what He did yesterday, and we will all do what He did forever, right? That is right.

So stand in the ways and see. Ask for the old paths, wherein the good way is. And then you will find rest for your souls. Why? Because that is how Yahushua lived.

Can we see how these scriptures really all line up together– Matthew 11:28, Jeremiah chapter 6? And so, Yahushua says learn from Him. He was a keeper of the Law. He was. If He was not a keeper of the Law, He would not have been our Savior. He would have been a sinner, and He would have needed a Savior, too, just like us.

And some people say, “Well, those scribes and Pharisees, they kept the Law to perfection. You know, they were just right on the money and it still wasn’t good enough.” Wrong! Wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong!

What did Yahushua say to them?

John 7:19 – Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?

They were hypocritical. They were wicked. They were not righteous. They were blood thirsty men. They only kept the parts that made them look good– big old long tassels, you know. Anything to make them look righteous on the outside. But what did He say about them? He said:

Matthew 23:27 – Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead [men’s] bones and all uncleanness.

28 – Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

They were not Law keepers. Come on! What does He say about them? They looked like they were, but they weren’t. They were wolves in sheep’s clothing. So I hope that clears up a couple of misconceptions that we may have people trying to feed us.

Now, I do understand partly why they say the things they say. They are getting their thoughts from how they understand Paul’s writings. I understand that.

For instance, Romans chapter 3 and verse 20.

Romans 3:20 – Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin.

There you are. If you are keeping the Law, you are trying to justify yourself. No, I am not trying to justify myself by keeping the Sabbath– or these other things– any more than somebody else trying to justify themselves by loving their neighbor as themselves or loving their enemies or being kind to their neighbor, or any of these things.

Just because you are doing something that the Law tells you to do, does not mean you are trying to justify yourself by the Law. It could mean you actually want to love someone. It could mean that you actually want to love Yahweh, that you want to do as He says– just as we are doing the other things.

So the Law does not justify us. When I go before Yahweh on the Day of Judgment, am I going to be able to come to Him, and say, “I am saved because I kept Your Law”? No. Nobody can. “That Law declares me to be righteous.” No, it doesn’t.

“Look at what you did, Son. You did this. You did that.” He could probably find a million things I have done wrong. So it cannot justify me.

What hope do I have? Only in Messiah am I justified. Only through His righteousness am I declared righteous. So I cannot come to Him on that final day, and say, “Look what I did.” All I can do is get on my face, and say, “Look at what He did.” That is all I can do.

So that is what Paul is trying to communicate here. So just because we keep a commandment in the Law does not mean we are trying to be justified by it. It just may mean we repented of Law breaking and now we are trying to do what the commandments actually tell us to do. It is as simple as that. Nothing confusing really.

But if we are trying to let the work of the Law save us, then we are under a curse. Why? Because it is written:

Galatians 3:10 – For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed [is] everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.

Sadly, we have not continued to do the things which are written in the book of the Law to do. So we cannot expect that the work of the Law is going to save us.

What is “the work of the Law”? What is the Law going to do? It is going to tell you what righteousness is. It is going to tell you what sin is. It is not going to die for you and save you. It is not going to get up on a tree. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. It is just ink and paper.

So it does not save you, and that is what he is trying to communicate to the Galatians.

Galatians 3:11 – But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of Elohim [is] evident, for the just shall live by faith.

We have no choice in order for us to inherit eternal life but to just, by faith, accept that Yahweh is merciful and if I receive the Messiah, if I have faith in Him, I will be saved even though I have not kept the Law.

And he says:

Galatians 3:12 – Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them.

I have not done them, so I cannot live (in other words, have eternal life) by them.

Galatians 3:13 – Messiah has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed [is] everyone who hangs on a tree),

He became the one who hung on the tree. And upon Him was laid the iniquity of us all. And so, He got the curse, and we got the blessing. That is a pretty good trade.

Again… Galatians 2:16:

Galatians 2:16 – knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Yahushua Messiah, even we have believed in Messiah Yahushua, that we might be justified by faith in Messiah and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Galatians 5:4 – You have become estranged from Messiah, you who [attempt to] be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

5 – For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

So just because you are keeping a command, once again, does not mean you are trying to be justified by it. And that is where many people believe we are trying to do because we choose to keep certain laws they do not think are necessary.

So if we keep the Sabbath or Feast Days, somehow we are trying to be justified by our works rather than being saved by our faith. And we need to be careful. The thing he is actually canning on is not whether you should keep those laws. It is whether or not you believe those laws are going to save you on that final Day of Judgment.

We all acknowledge here in this room that the Law is not going to save us. Our Law keeping will not save us. But in the same way it does not stop a Christian from keeping what he thinks the Father wants him to do, it does not stop us from keeping what we think the Father wants us to do.

The real question is, what does the Father want us to do? That is the real question.

The word “justified” means “to render righteous,” “to declare someone righteous,” to say that “you are righteous.”

Lexicon: 1344 dikaioo dik-ah-yo’-o} Meaning: 1) to render righteous or such he ought to be 2) to show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered 3) to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be.

Origin: from 1342; TDNT – 2:211,168; v. Usage: AV – justify 37, be freed 1, be righteous 1, justifier 1; 40.

So the Law is not going to look at you or me, and say, “You are righteous.” The only one it could look at and say that to was Messiah Yahushua. He was justified by the Law.

So if you understand that, at least 85% of Paul’s letters and all the confusion will melt away when he is talking about the Law.

Because what he was dealing with were Jews who were teaching, “You cannot be saved, Gentiles, until you go under the knife and you are circumcised. We will not accept you, yet, because you have not been circumcised. You are not a son of Abraham, yet. And therefore, you are not saved.”

That is what they were teaching in Acts 15:1– “Unless they are circumcised, they are not saved.” And that is what he was up against.

He says, “No, it is not circumcision that saves you. It is Yahushua who saves you. It is not circumcision that makes you a son of Abraham. It is Messiah who makes you a son of Abraham.”

So Paul had to explain that, no, it is not the keeping of the Law that causes one to enter into salvation. Only faith will bring someone to salvation.

And while genuine faith, true faith, is always accompanied by a sincere desire to walk away from unrighteousness and toward righteousness– a heart that is repentant toward the Father– no one act of righteousness will be sufficient to atone for our sins.

So, actually, think about this. Someone could be just as guilty for trying to be justified by the Law if they think loving their enemies or paying tithes to their church or avoiding lust, or any other righteous deed, is somehow going to save them on the Day of Judgment. They could be just as guilty.

They are all attempts to be justified by one’s own righteousness. They could say, “I fulfilled 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love perfectly. Therefore, I should be saved.” But unless you have your trust in Messiah, no, you won’t. You are still trying to be justified by your own deeds, by your own actions.

It is not we who save ourselves. It is He who saves us. So I am not earning my salvation anymore by keeping Shabbat or Feast Days than somebody else trying to earn their salvation by giving to the poor or loving their wife properly or honoring their father and mother properly, or any other matter of righteousness.

There is really no difference. Someone could be trying to justify themselves by “New Testament commandments” just as easily as “Old Testament commandments.” There is no difference. It is where we believe our salvation comes from. Did we earn it or did He give it to us as a free gift?

So obedience to a commandment does not, again, in and of itself, automatically mean you are trying to earn your way in. Someone could legitimately be trying to earn their way in by New Testament commandments just as they would Old Testament.

So I am not denying the Messiah by eating clean any more than someone else who is not denying Messiah by refraining from stealing.

Now some people believe we are denying the Messiah by our obedience to the Law because they believe the Law has been abolished. “Messiah came to abolish that Law, and therefore for you to keep it, you are denying what the Messiah did. He abolished it.” That is the mentality they bring.

And since we are choosing to obey Yahweh’s Law, we are somehow rejecting this gift that Yahweh has given to us. And so, I would say, “Show me one scripture where it says that Messiah abolished the Law.”

They might even say, “Well, the old law, you know, it was just concerned about the outward works. The new law that the Messiah brings in, it is all about the heart now. See? The old law was all the external– walk so many steps, do this a certain way. And the new law is all about the heart.”

And they will quote Matthew 5.

Matthew 5:27 – You have heard that it was said to those of old, `You shall not commit adultery.’

28 – But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Uh-huh! New commandment! Gotcha! New law! He came to institute this “new law.”

Wrong! It is already there in the Ten Commandments…

Exodus 20:17 – You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that [is] your neighbor’s.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” It has been there all along.

What does “covet” mean? It means “to desire.” What does “lust” mean? It means “to desire.” It is the same thing. So it was already there. And it was in the Ten Commandments, and it was internal.

This commandment, they could not go in Israel, “I am going to stone you for coveting.” They do not know what is going on in your mind. They had no idea. But it was still given. It was a law you kept in your heart, and the only way they would know you broke it is if you had actually followed through with adultery or stealing or something like that.

So it was not a new law. The Law was always concerned about the heart.

Deuteronomy 6:5 – You shall love YAHWEH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

“You shall love Yahweh your Mighty One with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” It is always about the heart. From the very beginning it was about the heart.

Deuteronomy 10:16 – Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.

“What? Circumcision of the heart in the Torah? I thought that was a New Testament thing.” No. It has been there all along. It is just most people do not read it. They read Paul. And after they are done with that, they read Paul. And when they are done with that, they will read Paul some more.

And so, they have an unbalanced view of Scripture, because Paul’s letters are, by volume, only five percent of the Bible. Only five percent.

Now, I tell you what. There is a lot of meat in it. A lot of good stuff. But unless you know what he is even talking about by reading the rest of the Bible, you could potentially mess the whole thing up and twist them around and turn them to say something he is not saying– just like being justified by the Law equals trying to keep the Law.

That is not what he is saying.

Now here is one I like a lot. (This is the Torah.)

Deuteronomy 30:11 – For this commandment which I command you today [is] not [too] mysterious for you, nor [is] it far off.

12 – It [is] not in heaven, that you should say, `Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

13 – Nor [is] it beyond the sea, that you should say, `Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

Deuteronomy 30:14 – But the word [is] very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

This is the commandment, the Torah, the Law of Yahweh. He says it is very near you, in your mouth and in your HEART. Why? What is it doing there? Why is it in the heart? So you can go, “Well, I have the Law in my heart. I can do what I want”?

No!! It is in your heart so that you CAN do it. Unless it is there, sorry, but you can’t. Unless it is really there, you cannot do it.

So maybe you thought that was some new thing that the Law is in your heart now. It was in their heart, too. “Thy word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Have any of you heard that? Because it is the Word in the heart that enables Yahweh to give us the power to do it.

These are not new ideas. These are not “Pauline doctrines.” These are all the way back in Yahweh’s Law, in the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and so on.

Now I have a full study on this topic for further study called: “There’s Not so Much New Under the SON” – (9/29/2012) – http://www.eliyah.com/transcripts/.

A lot of people think there is all this new stuff. But there is a lot that is not so new. Now there are some new things. I am not saying there isn’t. There is baptism, different things He did say that were new. But not as much as people think. A lot is already there.

And we go through the whole Sermon on the Mount. You know, “You have heard it was said… but I say to you…” We go through a lot of those.

But there are so many misconceptions about the Law in Christianity today. They think the Levitical Law, that part, is done away with.

What is the “Levitical Law”? What is that?

Did you know that in the book of Leviticus there are laws against murder? Against incest? Against bestiality? Against homosexuality? There are laws against adultery, laws against dishonoring your parents, laws against idolatry, laws against stealing, against lying, against blasphemy, against prostitution, witchcraft and slandering.

Those are all Levitical laws. Is that all done away with? No! Come on.

There are also laws telling us to give to the poor. To be kind to strangers. To honor the elderly. To conduct business with honor, honesty and integrity. And so, if you are referring to the book of Leviticus when you say “Levitical Law,” these are all Levitical laws. They are in the book of Leviticus, right? It is not just all these other things.

In fact, you know, in the book of Leviticus you will find what many people think is a new law. And that is “the Golden Rule.”

Leviticus 19:18 – `You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I [am] YAHWEH.

Right there, in the Law of Yahweh, in the “Levitical Law,” the Levitical Law is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is “Levitical Law” for you. So I am keeping Levitical Law. How about you? I want to keep it. Yahweh, help us.

It is ALL good stuff. We have been going over that, actually, the last several weeks.

And they say, “All right, Tom. Well, maybe Levitical Law is not done away with. All right. It is the ‘Ceremonial Law’ that is done away with.”

“Ceremonial Law.” Where is that in the Scriptures? Where did Yahweh say, “Here are My ceremonial laws, and you will keep these until I send My Son to die for you”? Nowhere! The phrase “ceremonial law” is not found in the Bible. It does not exist. It is a coined phrase produced by men who have a misunderstanding of Paul’s letters.

They think of a ceremony. Jewish stuff, you know. Jewish ceremonies and all that stuff that is done away with. The “Jewish economy,” that is all “done away with.”

Now wait a minute. How is eating kosher, eating something that is only clean food… is that a ceremony? Am I keeping a ceremony by eating only clean food?

I go to the grocery store. Am I keeping a ceremony because I only want to eat beef and not pork? or chicken instead of shellfish? I am not keeping a ceremony. There is no ceremony involved.

I mean, are you keeping a ceremony because you avoid salt, or are you trying to make sure your body is healthy? No, it is not keeping a ceremony.

If you avoid carbohydrates or fat or some other thing, it probably had something to do with your health. And probably a lot of the laws dealing with the clean and unclean have to do with our health, for our own good.

Okay. They say, “Well, the Feast Days, those are ceremonies. They are certainly fulfilled. He came and fulfilled it. And so, we do not have to do it anymore.”

Really? Well, a day is going to come… “One Sabbath to another… one New Moon to another” (this hasn’t happened, yet… we are waiting)… “All flesh will come and worship before Yahweh.”

Isaiah 66:23 – And it shall come to pass [That] from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me, says YAHWEH.

If that has been fulfilled, Sir, excuse me. Why are they doing it in the future? If He came and did away with all that stuff, why are they doing it? Why is He prophesying?

They say, “Well, that is the Old Testament. Don’t give me the Old Testament. I don’t want to hear any Old Testament.”

Well, do you believe that Yahweh says it is going to happen? Has this ever happened? No. We are still waiting. And so, I do not care if Yahweh said it in the Old Testament or the pre-Old Testament, if He said it is going to happen, it is going to happen.

If it is going to happen, and it violates your theology, maybe you need to take a second look at your theology.

They have no answer for this. They really don’t.

Zechariah 14:16 – And it shall come to pass [that] everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, YAHWEH of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

17 – And it shall be [that] whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, YAHWEH of hosts, on them there will be no rain.

Has that ever happened? Nope. It is going to. It is going to happen.

Zechariah 14:18 – If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they [shall have] no [rain]; they shall receive the plague with which YAHWEH strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

Wait a minute! Family of Egypt? That is Gentiles! Why in the world would Yahweh put a Jewish Feast on a Gentile? Because they are not just Jewish Feasts. They are for everybody.

Zechariah 14:19 – This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

ALL the nations. ALL the Gentiles.

These scriptures, they have no answer for. They don’t. If Yahushua did away with these things, why are all these “ceremonies” being observed in the future?

Is He coming to the earth to set up the Old Covenant? No, the New Covenant. Right? Because He died for us, right? He is coming to set up a New Covenant.

These are New Covenant laws right here. They have to be. There is no other way it can be otherwise. And so, if He did away with these things, then why are they being observed when He comes back? They have no answer. They do not.

Most think since Messiah fulfilled the Law, He fulfilled the Feast Days. Now we are free to ignore those commandments. “He fulfilled all that.” But why are they keeping it?

Now since the Feast Days were pictures of what Messiah would do– He is their Passover Lamb and the Day of Pentecost was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came down– they are thinking, “Okay, well, He fulfilled it.” And they think “fulfilled” equals “do away with,” “fulfilled” equals “don’t do this anymore.” There is a real problem with that.

What about the Feast of Trumpets? He hasn’t fulfilled that one yet. The Feast of Trumpets commemorates the time when He is going to return at the Last Trump. Why are you not keeping that one? He definitely did not fulfill that one.

Every Christian church ought to be keeping the Feast of Trumpets because He has not fulfilled it yet, and the rest of the Fall Feasts.

The truth is, yes, the Messiah fulfilled the Law. He also fulfilled the law “Do not commit adultery.” Can we break that commandment now? No! He fulfilled the law “Do not commit murder.” Can we break that one? He fulfilled the law that says “Honor your parents.” Can you break that one? No!

I am sharing these things so you have something more to say, maybe you didn’t think about, that you can share with them, and for those listening, to take a second look at this. Because the truth is, yes, Messiah fulfilled the Law, but we are supposed to also.

What does it say?

Romans 13:10 – Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love [is] the fulfillment of the law.

Is he telling us, “Don’t fulfill the Law”? or is he telling us TO fulfill the Law? Well, what they say is love replaces the Law. Wrong again.

Someone said to Yahushua, “What is the greatest commandment?” His response:

Matthew 22:37 – Yahushua said to him, `You shall love YAHWEH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38 – This is [the] first and great commandment.

39 – And [the] second [is] like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 22:40 – On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

So picture this for me. We have the Law and the Prophets up here, and they are hanging off of these two commandments: Love Yahweh. Love your neighbor.

What is He saying? Everything written in the Law and Prophets has one of two things (or sometimes both things) in mind. And that is loving Yahweh and loving your neighbor. Every commandment given has loving Yahweh and loving your neighbor as its purpose.

Every commandment that you can find from Genesis to Malachi– in fact, Genesis to Revelation– has love Yahweh, love your neighbor, in mind. I am sorry, but we cannot get a set of bolt cutters and cut the Law and the Prophets off the two commandments from which they hang.

And so, yes, love is the fulfillment of the Law. It is. But you are not really loving unless you are loving the way Yahweh says to love. Yahweh could very easily have come to the Israelites, and say, “Look, guys. Just love each other, love Me, we will all get along great. And that is it. I’m done.”

Someone might say, “Well, adultery is love.” You know? They could come up with all kinds of thoughts of what love might be. But the reason why commandments exist is to clarify, “No, sir, that is not love. This is love.” Yahweh gives us clarity as to what love really is.

If we love Him, we will not trample on His Sabbath day that He established at creation. If Yahweh made the Sabbath for man, imagine this. You made something for your child. The child looks at it, crumples it up and throws it in the trash. Would you feel loved? No.

Well, Yahweh doesn’t feel loved. If He made the Sabbath (He doesn’t say for Jews… He says for man) and we ignore it, that is why He said, “Remember it!” And the one commandment He says to remember is the one everybody forgets, ironically.

So this is why we are keeping the Feast Days, even though Yahushua fulfilled the Law two thousand years ago, because these point to Him, they glorify Him, they magnify Him, they demonstrate Him. What is wrong with that?

I mean, they have no problem pointing to Him with the Christmas thing going on or the Easter thing going on. What is the difference except that these are Yahweh’s Holy Days and those holidays were invented by pagans and Christians trying to Christianize them.

So my point is, if we are going to keep the Feast Days, what greater way to show who Messiah is to the whole world, especially to the Jewish people? It does not minimize His work. It glorifies it! That is what it does. It glorifies it. So that is why we observe them.

Now some would say they have a scripture in their Bible that tells us the Law of Yahweh has actually been abolished. The NIV…

Ephesians 2:13 (NIV) – “But now in Messiah Yahushua you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.”

Ephesians 2:14-15 (NIV) – “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by SETTING ASIDE in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace.”

Boy, that is awfully sad, because what I am reading here is the “barrier” and the “dividing wall of hostility” was this Law that Yahweh Himself gave. Isn’t that something?

He divides people up, He creates hostility, and then He says, “Oops! Here, let Me erase that one. I will send My Son. We will erase it, and then you won’t be hostile to each other anymore.” Does that make any sense to you? Something does not ring with the Spirit of truth in what is being written here in this translation. That is the 2011 NIV.

The 2004 NIV (they did an update three years ago) says: Ephesians 2:15 – “by ABOLISHING in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace.”

I tell you what, if you go by the NIV, they have you. They do. But I want to look at the word in the Greek that is translated “abolish.”

Lexicon: 2673 katargeo {kat-arg-eh’-o} It means: 1) to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative 1a) to cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency 1b) to deprive of force, influence, power 2) to cause to cease, put an end to, do away with, annul, abolish 2a) to cease, to pass away, be done away…

2b) to be severed from, separated from, discharged from, loosed from any one 2c) to terminate all intercourse with one. Origin: from 2596 and 691; TDNT – 1:452,76; v Usage: AV – destroy 5, do away 3, abolish 3, cumber 1, loose 1, cease 1, fall 1, deliver 1, misc 11; 27.

So it is interesting. That word really does mean “abolish.” No question. You can’t deny it.

We have a problem here. This same NIV that says Yahushua abolished the Law, also says the same exact word, “katargeo,” is found in Romans 3, verse 31. Let’s read in context.

Romans 3:28 (NIV) – “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”

We acknowledge that. We are not justified by the works of the Law. We are justified by faith. All right. No problem.

Romans 3:29-31 (NIV) – “Or is Elohim the Mighty One of Jews only? Is he not the Mighty One of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one Mighty One, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, NULLIFY the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”

That word translated “nullify” is “katargeo.” He says, “No! No, we do not nullify the Law by faith! Rather, we uphold the Law.”

Now, wait a minute. Which is it? Did Yahushua abolish the Law or did He not abolish the Law? That is the question if you are reading the NIV, because the same exact Greek word is used in both verses. Hello, confusion.

WHICH IS IT?

Ephesians 2:15 – “by abolishing <2673 katargeo> in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace.”

Romans 3:31 – “Do we, then, nullify <2673 katargeo> the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”

The problem is not that Paul did not know what he was talking about. The problem is the NIV translators used something called “dynamic equivalence.”

What dynamic equivalence is, if you read the preface of the NIV, they will tell you this: Basically, it means, it is not a word-for-word translation.

What they do is they look at what is being said in the Greek, try to imagine how a Greek-speaking audience would have understood what was being said, and then they will word the translation in English so that it reflects what they think the Greek audience heard. That is, basically, what it boils down to.

That means there is always the possibility that one’s own beliefs and biases can play a role in how a verse is translated. And that is why some people call the NIV the “Non-Inspired Version” or the “New International Perversion,” because it has so many things like this where you go, “Huh?” head scratching.

Because it is obvious they are putting their own traditional Christian mindset into the text here, okay? So how do we make sense of this?

Well, first we have to get our heads out of the NIV, because the ones translating it did believe the Law was abolished. So they are going to have that bias when they translate. But that is part of the problem.

It is harder for a translator to do that if they use a different style of translation known as “word-for-word.” And that you will find in the King James, New American Standard, New King James. So let’s look at the New King James here for instance.

Ephesians 2:11 – Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh– who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands–

Wait a minute. “Once Gentiles.” Like at one time you were a Gentile.

Ephesians 2:12 – that at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without Elohim in the world.

You used to be a Gentile. You used to be an alien from the commonwealth of Israel.

Ephesians 2:13 – But now in Messiah Yahushua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.

You used to be not part of Israel. You used to be a Gentile. Now you are brought near. That is the work of Messiah. How did that happen?

Ephesians 2:14 – For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,

15 – having abolished in His flesh the enmity, [that is], the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man [from] the two, [thus] making peace,

So what He abolished is the “enmity.” What is enmity? “Enmity” is another word for “hatred.” He abolished the hatred.

Ephesians 2:16 – and that He might reconcile them both to Elohim in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

Now what was considered the enmity was the law of commandments contained in “ordinances.” Not the whole Law. Some “law of commandments contained in ordinances.”

Is there anything in Yahweh’s Law that creates hate? No! Not at all! Nothing! In fact, what did we just read? The whole Law hangs off the two commands to love, right? We just read that.

So how could the Law of Yahweh be something that creates hatred when the Law of Yahweh commands love and, in fact, the whole Law and Prophets hang off the two commandments to love?

The Law of commandments did not create hatred between Jew and Gentile. Not Yahweh’s Law.

Look. Leviticus 19:34. He says, “The stranger who dwells among you, you must hate.” Wrong! That is not what He said.

Leviticus 19:34 – `The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I [am] YAHWEH your Elohim.

“You shall love HIM as yourself.”

There is another Levitical law for you. Love the stranger as yourself. “For you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your Mighty One.”

So here is a Levitical law telling Israel they needed to love the Gentiles because they were strangers at one time to the Egyptians. They knew what it was like to be hated. And so, the Law never promotes enmity between Jew and Gentile. It promotes love. So what in the world is Paul talking about here?

This word translated “ordinances” in the Greek is the Greek word “dogma.” The word “dogma,” according to Friberg’s Lexicon, is: (1) a fixed and authoritative decision or requirement decree, command (2) a fixed rule or set of rules, law, ordinance.

The LS Greek Lexicon has “Dogma”: 1. that which seems to one, an opinion, a dogma, 2. a public decree, an ordinance.

So this is a different word. We are not talking about Yahweh’s Law here. We are talking about a decision, an opinion, that comes down. This word is used to describe Caesar’s decrees. When a council of men come together and make a decision on something, it is considered to be a dogma. That is what the word means.

Yahweh did not have a council of men when He gave the Law of Yahweh. He did not need man’s council. It is not talking about Yahweh’s Law. It is talking about the law of commandments contained in “dogmas,” the ordinances of men. Now THAT makes sense, because there was a lot of hatred between Jew and Gentile in the first century.

And the Jews created all kinds of dogmas, all kinds of ordinances. They did not think it was lawful, according to their own dogmas, to even associate with Gentiles. They did not want anything to do with the Gentiles. “Oh, they are unclean.” There were all kinds of things they would not have any dealings with Gentiles.

In fact, when Yahushua was in the synagogue, when He was in his hometown, all He did was say, “You are going to say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal Yourself.’ ” Because there were a lot of Israelites who were lepers in the land of Israel, but only one was healed– Naaman, a Gentile. Boy, that infuriated them!

There were many widows. But, no, it was a Gentile woman who was fed. They wanted to throw Him off a cliff. That was how mad they were. Read it. The book of Luke. There was a lot of hatred going on between Jew and Gentile. They were not obeying the Torah in that time.

And this is the root cause of a lot of the reasons why the Jews did not want to accept the Gentiles into the assembly unless they were circumcised. Then they could say, “Okay, now you are a Jewish person.” Because of the hatred.

So doesn’t it make more sense that the Jews and Gentiles were unable to become one unless the enmity between them was abolished, which is manifested by the additional how many thousands of laws the Jews added to the Torah?

Doesn’t that make a whole lot more sense that Yahushua would abolish that wall of division between Jew and Gentile by uniting them together in the body of Messiah? That unification would cause enmity and hatred to cease if they are willing to receive it.

And so, it was the rules set up by the Jewish council and the dogmas of men that was creating enmity, not Yahweh’s Law. They saw the Gentiles as unclean, would not have dealings with them. Yahweh’s Law said, “Show them love. Treat them as someone who is homeborn among you.”

So it is impossible for Ephesians 2 to be talking about Yahweh’s Law. Impossible biblically. I mean, how could it be that Yahweh abolishing His own Law is going to cause Jews and Gentiles to become one? Was His Law the cause of it? No, it did not create a problem.

Now some say, “Well, the Old Covenant was with Israel. The Gentiles couldn’t get to Yahweh. And so, it created this problem where the Gentiles were not able to join themselves to Yahweh.” But that is not true.

The truth is, guess who the New Covenant is with? ISRAEL! The same people. “Because finding fault with them, He said: ‘Behold the days are coming, says Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the Gentiles.’ ” No!

Hebrews 8:8 – Because finding fault with them, He says: Behold, the days are coming, says YAHWEH, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah —

The same people involved. Just a new covenant. The same people.

Hebrews 8:9 – not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says YAHWEH.

Who is “their”? The Jews. Israelites.

Hebrews 8:10 – For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YAHWEH: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.

Look, this New Covenant is every bit as much with Israel as the Old one was. You cannot deny it. It is right there in black and white. Read it. So how is a Gentile going to come in and become a part of the New Covenant? That is what Paul is explaining to us.

Remember, you were once Gentiles. That means you were a Gentile. You are not a Gentile anymore. If you were a Gentile, you would be a stranger from the covenants (plural), New Covenant included. You would be a stranger from that commonwealth of Israel. He says, “But we are not anymore.”

We have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. Because it is no longer we who live. It is Messiah who lives in us. And the life which we now live, we live by faith in the Son of Yahweh who loved us and gave Himself for us. So it is not we who live. It is Messiah who lives in us.

Was He an Israelite? Yes, He was. So through Him, we become Israel. And so, not just the promises do we get, but also the obligations. Oh, they want the promises, but they don’t want the obligations. We have to have both.

In fact, the Old Covenant was also with the whole world.

Romans 3:19 – Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before Elohim.

Who are under the Law? Most people think Jews. He says, “but that EVERY mouth may be stopped, and ALL the world may become guilty before Elohim.”

Now if the Law was only given to the Jews, how could all the world become guilty? It can’t work. It doesn’t work that way. No way! It has to be for everybody. It does not compute in any other direction.

And so, if in fact the Law was not for everybody, you wouldn’t even need a Savior, being a Gentile. There is no law to condemn you. No law to convict you. No law to tell you you’ve done something wrong. It is not for you. It is just for Jews. That is what I am talking about.

Now I have some things you can look at for further study on this: “What it Means to be Under the Law” – http://www.eliyah.com/underlaw.html.

And then, the study on Ephesians is a video study on the transcripts page: “Ephesians 2: Abolishing the Law in His Flesh?” – 12/17/2011 – http://www.eliyah.com/transcripts/.

I want to be clear with you. I am a minister of the New Covenant. I am not a minister of the Old Covenant. I am a minister of the New Covenant. What is the New Covenant? Hebrews 8, verse 10: Placing the Law of Yahweh in the hearts and minds. That is the promise of the New Covenant.

Now this is a direct quotation from Jeremiah. Jeremiah was talking to the people of his day, and he is saying, “A day is going to come when there will be a new covenant, and My Law will be in your heart and in your mind.” What law was he talking about? The Torah. There wasn’t any other law to even refer to.

So, yes, as a minister of the New Covenant, I desire that the Law of Yahweh be in our hearts and in our minds. That is my desire.

Hebrews 8:10 – For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YAHWEH: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.

And, in fact, if it is, you will do it. You will. He says so. He told that to Israel.

Deuteronomy 30:14 – But the word [is] very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

So if the Law is in our heart, that means Messiah is in our heart, because He is the Word made flesh that dwelled among us. He is not just the Word in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He is the Word from Genesis to Revelation. And that includes the Torah.

And if He is there, guess what you will be doing? You will be living like He is. If you are Israel, why don’t you live like Israel? It makes sense to me.

So it cannot be abolished any more than Messiah can be abolished. He can’t abolish His own Word. But like a true Israelite, we should walk in it.

And so, it is not that we are justified by it. It is not that we are declared righteous because we have “done this,” “done this” and “done this.” Again, it is no different than someone thinking they are justified by some New Testament thing they are doing. No different. But because we have repented.

Repent means to turn away from what you understand to be wrong, turn toward what you understand to be right. It is just that we have found out there is more we understand to be right than what is commonly taught in traditional Christianity. That is the only difference, really, as we consider this a part of our repentance.

We are not claiming to be anybody special except that Messiah would make us special. So the keeping of Yahweh’s Law does not mean we are denying Messiah. For us to keep the Law is evidence that we have His Spirit.

Ezekiel 36:27 (one of my favorite verses) – “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to break My statutes”? No!! “WALK in My statutes.”

Ezekiel 36:27 – I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do [them].

It is evidence that the Spirit is in you because that Spirit comes through Yahushua the Messiah. And since Yahushua the Messiah is in you, His Word will be in you, His Spirit will be in you, and it will enable you to keep His statutes and judgments. We cannot do it without His Spirit. We can’t.

We cannot do it apart from the power of Messiah dwelling in us. And if we were to fail to keep a commandment, I tell you what. We have grace and mercy available to us. Because that is not where our hearts are turned. Our hearts are turned toward the keeping of Yahweh’s ways, not the rejection thereof.

That is what it means to be a New Covenant believer. We trust in the grace and mercy of Yahweh, but we are not going to let the fact that He gives us grace and mercy become a license for us to break the Law.

Imagine if you stood before a judge of men (you had violated a law of men), and someone comes up, and says “I will pay his debt.” (Thank you! Thank you, sir!) And he gets off scot-free, pays the man’s debt and he goes and does it again.

Do you think that guy is going to say, “Oh, I will pay your debt next time, too. Just keep living like you are living, and I will keep paying your debts”? That is not how it is supposed to be.

Now if the guy messes up, makes a mistake, fails, that is where Messiah does come in, and says, “Okay, I will pay that. But He has to have his heart turned toward Me. He has to want to love Me. He has to want to love His neighbor.”

It is simple. It really is. Just like a father/son relationship. All the grace and mercy in the world is available for our children, and we know it, if they truly want to live the right way.

Now if they want to be rebellious and they are seventeen years old, and say, “I am not going to follow your rules, Dad,” and they want to live in your house, guess what? Boot time, right? No different with our Father in heaven.

Do you think you can dwell in His house and live like you want? It doesn’t work that way. So much of what we learn about our heavenly Father we can understand being sons and being fathers. Really.

So we trust in the righteousness of Messiah rather than our own righteousness. We give Him the glory if we happen to walk in righteousness, because all our righteousness is His righteousness. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness and gives us the power to walk in righteousness.

That is what He does for us. Not do away with the Law, but cause the Law, as even the NIV acknowledged, to stand.

And so, as we walk as Messiah walked, we show the world what Messiah is really like. We show the world the power of His Spirit dwelling in us. And it is not denying Messiah to keep the Law. It is demonstrating to the world what He is really like. Just the opposite.

And so, as we do that, brothers and sisters, may Yahweh bless you, and may Yahweh truly have mercy on us all.