The Fear of Yahweh vs. the Fear of Man
02/25/17 (12/27) Video Broadcast
Well, we're ready to begin
our study portion for
today's broadcast.
In this study potion
I'm going to ask you an
important question.
Suppose that you're
struggling with some kind
of sin in your life, you
know you shouldn't do it.
But you just for somewhat
reason you just keep doing
it.
You just keep going there;
you know it's wrong; there
is no question as to
whether it's wrong.
But you still have
a hard time with it.
We suppose one morning
you got up, and suddenly
Yahushua the Messiah
himself appears to you
like this, like
he did to John.
Then I turned to see the
voice that spoke with me.
And having turned I saw
seven golden lampstands,
and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were like white wool as white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass as if refined in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars out of his
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
You know one day the whole world is gonna see him.
And they'll realize he is awesome. My question is if Yahushua appeared this way to you
and told you personally to stop that sin now.
Whatever it might be. My question is; would you stop?
I think there is probably some folks out there who would say, "Yes I would stop." Now, I question do
we lack the faith to understand that he is every bit as awesome right now though unseen.
And what if he came during that being moment that the sin was being committed and he is looking at you as you are doing it? How would you feel? Sometimes, know there is all kinds of reasons why people have difficulties with things. And I'm a person that you know I tend to err on the side of mercy. And give someone a dose of compassion, and understand okay they've had this kind of upbringing, they've had these kinds of experiences and I know it's hard and all that, I'm onboard with all that. But sometimes I just wonder. Do we not really have the fear of Yahweh that we should and is that why, is that the real reason why we struggle? And so today's mesaage topic is entitled; The Fear of Yahweh Vs. The Fear of Man
If a man came up to you while you're committing the sin and says "right now I'm just gonna totally kill you. I' wanna torture you and kill you." You'd probably stop. Now, Yahweh says you need to fear me and depart from evil. Do we stop or do we take advantage of his grace? He has plenty of grace, plenty of mercy. Are we taking advantage of it? That's my question. I don't want to take advantage of it. I love him, I mean I know you love him too many of you. And we don't want to things to displease him. We know he loved us, he sent Yahushua the messiah on the earth for us. To be freed from our sins and from our guilt, the
things we have done in our life that we shouldn't do. And so I fear displeasing him. I don't wanna make him unhappy with me. I hope we all have that fear but I wonder if we have enough of it. That's my question. Scripture says Job 28:28 and unto man he said, behold the fear of Yahweh, that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding. We talked about this in our previous broadcast. When we fear Yahweh we depart from evil, we would learn the true way of love is so much more fulfilling. Then the sinful lies or carnal natures trying to get us to entertain. What does Yahweh require of us? Deuteronomy 10 verse 12 and now Israel what does
Yahweh your mighty one require of you, he wants us to start with fear, recognition of his authority. You know all he has gotta do is just flick the entire planet earth with his finger and it would explode. I mean he is so powerful. All he has to do is think it and everything is just completely destroyed to nothing.
So we need to recognize his power and his authority. But at the same time, he is so loving, he wants us to love him with all our hearts right? Because he loves us with all his heart. So he says, fear Yahweh your mighty one to walk in all his ways and to love him, to serve Yahweh your mighty one with all your heart and with all your soul, everything you've got. Because he loves you, Yahushua gave everything he had for you. And to keep the commandments of Yahweh and his statutes which I command you today, why? "Because I think I just wanna make you my slave." No, for your good, for your personal benefit. Have you ever had this; where you have a little toddler, you know he wants to run out in the street and have fun. Looks like a place of freedom.
"No son you can't play in the street, it will hurt you". O, Yahweh our heavenly father he just says, " you don't wanna do that sin over there, it's gonna hurt you, it's gonna hurt other people and it hurts me. Because I know it hurts you. Don't go play in the street.
So when we fear him, we recognize his authority, we recognize his wisdom and that he knows better
than you do. And you know suppose there was a king and there was some people who, in another province of his kingdom. That came up to him and says, "we would like you to divert some of the water from the river and the canal to our province so that we can have easy access to water, it's hard for us to get water." The king says, "No". And they said "why". He says, " well the answer is no because I'm the king that's why. I've decided that's how it's gonna be". Oh, the people didn't like that, they went back they grumbled, they complained and the whole city was upset. But the king knew something that they didn't; the king knew that if he diverted the water from that river, that river was a natural barrier to an enemy coming in. A foreign country coming in and destroying that particular kingdom. And if they had drained some of the water from that river, it would've made the water even more shallow and crossable by foot. And he couldn't tell them why because it would have exposed the fact he had a weakness in his kingdom. Whereas all of the nations around him thought his was too strong a kingdom to overcome. It would've exposed that weakness and they could've walked to stop up the river or do something like that to stop. And so he couldn't tell them why. Sometimes Yahweh says no and he doesn't tell us why. And it's better that we don't know why and we don't have to understand all the reasons. But we do have to fear Yahweh enough to say" he knows better than I do He is probably just smarter than I am" not just assuming.
I mean look at all the intelligence of everything he created, tremendous, tremendous intelligence. Even the process of photosynthesis has so many equations and mathematical things attached to it that science hasn't even figured completely out yet. So I don't think plants are smart enough to figure that out so there is a heavenly father who made us and he wants us to fear him and recognize his wisdom and realize every commandment he gives us is for our good. Whether we understand it or not. Just like the little toddler, we can't explain everything because they are not intelligent enough to understand that people drive cars and go down the road and you know people can hurt you and run you over and you'll die or you'll be hurt or something and so I'm telling you to stay off the street. You can't explain everything to a toddler; you just have to get them to recognize your authority and to fear you. And that's why you child train and do the things that you do. So, it's the same thing. Everything Yahweh is telling us to do is for our own good. So we fear Yahweh, we fear him in the sense that we recognize his authority and we don't want to displease him.
We fear displeasing him, we fear going away from his statutes, his commandments because we know to depart from them is to depart from wisdom and to depart from something that is for our own good. Now, we love the water, right? And we love our heavenly father, but you know what if you disobey the rules of the water, what does gonna happen? You can drown, right? So, you disobey Yahweh's rules and you can be destroyed, you can die. So, now some today say, "oh you don't have to fear Yahweh, he might even get offended and cast your name as evil for portraying Yahweh as one to be feared." What's more popular is the belief that always loves, therefore, he will not really condemn sinners. But he will condemn sinners just as a righteous judge must be a righteous judge in order for him, in order for a person to be considered a righteous judge they have to punish evil doer's right? If the judge on earth always let the people go and never punish them for their wrong, they wouldn't be a god judge, right? But Yahweh is a good judge and he will punish those who do wrong for the things that earthly judges never punish us for. I imagine saying you've probably done something wrong that no earthly judge will even punish you for and that's why we all face judgment. It's foundational, we must fear Yahweh. He is the heavenly judge and he observes everything. He doesn't miss anything; he sees everything we've done good, bad and ugly.
So the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. They don't wanna hear it. They wanna go on about their business and do the things that they do. But if we fear Yahweh, we'll start to understand the right way for us to live; He's given us an instruction manual called The Bible. And that is for us to hear and to learn and to gain knowledge. If we fear Yahweh, we'll want to know" what does he expect of me? What does he want from me?"
But most people they fear man, and what man will say about them. "What will my friends do, if I do this? What will my friends think if that happens? What will my relatives think if I do that?
"That's where most people are centered. Deuteronomy 13:1 through 3 says are you going to obey Don't listen to them other people out there son, they man and listen to that prophet even though he does a miracle? don't know what they are talking about. Or are you going to listen to Yahweh? That's what he's doing; he's testing you to see who you really love. He wants to know whether your love for him is genuine or if it's fake. You just kind of go on with the flow. So along comes this prophet and he does these signs and wonders "look I'm a prophet, see I can do this miracle. Now let's go and serve these other gods, let's g and serve these other mighty ones, other Elohim." You don't listen to him. You shall walk after Yahweh your mighty one and fear him. And keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and holds fast to him. "It's all for your good son, you need to listen to me.
They don't have my wisdom, they don't have my understanding, don't listen to those people son." that's what he is saying.
But fear of man is rampant today and is probably the number one reason why people do not want to receive the truth. No matter what the sign or wonder might be if it's not according to Yahweh's commandments if it's his voice, if it's not his ways; it cannot be from him. Except that Yahweh is allowing us to be tested, to see whether we will obey him and cleave to his voice. Whether we truly love him, believe and fear him or not. Isaiah 8: 20 says to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to his word, it is because there is no light in them.
So when I hear people telling me testimonies, "oh signs and wonders and evidences of divine power " and the testimony involves a decision to do something contrary to the word of Yahweh; it doesn't shake my faith at all. Doesn't come as a surprise, doesn't cause me to question whether Yahweh's words are ones to be followed or whether he means what he says and says what he means. I know it's a test he says we will face. He said we will face it. But we can't put confidence in signs and wonders if it's not according to the law and testimony' there is no light in what's being done. Now, in terms of the things that we believe in
scripture which are very different than what we might see in traditional Christianity when I'm sharing something with them say for instance the importance of calling our heavenly father by name? he says to call me by name, call upon my name, praise my name gather in my name, lift up my name, exalt my name, love my name, fear my name. I have a question; if everybody on the earth my
fellow traditional Christian called our heavenly father by the name Yahweh would you still insist on calling him The Lord?
Or would you be calling him Yahweh like everybody else? Suppose everybody kept Yahweh's feasts and did not observe Christmas or Easter would you still insist on Christmas and Easter and ignore Yahweh's feasts? If everybody kept the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, would you insist on building yourself a Sunday church with a dandy little steeple on the top and going to church on Sunday, would you do that? Who are we fearing, who are we serving? Are we just going with the flow, are we just a bunch of sheep following man, "oh other people are doing it, it must be okay".
Or are we willing to dig into the scripture and find what the will of Yahweh really is? He put his name in the bible 7000 times, who are we to take it out? Don't we fear him? We think we can change the word, we think we can add to and take away from his word? I think we are taking too much upon ourselves we're not fearing Yahweh. A very dangerous place to be. Deuteronomy 13 told us we should fear Yahweh rather than man when it comes to someone telling us to turn away from the things that Yahweh had written. I don't care if it's 50 million people `calling him the Lord, I'm gonna call him Yahweh. That's what he calls himself, it's his personal name, and it means something to him. I don't care if 50 million people are doing and keeping the Sabbath on the first day of the week. He said in the scriptures, seventh day of the week. And you certainly can't find Christmas and Easter in the bible, it doesn't exist. But you can find Yahweh's holidays in the bible. So, I'm just saying, who do we fear, who are we really following or we are just following what we want based on what other people will want from us or are we following him? And all of you can answer that question; I can't answer it for you.
I know this; to law and testimony, if they do not speak according to his word, it is because there is no light in them. So i wanna know what the law and testimony has to say, so I can find out whether there is light in what's being spoken.
Scripture says, thus says Yahweh "cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength whose heart departs from Yahweh." Well, i don't wanna be under a curse. And put my trust in what man tells me is true, I wanna know what Yahweh says is true, the only way to find out is to look at law and testimony to find out whether there is light in what's being said or not. And what do we hear today? That the law has been done away with. It doesn't make any sense to me. So, I don't wanna be like a shrub in the desert and not see when good comes but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is no inhabited. Instead, it says blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh and whose hope is Yahweh. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters. No, in what? The desert there is no water out here right? The only water is in the fear and love of Yahweh when we put our trust in him. Which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes? But it's leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. It won't stop, so who do we trust?
Important question.
Yahweh is gonna find out where our heart really is, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it? I Yahweh searched the heart; I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. He gonna find out where your heart really is. You can claim to be, you can look really religious on the outside, he's gonna find out whether your faith and your relationship with him are really real. The apostles face this test. Where they are gonna put their hope and their trust, their expectations, and their obedience. Scripture says you should not follow a crowd to do evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. I don't care how many people are doing the wrong thing, don't follow the crowd. Just because you got a bunch of people on the broad path where everybody else is on, doing something wrong it doesn't make it correct. I don't care if it's 8 million people doing something, if it's wrong, I don't wanna follow it. None of us do, don't follow a crown to do evil. Yahushua says enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. Is that what they call a Broadway? I'm just kind of wondering. Because narrow is the way, is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. Few who find it. Are we going to be on the path everyone else is on, or are on the path that few find? If you're in a big crowd, how can you be on a path that few are on?
If you're on a path that everybody else is on, you're not on the oath to life. Because you're not on the path that few find.
So he says beware of these false prophets of Deuteronomy 13 trying to turn you away from Yahweh's word, they come to you in sheep's clothing, they look like they're good guys. But inwardly ravenous wolves. What do wolves do to sheep? They devour them, wolves in sheep' clothing. You will know them by their fruit's, do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. Do some fruit inspections. So every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. So check out and see what their fruits are, right? not everyone who says to me, " master, master" shall enter the kingdom of heaven, just because you think Jesus is lord doesn't mean that you're gonna enter the kingdom. You can call him master all you want. Doesn't mean you're gonna enter. He says, but he who does the will of my father in heaven. He's not really your master if you're not willing to do his will. Because will not save a person he can't command. You're not one to take his commandments he's not gonna be willing to save you. Many will say to me in that day" master, master have we not done these miracles prophesied in your name , cast out demons in your name and done so many wonders in your name?" Miracle workers of Deuteronomy 13, did some miracle and say" hey turn away from Yahweh's word, it will be okay". It's not gonna work out too well. He says, I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me you who practice lawlessness!!"
Lawlessness, what's lawlessness? Lawlessness is the lack of any law in your life, the lack of his commandments. In Deuteronomy 13 test trying to turn you away from the commandments to where you fear what man says rather than what Yahweh says.
This word in lawlessness is translating lawlessness, I kind of wonder you know if the problem is lawlessness wouldn't the solution be to follow the law? I mean it kind of makes sense to me. S we can't say the law is done away with. That's lawlessness. We can't say the law is abolished, that's lawlessness. Now in the Greek [inaudible 00:27:27] 458 anomia the Strong's [inaudible 00:27:30] has illegality. So many people are concerned that we're illegalists. I think the real concern would be to be illegalist, right? Illegality, i.e. violation of the law. So Yahushua is gonna say, "depart from me you who are illegalists", right? In practicing it, I mean we all make mistakes, we all fail from time to time. But we're not practicing a sin and getting better at it are we? I hope not. So violation it says here, violation of law, what law? Yahweh's law, to let law and testimony if you speak not according to his word there is no light in them,
right? The Thayer's Lexicon has the condition of without law why? You're ignorant, violation, contempt, and violation of the law, iniquity and wickedness. I guess law is gonna play a part on judgment day. You can say "master" all you want. But you're not willing to cleave to his commandments instead you cleave to those miracles as evidence that you're on the right path. Sorry, buddy it doesn't work that way. You must fear Yahweh and regard his words as more important than the words and experiences of man. So whenever there is a conflict were gonna go with what Yahweh says not what man says.
You know sometimes our company we keep has an impact on whose words we tend to follow. If were around all these voices and all these people telling us "don't do the word of Yahweh, don't do what he says" then we can be deceived. Because we take this confidence, "everybody else is doing this". We can be deceived, that does why scripture says do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits. If you have company around you that does not keep the commandments of Yahweh, they have the tendency to corrupt any good habit's you're trying to establish in your life. So we need to learn to try and avoid people that they are going to take us away from the word of Yahweh and try to be around people who will lead us to obedience. who will lead us to a better way of life, right? And if we're not reading the word of Yahweh, instead we're around all these people and we're listening to their words all the time. No, that's tough company to be around. Because words are spirit John 6:63, it is the spirit who gives life, the flesh profit's nothing. The words that I speak to you are a spirit, think about that. Yahushua's words are a spirit. Actually, the Hebrew word for sport is also translated; breath and the wind. So with the breath, we speak our words. Yahushua spoke the words that lead to life. They are words of life; the words that man may speak may not be words of life. They may be words of death. And so if we're around all these people telling us, informing us and teaching us to do the things that are wrong, that are not according to the word of Yahweh, Then it's gonna be hard because we got all these spirit's flying around telling us and impacting our spiritual life negatively. So we wanna be around the kind of people that are wise, that are walking I Yahweh's will, that are experiencing the joy, the salvation that comes through being a believer in Messiah Yahushua. So beware, don't be wise in your own eyes and don think these other people are wise either if they are not following his word. Fear Yahweh and depart from evil. What's evil? Anything that will be contrary to the commandments of Yahweh. He's telling us, informing us the way of love and everything he commands has one thing in mind, love.
Some people when they think of commandments, they will be like "I don't like being commanded, command me to do anything, don't like being commanded" and so they don't wanna hear of being "Oh, keep commandments, sounds scary. He's gonna command me? Hmmm". Well, all of these commandments are instructions on how to love. If my commandment was, "here's my commandment, I want you to love that person over there"? Am I a bad guy? No, I'm trying to tell you to love somebody. What all of his commandments have to do with is with how to love. So it's all good. But people have departed from the way of love, when they departed from the commandments. Matthew 22 says that the great two commandments from which everything else hangs is that we love Yahweh and that we love one another.
But all these theological semiatries, I mean seminaries withe their doctorates and their accolade of man and their teaching Christianity, they are teaching traditional Christianity.
And these graduates, they're told, "well you've learned all there is to learn about the bible so go out and teach people". They think now they have all the answers. Don't be wise in your own eyes, fear Yahweh, and depart from evil. Pastors? The only thing they know is what they have been taught. I mean what they picked up the [inaudible bible which may or may not be true.
We can't be wise in our own eyes we have to be humble before Yahweh. I don't care what school or class you take, what sermon you hear, what doctrine you learn about; the bottom-line or the conclusion of everything is this, let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13 Fear Elohim and keep his commandments for this is man's or the whole duty of duty. As simple as that. If it's taking you away from the fear of Elohim and the keeping of his commandments and you think you got grace or maybe just maybe you don't. Because you don't fear Elohim, you don't keep his commandments; you're not focused on that at all.
Listen, don't let anyone tell you you're [inaudible 00:34:22] with the duty of man. People say" well you just gotta believe, just believe, "they say." Just believe", well I agree with that, but that belief has to be genuine belief. In other words, if I was to get into an airplane
and someone told me that airplane is gonna crash, and I say "well I believe you". And I get into the airplane do I really believe them? No, I don't really believe them. I could say I believe them, but I'm in the airplane that they said was going to crash. And guess what happens? I crash and I die in the airplane crash. Why? Because I didn't really believe, I said I believed, but I didn't believe. And so we say we believe when Yahweh tells us this is how a believer is supposed to live and you get into the airplane that he says not to get into. Do you really believe? Do you really believe he is the judge and he will judge unrighteousness and sin, do you really believe? That's the question. Do you really? Maybe you don't, maybe you think you do, you act like you do. But you are sitting in the airplane that you know is gonna go down. Well, you don't know because you didn't believe him. I've heard there are two kinds of unbelievers,
Those who think the bible is a bunch of fairytales And there is those who live like it is.
But the day is going to com Revelation 14:16 then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, every tribe, tongue, and people. Saying with a loud voice" It's all grace don't worry about it!" No, "Fear Elohim and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water."
Worship is a posture of recognizing his authority in one's life, either physical or mental posture, his authority, he's superior to myself. So we fear him, we give glory to him for the things he has done, he made the heaven, the earth, the sea and everything there is. Doesn't he deserve a little credit? Come on, so we're the message for our generation. For some reason, people don't see Yahweh as one to be feared, but the true good news, the true evangel, the everlasting gospel that involves fearing Yahweh. Who is the man that fears Yahweh? Psalm 25:12 him shall he teach in the way that he chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of Yahweh is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant. If you want to know all the secrets and wisdom, all the little nuances and amazing things of wisdom that Yahweh can teach you. Fear him, he will reveal to you his secrets, he will show you his covenant. what the covenant is really about. The new covenant is this; with the law that's in our hearts and written in our minds, we have to receive that law with meekness the implanted word, we come to the law of liberty and receive it and if that word is our hearts what's gonna happen? It's planted on good soil, it's gonna result in obedience, otherwise, we're not a good tree bearing good fruit, we're a bad tree, bearing bad fruit. Because we are bad soil. So, now at the same time of all, I have spoken regarding the fear of Yahweh, if we humble ourselves before him, if we haven't feared him as we should, if we haven't given him the due credit for which he is, there is hope, there is hope.
As a father pities his children, Psalms 103; 13. So Yahweh pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it and it is gone, and it's placed remembers it no more.
Remember that young people, OH yeah, you're like a beautiful flower in the field, but pretty soon petals will start falling off, you'll start getting wrinkled, things will start sagging and you'll get old and you'll die. Just like a flower, don't be prideful; you didn't make yourself, Yahweh made you. Give him the glory. But he knows our weaknesses is in the flesh, he remembers that we are dust, he remembers.
He knows and understands, that's why he pities us, and he knows we got this body wanting us to do bad things all the time. And so the mercy of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting, that means it never ends on those who fear him. And his righteousness to children's children to grandchildren, to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them. When we fear Yahweh, we'll say, "Okay Yahweh I will now turn away from my commandment breaking, I will start keeping your commandments. I want your commandments in my life. "And therefore he will grant you mercy because you have entered that condition of humility. Recognizing his authority in your life and he promises mercy. Isn't that wonderful? Yahweh takes pleasure in you then, he takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his mercy. [Inaudible 00:41:00] that us? I'm putting my hope in his mercy. If I look at my life and the things that I've done if he were to judge me by that? I'm a goner, I'm toast in the lake of fire, and I'm burnt toast. But if I take pleasure in the things of Yahweh, he
will take pleasure in me. If I fear him, he will take pleasure in me. And he is willing to grant those who fear him that mercy. And so I'm putting my hope in his mercy.
Unless you fear Yahweh, you don't even feel the need for mercy, right?
If you're not afraid of him, you don't think he's gonna do anything, what do you think you need grace for? Unless there is the fear, you go on believing your sin will be unpunished and you will just continue doing what you were doing before. And that's the trouble today, men are talking that they don't have to fear Yahweh because he accepts them no matter what. Well, he loves you no matter what, because while we're yet sinners Yahushua died for us. But man are taught the lie that Yahweh has mercy on those who don't fear him. Yahushua will nothing to you unless you fear him and turned toward commandment keeping and away from commandment breaking.
So we have to enter in that condition where we recognize his authority, we realize we have offended him and that we are deserving of any justice he does administer to us from his throne. Because we have all done something wrong, every single one of us have, every single one of us have. Me, you, everybody. So, we recognize that we have failed and that we need him. That we need Yahushua to come and bear our sin for us. That's why he died for us on the tree, to bear our sins for us, to bear our guilt, bear our shame. And we can be completely free of guilt and shame when we receive him as our savior, our master and our sin is place don Yahushua and we are free. Have you heard of the book of remembrance written?
The book of remembrance written. Malachi 3: 16 then those who fear Yahweh spoke to one another and Yahweh listened and heard them. He is listening in, I'm talking to you earlier, and some people are talking to me. Yahweh is listening. If we fear Yahweh. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear Yahweh and who meditate on his name. What's his name? Yahweh. You take his name out of the bible, guess what? How can you meditate on his name? You're not; there is no name to even meditate on.
There is just some title "Lord". Some distant Lord up in the sky, you know. Rather than a personal name Yahweh, right?
"They shall be mine," says Yahweh of hosts, "on the day that I make them my jewels." Jewels are beautiful, aren't they? We are Yahweh's jewels, we are his prized possession. He says, "And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him". Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves Elohim and the one who does not serve him. See, it's confusing sometimes. Who is really doing the right thing? Who is really serving Elohim and doing the things he should do? And who is not? One day those who fear Yahweh will be manifest, those who meditate on his name will be made known. He is gonna make us his jewels and he will spare us. He will spare us, have mercy on us. Because we're trying to do our best to do the right thing. And then people will know the difference between one who serves Yahweh and one who doesn't. The one who is just playing religion and the one who has a relationship with the father.
Continue in the book of Malachi; for behold the day is coming, burning like an oven and all the proud, yes; all who wickedly, transgress the commandments will be stubble. And they day which is coming shall burn them up, Says Yahweh of hosts. "That will leave neither root nor branch." They will be destroyed. But what? But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing wings, and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.
You kind of need a little, you see the stall-f ed calves they are well fed. I mean put it that way. So they will be well fed. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this, Says Yahweh of hosts. And he gives us this final warning, the last chapter in the Old Testament here. Remember the law of Moshe, my servant. Don't forget, no matter what the Catholics tell you and the Protestants tell you, don't forget. Remember the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded him in Horeb for Israel, with the statutes and judgments. That's what you're gonna be judged by.
So, what are we gonna do?
We gotta recognize it's true Yahushua came as a lamp to die for us. As a meek and humble shepherd, as a meek and humble man to lay down his life for us. Born in the manger, humble beginnings.
But he came originally as a lamp, from what I read here in Malachi, he is gonna return like a lion and devour his enemies. One of the most frequently quotes psalms about him is; Psalm 110 and it says this Yahweh said to my master, David's master here because David wrote the psalm. David's master here is Yahushua, "sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool." Yahweh shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. The rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people, that's us, shall be volunteers in the day your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth. Yahweh has sworn and will not relent" You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." This is from Hebrews, you read this right? What's gonna happen next? The master is at your right hand, he will execute kings in the day of his wrath. Coming back as a lion. He shall judge among the nations, he shall fill the places with dead bodies; he shall execute the heads of many countries.
Goodbye evil rulers, what a shock it's gonna be. He is going to come as a conqueror and warrior and his people, that's us we will be his army, we will prevail, right? Be ready because we will be the judges of the world, we will rule with him for 1000 years, we will be glorified. Well, glorified bodies, because all flesh won't be here anymore and we will reign with him 1000 years.
That's what's coming; I think sooner than what most people believe. Now, I wanna say that there are some scriptures which may appear on the surface to say "Oh, you don't have to fear Yahweh". People use these to say, "Well you don't have to fear Yahweh. "Let's look at a few of these. 2 Timothy 1; 3 says I thank Elohim, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day. That was Paul speaking to Timothy. Greatly desiring to see you, Timothy, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that I in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois. Well, I kind of [inaudible 00:50:20] with this one because I have a grandmother called Lois. She is the one who taught me the scriptures. And your mother Eunice, no my mother is not called Eunice. And I'm persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of Elohim which is in you through the laying on my hands. For Elohim has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Now a spirit of fear is an unclean spirit from the devil. Trying to get us to fear the things that we don't need to fear. It's a lying spirit; it's not Yahweh's spirit. Look at the next verse, because of this or therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our master. What's he talking about fear here? He is talking about the fear of death; he is talking about the fear of what man may say about you because you have a testimony in believing in the messiah. He says "don't be ashamed of the testimony that you have" nor have me as a prisoner, but share with me in the in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of Elohim. We have to be willing to suffer if necessary
because people will put us down. People will sometimes even try to harm us.
Because of our faith. And they will berate us and they will insult us and they will hate us because of our testimony, of our savior Yahushua. But guess what? Good news for everybody.
Man's opinion doesn't count in the end, Yahweh is not gonna consult man on judgment day.
In this age, everybody is gonna judge you for doing the right thing and keeping his commandments. But in that day Yahweh is going to judge you if you don't keep the commandments. So what's more important" That we are judged by the world?
And we follow what they say. Or to be judged by Yahweh and we do what he says? So, what man say about you isn't gonna matter, in the end, Yahweh's opinion is the only one that is gonna count in the end. His opinion is the right one 100% of the time. So we cannot fear, what he is talking about here is that, don't fear what other people are gonna say about you, what they are gonna do to you? And the suffering you may have to go through, because what they think, what they say isn't gonna matter in the end.
Don't fear the separation that may take place and the labeling that they will apply to you because you love Messiah. Don't fear what may happen if you choose to do what the father told you to do. If he tells you to keep the Sabbath day on the seventh day of the week, for instance, you know. And you say, "hat man tells me, my boss at work told me I had to work that day." Well, which boss are you gonna listen to? The boss at work or the boss in heaven? If you know you should observe the Sabbath day on the seventh day of the week [inaudible 00:53:53] calls Saturday and your boss call you in on that day and Yahweh tells you to rest who are you gonna listen to? I say you better lose your job than lose your soul. Better to lose the respect of man than to lose the respect of Yahweh. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Scripture says because Yahushua taught us this, whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? That's a good question, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? The praise of man, the accolades of man, people thinking highly of you. Is that what you want instead of your soul being saved in the final day? Yahushua said verse 38 for whoever is ashamed of me and my words. He is not just the word Of Yahweh here in the book of Mark, he is the word of Yahweh in the book of Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Numbers, and Genesis all over the bible he is his words. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the son of man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with holy angels. You don't want Yahushua to be ashamed of you. He'll just say, " don't even know who you are, depart from me you who violate the Torah, violate the word of Yahweh." Those who are focused on self-preservation and gain the whole world and everybody speaks very well of them because of it,
look out you'll lose your soul in the end.
So, set your mind Colossians 2: 2 on things above not on things on the earth. Things on the earth are temporary. You don't even know if you're gonna live the next five minutes, no guarantee, 50000 people die every day. You could be one of them. Young, old it doesn't matter, people die every day, car accidents, anything can happen. So, we consider ourselves to have died because Yahushua now is alive in us. Hence his life we're trying to manifest. Our life is hidden with Messiah and Elohim. Our own ways, that flesh we've got that's always trying to get us to sin we consider that to be dead, dead flesh. Instead, now we have Yahushua living in us, we're trying to live his life. He is trying to live his life through us. So when we see his word telling us to do something, do our thoughts ever roam toward "Oh what will someone say if I do that? What will my parents think? What will my relatives think? What will my sisters think, my brothers think? What will my uncle think? What will my people that I am friend with that surround me think?" It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what they think. They are not gonna be stabbing there on judgment day saying, "I think you ought to let him go". Yahweh is not gonna consult them, what matters is what Yahweh think. And who we follow determines who we fear. Do we fear Yahweh or do we fear man?
Are we focused on walking like Yahushua walked or we're more impressed by what other people do and follow what they do? The one who walks in the image of Unrighteous men are not following Yahweh.
Ultimately everyone is following the devil. You're either following Yahweh or you're following the devil. In the very beginning, Eve chose to follow the devil, what happened? The devil told her, "You won't die, if you do this sin, you'll be all right. You'll be okay; you can keep them and continue in sin, it will be fine. "That's what the devil told her. It didn't work out that way, did it? Today we have the same message, "Oh we're saved by grace don't worry about it. He'll forgive you no matter what you do, once you're saved, you're always saved.
"Yahweh sees the heart. Our hearts are often tested, we walk in the flesh, and we're in the spirit. The image of Elohim or the image of the enemy Satan who disobeys him? Yahweh knows the heart, those little decisions that we make whether we followed Yahweh or followed man he knows. That why I read earlier, cursed id the man who puts his trust in man, whose heart departs from Yahweh, You'll be under a curse at that point. In fact, you can't even trust your own heart, you know that? People say, "oh I'll just follow my heart, I'll follow my heart" Proverbs 28:26 says he who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered. We want the wisdom of Yahweh, the fear of Yahweh, is the beginning of wisdom, right? Those who trust in man are cursed; those who trust in their own hearts are fools. Put your trust in Yahweh, now that's wise, right?
So let's fear Yahweh and depart from evil. Hebrews 2:15 says the following; it's another scripture people use to say we don't have to fear our heavenly father. Hebrews 2; 14 inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same. That through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that's the devil. And release those who through fear of death were all the lifetime subject to bondage. It's not talking about the fear of Yahweh; it's talking about the fear of death. Do you know we don't have to fear death, really?
Why should we fear death if we really fear Yahweh, what's to be afraid of? Afraid to enter into eternal life. Why would you be afraid of that? We fear Yahweh, we receive the mercy he promises eternal life. We actually consider death to be a gain to us. For to live as Messiah and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21. So we are okay with dying. I don't want to die because I want to continue ministering, continue to be a father to my children and a husband to my wife and try to be a blessing to other people. And build other people up in Messiah. But if he takes, I've lost nothing; I've actually gained something, right? Our dear sister Vicky Bornhoft wasn't afraid of dying, right? She was ready and why? Because we know the next life is eternal life.
But those who have that fear of death are subject to bondage, some people are gripped by a fear of death. And they are tortured by it because the enemy has them captured and he is torturing them with these fears. It's a spirit of fear; we don't have to fear death.
So to me, living is trying to be like Messiah, the best I can and to die is actually beneficial.
Hebrews 8:12 says, therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh, if we live according to the flesh we'll die. That's talking about eternal death [inaudible 1:02:36] but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as led by the spirit of Elohim, these are sons of Elohim. So, we put the deeds of the body that he is talking about sins that our body wants us to do.
Our body wants us to do all kinds of things that we shouldn't do, right? For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. To fear what? This death, right? But you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry "Abba Father". The spirit himself bears witness our spirit; we are the children of Elohim. And if we have that witness in our spirit and we see this spirit of adoption, we don't have any reason to fear this death or a reason to fear judgment. We're not living after the flesh; we're walking in the spirit and have nothing to worry about. Because we do fear Yahweh and we want to keep his commandments and we want to do the right things. And we didn't receive the spirit of bondage. Again to fear death or to fear damnation. Scripture says if we do we fear Yahweh and we keep
his commandments, we do put our best efforts forward to walk as Yahushua walked and to keep his commandments. Then if we fail, we can a moment and we fail and we fall into temptation or something happens and we immediately go to humans we confess that sin to him, then he will forgive us, he says he will. We need to recommit ourselves and not do it again. That's what a loving dad will do, you make a mistake, you fail you go to that dad and you say "hey dad I really messed up, will you forgive me". "Of course I forgive you". I can start making excuses and saying " well my friends over there I will do what my friends say not what you say, dad". Well, then you're gonna have a little problem, you understand what I'm getting at? Everyone is focused on what their friends say and not what the heavenly father says. So, we don't have to fear Yahweh's judgment if we're
walking in love toward him, right? Whoever confesses that Yahushua is the son of Elohim and Elohim abides in him and he in Elohim? So Yahweh abides in us and we abide in Yahweh. If we're willing to confess, Yahushua is the son and we have known and believe the love of Elohim has for us. We believe in his love, we trust his love. We believe Elohim is love and he who abides in love will also abide in Elohim. So if we are abiding in love, we know that Yahweh loves us, we confess Yahushua is the Messiah, then love will have been perfected in us that we may have boldness on the Day of Judgment. We don't have to fear going to hell on the Day of Judgment because we have chosen to abide in his love and receive his love and believe in his love. So we're not gonna be afraid that he'd going to reject us and throw us in the lake of fire on the Day of Judgment. And we can come down in boldness and say, ' I believe that Yahushua bore my sin for me, and I did
repent of my former ways. I did fail from time to time but you told me you would forgive me if I confess my ways and stand before you." So I don't have to fear judgment I can come with boldness to him knowing he loves me. And he says why? Because as he is Yahushua is, so are we. Why because he lives in us, it's no longer we who live, he lives in us. If he is in us, we don't have to be afraid, do we?
He says there is no fear in love; a perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. We don't have to be afraid of this torment. I would be afraid of this torment if I departed from keeping Yahweh's commandments. If I departed from the Messiah Yahushua, but I'm not afraid because I'm walking in love toward Yahweh, love toward my fellow man. And that cast out any fear I might have of being judged and because of Yahushua, my sin is laid upon him. But if you're of this judgment, you're afraid of the Day of Judgment he is going to annihilate you. [Inaudible 01:07:46] he who fears has not been made perfect in love. I don't fear Yahweh's judgment, I fear to displease him. I don't want to displease him because I love him, right? Do you slap someone in the face? I hope not, [inaudible 1:08:03] slap someone in the face if you love them. You someone on the face? Of course, you would, right? And you will be afraid that they would be hurt by that right? I think you would be afraid that they would be hurt by that. And so you wouldn't want to slap them in the face because you love them. And so we don't wanna slap Yahweh in the face by disobeying his commandments, he created us, he made us. And so we don't wanna be slapping him in the face. Sad to say we all slapped him in the face, by
disobeying him. But Yahushua was willing to bear that, he was torture for us. So that we can be reconciled with him. So what I'm saying is, there is a holy fear and an unholy fear. Unholy fear says even though I have turned away from my sin, even though I have believed Yahweh's love for me and have chosen to abide in Yahweh's love. I think he's just gonna annihilate me anyway, he's gonna destroy me anyway.
It's an unholy fear. But then a holy fear says I fear displeasing him, I fear that if I was to turn away from messiah and if I was to break his commandments that I would be facing judgment. That's the holy fear. So why do I love Yahweh? We love him because he first loved us, that's why. Why are we so devoted to him? Because Yahushua was so devoted to us, that he gave his life for us. That wonderful thing that he did for us. The fear of Yahweh leads to faith and love and trust in Elohim. But the fear that leads to doubt is not good for us brothers and sisters. Fear that leads to doubt in his love for us, the fear that leads to doubt that we as repentant believer in Yahushua and Messiah will be judged anyway and sent to the lake of fire. Don't make Yahweh be a liar, he says he would not do that to us if we repent and we receive his son Yahushua. In fact when we don't believe in his love for us it actually leads to more disobedience. Because "well what do I care I might as well just give up no matter what I do I'm gonna go to the lake of fire anyway and be judged. I might as well go out there and feed my flesh
and live the way I wanna live and there is no point
in even trying the other way. Yahweh doesn't love me enough. That's what happened to Israel when they came out of Egypt, they came out of slavery, they went to the Red Sea, the cloud and they were in the wilderness, and look what happened. Deuteronomy 1:22 says and every one of you came near me, it's Moses talking here. And said, "let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and of the cities into which we shall come". "The plan pleased me well: so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. And they departed and went up to the mountains and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out". They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us and they brought back word to us saying, "it is a good land which Yahweh our mighty one is giving us". Nevertheless, you would not go up but rebelled against the command of Yahweh your mighty one. And you complained in your tents and said" because Yahweh hates us, he has brought us out of the land
of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. They did not believe in Yahweh's love and that's
why they rebelled. They rebelled against the commandment because they did not believe in Yahweh's love. They believed Yahweh hated them. "How can we go up?" they said. Our brethren have discouraged our hearts. They believed man over Yahweh that feared what man said. Man said "the people are greater and taller than we, the cities are great and fortified up to heaven, and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.' Then I said to you, "do not be terrified or afraid of them, Yahweh your mighty one who goes before you, he will fight for you according to all he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
And in the wilderness where you saw how Yahweh your mighty one carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.
So who did they believe, they put their fear and their trust in what man said. The ones who discouraged their hearts, they listened to them. They would not listen to Yahweh's word, through Moshe, Moses. And so what did they do?
Yahweh heard the sound of your words and was angry, took an oath sorry. Yet for all that you did not believe Yahweh your mighty one. Who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go and the fire by night and the cloud by day. and Yahweh heard the sound of your words and was angry and took an oath saying, "Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walks because he wholly followed Yahweh." See if you believe Yahweh hates you,
you don't trust he will take you into that promised land, you're not putting your faith in Yahushua and the grace he's gonna give you. Then according to what you believe it will take place. Except by his grace anyway, he may spare you. But you have to believe that Yahweh loves you personally and individually and put your faith in Yahushua that no matter what you've done wrong, there is no mark Yahushua can't erase. You have to put your faith in that and repent.
And let everyone be baptized in the name of Yahushua for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you're thinking, "Well I don't know, I don't think I can walk this way. I don't think I'm good enough to do this. I don't think I'll be able to make it". You can't do it without his holy spirit I tell you that much. You gonna need the Holy Spirit to help you, and by the strength, he gives you by the spirit you can do it, you can. Step by step and he is very patient, he doesn't expect you to do everything at once. Just like a baby I don't wanna but a baby behind a steering to drive a car, do I? No, he has gotta be a certain age and then he can handle that. So Yahweh he knows we're becoming like babies in the faith and we kind of grow up from there.
But the repentance does not mean today you're a tool of filthy rotten sin and tomorrow be perfect and never sin again in your life. What repentance means is that you've made the decision to turn away from sin and begin walking in the way of righteousness. It does not mean that we're instantly walking in perfect obedience, but that now our true desire in our hearts is to walk in perfect obedience. And we begin the process of learning will for us and walking it out, step by step. And he is a very generous shepherd, he won't push he will only lead. and if we're willing to hear his calling then we will obtain mercy on the day of judgment and we don't have to fear that Yahweh hates us and he's gonna send us to the lake of fire.
But if we don't care to even repent, we don't care we hear man's voice and we wanna following his ways. We've not even repented; we're still following man and what man says. A healthy fear leads to repentance and faith and an unhealthy fear leads to doubt a vicious cycle that looks like this; Here is that vicious cycle, the vicious cycle is this, "oh I've been evil all my life, there for I have to earn my way into the kingdom by stopping my sin. [Inaudible 1:17:36] said to me, if you doubt that Yahweh has forgiven you of your sins even though you have repented and sought forgiveness repeatedly, it's quite possible you're believing the lie that your own righteousness was ever sufficient to save you, to begin with. And it wasn't, and it isn't and it never will be. Did you catch that? If you doubt Yahweh's forgiven you, even though you've repented and you turned away and maybe you're struggling, maybe you're weak or something. But he is very patient, he says if you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If you think you haven't yet reached the level of obedience for him to accept you and love you, it's quite possible you're believing the lie that your own righteousness was ever good enough, to begin with. It never was, because Yahushua did not die for
perfect people. He died for the imperfect ones whose hearts yearn in hunger and thirst for righteousness.
You despise your own sins and that's good.
[Inaudible 1:18:44] it's really hard to walk uprightly and live the right way under a cloud of condemnation. Very few people can rise from the piles of condemnation to appease their accuser and to do what their accuser tells them. He is willing to set you on high.
To free you from your own guilt, to free you from the condition of relying upon your own works to save you. Which does lead to condemnation? And to place your faith Yahushua the Messiah and believe the goodness, believe Yahweh loves us. No, don't believe Yahweh hates us, believe he loves us. This faith will empower you to live uprightly, to overcome sin.
And you can put your faith in these words. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness. Don't say he is not faithful, don't say he is unjust. He is just, he is faithful. A humble confession of your sin, but then the
other danger the total lack of any fear towards Yahweh at all. One that leads to willful disobedience, one that leads to placing our fear of man above the fear of Yahweh. As many claims to love him today, but they really love man more. Man, we are pleased and want instant gratification, but with Yahweh, we have to trust that he sees everything and know he is keeping a record and on the final, we'll see the end result. A lot of people talk about loving their neighbor, but
they may believe the commandments are a burden or a yoke. The law is some kind of ball and chain hanging around you that is a burden and a curse or something like that. But what scripture really says is, by this, we know we love the children of Elohim when we love Elohim and keep his commandments. You cannot love somebody else until you first love Elohim, that's what the scriptures say. To us. For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. They are not; they look like it on the outside, to the ones that don't understand. People look at my life and say, "man why do you burden yourself with all those laws and rules and regulations". Well, I'm just trying to walk in love.
I can't really love and properly until I love the way Yahweh tells me to love. Probably the guy in prison who is a hardened criminal and don't care about what other people is going, "man why are all them people out there, why don't they be like me. I go out there I rob and steal and take what I want and get what I want. All of them other people are following this US code and statutes and whatever and I get along with them that are in prison." Or the criminal out there stealing from the banks and stealing from other people, they think people that don't steal are burning themselves with laws. All they gotta do is steal and they can something instantly, quickly. They think you're crazy, why don you go out there and take? It's all for our taking. What they don't realize? There will be a day of reckoning, right? and so to the one on the outside looking in, they think" oh I'm keeping these commandments and it looks like I'm in some kind of bondage." No, there will be a day of reckoning for those who don't keep those commandments and don't walk in love.
So I don't wanna get out of balance or in a direction, I don't wanna have a fear of Elohim that says; even though I'm a believer, I'm repenting, I'm putting my faith in the Messiah, then you know the end. I'm still gonna be sent to hell anyway. But then I don't wanna be walking around like " well, I can do what I want and not have any fear of
Yahweh and he'll still love me he'll still comfort me in my sin. And he'll be okay with it lets it slide. And as I put my trust not what he does and be wonderful of what man does. Put my goals and hopes and dreams in my flesh and pleasing my flesh ". We have to repent, turn away from sin. But I think a lot of times what's most lacking is a true fear of Yahweh. If a person truly fears Yahweh they'll be careful about doing things to offend him. Will the one who fears Yahweh say, "I know this is wrong, but I know he will have mercy and he will forgive me, he won't mind if I do this"? Will the one who fears Yahweh say, "oh this is what grace is for" to justify their sin? No. It's not loving. Or if I walked in with my wife and said slapped her in the face, she would probably forgive me, right? She would probably forgive me and give me grace, but why would I wanna do something like that if I really love her? Do you see what I'm saying? I fear to displease her; I don't want to do something to hurt here because I love her. But too often it's a lack of fear toward Yahweh and a gigantic fear toward the man that cause millions of people not to accept some other doctrine that's not common or normal, or accepted in their family or their current clique of friends. It's all lack of fear toward Yahweh and a gigantic fear toward man, many will not walk in this path that few find. That results in persecution and ridicule and mockery or they will accuse you of hurting them because you follow Yahweh and do the right things and what Yahweh tells you to do. But listen, we should expect persecution. Don't forget when those righteous, loving and holy men that ever walk the earth [inaudible 1:25:34] 200 years ago and because he didn't fear man and feared Yahweh, they hung him on a tree. His name was Yahushua, the Messiah. Yahushua said, whatever I tell you in the dark speak in the light, what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. What it comes down to is are we gonna do what Yahweh says versus are we gonna do what man says and does? Even if they wanna kill, you do what Yahweh says.
After all, you'll enter into eternal life, right?
Isaiah 66: 5 says to hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at his word. How many trembles at his word today I wonder? Your brethren who hated you, who cast you out for my name's sake said' let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see joy' But they shall be ashamed. They'll think you're doing then service by rejecting you.
What people seek the so-called relationship with Yahweh and bring sermons today and traditional pulpit have to do with one's relationship with so-called God.
But in such a thing is a potentially dangerous situation because if people get deceived into thinking that they have the relationship, to begin with. Because you get the [inaudible 1:27:20] every week. They hear about how much Yahweh loves them and they are his children. Now here is how you deal with life's trouble and we can ignore the facts that Yahweh wants us to keep his commandments and we need to repent. Without repentance, there is no relationship. Unless we fear Yahweh we go on thinking we can continue in our life of sin and have nothing to be afraid of. Look out because we hear the boasting of man, oh we talk about it, 'oh grace, grace, grace, [inaudible 1:28:00] blood. Yahweh don't care it's all [inaudible 1:28:01] blood. Wrong attitude, spiritually dangerous attitude. They think Yahweh is like a vending machine, up goes the prayer up come forgiveness. Or [inaudible 1:28:16]] out comes forgiven. It doesn't work that way. Yahweh wants us to [inaudible 1: 28:25] repentance from each one of us individually, true evidence of our love for him. Because sin is repulsive to Yahweh. And it needs to be repulsive to us also. And we need to be willing to endure till the end.
Yahushua says watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the son of man. You got to be counted worthy, look out. Troublesome times here on the horizon.
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. We have to have that undergirding of that fear of Elohim we don't want to waiver we want to be solid in our walk. And be willing to be hated by everyone for Yahushua's name. But he who endures to the end will be saved. If we're willing to bear the opinions of man and what they say about us and care more about what Yahushua says about us, that's the question of the hour. That's my question for us today.
Yahushua says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent, Revelation 3:19. Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. Yahushua wants to live in us; he wants to give us the power to be overcomers. I know he kept every commandment of Yahweh and he is the same yesterday, today and forever. What he did on the earth yesterday, he wants to do in you today and we will all do with him forever. So let's seek to have his life, his example in us. Let's seek to have that book of remembrance written about us who fear Yahweh and think upon his name. Let's seek the beginning of wisdom, it's only when we start from that true foundation, the fear of Elohim that we even see the value of grace, to begin with. So, therefore let's pursue his mercy, let's flee from the license to sin doctrine, let's have a right understand of who Yahweh truly gives mercy to the humble ones, the contrite ones who recognize his authority on heaven and earth.
Let's flee from the fear of man. 8 trillion years from now to eternity, you're not gonna care what people thought of you in 2017.
It's not man you need to fear, they could only destroy the body. Yahweh is the one you need to fear, who can destroy both body and soul in hell. The fear of Yahweh it leads to faith and wisdom and heart of obedience the knowing of these leads to seeking that grace that comes through our master Yahushua the Messiah. Through him, we receive that righteousness and power to walk in righteousness. And ultimately become children of the most high. Let's pray,
Oh father Yahweh, thank you for your word, thank you for all that you have done for us to be reconciled to the relationship with you. Father forgives us where we have failed to fear you properly. Just because we can't see Yahushua in his mightiest power and his ability to rule and reign.
Sometimes we forget you who are on the throne that
we don't fear you as we should, we don't fear displeasing you the way we should.
Father forgives us where we have failed in any of these areas. Teach us, instruct us, show us the way of love. Show us how to love one another, show us how to love you.
And deliver us from the lies of the enemy and from the things that people will choose to do or say to us. Because we want to put you first in our lives.
Help us to set aside the opinions, the ideas and wants and desires of man and put you first. Because we know what the truth is, you are already first and it's just a matter of whether we're gonna recognize that or not. Father, we recognize that you are first, you are the mighty one of Israel. You are the king of Heaven, the king of the universe. All things were created. Our testimonies of your power and greatness, a complexity of life.
The glory of the heaven lies above and for that we praise you.
In everything we give you praise through and by your son Yahushua for truly is the kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory. Forever and ever, through and by your son Yahushua we pray these things.
Amein.
and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were like white wool as white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass as if refined in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars out of his
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
You know one day the whole world is gonna see him.
And they'll realize he is awesome. My question is if Yahushua appeared this way to you
and told you personally to stop that sin now.
Whatever it might be. My question is; would you stop?
I think there is probably some folks out there who would say, "Yes I would stop." Now, I question do
we lack the faith to understand that he is every bit as awesome right now though unseen.
And what if he came during that being moment that the sin was being committed and he is looking at you as you are doing it? How would you feel? Sometimes, know there is all kinds of reasons why people have difficulties with things. And I'm a person that you know I tend to err on the side of mercy. And give someone a dose of compassion, and understand okay they've had this kind of upbringing, they've had these kinds of experiences and I know it's hard and all that, I'm onboard with all that. But sometimes I just wonder. Do we not really have the fear of Yahweh that we should and is that why, is that the real reason why we struggle? And so today's mesaage topic is entitled; The Fear of Yahweh Vs. The Fear of Man
If a man came up to you while you're committing the sin and says "right now I'm just gonna totally kill you. I' wanna torture you and kill you." You'd probably stop. Now, Yahweh says you need to fear me and depart from evil. Do we stop or do we take advantage of his grace? He has plenty of grace, plenty of mercy. Are we taking advantage of it? That's my question. I don't want to take advantage of it. I love him, I mean I know you love him too many of you. And we don't want to things to displease him. We know he loved us, he sent Yahushua the messiah on the earth for us. To be freed from our sins and from our guilt, the
things we have done in our life that we shouldn't do. And so I fear displeasing him. I don't wanna make him unhappy with me. I hope we all have that fear but I wonder if we have enough of it. That's my question. Scripture says Job 28:28 and unto man he said, behold the fear of Yahweh, that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding. We talked about this in our previous broadcast. When we fear Yahweh we depart from evil, we would learn the true way of love is so much more fulfilling. Then the sinful lies or carnal natures trying to get us to entertain. What does Yahweh require of us? Deuteronomy 10 verse 12 and now Israel what does
Yahweh your mighty one require of you, he wants us to start with fear, recognition of his authority. You know all he has gotta do is just flick the entire planet earth with his finger and it would explode. I mean he is so powerful. All he has to do is think it and everything is just completely destroyed to nothing.
So we need to recognize his power and his authority. But at the same time, he is so loving, he wants us to love him with all our hearts right? Because he loves us with all his heart. So he says, fear Yahweh your mighty one to walk in all his ways and to love him, to serve Yahweh your mighty one with all your heart and with all your soul, everything you've got. Because he loves you, Yahushua gave everything he had for you. And to keep the commandments of Yahweh and his statutes which I command you today, why? "Because I think I just wanna make you my slave." No, for your good, for your personal benefit. Have you ever had this; where you have a little toddler, you know he wants to run out in the street and have fun. Looks like a place of freedom.
"No son you can't play in the street, it will hurt you". O, Yahweh our heavenly father he just says, " you don't wanna do that sin over there, it's gonna hurt you, it's gonna hurt other people and it hurts me. Because I know it hurts you. Don't go play in the street.
So when we fear him, we recognize his authority, we recognize his wisdom and that he knows better
than you do. And you know suppose there was a king and there was some people who, in another province of his kingdom. That came up to him and says, "we would like you to divert some of the water from the river and the canal to our province so that we can have easy access to water, it's hard for us to get water." The king says, "No". And they said "why". He says, " well the answer is no because I'm the king that's why. I've decided that's how it's gonna be". Oh, the people didn't like that, they went back they grumbled, they complained and the whole city was upset. But the king knew something that they didn't; the king knew that if he diverted the water from that river, that river was a natural barrier to an enemy coming in. A foreign country coming in and destroying that particular kingdom. And if they had drained some of the water from that river, it would've made the water even more shallow and crossable by foot. And he couldn't tell them why because it would have exposed the fact he had a weakness in his kingdom. Whereas all of the nations around him thought his was too strong a kingdom to overcome. It would've exposed that weakness and they could've walked to stop up the river or do something like that to stop. And so he couldn't tell them why. Sometimes Yahweh says no and he doesn't tell us why. And it's better that we don't know why and we don't have to understand all the reasons. But we do have to fear Yahweh enough to say" he knows better than I do He is probably just smarter than I am" not just assuming.
I mean look at all the intelligence of everything he created, tremendous, tremendous intelligence. Even the process of photosynthesis has so many equations and mathematical things attached to it that science hasn't even figured completely out yet. So I don't think plants are smart enough to figure that out so there is a heavenly father who made us and he wants us to fear him and recognize his wisdom and realize every commandment he gives us is for our good. Whether we understand it or not. Just like the little toddler, we can't explain everything because they are not intelligent enough to understand that people drive cars and go down the road and you know people can hurt you and run you over and you'll die or you'll be hurt or something and so I'm telling you to stay off the street. You can't explain everything to a toddler; you just have to get them to recognize your authority and to fear you. And that's why you child train and do the things that you do. So, it's the same thing. Everything Yahweh is telling us to do is for our own good. So we fear Yahweh, we fear him in the sense that we recognize his authority and we don't want to displease him.
We fear displeasing him, we fear going away from his statutes, his commandments because we know to depart from them is to depart from wisdom and to depart from something that is for our own good. Now, we love the water, right? And we love our heavenly father, but you know what if you disobey the rules of the water, what does gonna happen? You can drown, right? So, you disobey Yahweh's rules and you can be destroyed, you can die. So, now some today say, "oh you don't have to fear Yahweh, he might even get offended and cast your name as evil for portraying Yahweh as one to be feared." What's more popular is the belief that always loves, therefore, he will not really condemn sinners. But he will condemn sinners just as a righteous judge must be a righteous judge in order for him, in order for a person to be considered a righteous judge they have to punish evil doer's right? If the judge on earth always let the people go and never punish them for their wrong, they wouldn't be a god judge, right? But Yahweh is a good judge and he will punish those who do wrong for the things that earthly judges never punish us for. I imagine saying you've probably done something wrong that no earthly judge will even punish you for and that's why we all face judgment. It's foundational, we must fear Yahweh. He is the heavenly judge and he observes everything. He doesn't miss anything; he sees everything we've done good, bad and ugly.
So the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. They don't wanna hear it. They wanna go on about their business and do the things that they do. But if we fear Yahweh, we'll start to understand the right way for us to live; He's given us an instruction manual called The Bible. And that is for us to hear and to learn and to gain knowledge. If we fear Yahweh, we'll want to know" what does he expect of me? What does he want from me?"
But most people they fear man, and what man will say about them. "What will my friends do, if I do this? What will my friends think if that happens? What will my relatives think if I do that?
"That's where most people are centered. Deuteronomy 13:1 through 3 says are you going to obey Don't listen to them other people out there son, they man and listen to that prophet even though he does a miracle? don't know what they are talking about. Or are you going to listen to Yahweh? That's what he's doing; he's testing you to see who you really love. He wants to know whether your love for him is genuine or if it's fake. You just kind of go on with the flow. So along comes this prophet and he does these signs and wonders "look I'm a prophet, see I can do this miracle. Now let's go and serve these other gods, let's g and serve these other mighty ones, other Elohim." You don't listen to him. You shall walk after Yahweh your mighty one and fear him. And keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and holds fast to him. "It's all for your good son, you need to listen to me.
They don't have my wisdom, they don't have my understanding, don't listen to those people son." that's what he is saying.
But fear of man is rampant today and is probably the number one reason why people do not want to receive the truth. No matter what the sign or wonder might be if it's not according to Yahweh's commandments if it's his voice, if it's not his ways; it cannot be from him. Except that Yahweh is allowing us to be tested, to see whether we will obey him and cleave to his voice. Whether we truly love him, believe and fear him or not. Isaiah 8: 20 says to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to his word, it is because there is no light in them.
So when I hear people telling me testimonies, "oh signs and wonders and evidences of divine power " and the testimony involves a decision to do something contrary to the word of Yahweh; it doesn't shake my faith at all. Doesn't come as a surprise, doesn't cause me to question whether Yahweh's words are ones to be followed or whether he means what he says and says what he means. I know it's a test he says we will face. He said we will face it. But we can't put confidence in signs and wonders if it's not according to the law and testimony' there is no light in what's being done. Now, in terms of the things that we believe in
scripture which are very different than what we might see in traditional Christianity when I'm sharing something with them say for instance the importance of calling our heavenly father by name? he says to call me by name, call upon my name, praise my name gather in my name, lift up my name, exalt my name, love my name, fear my name. I have a question; if everybody on the earth my
fellow traditional Christian called our heavenly father by the name Yahweh would you still insist on calling him The Lord?
Or would you be calling him Yahweh like everybody else? Suppose everybody kept Yahweh's feasts and did not observe Christmas or Easter would you still insist on Christmas and Easter and ignore Yahweh's feasts? If everybody kept the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, would you insist on building yourself a Sunday church with a dandy little steeple on the top and going to church on Sunday, would you do that? Who are we fearing, who are we serving? Are we just going with the flow, are we just a bunch of sheep following man, "oh other people are doing it, it must be okay".
Or are we willing to dig into the scripture and find what the will of Yahweh really is? He put his name in the bible 7000 times, who are we to take it out? Don't we fear him? We think we can change the word, we think we can add to and take away from his word? I think we are taking too much upon ourselves we're not fearing Yahweh. A very dangerous place to be. Deuteronomy 13 told us we should fear Yahweh rather than man when it comes to someone telling us to turn away from the things that Yahweh had written. I don't care if it's 50 million people `calling him the Lord, I'm gonna call him Yahweh. That's what he calls himself, it's his personal name, and it means something to him. I don't care if 50 million people are doing and keeping the Sabbath on the first day of the week. He said in the scriptures, seventh day of the week. And you certainly can't find Christmas and Easter in the bible, it doesn't exist. But you can find Yahweh's holidays in the bible. So, I'm just saying, who do we fear, who are we really following or we are just following what we want based on what other people will want from us or are we following him? And all of you can answer that question; I can't answer it for you.
I know this; to law and testimony, if they do not speak according to his word, it is because there is no light in them. So i wanna know what the law and testimony has to say, so I can find out whether there is light in what's being spoken.
Scripture says, thus says Yahweh "cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength whose heart departs from Yahweh." Well, i don't wanna be under a curse. And put my trust in what man tells me is true, I wanna know what Yahweh says is true, the only way to find out is to look at law and testimony to find out whether there is light in what's being said or not. And what do we hear today? That the law has been done away with. It doesn't make any sense to me. So, I don't wanna be like a shrub in the desert and not see when good comes but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is no inhabited. Instead, it says blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh and whose hope is Yahweh. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters. No, in what? The desert there is no water out here right? The only water is in the fear and love of Yahweh when we put our trust in him. Which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes? But it's leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. It won't stop, so who do we trust?
Important question.
Yahweh is gonna find out where our heart really is, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it? I Yahweh searched the heart; I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. He gonna find out where your heart really is. You can claim to be, you can look really religious on the outside, he's gonna find out whether your faith and your relationship with him are really real. The apostles face this test. Where they are gonna put their hope and their trust, their expectations, and their obedience. Scripture says you should not follow a crowd to do evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. I don't care how many people are doing the wrong thing, don't follow the crowd. Just because you got a bunch of people on the broad path where everybody else is on, doing something wrong it doesn't make it correct. I don't care if it's 8 million people doing something, if it's wrong, I don't wanna follow it. None of us do, don't follow a crown to do evil. Yahushua says enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. Is that what they call a Broadway? I'm just kind of wondering. Because narrow is the way, is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. Few who find it. Are we going to be on the path everyone else is on, or are on the path that few find? If you're in a big crowd, how can you be on a path that few are on?
If you're on a path that everybody else is on, you're not on the oath to life. Because you're not on the path that few find.
So he says beware of these false prophets of Deuteronomy 13 trying to turn you away from Yahweh's word, they come to you in sheep's clothing, they look like they're good guys. But inwardly ravenous wolves. What do wolves do to sheep? They devour them, wolves in sheep' clothing. You will know them by their fruit's, do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. Do some fruit inspections. So every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. So check out and see what their fruits are, right? not everyone who says to me, " master, master" shall enter the kingdom of heaven, just because you think Jesus is lord doesn't mean that you're gonna enter the kingdom. You can call him master all you want. Doesn't mean you're gonna enter. He says, but he who does the will of my father in heaven. He's not really your master if you're not willing to do his will. Because will not save a person he can't command. You're not one to take his commandments he's not gonna be willing to save you. Many will say to me in that day" master, master have we not done these miracles prophesied in your name , cast out demons in your name and done so many wonders in your name?" Miracle workers of Deuteronomy 13, did some miracle and say" hey turn away from Yahweh's word, it will be okay". It's not gonna work out too well. He says, I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me you who practice lawlessness!!"
Lawlessness, what's lawlessness? Lawlessness is the lack of any law in your life, the lack of his commandments. In Deuteronomy 13 test trying to turn you away from the commandments to where you fear what man says rather than what Yahweh says.
This word in lawlessness is translating lawlessness, I kind of wonder you know if the problem is lawlessness wouldn't the solution be to follow the law? I mean it kind of makes sense to me. S we can't say the law is done away with. That's lawlessness. We can't say the law is abolished, that's lawlessness. Now in the Greek [inaudible 00:27:27] 458 anomia the Strong's [inaudible 00:27:30] has illegality. So many people are concerned that we're illegalists. I think the real concern would be to be illegalist, right? Illegality, i.e. violation of the law. So Yahushua is gonna say, "depart from me you who are illegalists", right? In practicing it, I mean we all make mistakes, we all fail from time to time. But we're not practicing a sin and getting better at it are we? I hope not. So violation it says here, violation of law, what law? Yahweh's law, to let law and testimony if you speak not according to his word there is no light in them,
right? The Thayer's Lexicon has the condition of without law why? You're ignorant, violation, contempt, and violation of the law, iniquity and wickedness. I guess law is gonna play a part on judgment day. You can say "master" all you want. But you're not willing to cleave to his commandments instead you cleave to those miracles as evidence that you're on the right path. Sorry, buddy it doesn't work that way. You must fear Yahweh and regard his words as more important than the words and experiences of man. So whenever there is a conflict were gonna go with what Yahweh says not what man says.
You know sometimes our company we keep has an impact on whose words we tend to follow. If were around all these voices and all these people telling us "don't do the word of Yahweh, don't do what he says" then we can be deceived. Because we take this confidence, "everybody else is doing this". We can be deceived, that does why scripture says do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits. If you have company around you that does not keep the commandments of Yahweh, they have the tendency to corrupt any good habit's you're trying to establish in your life. So we need to learn to try and avoid people that they are going to take us away from the word of Yahweh and try to be around people who will lead us to obedience. who will lead us to a better way of life, right? And if we're not reading the word of Yahweh, instead we're around all these people and we're listening to their words all the time. No, that's tough company to be around. Because words are spirit John 6:63, it is the spirit who gives life, the flesh profit's nothing. The words that I speak to you are a spirit, think about that. Yahushua's words are a spirit. Actually, the Hebrew word for sport is also translated; breath and the wind. So with the breath, we speak our words. Yahushua spoke the words that lead to life. They are words of life; the words that man may speak may not be words of life. They may be words of death. And so if we're around all these people telling us, informing us and teaching us to do the things that are wrong, that are not according to the word of Yahweh, Then it's gonna be hard because we got all these spirit's flying around telling us and impacting our spiritual life negatively. So we wanna be around the kind of people that are wise, that are walking I Yahweh's will, that are experiencing the joy, the salvation that comes through being a believer in Messiah Yahushua. So beware, don't be wise in your own eyes and don think these other people are wise either if they are not following his word. Fear Yahweh and depart from evil. What's evil? Anything that will be contrary to the commandments of Yahweh. He's telling us, informing us the way of love and everything he commands has one thing in mind, love.
Some people when they think of commandments, they will be like "I don't like being commanded, command me to do anything, don't like being commanded" and so they don't wanna hear of being "Oh, keep commandments, sounds scary. He's gonna command me? Hmmm". Well, all of these commandments are instructions on how to love. If my commandment was, "here's my commandment, I want you to love that person over there"? Am I a bad guy? No, I'm trying to tell you to love somebody. What all of his commandments have to do with is with how to love. So it's all good. But people have departed from the way of love, when they departed from the commandments. Matthew 22 says that the great two commandments from which everything else hangs is that we love Yahweh and that we love one another.
But all these theological semiatries, I mean seminaries withe their doctorates and their accolade of man and their teaching Christianity, they are teaching traditional Christianity.
And these graduates, they're told, "well you've learned all there is to learn about the bible so go out and teach people". They think now they have all the answers. Don't be wise in your own eyes, fear Yahweh, and depart from evil. Pastors? The only thing they know is what they have been taught. I mean what they picked up the [inaudible bible which may or may not be true.
We can't be wise in our own eyes we have to be humble before Yahweh. I don't care what school or class you take, what sermon you hear, what doctrine you learn about; the bottom-line or the conclusion of everything is this, let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13 Fear Elohim and keep his commandments for this is man's or the whole duty of duty. As simple as that. If it's taking you away from the fear of Elohim and the keeping of his commandments and you think you got grace or maybe just maybe you don't. Because you don't fear Elohim, you don't keep his commandments; you're not focused on that at all.
Listen, don't let anyone tell you you're [inaudible 00:34:22] with the duty of man. People say" well you just gotta believe, just believe, "they say." Just believe", well I agree with that, but that belief has to be genuine belief. In other words, if I was to get into an airplane
and someone told me that airplane is gonna crash, and I say "well I believe you". And I get into the airplane do I really believe them? No, I don't really believe them. I could say I believe them, but I'm in the airplane that they said was going to crash. And guess what happens? I crash and I die in the airplane crash. Why? Because I didn't really believe, I said I believed, but I didn't believe. And so we say we believe when Yahweh tells us this is how a believer is supposed to live and you get into the airplane that he says not to get into. Do you really believe? Do you really believe he is the judge and he will judge unrighteousness and sin, do you really believe? That's the question. Do you really? Maybe you don't, maybe you think you do, you act like you do. But you are sitting in the airplane that you know is gonna go down. Well, you don't know because you didn't believe him. I've heard there are two kinds of unbelievers,
Those who think the bible is a bunch of fairytales And there is those who live like it is.
But the day is going to com Revelation 14:16 then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, every tribe, tongue, and people. Saying with a loud voice" It's all grace don't worry about it!" No, "Fear Elohim and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water."
Worship is a posture of recognizing his authority in one's life, either physical or mental posture, his authority, he's superior to myself. So we fear him, we give glory to him for the things he has done, he made the heaven, the earth, the sea and everything there is. Doesn't he deserve a little credit? Come on, so we're the message for our generation. For some reason, people don't see Yahweh as one to be feared, but the true good news, the true evangel, the everlasting gospel that involves fearing Yahweh. Who is the man that fears Yahweh? Psalm 25:12 him shall he teach in the way that he chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of Yahweh is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant. If you want to know all the secrets and wisdom, all the little nuances and amazing things of wisdom that Yahweh can teach you. Fear him, he will reveal to you his secrets, he will show you his covenant. what the covenant is really about. The new covenant is this; with the law that's in our hearts and written in our minds, we have to receive that law with meekness the implanted word, we come to the law of liberty and receive it and if that word is our hearts what's gonna happen? It's planted on good soil, it's gonna result in obedience, otherwise, we're not a good tree bearing good fruit, we're a bad tree, bearing bad fruit. Because we are bad soil. So, now at the same time of all, I have spoken regarding the fear of Yahweh, if we humble ourselves before him, if we haven't feared him as we should, if we haven't given him the due credit for which he is, there is hope, there is hope.
As a father pities his children, Psalms 103; 13. So Yahweh pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it and it is gone, and it's placed remembers it no more.
Remember that young people, OH yeah, you're like a beautiful flower in the field, but pretty soon petals will start falling off, you'll start getting wrinkled, things will start sagging and you'll get old and you'll die. Just like a flower, don't be prideful; you didn't make yourself, Yahweh made you. Give him the glory. But he knows our weaknesses is in the flesh, he remembers that we are dust, he remembers.
He knows and understands, that's why he pities us, and he knows we got this body wanting us to do bad things all the time. And so the mercy of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting, that means it never ends on those who fear him. And his righteousness to children's children to grandchildren, to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them. When we fear Yahweh, we'll say, "Okay Yahweh I will now turn away from my commandment breaking, I will start keeping your commandments. I want your commandments in my life. "And therefore he will grant you mercy because you have entered that condition of humility. Recognizing his authority in your life and he promises mercy. Isn't that wonderful? Yahweh takes pleasure in you then, he takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his mercy. [Inaudible 00:41:00] that us? I'm putting my hope in his mercy. If I look at my life and the things that I've done if he were to judge me by that? I'm a goner, I'm toast in the lake of fire, and I'm burnt toast. But if I take pleasure in the things of Yahweh, he
will take pleasure in me. If I fear him, he will take pleasure in me. And he is willing to grant those who fear him that mercy. And so I'm putting my hope in his mercy.
Unless you fear Yahweh, you don't even feel the need for mercy, right?
If you're not afraid of him, you don't think he's gonna do anything, what do you think you need grace for? Unless there is the fear, you go on believing your sin will be unpunished and you will just continue doing what you were doing before. And that's the trouble today, men are talking that they don't have to fear Yahweh because he accepts them no matter what. Well, he loves you no matter what, because while we're yet sinners Yahushua died for us. But man are taught the lie that Yahweh has mercy on those who don't fear him. Yahushua will nothing to you unless you fear him and turned toward commandment keeping and away from commandment breaking.
So we have to enter in that condition where we recognize his authority, we realize we have offended him and that we are deserving of any justice he does administer to us from his throne. Because we have all done something wrong, every single one of us have, every single one of us have. Me, you, everybody. So, we recognize that we have failed and that we need him. That we need Yahushua to come and bear our sin for us. That's why he died for us on the tree, to bear our sins for us, to bear our guilt, bear our shame. And we can be completely free of guilt and shame when we receive him as our savior, our master and our sin is place don Yahushua and we are free. Have you heard of the book of remembrance written?
The book of remembrance written. Malachi 3: 16 then those who fear Yahweh spoke to one another and Yahweh listened and heard them. He is listening in, I'm talking to you earlier, and some people are talking to me. Yahweh is listening. If we fear Yahweh. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear Yahweh and who meditate on his name. What's his name? Yahweh. You take his name out of the bible, guess what? How can you meditate on his name? You're not; there is no name to even meditate on.
There is just some title "Lord". Some distant Lord up in the sky, you know. Rather than a personal name Yahweh, right?
"They shall be mine," says Yahweh of hosts, "on the day that I make them my jewels." Jewels are beautiful, aren't they? We are Yahweh's jewels, we are his prized possession. He says, "And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him". Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves Elohim and the one who does not serve him. See, it's confusing sometimes. Who is really doing the right thing? Who is really serving Elohim and doing the things he should do? And who is not? One day those who fear Yahweh will be manifest, those who meditate on his name will be made known. He is gonna make us his jewels and he will spare us. He will spare us, have mercy on us. Because we're trying to do our best to do the right thing. And then people will know the difference between one who serves Yahweh and one who doesn't. The one who is just playing religion and the one who has a relationship with the father.
Continue in the book of Malachi; for behold the day is coming, burning like an oven and all the proud, yes; all who wickedly, transgress the commandments will be stubble. And they day which is coming shall burn them up, Says Yahweh of hosts. "That will leave neither root nor branch." They will be destroyed. But what? But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing wings, and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.
You kind of need a little, you see the stall-f ed calves they are well fed. I mean put it that way. So they will be well fed. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this, Says Yahweh of hosts. And he gives us this final warning, the last chapter in the Old Testament here. Remember the law of Moshe, my servant. Don't forget, no matter what the Catholics tell you and the Protestants tell you, don't forget. Remember the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded him in Horeb for Israel, with the statutes and judgments. That's what you're gonna be judged by.
So, what are we gonna do?
We gotta recognize it's true Yahushua came as a lamp to die for us. As a meek and humble shepherd, as a meek and humble man to lay down his life for us. Born in the manger, humble beginnings.
But he came originally as a lamp, from what I read here in Malachi, he is gonna return like a lion and devour his enemies. One of the most frequently quotes psalms about him is; Psalm 110 and it says this Yahweh said to my master, David's master here because David wrote the psalm. David's master here is Yahushua, "sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool." Yahweh shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. The rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people, that's us, shall be volunteers in the day your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth. Yahweh has sworn and will not relent" You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." This is from Hebrews, you read this right? What's gonna happen next? The master is at your right hand, he will execute kings in the day of his wrath. Coming back as a lion. He shall judge among the nations, he shall fill the places with dead bodies; he shall execute the heads of many countries.
Goodbye evil rulers, what a shock it's gonna be. He is going to come as a conqueror and warrior and his people, that's us we will be his army, we will prevail, right? Be ready because we will be the judges of the world, we will rule with him for 1000 years, we will be glorified. Well, glorified bodies, because all flesh won't be here anymore and we will reign with him 1000 years.
That's what's coming; I think sooner than what most people believe. Now, I wanna say that there are some scriptures which may appear on the surface to say "Oh, you don't have to fear Yahweh". People use these to say, "Well you don't have to fear Yahweh. "Let's look at a few of these. 2 Timothy 1; 3 says I thank Elohim, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day. That was Paul speaking to Timothy. Greatly desiring to see you, Timothy, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that I in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois. Well, I kind of [inaudible 00:50:20] with this one because I have a grandmother called Lois. She is the one who taught me the scriptures. And your mother Eunice, no my mother is not called Eunice. And I'm persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of Elohim which is in you through the laying on my hands. For Elohim has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Now a spirit of fear is an unclean spirit from the devil. Trying to get us to fear the things that we don't need to fear. It's a lying spirit; it's not Yahweh's spirit. Look at the next verse, because of this or therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our master. What's he talking about fear here? He is talking about the fear of death; he is talking about the fear of what man may say about you because you have a testimony in believing in the messiah. He says "don't be ashamed of the testimony that you have" nor have me as a prisoner, but share with me in the in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of Elohim. We have to be willing to suffer if necessary
because people will put us down. People will sometimes even try to harm us.
Because of our faith. And they will berate us and they will insult us and they will hate us because of our testimony, of our savior Yahushua. But guess what? Good news for everybody.
Man's opinion doesn't count in the end, Yahweh is not gonna consult man on judgment day.
In this age, everybody is gonna judge you for doing the right thing and keeping his commandments. But in that day Yahweh is going to judge you if you don't keep the commandments. So what's more important" That we are judged by the world?
And we follow what they say. Or to be judged by Yahweh and we do what he says? So, what man say about you isn't gonna matter, in the end, Yahweh's opinion is the only one that is gonna count in the end. His opinion is the right one 100% of the time. So we cannot fear, what he is talking about here is that, don't fear what other people are gonna say about you, what they are gonna do to you? And the suffering you may have to go through, because what they think, what they say isn't gonna matter in the end.
Don't fear the separation that may take place and the labeling that they will apply to you because you love Messiah. Don't fear what may happen if you choose to do what the father told you to do. If he tells you to keep the Sabbath day on the seventh day of the week, for instance, you know. And you say, "hat man tells me, my boss at work told me I had to work that day." Well, which boss are you gonna listen to? The boss at work or the boss in heaven? If you know you should observe the Sabbath day on the seventh day of the week [inaudible 00:53:53] calls Saturday and your boss call you in on that day and Yahweh tells you to rest who are you gonna listen to? I say you better lose your job than lose your soul. Better to lose the respect of man than to lose the respect of Yahweh. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Scripture says because Yahushua taught us this, whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? That's a good question, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? The praise of man, the accolades of man, people thinking highly of you. Is that what you want instead of your soul being saved in the final day? Yahushua said verse 38 for whoever is ashamed of me and my words. He is not just the word Of Yahweh here in the book of Mark, he is the word of Yahweh in the book of Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Numbers, and Genesis all over the bible he is his words. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the son of man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with holy angels. You don't want Yahushua to be ashamed of you. He'll just say, " don't even know who you are, depart from me you who violate the Torah, violate the word of Yahweh." Those who are focused on self-preservation and gain the whole world and everybody speaks very well of them because of it,
look out you'll lose your soul in the end.
So, set your mind Colossians 2: 2 on things above not on things on the earth. Things on the earth are temporary. You don't even know if you're gonna live the next five minutes, no guarantee, 50000 people die every day. You could be one of them. Young, old it doesn't matter, people die every day, car accidents, anything can happen. So, we consider ourselves to have died because Yahushua now is alive in us. Hence his life we're trying to manifest. Our life is hidden with Messiah and Elohim. Our own ways, that flesh we've got that's always trying to get us to sin we consider that to be dead, dead flesh. Instead, now we have Yahushua living in us, we're trying to live his life. He is trying to live his life through us. So when we see his word telling us to do something, do our thoughts ever roam toward "Oh what will someone say if I do that? What will my parents think? What will my relatives think? What will my sisters think, my brothers think? What will my uncle think? What will my people that I am friend with that surround me think?" It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what they think. They are not gonna be stabbing there on judgment day saying, "I think you ought to let him go". Yahweh is not gonna consult them, what matters is what Yahweh think. And who we follow determines who we fear. Do we fear Yahweh or do we fear man?
Are we focused on walking like Yahushua walked or we're more impressed by what other people do and follow what they do? The one who walks in the image of Unrighteous men are not following Yahweh.
Ultimately everyone is following the devil. You're either following Yahweh or you're following the devil. In the very beginning, Eve chose to follow the devil, what happened? The devil told her, "You won't die, if you do this sin, you'll be all right. You'll be okay; you can keep them and continue in sin, it will be fine. "That's what the devil told her. It didn't work out that way, did it? Today we have the same message, "Oh we're saved by grace don't worry about it. He'll forgive you no matter what you do, once you're saved, you're always saved.
"Yahweh sees the heart. Our hearts are often tested, we walk in the flesh, and we're in the spirit. The image of Elohim or the image of the enemy Satan who disobeys him? Yahweh knows the heart, those little decisions that we make whether we followed Yahweh or followed man he knows. That why I read earlier, cursed id the man who puts his trust in man, whose heart departs from Yahweh, You'll be under a curse at that point. In fact, you can't even trust your own heart, you know that? People say, "oh I'll just follow my heart, I'll follow my heart" Proverbs 28:26 says he who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered. We want the wisdom of Yahweh, the fear of Yahweh, is the beginning of wisdom, right? Those who trust in man are cursed; those who trust in their own hearts are fools. Put your trust in Yahweh, now that's wise, right?
So let's fear Yahweh and depart from evil. Hebrews 2:15 says the following; it's another scripture people use to say we don't have to fear our heavenly father. Hebrews 2; 14 inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same. That through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that's the devil. And release those who through fear of death were all the lifetime subject to bondage. It's not talking about the fear of Yahweh; it's talking about the fear of death. Do you know we don't have to fear death, really?
Why should we fear death if we really fear Yahweh, what's to be afraid of? Afraid to enter into eternal life. Why would you be afraid of that? We fear Yahweh, we receive the mercy he promises eternal life. We actually consider death to be a gain to us. For to live as Messiah and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21. So we are okay with dying. I don't want to die because I want to continue ministering, continue to be a father to my children and a husband to my wife and try to be a blessing to other people. And build other people up in Messiah. But if he takes, I've lost nothing; I've actually gained something, right? Our dear sister Vicky Bornhoft wasn't afraid of dying, right? She was ready and why? Because we know the next life is eternal life.
But those who have that fear of death are subject to bondage, some people are gripped by a fear of death. And they are tortured by it because the enemy has them captured and he is torturing them with these fears. It's a spirit of fear; we don't have to fear death.
So to me, living is trying to be like Messiah, the best I can and to die is actually beneficial.
Hebrews 8:12 says, therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh, if we live according to the flesh we'll die. That's talking about eternal death [inaudible 1:02:36] but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as led by the spirit of Elohim, these are sons of Elohim. So, we put the deeds of the body that he is talking about sins that our body wants us to do.
Our body wants us to do all kinds of things that we shouldn't do, right? For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. To fear what? This death, right? But you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry "Abba Father". The spirit himself bears witness our spirit; we are the children of Elohim. And if we have that witness in our spirit and we see this spirit of adoption, we don't have any reason to fear this death or a reason to fear judgment. We're not living after the flesh; we're walking in the spirit and have nothing to worry about. Because we do fear Yahweh and we want to keep his commandments and we want to do the right things. And we didn't receive the spirit of bondage. Again to fear death or to fear damnation. Scripture says if we do we fear Yahweh and we keep
his commandments, we do put our best efforts forward to walk as Yahushua walked and to keep his commandments. Then if we fail, we can a moment and we fail and we fall into temptation or something happens and we immediately go to humans we confess that sin to him, then he will forgive us, he says he will. We need to recommit ourselves and not do it again. That's what a loving dad will do, you make a mistake, you fail you go to that dad and you say "hey dad I really messed up, will you forgive me". "Of course I forgive you". I can start making excuses and saying " well my friends over there I will do what my friends say not what you say, dad". Well, then you're gonna have a little problem, you understand what I'm getting at? Everyone is focused on what their friends say and not what the heavenly father says. So, we don't have to fear Yahweh's judgment if we're
walking in love toward him, right? Whoever confesses that Yahushua is the son of Elohim and Elohim abides in him and he in Elohim? So Yahweh abides in us and we abide in Yahweh. If we're willing to confess, Yahushua is the son and we have known and believe the love of Elohim has for us. We believe in his love, we trust his love. We believe Elohim is love and he who abides in love will also abide in Elohim. So if we are abiding in love, we know that Yahweh loves us, we confess Yahushua is the Messiah, then love will have been perfected in us that we may have boldness on the Day of Judgment. We don't have to fear going to hell on the Day of Judgment because we have chosen to abide in his love and receive his love and believe in his love. So we're not gonna be afraid that he'd going to reject us and throw us in the lake of fire on the Day of Judgment. And we can come down in boldness and say, ' I believe that Yahushua bore my sin for me, and I did
repent of my former ways. I did fail from time to time but you told me you would forgive me if I confess my ways and stand before you." So I don't have to fear judgment I can come with boldness to him knowing he loves me. And he says why? Because as he is Yahushua is, so are we. Why because he lives in us, it's no longer we who live, he lives in us. If he is in us, we don't have to be afraid, do we?
He says there is no fear in love; a perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. We don't have to be afraid of this torment. I would be afraid of this torment if I departed from keeping Yahweh's commandments. If I departed from the Messiah Yahushua, but I'm not afraid because I'm walking in love toward Yahweh, love toward my fellow man. And that cast out any fear I might have of being judged and because of Yahushua, my sin is laid upon him. But if you're of this judgment, you're afraid of the Day of Judgment he is going to annihilate you. [Inaudible 01:07:46] he who fears has not been made perfect in love. I don't fear Yahweh's judgment, I fear to displease him. I don't want to displease him because I love him, right? Do you slap someone in the face? I hope not, [inaudible 1:08:03] slap someone in the face if you love them. You someone on the face? Of course, you would, right? And you will be afraid that they would be hurt by that right? I think you would be afraid that they would be hurt by that. And so you wouldn't want to slap them in the face because you love them. And so we don't wanna slap Yahweh in the face by disobeying his commandments, he created us, he made us. And so we don't wanna be slapping him in the face. Sad to say we all slapped him in the face, by
disobeying him. But Yahushua was willing to bear that, he was torture for us. So that we can be reconciled with him. So what I'm saying is, there is a holy fear and an unholy fear. Unholy fear says even though I have turned away from my sin, even though I have believed Yahweh's love for me and have chosen to abide in Yahweh's love. I think he's just gonna annihilate me anyway, he's gonna destroy me anyway.
It's an unholy fear. But then a holy fear says I fear displeasing him, I fear that if I was to turn away from messiah and if I was to break his commandments that I would be facing judgment. That's the holy fear. So why do I love Yahweh? We love him because he first loved us, that's why. Why are we so devoted to him? Because Yahushua was so devoted to us, that he gave his life for us. That wonderful thing that he did for us. The fear of Yahweh leads to faith and love and trust in Elohim. But the fear that leads to doubt is not good for us brothers and sisters. Fear that leads to doubt in his love for us, the fear that leads to doubt that we as repentant believer in Yahushua and Messiah will be judged anyway and sent to the lake of fire. Don't make Yahweh be a liar, he says he would not do that to us if we repent and we receive his son Yahushua. In fact when we don't believe in his love for us it actually leads to more disobedience. Because "well what do I care I might as well just give up no matter what I do I'm gonna go to the lake of fire anyway and be judged. I might as well go out there and feed my flesh
and live the way I wanna live and there is no point
in even trying the other way. Yahweh doesn't love me enough. That's what happened to Israel when they came out of Egypt, they came out of slavery, they went to the Red Sea, the cloud and they were in the wilderness, and look what happened. Deuteronomy 1:22 says and every one of you came near me, it's Moses talking here. And said, "let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and of the cities into which we shall come". "The plan pleased me well: so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. And they departed and went up to the mountains and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out". They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us and they brought back word to us saying, "it is a good land which Yahweh our mighty one is giving us". Nevertheless, you would not go up but rebelled against the command of Yahweh your mighty one. And you complained in your tents and said" because Yahweh hates us, he has brought us out of the land
of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. They did not believe in Yahweh's love and that's
why they rebelled. They rebelled against the commandment because they did not believe in Yahweh's love. They believed Yahweh hated them. "How can we go up?" they said. Our brethren have discouraged our hearts. They believed man over Yahweh that feared what man said. Man said "the people are greater and taller than we, the cities are great and fortified up to heaven, and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.' Then I said to you, "do not be terrified or afraid of them, Yahweh your mighty one who goes before you, he will fight for you according to all he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
And in the wilderness where you saw how Yahweh your mighty one carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.
So who did they believe, they put their fear and their trust in what man said. The ones who discouraged their hearts, they listened to them. They would not listen to Yahweh's word, through Moshe, Moses. And so what did they do?
Yahweh heard the sound of your words and was angry, took an oath sorry. Yet for all that you did not believe Yahweh your mighty one. Who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go and the fire by night and the cloud by day. and Yahweh heard the sound of your words and was angry and took an oath saying, "Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walks because he wholly followed Yahweh." See if you believe Yahweh hates you,
you don't trust he will take you into that promised land, you're not putting your faith in Yahushua and the grace he's gonna give you. Then according to what you believe it will take place. Except by his grace anyway, he may spare you. But you have to believe that Yahweh loves you personally and individually and put your faith in Yahushua that no matter what you've done wrong, there is no mark Yahushua can't erase. You have to put your faith in that and repent.
And let everyone be baptized in the name of Yahushua for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you're thinking, "Well I don't know, I don't think I can walk this way. I don't think I'm good enough to do this. I don't think I'll be able to make it". You can't do it without his holy spirit I tell you that much. You gonna need the Holy Spirit to help you, and by the strength, he gives you by the spirit you can do it, you can. Step by step and he is very patient, he doesn't expect you to do everything at once. Just like a baby I don't wanna but a baby behind a steering to drive a car, do I? No, he has gotta be a certain age and then he can handle that. So Yahweh he knows we're becoming like babies in the faith and we kind of grow up from there.
But the repentance does not mean today you're a tool of filthy rotten sin and tomorrow be perfect and never sin again in your life. What repentance means is that you've made the decision to turn away from sin and begin walking in the way of righteousness. It does not mean that we're instantly walking in perfect obedience, but that now our true desire in our hearts is to walk in perfect obedience. And we begin the process of learning will for us and walking it out, step by step. And he is a very generous shepherd, he won't push he will only lead. and if we're willing to hear his calling then we will obtain mercy on the day of judgment and we don't have to fear that Yahweh hates us and he's gonna send us to the lake of fire.
But if we don't care to even repent, we don't care we hear man's voice and we wanna following his ways. We've not even repented; we're still following man and what man says. A healthy fear leads to repentance and faith and an unhealthy fear leads to doubt a vicious cycle that looks like this; Here is that vicious cycle, the vicious cycle is this, "oh I've been evil all my life, there for I have to earn my way into the kingdom by stopping my sin. [Inaudible 1:17:36] said to me, if you doubt that Yahweh has forgiven you of your sins even though you have repented and sought forgiveness repeatedly, it's quite possible you're believing the lie that your own righteousness was ever sufficient to save you, to begin with. And it wasn't, and it isn't and it never will be. Did you catch that? If you doubt Yahweh's forgiven you, even though you've repented and you turned away and maybe you're struggling, maybe you're weak or something. But he is very patient, he says if you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If you think you haven't yet reached the level of obedience for him to accept you and love you, it's quite possible you're believing the lie that your own righteousness was ever good enough, to begin with. It never was, because Yahushua did not die for
perfect people. He died for the imperfect ones whose hearts yearn in hunger and thirst for righteousness.
You despise your own sins and that's good.
[Inaudible 1:18:44] it's really hard to walk uprightly and live the right way under a cloud of condemnation. Very few people can rise from the piles of condemnation to appease their accuser and to do what their accuser tells them. He is willing to set you on high.
To free you from your own guilt, to free you from the condition of relying upon your own works to save you. Which does lead to condemnation? And to place your faith Yahushua the Messiah and believe the goodness, believe Yahweh loves us. No, don't believe Yahweh hates us, believe he loves us. This faith will empower you to live uprightly, to overcome sin.
And you can put your faith in these words. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness. Don't say he is not faithful, don't say he is unjust. He is just, he is faithful. A humble confession of your sin, but then the
other danger the total lack of any fear towards Yahweh at all. One that leads to willful disobedience, one that leads to placing our fear of man above the fear of Yahweh. As many claims to love him today, but they really love man more. Man, we are pleased and want instant gratification, but with Yahweh, we have to trust that he sees everything and know he is keeping a record and on the final, we'll see the end result. A lot of people talk about loving their neighbor, but
they may believe the commandments are a burden or a yoke. The law is some kind of ball and chain hanging around you that is a burden and a curse or something like that. But what scripture really says is, by this, we know we love the children of Elohim when we love Elohim and keep his commandments. You cannot love somebody else until you first love Elohim, that's what the scriptures say. To us. For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. They are not; they look like it on the outside, to the ones that don't understand. People look at my life and say, "man why do you burden yourself with all those laws and rules and regulations". Well, I'm just trying to walk in love.
I can't really love and properly until I love the way Yahweh tells me to love. Probably the guy in prison who is a hardened criminal and don't care about what other people is going, "man why are all them people out there, why don't they be like me. I go out there I rob and steal and take what I want and get what I want. All of them other people are following this US code and statutes and whatever and I get along with them that are in prison." Or the criminal out there stealing from the banks and stealing from other people, they think people that don't steal are burning themselves with laws. All they gotta do is steal and they can something instantly, quickly. They think you're crazy, why don you go out there and take? It's all for our taking. What they don't realize? There will be a day of reckoning, right? and so to the one on the outside looking in, they think" oh I'm keeping these commandments and it looks like I'm in some kind of bondage." No, there will be a day of reckoning for those who don't keep those commandments and don't walk in love.
So I don't wanna get out of balance or in a direction, I don't wanna have a fear of Elohim that says; even though I'm a believer, I'm repenting, I'm putting my faith in the Messiah, then you know the end. I'm still gonna be sent to hell anyway. But then I don't wanna be walking around like " well, I can do what I want and not have any fear of
Yahweh and he'll still love me he'll still comfort me in my sin. And he'll be okay with it lets it slide. And as I put my trust not what he does and be wonderful of what man does. Put my goals and hopes and dreams in my flesh and pleasing my flesh ". We have to repent, turn away from sin. But I think a lot of times what's most lacking is a true fear of Yahweh. If a person truly fears Yahweh they'll be careful about doing things to offend him. Will the one who fears Yahweh say, "I know this is wrong, but I know he will have mercy and he will forgive me, he won't mind if I do this"? Will the one who fears Yahweh say, "oh this is what grace is for" to justify their sin? No. It's not loving. Or if I walked in with my wife and said slapped her in the face, she would probably forgive me, right? She would probably forgive me and give me grace, but why would I wanna do something like that if I really love her? Do you see what I'm saying? I fear to displease her; I don't want to do something to hurt here because I love her. But too often it's a lack of fear toward Yahweh and a gigantic fear toward the man that cause millions of people not to accept some other doctrine that's not common or normal, or accepted in their family or their current clique of friends. It's all lack of fear toward Yahweh and a gigantic fear toward man, many will not walk in this path that few find. That results in persecution and ridicule and mockery or they will accuse you of hurting them because you follow Yahweh and do the right things and what Yahweh tells you to do. But listen, we should expect persecution. Don't forget when those righteous, loving and holy men that ever walk the earth [inaudible 1:25:34] 200 years ago and because he didn't fear man and feared Yahweh, they hung him on a tree. His name was Yahushua, the Messiah. Yahushua said, whatever I tell you in the dark speak in the light, what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. What it comes down to is are we gonna do what Yahweh says versus are we gonna do what man says and does? Even if they wanna kill, you do what Yahweh says.
After all, you'll enter into eternal life, right?
Isaiah 66: 5 says to hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at his word. How many trembles at his word today I wonder? Your brethren who hated you, who cast you out for my name's sake said' let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see joy' But they shall be ashamed. They'll think you're doing then service by rejecting you.
What people seek the so-called relationship with Yahweh and bring sermons today and traditional pulpit have to do with one's relationship with so-called God.
But in such a thing is a potentially dangerous situation because if people get deceived into thinking that they have the relationship, to begin with. Because you get the [inaudible 1:27:20] every week. They hear about how much Yahweh loves them and they are his children. Now here is how you deal with life's trouble and we can ignore the facts that Yahweh wants us to keep his commandments and we need to repent. Without repentance, there is no relationship. Unless we fear Yahweh we go on thinking we can continue in our life of sin and have nothing to be afraid of. Look out because we hear the boasting of man, oh we talk about it, 'oh grace, grace, grace, [inaudible 1:28:00] blood. Yahweh don't care it's all [inaudible 1:28:01] blood. Wrong attitude, spiritually dangerous attitude. They think Yahweh is like a vending machine, up goes the prayer up come forgiveness. Or [inaudible 1:28:16]] out comes forgiven. It doesn't work that way. Yahweh wants us to [inaudible 1: 28:25] repentance from each one of us individually, true evidence of our love for him. Because sin is repulsive to Yahweh. And it needs to be repulsive to us also. And we need to be willing to endure till the end.
Yahushua says watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the son of man. You got to be counted worthy, look out. Troublesome times here on the horizon.
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. We have to have that undergirding of that fear of Elohim we don't want to waiver we want to be solid in our walk. And be willing to be hated by everyone for Yahushua's name. But he who endures to the end will be saved. If we're willing to bear the opinions of man and what they say about us and care more about what Yahushua says about us, that's the question of the hour. That's my question for us today.
Yahushua says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent, Revelation 3:19. Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. Yahushua wants to live in us; he wants to give us the power to be overcomers. I know he kept every commandment of Yahweh and he is the same yesterday, today and forever. What he did on the earth yesterday, he wants to do in you today and we will all do with him forever. So let's seek to have his life, his example in us. Let's seek to have that book of remembrance written about us who fear Yahweh and think upon his name. Let's seek the beginning of wisdom, it's only when we start from that true foundation, the fear of Elohim that we even see the value of grace, to begin with. So, therefore let's pursue his mercy, let's flee from the license to sin doctrine, let's have a right understand of who Yahweh truly gives mercy to the humble ones, the contrite ones who recognize his authority on heaven and earth.
Let's flee from the fear of man. 8 trillion years from now to eternity, you're not gonna care what people thought of you in 2017.
It's not man you need to fear, they could only destroy the body. Yahweh is the one you need to fear, who can destroy both body and soul in hell. The fear of Yahweh it leads to faith and wisdom and heart of obedience the knowing of these leads to seeking that grace that comes through our master Yahushua the Messiah. Through him, we receive that righteousness and power to walk in righteousness. And ultimately become children of the most high. Let's pray,
Oh father Yahweh, thank you for your word, thank you for all that you have done for us to be reconciled to the relationship with you. Father forgives us where we have failed to fear you properly. Just because we can't see Yahushua in his mightiest power and his ability to rule and reign.
Sometimes we forget you who are on the throne that
we don't fear you as we should, we don't fear displeasing you the way we should.
Father forgives us where we have failed in any of these areas. Teach us, instruct us, show us the way of love. Show us how to love one another, show us how to love you.
And deliver us from the lies of the enemy and from the things that people will choose to do or say to us. Because we want to put you first in our lives.
Help us to set aside the opinions, the ideas and wants and desires of man and put you first. Because we know what the truth is, you are already first and it's just a matter of whether we're gonna recognize that or not. Father, we recognize that you are first, you are the mighty one of Israel. You are the king of Heaven, the king of the universe. All things were created. Our testimonies of your power and greatness, a complexity of life.
The glory of the heaven lies above and for that we praise you.
In everything we give you praise through and by your son Yahushua for truly is the kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory. Forever and ever, through and by your son Yahushua we pray these things.
Amein.